ulgaria, history of
The beginnings of modern Bulgaria
Slavic invasions
The story of the modern Bulgarian people begins with the Slavic invasions of the
Balkan Peninsula in the 6th and 7th centuries AD, a time when Byzantium was
absorbed in prolonged conflict with Persia and could not resist the incursions from the
north. Ancient sources refer to two Slavic tribes north of the Danube at this time, the
Slavenae and the Antae. Evidence suggests that the Slavenae, to the west, were the
ancestors of the Serbs and Croats, while the Antae moved into the regions of Bulgaria,
Macedonia, and northern Greece. The Slavic tribes tilled the soil or practiced a pastoral
way of life and were organized in patriarchal communities.
Arrival of the Bulgars
The name Bulgaria comes from the Bulgars, a Turkic people who are first mentioned in
the sources toward the end of the 5th century AD. Living at that time in the steppes to
the north of the Black Sea, the Bulgar tribes were composed of skilled, warlike
horsemen governed by khans (chiefs) and boyars (nobles). The Bulgars were subdued
by the Avars in the 6th century, but in 635 Khan Kubrat led a successful revolt and
organized an independent tribal confederation. After Kubrat's death in 642 the Bulgars
were attacked by the Khazars and dispersed. According to Byzantine sources, the
Bulgars split into five groups, each under one of Kubrat's sons. One of these, Asparukh
(or Isperikh), moved into Bessarabia (between the Dniester and Prut rivers) and then
crossed to the south of the Danube, where his people conquered or expelled the Slavic
tribes living north of the Balkan Mountains. The Byzantine emperor Constantine IV led
an army against the Bulgars but was defeated, and in 681 Byzantium recognized by
treaty Bulgar control of the region between the Balkans and the Danube. This is
considered to be the starting point of the Bulgarian state.
The first Bulgarian empire
Asparukh and his successors established their court at Pliska, northeast of modern
Shumen, and a religious centre at nearby Madara. Archaeological evidence suggests
that the Bulgars kept their settlements distinct from those of the Slavs, from whom
they accepted tribute. They maintained a mixed pastoral and agricultural economy,
although much of their wealth continued to be acquired through warfare. Asparukh's
successor, Tervel (701-718), helped to restore Emperor Justinian II to the Byzantine
throne and was rewarded with the title "caesar." On the whole, however, relations
with Byzantium were hostile, and the 8th century was marked by a long series of raids
and larger campaigns in which the Byzantine forces were usually victorious. Bulgaria
recovered under Khan Krum (803-814), who, after annihilating an imperial army, took
the skull of Emperor Nicephorus I, lined it with silver, and made it into a drinking cup.
Under Krum's successors Bulgaria enjoyed an extended period of peace with
Byzantium and expanded its control over Macedonia and parts of what is now Serbia
and Croatia.
Assimilation of Bulgars by Slavs
Internally, the 8th and 9th centuries saw the gradual assimilation of the Bulgars by the
Slavic majority. There are almost no sources that describe this process, but it was
certainly facilitated by the spread of Christianity, which provided a new basis for a
common culture. Boris I of Bulgaria (852-889) was baptized a Christian in 864, at a
time when the conflict between the Roman church and the Eastern church in
Constantinople was becoming more open and intense. Although Boris' baptism was
into the Eastern church, he subsequently wavered between Rome and Constantinople
until the latter was persuaded to grant de facto autonomy to Bulgaria in church affairs.
The spread of Christianity was facilitated by the work of Saints Cyril and Methodius,
who had invented an alphabet in which to write the Slavic language (known as Old
Church Slavonic or Old Bulgarian) and who had developed a Slavonic liturgy in Moravia.
When Moravia committed to Rome and expelled the disciples of Cyril and Methodius,
many of them resettled in Bulgaria, where they were welcomed by Boris and undertook
the translation of church books and the training of priests. St. Clement and St. Naum
are credited with preparing more than 3,000 priests, and they established an
important church and educational centre on the shores of Lake Ohrid (Okhrid) in
Macedonia.
