 Bulgarian colonists were encouraged to settle in East Macedonia and Thrace by government credits and incentives, including houses and land confiscated from the natives.The Bulgarian government's attempts to win the loyalty of the local Slavic-speaking population and recruit collaborators among them did see some success, with the Bulgarians being greeted as liberators, but the ethnic composition of the region meant that the vast majority of its inhabitants actively resisted the occupiers.East Macedonia and Thrace had an ethnically mixed population until the early 20th century, including Greeks, Turks, Slavic-speakers (some of them self-identifying as Greeks, others as Bulgarians) Jews, and Pomaks (a Muslim Slavic group).