History
Friday, 18 September 2009 13:07 Last Updated on Friday, 30 October 2009 13:35
Evidence of human habitation in Bulgaria dates from the Middle Paleolithic Period, and agricultural settlements appeared in the Neolithic Period. The Thracians were its first inhabitants to enter recorded history. Their existence in Bulgaria can be dated from about 3500 BC, when seminomadic pastoralists from the Eurasian steppes moved southwestward to settle in the Balkan Peninsula. The first known Thracian state dates from the mid-5th century BC. Weakened by conflict with the Macedonians and Persians, the Thracian kingdom was finally absorbed by the Roman Empire after a 150-year struggle lasting into the first years of the Christian era. Under Roman rule Bulgaria was divided between the provinces of Moesia and Thrace and lay athwart the main land route from the west to the Middle East.
Beginning in the 3rd century AD, the Balkans suffered desolation brought about by successive invasions of Goths, Huns, Bulgars, and Avars. Gradually, from the mid-6th century, Slavic agriculturists repopulated most of the region. During the 7th century the Bulgars rose against the Avars, crossed the Danube, and subjugated the Slavic communities to the south. In 681, following an unsuccessful war with the Bulgars, the Byzantine Empire formally recognized Bulgar control of the region between the Balkans and the Danube. This is considered the starting point of the Bulgarian state. The ruler Boris I adopted Orthodox Christianity in 864, and the adoption of the new religion facilitated the assimilation of the Bulgars into the more numerous Slavic population. Although the name "Bulgaria" survived, the Bulgar language and customs died out, leaving few remnants among a population speaking a Slavic language.
The first Bulgarian empire flourished under Tsar Simeon (reigned 893-927) but was forced to accept Byzantine domination in 1018. A successful revolt led by the Asen brothers regained Bulgarian independence in 1185. The second Bulgarian empire, with its capital at Turnovo, ruled much of the Balkan Peninsula before succumbing to internal divisions and foreign invasion. In the second half of the 14th century, Bulgaria was invaded by the Ottoman Turks, and in 1396 the last vestiges of independence were lost. During the five centuries of Ottoman rule (1396-1878), imposed on Turkey by Russia, the Bulgarian nobility was destroyed and the peasantry enserfed to Turkish masters.
Bulgaria lagged behind its neighbours, Serbia and Greece, in the creation of a movement for independence; but, by the time of the Russo-Turkish War (1877-78), a movement known as the National Revival had brought about a widespread sense of Bulgarian identity. The Treaty of San Stefano (1878), imposed on Turkey by Russia, created a practically independent Bulgaria covering almost three-fifths of the Balkan Peninsula. This was unacceptable to the other Great Powers, and the Congress of Berlin (1878) permitted the creation of only a small, autonomous principality covering the core area between the Balkans and the Danube. Alexander of Battenberg, a nephew of the Russian emperor, was made prince. In 1885 Alexander annexed Eastern Rumelia, lying to the south between the Balkan and Rhodope ranges, and in 1908 his successor, Ferdinand, declared Bulgaria an independent kingdom. Ferdinand then joined Greece, Serbia, and Montenegro in forming the Balkan League, which seized Macedonia and Thrace from Turkey in the First Balkan War (1912-13). Dissatisfied with the small portion of Macedonia that he received as spoils, Ferdinand precipitated a Second Balkan War (June-August 1913) against Turkey, Romania, and his own former allies. Bulgaria lost this war, along with most of the territory it had gained in the first conflict. This effectively ended the expansion of the Bulgarian state, although Ferdinand sided with the Central Powers during World War I in an attempt to regain Macedonia. Bulgaria's defeat in 1918 forced Ferdinand's abdication and the accession of his son, Boris.
The interwar years were a period of economic crisis and political extremism and violence. Boris finally established a royal dictatorship and, during World War II, sided with Germany in yet another unsuccessful attempt to expand westward.
A communist-inspired coalition seized power on Sept. 9, 1944, in conjunction with an invasion by the Soviet Red Army. In 1946 a plebiscite abolished the monarchy and formed a people's republic that was henceforth ruled by the Bulgarian Communist Party. The country's industries were expropriated from their owners by the state, and the country's peasant farmers were forced into collective farms. Under the successive rule of the communist leaders Georgi Dimitrov, Vulko Chervenkov, and Todor Zhivkov, Bulgaria was transformed into a predominantly urban and industrial society. It remained firmly allied to the Soviet Union and the Soviet bloc.
In 1989, however, Bulgaria was caught up in the wave of democratization that was sweeping eastern Europe, and Zhivkov resigned and was replaced by younger, reform-minded leaders. Like its Soviet-bloc counterparts in eastern Europe, the Bulgarian Communist Party then abandoned its constitutional monopoly of power and thus freed noncommunist opposition parties to participate in multiparty parliamentary elections. The Communist Party, renamed the Socialist Party, won a majority of seats in the parliamentary elections of June 1990, but, in elections held in October 1991, the opposition Union of Democratic Forces won and went on to form Bulgaria's first noncommunist government since 1946.
*Extract from Britannica with certain modifications aiming towards correctness.