Bulgaria's conversion had a political dimension, for it contributed both to the growth of
central authority and to the melding of Bulgars and Slavs into a unified Bulgarian
people. Boris adopted Byzantine political conceptions, referring to himself as ruler "by
the grace of God," and the new religion provided justification for suppressing those
boyars of Bulgar origin who clung to paganism and the political and social order with
which it was linked. In 889, Boris, whose faith apparently was deep and genuine,
abdicated to enter a monastery. When his eldest son, Vladimir, fell under the influence
of the old boyars and attempted to reestablish paganism, Boris led a coup that
overthrew him. After Vladimir was deposed and blinded, Boris convened a council that
confirmed Christianity as the religion of the state and moved the administrative capital
from Pliska to the Slavic town of Preslav (now known as Veliki Preslav). The council
conferred the throne on Boris' third son, Simeon, and Boris retired permanently to
monastic life.
Reign of Simeon I
The reign of Simeon I (893-927) marked the high point of the first medieval Bulgarian
state. Educated in Constantinople and imbued with great respect for the arts and
Greek culture, Simeon encouraged the building of palaces and churches, the spread of
monastic communities, and the translation of Greek books into Slavonic. Preslav was
made into a magnificent capital that observers described as rivaling Constantinople.
The artisans of its commercial quarter specialized in ceramics, stone, glass, wood, and
metals, and Bulgarian tile work in the "Preslav style" surpassed its contemporary rivals
and was eagerly imported by Byzantium and Kievan Rus.
Simeon was also a gifted military leader. His campaigns extended Bulgaria's borders,
but he ultimately dissipated the country's strength in an effort to take Constantinople.
When he died he was master of the northern Balkans, including the Serbian lands, and
styled himself "Tsar of the Bulgars and Autocrat of the Greeks," but his country was
near exhaustion.
Under Simeon's successors Bulgaria was beset by internal dissension provoked by the
spread of Bogomilism (a dualist religious sect) and by assaults from Magyars,
Pechenegs, the Rus, and Byzantines. In the campaign of 1014 the Byzantine emperor
Basil II won a decisive victory, after which he blinded as many as 15,000 prisoners
taken in the battle. (For this act he became known as Basil Bulgaroctonus, or Basil,
Slayer of the Bulgars.) Bulgaria lost its independence in 1018 and for more than a
century and a half, until 1185, remained subject to Byzantium.
The second Bulgarian empire
With the collapse of the first Bulgarian state, the Bulgarian church fell under the
domination of Greek ecclesiastics who took control of the see of Ohrid and attempted
to replace the Bulgarian Slavic liturgy with liturgy in the Greek language. Bulgarian
culture was by this time too deeply rooted to be easily removed, and the Byzantine
Empire, beset by the attacks of the Seljuq Turks and the disturbances of the
crusaders, lacked the power to support a more forcible Hellenization. In 1185 the
brothers Ivan and Peter Asen of Turnovo launched a revolt to throw off Byzantine
sovereignty. The Asen brothers defeated the Byzantines and forced Constantinople to
recognize Bulgarian independence. Their brother and successor, Kaloyan (reigned
1197-1207), briefly accepted the supremacy of Rome in church affairs and received a
royal crown from the pope. But when the patriarch at Constantinople again recognized
the independence of the Bulgarian church, Kaloyan reverted to Orthodoxy.
The second Bulgarian empire, with its centre at Turnovo, reached its height during the
reign of Tsar Ivan Asen II (1218-41). Bulgaria was then the leading power in the
Balkans, holding sway over Albania, Epirus, Macedonia, and Western Thrace. During
this period the first Bulgarian coinage appeared, and in 1235 the head of the Bulgarian
church received the title of patriarch.
