 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Principality of Bulgaria" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(October 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Principality of Bulgaria | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1878–1908 | |||||||||||
 Flag  State coat of arms (1881–1927) | |||||||||||
| Motto: Съединението прави силата Saedinenieto pravi silata ("Unity makes strength") | |||||||||||
| Anthem: "Шуми Марица" Shumi Maritsa Maritsa Rushes (1886–1908) | |||||||||||
.svg) Principality of Bulgaria (dark green) andEastern Rumelia (light green), united in 1885, formally as apersonal union.
| |||||||||||
| Status | Vassal of theOttoman Empire[2][3][self-published source?] | ||||||||||
| Capital | Plovdiv (1878) (Provisional Russian Administration in Bulgaria) Sofia (1878–1908) (Provisional Russian Administration in Bulgaria until June 1879) Tarnovo (1879) (Bulgarian Constituent Assembly election, 1879) | ||||||||||
| Official languages | Bulgarian[4] | ||||||||||
| Religion | Orthodox Christianity,Sunni Islam (minority) | ||||||||||
| Demonym | Bulgarian | ||||||||||
| Government | Unitaryabsolute monarchy (1878–1879) Unitaryparliamentaryconstitutional monarchy (from 1879) | ||||||||||
| Knyaz (Prince) | |||||||||||
• 1879–1886 | Alexander I | ||||||||||
• 1887–1908 | Ferdinand I | ||||||||||
| Regents | |||||||||||
• 1886–1887 | Stefan Stambolov | ||||||||||
• 1886–1887 | Sava Mutkurov | ||||||||||
• 1886–1887 | Petko Karavelov | ||||||||||
| Chairman of the Council of Ministers | |||||||||||
• 1879(first) | Todor Burmov | ||||||||||
• 1908(last) | Aleksandar Malinov | ||||||||||
| Legislature | None (rule by decree) (1878–1879) National Assembly (from 1879) | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
| 3 March 1878 | |||||||||||
| 13 July 1878 | |||||||||||
| 28 April 1879 | |||||||||||
| 6 September 1885 | |||||||||||
| 5 October 1908 | |||||||||||
| Currency | Bulgarian lev | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| Today part of | Bulgaria Serbia | ||||||||||
ThePrincipality of Bulgaria (Bulgarian:Княжество България,romanized: Knyazhestvo Balgariya) was avassal state under thesuzerainty of theOttoman Empire. It was established by theTreaty of Berlin in 1878.
After theRusso-Turkish War ended with a Russian victory, theTreaty of San Stefano was signed byRussia and the Ottoman Empire on 3 March 1878. Under this, a large Bulgarian vassal state was agreed to, which was significantly larger: its lands encompassed nearly allethnic Bulgarians in theBalkans, and included most ofMoesia,Thrace andMacedonia, stretching from theBlack Sea to theAegean. However, theUnited Kingdom andAustria-Hungary were against the establishment of such a large Russianclient state in the Balkans, fearing it would shift the balance of power in the Mediterranean. Due to this, thegreat powersconvened and signed theTreaty of Berlin, superseding the Treaty of San Stefano, which never went into effect. This created a much smallerprincipality, alongside an autonomousEastern Rumelia within the Ottoman Empire.
In practice, Bulgaria's status as an Ottoman vassal was alegal fiction, and Bulgaria only acknowledged the authority of theSublime Porte in a formal way. It had itsown Constitution, flag and anthem, and conducted its own foreign policy. From 1880, it had its own currency as well. In 1885, abloodless revolution resulted in Eastern Rumelia beingde facto annexed by Bulgaria, which the Ottoman Empire accepted with theTophane Agreement. On 5 October 1908, Bulgaria formallydeclared its independence as theKingdom of Bulgaria.
In 1396 theBulgarian–Ottoman Wars ended with the fall of theBulgarian Empire, due to the Ottoman invasion of the Balkans and its own internal divisions. Under Ottoman rule, the Bulgariannobility was destroyed and the national consciousness suppressed. TheBulgarian National Revival, emerging in the late 18th century, revived Bulgarian identity and stoked the idea of creating a new Bulgarian state. Numerous revolutionary movements and uprisings against the Ottomans occurred alongside similar movements in the rest of the Balkans, culminating in theRusso-Turkish War of 1877 to 1878.
-byTodorBozhinov.png)
TheTreaty of San Stefano of March 3, 1878, proposed a Bulgarian state, which comprised the geographical regions ofMoesia,Thrace andMacedonia. Based on that dateBulgarians celebrateBulgaria'snational day each year.
