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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Joy (talk | contribs) at 14:26, 5 October 2004 (rephrased to include the common title and to avoid a pro-Macedonian stance in the VMRO description). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Ilinden uprising was a 1903 uprising in the then Ottoman Empire of a group of Macedonian nationalists to create an independent Macedonian state.

The short-lived state was referred to as the Kruševo Republic because it was centered around the town of Kruševo, near Prilep. The proclamation was made on August 2, 1903.

The instigators of this effort were the members of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (VMRO), a group that tried to free the Macedonian territories and the people of Macedonia from external influences, primarily the Ottoman occupation.

Though the group was perceived by the Turks as an effort to promote Bulgarian expansionism, Goce Delčev (1872-1903), a young ideologue of the group declared, "Whoever hankers after unification with Bulgaria and Greece may consider himself a good Bulgar or Greek, but not a good Macedonian."

By the time the new republic was proclaimed, many of its most promising potential leaders, including Goce Delčev, had already been killed in skirmishes with the Ottomans, and the effort was quashed within eleven days. The survivors managed to maintain a semi-successful guerilla campaign against the Turks for the next few years, but its greater effect was that it persuaded the European powers to attempt to convince the Ottoman sultan that he must take a more concilliatory note toward his Christian subjects in Europe.

This led to the Murzsteg Program, by which the various powers appointed observers in Macedonia. Though little came of this, in was a motivating factor in the ensuing Balkan Wars, which brought Macedonia under Serbian, and later Yugoslav control.