The successors of Ivan Asen II could not match his ability. Moreover, Bulgaria was
beset by Mongol attacks from the north and by internal upheavals brought on by the
growing burdens placed on the peasantry by the powerful nobles. The great peasant
revolt of 1277-80 briefly allowed the swineherd Ivaylo to occupy the royal throne at
Turnovo before he was defeated with the aid of the Byzantines. The Asen dynasty died
out in 1280 and was followed by two others, both of Cuman origin, neither of which
succeeded in restoring central authority. The declining state reached its nadir in 1330
when Tsar Mikhail Shishman was defeated and slain by the Serbs at the Battle of
Velbuzhd (modern Kyustendil). Bulgaria lost its Macedonian lands to the Serbian
empire of Stefan Dusan, which then became the dominant Balkan power. Bulgaria
appeared to be on the point of disintegration into feudal states when the invasions of
the Ottoman Turks began.
Ottoman rule
The Ottoman Turks first entered the Balkans as mercenaries of Byzantium in the
1340s, and they returned as invaders in their own right during the following decade.
Between 1359 and 1362 Sultan Murad I wrested much of Thrace from Byzantine
control and captured Adrianople (modern Edirne, Tur.), commanding the route up the
Maritsa valley into the heart of the Bulgarian lands. In 1364 the Turks defeated a
crusade sent by Pope Urban V to regain Adrianople, but not before the crusaders
committed so many atrocities against the Orthodox Christians that many Bulgarians
came to regard Turkish rule as preferable to alliance with the Roman Catholic West.
Although Ivan Shishman, Bulgaria's last medieval tsar, declared himself a vassal of
Murad in 1371, the Ottomans continued to seek complete domination. Sofia, in the
west, was seized in 1382, and Shumen, in the east, fell in 1388. A year later the
defeat of the Serbs at the Battle of Kosovo sealed the fate of the entire Balkan
Peninsula. In 1393, after a three-month siege, Turnovo was taken and burned. Ivan
Shishman died in Turkish captivity three years later. With the capture of a rump
Bulgarian kingdom centred at Bdin (Vidin) in 1396, the last remnant of Bulgarian
independence disappeared.
The "Turkish yoke"
The five centuries from 1396 to 1878 are engraved in Bulgarian consciousness as the
era of the "Turkish yoke," traditionally seen as a period of darkness and suffering. Both
national and ecclesiastical independence were lost. The Bulgarian nobility was
destroyed--its members either perished, fled, or accepted Islam and Turkicization--and
the peasantry was enserfed to Turkish masters. The "blood tax" took a periodic levy of
male children for conversion to Islam and service in the Janissary Corps of the Ottoman
army. The picture was not entirely negative, however. Once completed, the Turkish
conquest included Bulgaria in a "pax ottomanica" that was a marked contrast to the
preceding centuries of war and conflict. While Ottoman power was growing or at its
height, it provided an acceptable way of life for the Bulgarian population. It was only
when the empire was in its decline and unable to control the depredations of local
officials or maintain reasonable order that the Bulgarians found Ottoman rule
unbearable.
Bulgaria did not change radically in its religious or ethnic composition during the
Ottoman period, for the Turks did not attempt forcibly to populate Bulgaria with Turks
or to convert all Bulgarians to Islam. With the exception of the people of the Rhodope
Mountains who did convert (and thereafter were called Pomaks), the Bulgarian
population remained within the Orthodox church. Although Turkish administrators were
established in the towns and countryside, Turkish peasants were not settled in
Bulgaria in large numbers, and those who did immigrate were concentrated in the
southern and eastern parts of the country and in some of the valleys of Macedonia and
Thrace. In the 15th and 16th centuries Turkish authorities permitted the immigration of
Jewish refugees from the Christian West. While the majority were resettled in
Constantinople and Salonika, most Bulgarian towns acquired small Jewish
communities.
Ottoman administration
At the time Bulgaria was conquered, the Ottoman Empire was divided into two parts
for administrative purposes. Bulgaria was part of the European section, called Rumelia,
headed by a beylerbey ("lord of lords") who resided in Sofia. As the empire expanded,
this system proved inadequate, and in the 16th century it was replaced by territorial
divisions called vilayets (provinces), further subdivided into sanjaks (districts). The
borders of these units changed many times over the centuries. Bulgarian lands were
assigned as fiefs to Turkish warriors, or spahis, who could impose taxes and other
obligations on the subject population. Fiefs were also given to governors and other
officeholders to provide their income, and lands in the form of vakifs--designated for
the support of religious, educational, or charitable enterprises--were assigned to
specific institutions. The spahi had no right of lordship or justice over the peasants
living in his fief, and the Bulgarians frequently retained their traditional village
administration and the customs of local law with regard to issues in which Turkish
interests were not involved.
