Bitola – from Eyalet capital to regional centre in the Republic of Macedonia

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>In the past nine hundred years Bitola has undergone a string of administrative and political rises and falls. In the course of the 16th century the city grew to have a very large population and become a huge economic and geopolitical centre of the large province of Rumelia in the Ottoman Empire. However, as a result of some overwhelming political and military events that played out during the 20th century (the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, the Balkan wars, WW1, WW2 and other economic, political, technical and technological developments that occurred in the world and in the country) Bitola was reduced to a mere local city in economic, geopolitical and population terms. The immediate economic and population expansion of Bitola is presented through an exact numeric and cartographic overview of spatial-temporal changes in the city’s development in the past two centuries. For the purposes of rendering a more accurate image, we have compared Bitola’s population, administrative and geopolitical role with a number of major Balkan cities.</jats:p>