Bulgarian History

The region now called Bulgaria was once part of the Roman Empire and comprised parts of the provinces of Thrace and Moesia. In Year 681 AD a tribe of Bulgars migrated from their domain on the east side of the Black Sea, crossed the lower reaches of the Danube River, and subjugated Moesia, then a province of the Byzantine Empire. Fewer in number than the Slavic population of Moesia, the Bulgars gradually became Slavicized during this period. By the end of the century they had annexed considerable additional territory and made a strong state under Khan Krum who reigned from 803 to 814. In 865 Boris I made Christianity the official religion of the khanate. Boris accepted the primacy of the papacy in 866, but in 870, following the refusal of Pope Adrian II to make Bulgaria an archbishopric, he shifted his allegiance to the Eastern Orthodox Church. In the late 9th and early 10th centuries, Bulgaria became the strongest nation of Eastern Europe during the reign of Boris’s son Simeon. A brilliant administrator and military leader, Simeon introduced Byzantine culture into his realm, encouraged education, obtained new territories, defeated the Magyars (Hungarians), and conducted a series of successful wars against the Byzantine Empire. In 925 Simeon proclaimed himself Emperor of the Greeks and Bulgars. Simeon’s reign was marked by great cultural advances led by the followers of St Cyril and his brother St Methodius, the "apostles of the Slavs". During this period Old Church Slavonic, the first written Slavic language, and the Cyrillic Alphabet were adopted. Weakened by domestic strife and successive Magyar raids, Bulgarian power declined steadily during the following half-century. Samuel, the son of a Bulgarian provincial governor, became ruler of western Bulgaria in 976. Samuel’s armies were annihilated in 1014 by the Byzantine emperor Basil II, who incorporated the state into his empire in 1018.

Led by the nobles Ivan Asen and Peter Asen, the Bulgarians revolted against Byzantine rule in 1185 and established a second empire. It consisted initially of the region between the Balkan Mountains and the Danube; by the early 13th century it included extensive neighboring territories, notably sections of Serbia and all of western Macedonia. In 1204, following the Latin occupation of Constantinople, Ivan and Peter’s brother, Kaloyan (reigned 1197-1207) temporarily broke with the Eastern Orthodox Church and accepted the primacy of the pope (renouncing it again in 1234). Ivan Asen II (reigned 1218-1241), the fifth ruler of the Asen dynasty, added western Thrace, the remainder of Macedonia, and part of Albania to the empire in 1230. Feudal strife and involvement in foreign wars caused gradual disintegration of the empire after the death of Ivan Asen II. Shortly after 1360 the Ottoman Turks began to ravage the Maritsa Valley, completing the subjugation of Bulgaria in 1396.

During the next five centuries the political and cultural existence of Bulgaria was almost obliterated. After a century of terrorism and persecution, Turkish administration improved, and the economic condition of the remaining Bulgarians rose to a level higher than it had been under the kingdom, although unsuccessful revolts against Turkish rule occurred from time to time.

With the revival of a Bulgarian literature glorifying the history of the country, in the latter half of the 18th century and the early part of the 19th century, Bulgarian nationalism became a powerful movement. In 1876 the Bulgarians revolted against the Turks, but were quelled. In 1877 Russia declared war on Turkey. As a result of the Russo-Turkish War, in which Turkey was defeated, a part of Bulgaria became an autonomous principality. Elected by a Bulgarian assembly in 1879, the first prince of the new Bulgaria was Alexander of Battenberg.

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