Decline of the Ottoman Empire
The decline of the Ottoman Empire was marked by military defeats at the hands of
Christian Europe and by a weakening of central authority. Both of these factors were
significant for developments in Bulgaria. As the empire was thrown on the defensive,
the Christian powers, first Austria and then Russia, saw the Bulgarian Christians as
potential allies. Austrian propaganda helped to provoke an uprising at Turnovo in
1598, and two others occurred in 1686 and 1688 after the Turks were forced to lift the
siege of Vienna. Under Catherine II the Great, Russia began to assert itself as the
protector of the Orthodox population of the Ottoman Empire, a claim that the Sublime
Porte (as the government of the empire was called) was forced to recognize in the
Treaty of Kьзьk Kaynarca in 1774. Of greater significance, however, was the inability of
the central government to keep the spahis and local officials under control. During the
17th and 18th centuries the spahis succeeded in converting their fiefs to зiftliks,
hereditary estates that could not be regulated by the government. Owners of зiftliks
were free to impose higher obligations on the peasantry or to drive them off the land.
Turkish refugees from lands liberated by Christian states were frequently resettled on
зiftliks in Bulgaria, increasing the pressure on the land and the burden on the
peasantry. Occasionally, Turkish refugees formed marauding bands that could not be
subdued by central authority and that exacted a heavy toll from their Christian victims.
One response among the Bulgarians was a strengthening of the haiduk tradition. The
haiduks were guerrillas--some would say bandits--who took to the mountains to live
by robbing the Turks. Although the haiduks lacked a strong sense of national
consciousness, they kept alive a spirit of resistance and gave rise to legends that
inspired later revolts.
The national revival
In the 19th century growing Bulgarian discontent was given direction in a movement of
national revival that restored Bulgarian national consciousness and prepared the way
for independence. The social foundation of this movement was produced by the
quickening of economic life in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and by the
influence of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, echoes of which, however
faint, were heard among the people. A growing demand for cotton cloth and other
products stimulated urban development. Many Bulgarian merchant houses were
founded, and artisans in the towns began to form guild organizations (esnafi). The
latter played an important role in sponsoring schools and providing scholarships for
young Bulgarians to study abroad.
The monk Paisiy of the Khilendar Monastery on Mount Athos is recognized as the
founder of the national revival. Little is known of his life except that he came from a
merchant family in Bansko, a town in southwestern Bulgaria that maintained
commercial relations with Vienna. In the 1760s Paisiy used texts preserved on Mount
Athos to write his "Slaveno-Bulgarian History." It reminded Bulgarians of the greatness
of their past empires and called on them to foreswear foreign tongues and customs
and to take pride in their race. Sofroniy, bishop of Vratsa, helped to spread Paisiy's
influence. In his own writings he stressed the importance of education, without which
his people would remain, in his words, "dumb animals."
Spread of education
The spread of education was in fact the centrepiece of the Bulgarian national revival.
In 1835 Vasil Aprilov founded a Lancasterian school, based on the monitorial system of
instruction, in Gabrovo. With the monk Neofit Rilski (Neophyte of Rila) as its teacher, it
was the first school to teach in Bulgarian. Its work was facilitated by the appearance of
a Bulgarian publishing industry and a small but influential periodical press. By the
1870s the guilds, town and village councils, and wealthy groups and individuals
founded some 2,000 schools in Bulgaria, each providing free education. The school was
supplemented with the chitalishte, or "reading room," an institution that first appeared
in Svishtov in 1856 but soon spread throughout the country. More than just a small
library, the chitalishte staged lectures, meetings, plays, concerts, debates, and social
events. It was of immense importance for those who did not acquire formal education.
