Prehistory of Bulgaria Timeline
Early History of Bulgaria : Some claim that people have been living on the territory of present-day Bulgaria for more than 1.3 million years. More certain is that Neanderthals colonized the area and that representatives of the oldest European culture of thinking man (the Aurignac culture, which is named after later French finds) lived in Bulgaria. Their remains have been found in Bacho Kiro cave in northern Bulgaria. Among the oldest agricultural peoples in the region are the Tracians. Among other things, they left behind a gold treasure from 4500 BC. They have been there for a long time, because around 500 BC King Teres forged their tribes into a unity that became the Odrysian kingdom.
During this period, the Tracians mingled with the invaded Celts. The Odrysian kingdom reached its peak in the4th century BC. In 341 BC it was defeated by Alexander the Great, but it recovered. From 181 BC, the Tracians were at war with the Romans until the area became a Roman colony with the provinces of Moesia along the Danube and Thrace south of the Balkan mountains in 45 BC. The gladiator Spartacus, who led the most famous slave revolt of Roman times around 70 BC, was a Tracian. Between 250 and 500 AD, Goths, Huns and Slavic tribes came into the area. After much infighting, the population groups present mingled.
A History Of Bulgarians
The name Bulgaria comes from a semi-nomadic Turkish or Iranian people from Central Asia who gradually colonized the area around the Black Sea from the Caucasus around the beginning of the Christian era. They used the sabre as a symbol, would be named after the Turkish word before it (bulgha) and had a Kahn as their leader. In 632, under Kubrat Kahn, they formed the state of Greater Bulgaria, tolerated by the Byzantine Empire. History of Bulgaria.
Kubrat’s son and successor, Asparoech, expanded the empire by seizing the Danube area in present-day Bulgaria around 675 (since then the name Danube Bulgarians has been used). Asparoech saw his chance because the Byzantines were kept busy by a siege of Arab Muslims. History of Bulgaria.
He immediately made alliances with slavic tribes in the neighborhood to be stronger against them as soon as they came to put things in order. This plan succeeded and the Byzantines were defeated for the first time in the battle of Ongala in 680. Through this victory, the foundation was laid for the1st Danube-Bulgarian Empire. The Bulgarians successfully went on a conquest and in 681 the Byzantine emperor Constantine IV, who had defeated the Persians and the Arabs, had to tolerate a Bulgarian state next to him and pay the Bulgarians tribute to prevent them from invading his empire. History of Bulgaria.
The Bulgarian Empire expanded further and became the3rd European superpower alongside the Empire of the Byzantines and Franks. In the9th century under Boris I it became Christian. The title Kahn was changed to that of knyaz (Slavic for prince) and Preslav became the capital. From then on, his successors were called tsars. Under the1st successor, Tsar Simeon I (Simeon the Great), the empire achieved its greatest expansion. History of Bulgaria.
It covered large parts of the Balkan Peninsula, incl. Greece and the area around present-day Turkish Edirne. His reign is sometimes called the Bulgarian golden age because of the flourishing of art and literature. The Cyrillic script originated at this time and ancient Bulgarian became the leading language on the Balkan Peninsula. History of Bulgaria.
Byzantine occupation and2nd Bulgarian Empire
After the death of Simeon the Great, the Bulgarian Empire fell into disrepair and in 1018 the Byzantine emperor Basil II (nicknamed the Bulgarian slayer) managed to defeat the Bulgarians. When then-Tsar Samuel was confronted with them, he was so affected that he died of an acute heart attack. In 1185, the brothers Peter and Asen successfully led a revolt against the Byzantines and the Danube Bulgarians entered their2nd independence under Tsar Peter II with Trnovo as their capital. History of Bulgaria.
Under Ivan Asen II (1218-1241), Belgrade and Albania were occupied, their own Bulgarian Orthodox Patriarchate was restored and diplomatic relations were established with Venice and Genoa. After his death, the Bulgarians had to temporarily pay tribute to the Mongol golden horde. They lost territory to the Greco-Byzantine Empire of Nicaea and to the Hungarians and lost a battle of the Serbs. However, during the reign of Tsar Ivan Alexander (1331-1372), the Bulgarians expanded their territory again to include the Rhodope Mountains and parts of the Black Sea coast and the2nd golden age began. After his death, rivalry arose between possible successors. This gave the Ottoman sultans the chance to conquer the country.