Fearing the establishment of a large Russian client state on the Balkans, the other great powers, however, were not willing to agree to the treaty. As a result, theTreaty of Berlin (1878), under the supervision ofOtto von Bismarck ofGermany andBenjamin Disraeli ofUnited Kingdom, revised the earlier treaty, and scaled back the proposed Bulgarian state.
A widely autonomous Principality of Bulgaria was created, between the Danube and theStara Planina range, with its seat at the old Bulgarian capital ofVeliko Turnovo, and including Sofia. This state was to be under nominal Ottoman sovereignty but was to be ruled by a prince elected by a congress of Bulgarian notables and approved by the Powers. They insisted that the Prince could not be a Russian, but in a compromise PrinceAlexander of Battenberg, a nephew of TsarAlexander II, was chosen. An autonomous Ottoman province under the name ofEastern Rumelia was created south of theStara Planina range, whereas Macedonia was returned under the sovereignty of the Sultan.[citation needed]
The Bulgarians adopted anadvanced democratic constitution, and power soon passed to the Liberal Party led byStefan Stambolov. Prince Alexander had conservative leanings, and at first opposed Stambolov's policies, but by 1885 he had become sufficiently sympathetic to his new country to change his mind, and supported the Liberals. He also supported the Unification of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia, which was brought about by a coup in Plovdiv in September 1885. The Powers did not intervene because of the power struggles between them. Shortly after,Serbia declared war on Bulgaria in the hope of grabbing territory while the Bulgarians were distracted. The Bulgarians defeated them atSlivnitsa, pushed the Serbian army into Serbia and succeeded in reconquering the territory seized by the Berlin Treaty Bulgarian populated towns ofPirot andVranya, but they were given back to Serbia with theTreaty of Bucharest in 1886.
These events made Alexander very popular in Bulgaria, but Russia was increasingly dissatisfied at the liberal tendencies under his reign.In August 1886 they fomented a coup, in the course of which Alexander was forced to abdicate and was exiled to Russia. Stambolov, however, acted quickly and the participants in the coup were forced to flee the country. Stambolov tried to reinstate Alexander, but strong Russian opposition forced the prince to abdicate again. In July 1887 the Bulgarians electedFerdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha as their new Prince. Ferdinand was the "Austrian candidate" and the Russians refused to recognise him. Ferdinand initially worked with Stambolov, but by 1894 their relationship worsened. Stambolov resigned and was assassinated in July 1895. Ferdinand then decided to restore relations with Russia, which meant returning to a conservative policy.[citation needed] At the end of the century, changes in taxation policy resulted inextensive peasant unrest, primarily centered in northeastern Bulgaria. Protests gradually evolved into open rebellions in 1900, but were suppressed by the government using the army.[5]
There was a substantial Bulgarian population still living under Ottoman rule, particularly in Macedonia. To complicate matters, Serbia and Greece too made claims over parts of Macedonia, while Serbia, as a Slavic nation, also considered Macedoniansas belonging to Serbian nation. Thus began a five-sided struggle for control of these areas which lasted untilWorld War I. In 1903 there was a Bulgarian insurrection in Ottoman Macedonia and war seemed likely. In 1908 Ferdinand used the struggles between the Great Powers todeclare Bulgaria a fully independent kingdom, with himself as Tsar, which he did on 5 October (though celebrated on 22 September, as Bulgaria remained officially on theJulian calendar until 1916) in theHoly Forty Martyrs Church, Veliko Tarnovo.
The main external political problem confronting Bulgaria throughout the period up to World War I was the fate of Macedonia and Eastern Thrace. At the end of 19th century theInternal Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization was founded and began the preparation of an armed uprising in the regions still occupied by the Ottoman Turks. Relying in part on nationwide support on the part of the Principality of Bulgaria, IMARO got down to organizing a network of committees in Macedonia and Thrace. In August 1903 a mass armed uprising, known in history as the Ilinden-Preobrajenie, broke out in Macedonia and Thrace. Its aim was to liberate those regions, or at least to draw the attention of the Great Powers and make them advocate for the improvement of the living conditions for the population through legal and economic reforms. After three months of fierce battles the Ottoman army crushed the uprising using much cruelty against the civilian population.
| Portrait | Name | Birth | Death | From | Until | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Alexander I | 5 April 1857 | 23 October 1893 | 29 April 1879 | 7 September 1886 | Abdicated |
 | Ferdinand I | 26 February 1861 | 10 September 1948 | 29 April 1887 | 5 October 1908 | BecameKing of Bulgaria in 1908 |
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
| Independent |
|
|---|---|
| Autonomous | |