Cultural movement against Greek influence
The cultivation of Bulgarian national consciousness was initially a cultural rather than a
political movement. Consequently, it was directed more against the "cultural yoke" of
the Greeks than the "political yoke" of the Ottoman Empire. After the Turkish conquest
of the Balkans, the Greek patriarch had become the representative of the Rum millet,
or the "Roman nation," which comprised all the subject Christian nationalities.
The desire to restore an independent Bulgarian church was a principal goal of the
national "awakeners." Their efforts were rewarded in 1870 when the Sublime Porte
issued a decree establishing an autocephalous Bulgarian church, headed by an exarch,
with jurisdiction over the 15 dioceses of Bulgaria and Macedonia. Although the Greek
patriarch refused to recognize this church and excommunicated its adherents, it
became a leading force in Bulgarian life, representing Bulgarian interests at the
Sublime Porte and sponsoring the further expansion of Bulgarian churches and
schools. After the liberation of 1878 it provided a powerful means of spreading
Bulgarian national feeling in Macedonia.
National revolution
The creation of the Bulgarian exarchate was the high point of the national revival as a
cultural movement. The inability of the Sublime Porte to maintain order or to carry
through its program of reform known as Tanzimat (1839-76), combined with the
examples of Greek and Serbian independence, engendered an explicitly revolutionary
movement among the Bulgarians. Inspired by the haiduk tradition, Georgi Rakovski
formed a Bulgarian legion on Serbian territory in 1862 to send armed bands to harass
the Turks in Bulgaria. In 1866 Lyuben Karavelov and Vasil Levski created a Bulgarian
Secret Central Committee in Bucharest to prepare for a national uprising. It dispatched
"apostles" into Bulgaria to spread the message among the people. Levski was
captured during one such mission and was hanged in Sofia. He is considered to be the
greatest hero of the revolutionary movement.
Against the background of a wider Balkan crisis, the Bulgarian revolutionary
committees laid plans for a nationwide uprising in 1876. The April Uprising (beginning
April 20 [Old Style], May 2 [New Style]) broke out prematurely and was violently put
down. The atrocities committed against the civilian population by irregular Turkish
forces, including the massacre of 15,000 Bulgarians near Plovdiv, increased the
Bulgarian desire for independence. They also outraged public opinion in Europe, where
they became known as the Bulgarian Horrors. A conference of European statesmen
proposed a series of reforms, but when the sultan refused to implement them Russia
declared war. In the ensuing campaign Bulgarian volunteer forces fought alongside the
Russian army, earning particular distinction in the epic battle for the Shipka Pass.
Treaty of San Stefano (1878)
Advancing to the outskirts of Constantinople, the Russians dictated the Treaty of San
Stefano, which called for a large independent Bulgaria stretching from the Danube to
the Aegean and from the Vardar and Morava valleys to the Black Sea. The boundaries
stated in the treaty, signed on March 3, 1878, represented the fulfillment of Bulgaria's
territorial aspirations and remained for generations the national ideal of the people.
But the creation of a large Bulgaria, perceived as an outpost of Russian influence in the
Balkans, was intolerable to Austria-Hungary and Britain, and they forced a revision of
the Treaty of San Stefano a few months later at the Congress of Berlin. The new
Treaty of Berlin (July 13, 1878) created a much smaller Bulgarian principality,
autonomous but under the sovereignty of the Sublime Porte, in the territory between
the Danube and the Balkan Mountains. To the south, the treaty created the
autonomous province of Eastern Rumelia, subject to the sultan but with a Christian
governor. Macedonia was returned entirely to the Ottoman Empire. The treaty also
stipulated that Bulgaria would elect an assembly of notables to meet at Turnovo to
prepare a constitution and to choose a prince who would be confirmed by the powers.
The liberation of Bulgaria from Turkish rule also functioned as a land reform, for Russian
occupation authorities and subsequent Bulgarian governments confiscated the Turkish
estates and sold them in small parcels to the peasantry. Bulgaria began its
independence as a nation of smallholders with one of the most egalitarian land
distributions in Europe.
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