Ottoman occupation In Bulgaria
In 1396 the Ottoman occupation was a fact and it would last almost 400 years. The country was called beyerlik Rumili (Grand Duchy of Rumili) during this period with Sofia as its seat of government and capital and it was divided into a hierarchical system of administrative districts that collected taxes. All major centers of Bulgarian culture were destroyed and many writings in Bulgarian were lost. The Bulgarians were not allowed to hold administrative positions as Christians and their own Bulgarian patriarchate was replaced by the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Every5th son had to convert to Islam and serve in the elite corps of the Janissaries (new forces). History of Bulgaria.
In the15th and16th centuries, the Janissaries became an important political power because the title became hereditary and because they had all kinds of privileges. They were more important than the Turkish cavalry that fought with swords and spears because they used firearms. During the Ottoman occupation, four revolts were smothered in blood (including the Chiprovtsi Uprising of September 6, 1688 after Austria had recaptured Belgrade). After each uprising, thousands of Bulgarians fled the country. In 1762, a first nationalist text by the Bulgarian monk St. Paisius of Hilendar became public. In 1774, after defeating the Ottomans, the Russians, at the Treaty of Küçük Kainarca, stipulated the right to intervene in Ottoman affairs to protect christians under Ottoman rule.
A free Bulgaria
For nearly five centuries, Bulgaria remained part of the Ottoman Empire. Although Bulgaria was not autonomous and the nobility was exterminated or fled, little changed for the majority of the population in terms of ethnic composition and religion during these centuries. The Ottomans did not populate Bulgaria with their “own people” and there was no active policy of conversion to Islam. Ottoman rule came to an end in 1878 when the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878) came to an end. After this, Bulgaria became an independent principality within the Ottoman Empire.
The Bulgarian Renaissance
Prior to Bulgaria’s independence in 1878, there was a period from 1762 to 1878 called the Bulgarian Renaissance. During this Renaissance, Bulgaria went through a period of socio-economic developments and increasing national awareness. Important advocates for independence were often educated abroad and brought the ideas of an equal and autonomous Bulgaria back to their homeland. One of their main points was the establishment of higher education, to make bulgarians as politically and culturally developed as the population of ‘free countries’. The Bulgarian Renaissance is also called the Bulgarian National Revolution.
Invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II
During the Russo-Turkish war, the Russians supported several Balkan states in their struggle against their Ottoman rulers, hoping to weaken the Ottomans and regain their territory lost in the Crimean War. The war, despite the thousands of deaths during and prior to the conflict, turned out favorably for the Balkans. The Bulgarian political situation remained unsettled in the decades that followed, with alternating kings and regents and little unity in the political course. After being independent for more than half a century, Bulgaria became part of the Soviet Union during The Second World War.
History About Bulgaria Rising Nationalism
After the French Revolution, liberalism and nationalism emerged throughout Europe, including through Johann Gottfried Herder who in turn inspired Russian Slavophiles and Serbian nationalists. The Greek revolt of around 1830 against the Ottomans did not go unnoticed in Bulgaria, but people did not go along with it because they were wary of Greek domination of their own Orthodox Church. History of Bulgaria.
After Bulgarian clergy threatened to start their own church loyal to Rome, the Russians intervened through the sultan and in 1870 he decreed the establishment of his own Orthodox episcopate for the Bulgarians with Antim I as bishop. Because this Antim was excommunicated by the Patriarch of Constantinople, he became one of the leaders of the emerging nationalist movement. Another important leader and national hero is Vasilius Levski. He was hanged by the Ottomans in 1873. An uprising in Bosnia Herzegovina against the Ottomans in 1875 spread to Bulgaria in April 1876 and was crushed with a heavy hand. History of Bulgaria.
This provoked mass protests among leading Western European intellectuals against “the Bulgarian horrors” and through Russian mediation the 6 main European countries convened a congress in Constantinople to find a peaceful and lasting solution to the Bulgarian question. In addition, the Russians wanted the new Bulgaria to include all Bulgarian-speaking areas, but the British preferred to keep the country small so as not to make it a threat to their interests in the Balkans.
Origins of Bulgaria
The History of Bulgaria: Because the Ottomans refused to cooperate with the chosen compromise solution, Russia forced to declare war on Turkey. After 4 battles for the strategically important Shipka only a combined Russian Romanian army finally emerged victorious, a Great Bulgarian empire could be enforced from the sultan via the treaty of San Stefano. Because the Germans and British did not agree with this, a smaller Bulgarian principality was established at the Congress of Berlin of which Alexander of Battenburg, a nephew of Tsar Alexander II, became prince. History of Bulgaria.
Formally, however, the country was still under the Ottoman Empire. The southeastern part of present-day Bulgaria became an autonomous Ottoman province under the name of Eastern Romania. On September 6, 1885, both territories were united and since then this date has been a national holiday (unity day) in Bulgaria. Under liberal party leader Stefan Stambolov, Bulgaria adopted a modern constitution. Stambolov also improved the banking system and had tolls levied on cheap foreign imports to protect Bulgaria’s artisanal products. History of Bulgaria.
