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a short history of Bulgaria

Brief History of Bulgaria

There are many signs that today's territory of Bulgaria was inhabited during prehistoric times, in the period between the 6th and the 3rd millennium BC. Traces of this can be found in the Varna Necropolis, for example. The first identifiable people, however, that inhabited the present-day territory of the country were the Thracians. Their greatest achievement is the Panagyuriste Treasure, which is shown today at various specialized exhibitions around the world. In the year 188 BC, the Romans invaded Thrace and the war continued until 45 BC, when Rome conquered the area. When the Slavs arrived, the Thracians had already lost a lot of their identity. During the Early Middle Ages, the Slavs spread over the eastern part of Central Europe and the Balkans. The eastern Slavs assimilated the Thracians and transformed them into what are now the modern Bulgarians.

Byzantine rule was challenged during the 11th and 12th Centuries, and the strongest uprising occurred during the rule of Peter II Delyan. The country was invaded by the Normans and later by the Pechenegs. The Byzantine Empire remained strong until the rebellion of Ivan Asen I and the establishment of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1185, after which Bulgaria once again established itself as an important power on the Balkans for the next two centuries. Its new capital was the beautiful town of Veliko Tarnovo. At the beginning of the 13th Century, the strength of the empire weakened due to internal conflicts and attacks from the Byzantines and Hungarians. During the reign of Emperor Theodore Svetoslav in the years following 1300, Bulgaria was divided into several principalities, which were quite easy for the Ottoman Empire to conquer. The Ottoman armies invaded the Second Bulgarian Empire in the 1390s, a domination that lasted for five long centuries characterized by oppression, violence and bloodshed.

The Ottoman rulers assumed ownership over the land and gave no rights to the population. They even made several bloody attempts to enforce Islam, but only a few Bulgarians changed their faith. The Ottoman Empire weakened over the centuries, and many of the local governors established personal rule over their regions in the end of the 18th Century. During the 19th Century, the situation in the conquered Bulgaria improved. Towns like Rousse, Varna, Sliven and Gabrovo became important trade, transport and communication centres. During the rule of the Ottomans, Bulgarians made many attempts at rebellion and the National Awakening of Bulgaria became one of the key factors in the struggle for liberation. During the same century were formed the Internal Revolutionary Organization and the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee, which were led by the patriots Vasil Levski, Hristo Botev and Lyuben Karavelov. In April 1876, the biggest and best-organized rebellion of the Bulgarians against the Ottoman Empire finally succeeded, followed by the Russo-Turkish War during the years 1877-1878. When the Russians came out as winners in that war, Bulgaria signed the Treaty of San Stefano, which declared the country as autonomous. This treaty wasn't accepted by the Western countries, and thus the Treaty of Berlin was formed and Alexander von Battenberg was announced the first Prince of Bulgaria.

The country was divided into the Kingdom of Bulgaria to the north and an autonomous part named Eastern Rumelia covering the Thrace region and Macedonia, which were under Ottoman sovereignty. The two parts unified in September 1885, when Bulgaria was proclaimed a fully independent kingdom under the rule of Ferdinand I of Bulgaria. At this time, one of the best politicians in the country's history lived and worked, Stefan Stambolov. This period was followed by the Balkan Wars in 1912 and 1913, which involved conflicts with Greece, Serbia and Montenegro, and later by World War I, during which Bulgaria fought on the wrong side, in an alliance with the Central Powers. Once the war ended, Bulgaria suffered territorial losses, ceding its Aegean coastline to Greece under the Treaty of Neuilly and giving most of the Macedonian territory to the new state of Yugoslavia and the Dobrudja Region to the Romans -- all this considered the Second National Catastrophe. In March 1920, Bulgaria held elections and a large majority of the people chose Alexander Stamboliiski, who formed the first peasant government in the country. After a decade of hard times, Stamboliiski's Assassination and the White Terror enforced by the Agrarians and the Communists, a military regime was established, but later removed by Tsar Boris. Though the Tsar tried to keep the country neutral, gradually Bulgaria allied with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.

During World War II, Bulgaria managed to save its entire Jewish population from the Nazi camps. The Soviet army entered Bulgaria in September 1944 and established a Communist regime, while the country turned against its ally, Germany. When the Second World War ended, Bulgaria came under Soviet influence and became a People's Republic, which ended in 1989 like most of the Communist regimes. When this happened, the country went through a few difficult years of poverty, strikes and several different governments, only to stabilize again and become a member of NATO in 2004. Three years later, Bulgaria became a member of the European Union, as well.