There was Macedonia, there was Lynkestis (annexed by Philipp II, I think, it is south-eastern part of today's Republic of Macedonia), then there was Paeonia and Pelagonia (northern parts of the today's Republic of Macedonia or FYROM, as some of you prefer to call it).
At certain point of time even Paeonia and Pelagonia started to be called Macedonia. I am not sure when, possibly during the times of the Byzantine Empire. For a certain time Paeonia came under the rule of the Serbian Empire with Skopje as emperor Dušan's capital. In the Ottoman Empire the term Macedonia wasn't used by the Turks, they spoke of Skopje, Prizren, Thessaloniki and Manastiri (ie. Bitola)
vilayets (in the 19th century), earlier
sanjaks. However, the name Macedonia lived on in the minds of the Christian peoples who inhabited that region, be it Greeks, Serbs or Bulgarians. It was the area populated by people who spoke Macedonian Slavic (a dialect of Bulgarian, according to some). It was however under the Greek cultural influence, under the Patriarchate of Constantinople (through the Archbishopric of Ohrid/Achris) and I think (but I am not sure) that Greek was the language of the liturgy.
In the 19th century Macedonia (including Paeonia and Pelagonia which at that time were referred to as parts of Macedonia) became an area contested by Greeks, Serbs and Bulgarians. This ended in the partition of the area brought about by the Balkan Wars (1912-1913). The part of Macedonia assigned to Serbia became one of the so-called Socialist Republics of the Yugoslav Federation in 1945, with Macedonian Slavic as its official language. This "republic" gained the international recognition as independent state in 1991. However, due to the fact that Greece disputed its claim on the name "Macedonia", it was recognized under the provisorial name Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). However, a certain number of countries (Serbia among them) recognized the state in question under the name "Republic of Macedonia".
The
Macedonian question (
Македонско питање, Μακεδονικό Ζήτημα,
Македонски въпрос) was one of the most hotly debated "nationality" issues in the Balkanic Peninsula of the second part of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The issue was seen as concerning the territory of the area of today's Republic of Macedonia or FYROM (thus: it
included, in this 19th century perspective, also Paeonia and Pelagonia), of the part of Macedonia that today belongs to Greece (from Thessaloniki northwards) and of the part of Macedonia that was later assigned to Bulgaria (
Pirinska Makedonija). All of these three territories were understood as being part of the geographical notion called Macedonia. It is inaccurate to say Paeonia was never considered Macedonia. Of course, at times of Philip II it wasn't. But some time elapsed since then...