In 1886 Alexander had to renounce under Russian pressure and in 1887 Ferdinand van Saxen-Coburg Gotha became his successor. On September 22, 1908 (according to the Julian calendar) he declared Bulgaria a fully independent kingdom with himself as tsar under the name Ferdinand I. Through the Balkan wars between Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia of 1912 and 1913, new Bulgarian borders were established. History of Bulgaria.
World Wars and interwar
In the1st World War, the Bulgarians fought on the side of Austria-Hungary and Germany because Germany had promised them to restore the borders of San Stefano. Because Bulgaria was among the losers, it had to give up all former Bulgarian territories recaptured during this war in 1918. Between the two world wars, a battle took place between left and right forces with respectively peasant party leader Alexandur Stamboliyski and Tsar Boris III as protagonists. After political stability was restored around 1930 through moderate governments, the global economic depression following the New York stock market crash caused right-wing forces in Bulgaria to prevail. History of Bulgaria.
The Tsar’s regime sidelined all opposition parties and the country joined the Axis powers at the outbreak of the2nd World War because Germany again promised that it would get the old territories back. The Germans allowed Bulgaria to occupy most of Macedonia and Greek Thrace. Bulgaria declared war on the British and Americans, but fearing pro-Russian sentiments, the government did not dare to do the same with the Soviet Union. However, protests by political and spiritual leaders prevented the deportation of the Jews. In August, Tsar Boris III, after his sudden death, was succeeded by his 6-year-old son Simeon. By that time, resistance to the regime was growing in Bulgaria.
At Stalingrad, the Soviets had crushed a Bulgarian army, in the eyes of many Bulgarians because it was abandoned by the Germans. Peasants, communists and social democrats united in the Fatherland Front. After the Soviet Union declared war on Bulgaria in 1944, the front successfully staged a coup d’état. They agreed a ceasefire with the Soviets, then declared war on the Axis powers and liberated a number of areas. In September 1946, the monarchy was abolished via a census and King Simeon was expelled from the country. The Communists openly took power. History of Bulgaria.
History On Bulgaria Communist
Communism History of Bulgaria: In 1946 Georgi Dimitrov (1882-1949) became prime minister. He tried in vain to make Bulgaria part of the Yugoslav federation, but Stalin saw no point in this. Dimitrov died in 1949 under suspicious circumstances. In 1950, the extreme Stalinist Vulko Chervenkov came to power. The country was industrialized, agriculture became collective, peasant uprisings were crushed (between 1945 and 1953, 12,000 Bulgarians went to a labor camp), the Turkish minority was persecuted and there were border conflicts with Yugoslavia and Greece. History of Bulgaria.
The Orthodox patriarch was placed under house arrest in a monastery and the church came under state control. After Stalin died in 1953, Chervenkov fell into disgrace in Moscow and in 1954 he was replaced by the youthful Todor Zhivkov who would remain in office for 33 years. Zhivkov was completely loyal to the Soviets, but pursued a more moderate domestic policy. Relations with Greece and Yugoslavia were restored, labor camps were closed, and previous Stalinist trials against supporters of Yugoslav leader Tito were officially deplored. History of Bulgaria.
The freedom of expression became slightly greater and the persecution of the church came to an end. However, following the uprising in Hungary in 1956, the intellectuals were closely monitored. In 1971, a new constitution was adopted. Zhivkov promoted himself to head of state and he appointed Stanko Todorov as prime minister. In 1968 he had Bulgarian units participate in the Soviet suppression of the uprising in Czechoslovakia and afterwards he was seen as the most loyal Eastern Bloc leader. After a more liberal phase, his regime became increasingly autocratic, corrupt and capricious since the death of his daughter Lyudmila in 1981. History of Bulgaria.
The Bulgarian Turks (10% of the population) were no longer allowed to speak Turkish and had to adopt Bulgarian names. This put economic relations with the West under pressure. History of Bulgaria.
Bulgaria since 1990
According to History of Bulgaria since 1989, in 1989, under the influence of the rise of the liberalizations of Soviet leader Gorbachev, environmental demonstrations in Sofia resulted in a general call for reforms. On November 10, to prevent bloodshed and gain time, the party leadership replaced Zhivkov with Petar Mladenov. In 1990, however, the first free elections since 1931 followed and the communist party changed its name to Bulgarian socialist party BSP She got as a conservative counterpart the UDF (union of democratic forces) and the MRF (the movement of law & freedom of the ethnic Turks) presented itself as a nationalist middle party.
