Western Thrace

Archaic and Classical Era

Ancient Greeks extensively colonized the region, especially the coastal part, and built prosperous cities such as Sale, Maroneia and Abdera, which was home of Democritus, the 5th-century BC philosopher who developed an atomic particle theory, and of Protagoras, a leading sophist.^[2]

The first to take greater control of Thrace, in part or whole, was the Achaemenid Empire in the late 6th century BC. The region was incorporated into their empire as the Satrapy of Skudra, after the Scythian campaign of Darius the Great.^[4] Thracian soldiers were used in Persian armies and are depicted in carvings of the Persepolis and Naqsh-e Rostam.

Persians' presence in Thrace lasted up until the rise of the Delian league led by the Athenian general Cimon in the aftermath of the battle of Plataea. Cities like Sale, Maroneia and Abdera became and remained as members of the Delian league until the Spartan victory at the end of the Peloponnesian War.^[5][6][7]

In the 4th century BC most of Thrace was conquered by Philip II of Macedon and his son Alexander the Great. Notably, Thracian troops are known to have accompanied Alexander when he crossed the Hellespont which abuts Thrace, during his campaigns in the East.

Hellenistic era

Alexander's personal secretary and later Diadochi general, Eumenes was from Cardia. Most of Thrace became part of the kingdom of Lysimachus, when Alexander's empire was divided between his generals. Lysimachus founded his capital at Lysimachia and ruled as king up until his defeat from Seleucus I Nicator in 281 BC at the battle of Corupedium. Then the region was contested between Ptolemies, Seleucids, Antigonids, Attalids and Celts. During the Third Macedonian War, Cotys IV, the king of the Odrysian kingdom, allied to Perseus of Macedon against the Roman Republic and the kingdom of Pergamum.

Roman era

Claudius annexed the Sapaean kingdom and the Roman province of Thracia was founded in 46 AD (later the Diocese of Thrace). At the beginning of the 2nd AD century Roman emperor Trajan founded here, as a part of the provincial policy, two cities of Greek type (i.e. city-states), Traianoupolis and Plotinopolis. From this region passed the famous Via Egnatia, which ensured the communication between East and West, while its ramifications were connecting the Aegean world with Thracian hinterland (i.e. upper and middle valley of Evros river). From the coast also passed the sea route Troad–Macedonia, which the Apostle Paul had used in his journeys in Greece.

During the great crisis of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century AD, Western Thrace suffered from the frequent incursions of the barbarians until the reign of Diocletian, when it managed to prosper again thanks to its administrative reforms.^[8]

Byzantine era

The region was at the core of the Byzantine Empire, close to its capital Constantinople, which was located at the site of ancient Byzantium, from the time of the division of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western empires in the early fourth century AD. It was part of the theme of Thrace and then part of the theme of Macedonia, from where the Macedonian dynasty originated. The core area of the old theme of Macedonia was recorded as the "province of Adrianople and Didymoteichon" (provincia Adrianupoleos et Didimotichi).^[9] Manuel Erotikos Komnenos was born in the theme of Thrace, who was the first fully documented ancestor of the Komnenos dynasty. The emperor of Nicaea, John III Doukas Vatatzes, was born c. 1192 in Didymoteicho, and was probably^[10][11] the son of the general Basil Vatatzes, who was killed in battle in 1194, and his wife, a cousin of the Emperors Isaac II Angelos and Alexios III Angelos.^[12] Byzantine emperor John V Palaiologos was born on 18 June 1332 in Didymoteicho.^[13]

Ottoman era

The Ottoman Empire conquered most of the region in the 14th century and ruled it until the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913. During Ottoman rule, Thrace had a mixed population of Greeks, Turks and Bulgarians, while a smaller number of Pomaks, Jews, Armenians and Romani also lived in the region.

At 1821, several parts of Western Thrace, such as Lavara, Maroneia, and Samothrace rebelled and participated in the Greek War of Independence.

Modern era

During the First Balkan War, the Balkan League (Serbia, Greece, Bulgaria and Montenegro) fought against the Ottoman Empire and annexed most of its European territory, including Thrace. Western Thrace was occupied by Bulgarian troops who defeated the Ottoman army. On 15 November 1912, on the right bank of the river Maritza, Macedonian-Adrianopolitan Volunteer Corps captured the Turkish corps of Yaver Paha, which defended Eastern Rhodopes and Western Thrace from invading Bulgarians.

The victors quickly fell into dispute on how to divide the newly conquered lands, resulting in the Second Balkan War. In August 1913, Bulgaria was defeated, but kept Western Thrace under the terms of the Treaty of Bucharest.

In the following years, the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire), with which Bulgaria had sided, lost World War I, and as a result, Bulgaria had to surrender Western Thrace under the terms of the 1919 Treaty of Neuilly.^[14] Western Thrace was under temporary management of the Entente led by French General Charles Antoine Charpy. In late April 1920, as per the San Remo conference which gathered the leaders of the main allies of the Entente powers (except the US), Western Thrace was given to Greece. Throughout the Balkan Wars and World War I, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey each forced respective minority populations in the Thrace region out of areas they controlled.

A large population of Greeks from Eastern Thrace, Eastern Rumelia and Black Sea coastal areas, as well as Greeks from Anatolia, including Pontic Greeks and Cappadocian Greeks, was expelled into Greek-controlled Thrace. This was followed by the large-scale Greek-Turkish population exchanges of 1923, which finalized the reversal of Western and Eastern Thrace region's pre-Balkan War demography. Concurrently, a large population of Bulgarians was forced from the region into Bulgaria by Greek and Turkish actions. Turkish populations in the area were also targeted by Bulgarian and Greek forces and pushed eastward. As part of the Treaty of Neuilly and subsequent agreements, the status of the expelled populations was legitimized.

The Treaty of Lausanne granted the status of a minority to the Muslims of Western Thrace, in exchange for a similar status for the ethnic Greek minority in Istanbul and the Aegean islands of Imbros and Tenedos.

After the German invasion (April 1941), the area was occupied by Bulgarian troops, as part of the triple Axis occupation of Greece, during World War II. During this period (1941–1944) the demographic distribution was further changed, with the arrest of the region's approximately 4,500 Jews by the Bulgarian police and their deportation to death camps administered by Germany. None of them survived.^[15]

Jews and the Holocaust

Before World War 2, Western Thrace was home to a Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jewish population. After Greece was occupied by Axis forces, around 4,075 Jews living in Western Thrace and Macedonia were sent to Treblinka extermination camp and were murdered.^[21]