 However, as a result of the massive Greek religious and school propaganda, a kind of "Macedonization" occurred among the Greek and non-Greek speaking population of the area.The name "Macedonian Slavs" was also introduced by the Greek clergy and teachers among the local Slavophones with an aim to stimulate the development of close ties between them and the Greeks, linking both sides to the ancient Macedonians, as a counteract against the growing Bulgarian influence there.The first attempts for creation of the Macedonian ethnicity can be said to have begun in the late 19th and early 20th century.