History In Bulgaria
Between 1990 and 1995 the BSP still ruled (sometimes together with the MRF), but in 1996 the UDF won an absolute majority of 55% in elections. Their party leader Ivan Kostov successfully implemented a number of economic reforms, which led to negotiations on EU membership starting in 1999. In 2001, however, the UDF lost the elections because of dissatisfaction with unemployment and corruption. The winner was the national movement founded in 2000 for Simeon II, the child king who was expelled from the country in 1943 and returned in 1996 under his own name (Simeon Sakskoburggotski) as a 59-year-old wealthy businessman. History of Bulgaria.
This NDSV won half of the 240 parliamentary seats with 42% of the votes and formed a coalition government with the MRF with the former king as prime minister. He pursued a pro-Western course that resulted in Bulgaria joining NATO in 2004. His government achieved limited successes in .b economic growth, combating unemployment, corruption and crime, and improving education and health care. History of Bulgaria.
In the June 2005 elections, a left-wing coalition of 7 parties won with 34% of the vote. The strongly nationalist Ataka (attack) including members of the former security service received 9% as a newcomer. Eventually there was a coalition government of BSP, NDSV and MRF under BSP leader Sergei Stanishev with the only shared goal of preparing for EU accession. This became a fact on 1/1- 2007 (together with Romania). The presidential elections of October 2006, meanwhile, were won in the 2nd round by incumbent President Georgi Parvanov of an ul¬tranationalist. History of Bulgaria.
Meanwhile, corruption and inefficient governance continued to make a mark, and at the end of 2008 Stanishev refused to see that a credit crisis had arisen. New elections in 2009 were won with 40% of the vote by newcomer GERB (since 2006, Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria), a liberal conservative, Christian and populist party. History of Bulgaria.
Party leader Boyko Borisov (1959) became prime minister, eventually of a majority government of his own party. He survived allegations of corruption, discrimination against Roma & Turks and contact with Bulgarian mafiosi of the worst kind and occupied the government in mid-2012. Rosen Plevneliev (1964) of the same party has been president of the country since January 2012. History of Bulgaria.
People of Bulgaria and Culture of Bulgaria
Culture of Bulgaria: Image of Desi Mileva and Mariela Angelowa
Bulgarian girls and women are definitely beautiful. Figures in the shape of the oriental guitar predominate with a thin and elongated waist, a narrow chest ribbon, a thin frame and long graceful hands. Elongated skulls, beautiful head shape. In general, Bulgarians, unlike Russians, are refined and elongated and much more elegant. Russian women in general are wider, denser, faces wide, waist, back. A typically Russian figure, these are rather long legs, a short and wide trunk, a short neck, a round head, slightly flattened on the back of the head. They have the peasant body, adapted to heavy physical loads and bad weather.
Among Bulgarian women you will find many miniature, thin and small women. You will not see obese women in Bulgaria. Some women are slightly overweight, but not among young people. This is despite the fact that a typical Bulgarian breakfast consists of a fatty puff pastry with a brynza-bania or just a cheap fatty muffin and a sweet wheat-based drink, called a boza (Boza is a fermented cereal-based drink. Very popular under the Ottoman Empire, it was however banned for a time because of the alcohol it contained, even in very small quantities.). This has the color of coffee with milk. I am unable to drink it.
Fashion of Bulgaria
Bulgarians have always been able to work well with leather since the time of the Volga Bulgarian Empire. Therefore, many shoes are made by themselves. They created their own design. You will sometimes often come across different models of fakes or imitations under the Italian models. On the other hand it is more interesting to look at the local Bulgarian manufacture for the local taste. The high heel and hidden platform are the alpha and omega of the Bulgarian shoe industry. You will meet all styles: Gold, silver, buckles, heels, rhinestones, hives, sequins, pearls, cannons, feathers and pieces of fur. In general, this must be seen, it is indescribable. But there are some places that sell quality simple shoes.
Here are, for example, my favorite sandals, which I managed to find in this bacchanal. Obviously, the design is torn from the Italian model, but the quality of the sandal is very decent. This rabid work done according to Bulgarian standards cost 40 euros.
Bulgarians dress very conspicuously even for everyday life. That is, bright and colorful shoes are used as “everyday shoes”. And party clothes exceed all possible limits. Recently, at the time of graduation, even in the Russian media, there were reports of scandalous outfits of Bulgarian graduates. These were some toilets. The country is very poor and, perhaps, that is why people want a bright, catchy, provocative tone, which is associated with prosperity, luxury. Perhaps, the mentality of the south affects, and the Bulgarians are inexperienced, they have not yet assimilated this gypsy splendor. history of Bulgaria.
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