As well as Greece and North Macedonia, the geographic region of Macedonia extends into Albania, Bulgaria and Serbia as well as small areas of Kosovo (which you can't quite see here).

The ancient kingdom of Macedonia – or Macedon – was a relatively small part of the present day Greek province of Macedonia. It first expanded under King Perdiccas I, then widened to take in other areas.

After the fall of the Greek Empire, the Romans – who admired Alexander – used the old name Macedonia for the province encompassing much of northern Greece and the area north of it – including much of the modern-day North Macedonia.

With the breakup of the Roman Empire into East and West, this region was overrun by the Slavic invasions. An entirely new province far to the east, including part of Thrace in modern-day Turkey, was named Macedonia by the Byzantine Empress Irene of Athens.

The geographic region known as Macedonia today roughly equates to the part of the Ottoman Empire known as Ottoman Vardar Macedonia. It included Greek and Slavic areas and was split into three administrative units, but the concept of Macedonia persisted. This remained the case for centuries and so this concept – of what Macedonia is – has stuck.

...and there's certainly a fair bit of overlap — and room for confusion.

Of course, Macedonia's King Alexander the Great's realm stretched all the way to India — but it would be a bit of a stretch to call that Macedonia

As if it weren’t complicated enough, there’s another meaning of the word Macedonia. In Greece and many Latin-language-speaking countries, it’s also a fruit salad. The name is thought to have ben popularized at the end of the 18th century, referring to either the ethnic diversity of Alexander's vast empire or the ethnic mix of Ottoman Macedonia.

For decades Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) had a contentious relationship over the name. When Yugoslavia broke up Macedonia declared its independence and took the name Republic of Macedonia, Greece objected as its northern region is also called Macedonia. In 2018, the two countries settled the dispute and Macedonia is now known as The Republic of Nothern Macedonia.

The Irish have long had a contentious relationship with the United Kingdom. While Ireland was for centuries part of the UK, the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 gave Ireland complete independence in its home affairs but an opt-out clause allowed Northern Ireland to remain within the United Kingdom.

The islands in the southern Atlantic have had French, British, Spanish and Argentinian settlements. The British refer to the archipelago as the Falkland Islands and reasserted its rule over them in 1833. Argentina maintains that the islands are called the Islas Malvinas and are a part of its territory. In 1982, Argentina invaded the islands until a British force retook the territories.

The small group of islands controlled by Japan in the East China Sea has long been a sore point between Japan and China. China claims it discovered what it calls the Diaoyu islands in the 14th century. After World War II, the US administered the island but returned control to Japan in 1972. With the discovery of oil reserves in 1968, ownership is now once again an issue.