History

The territory of Bulgaria has been inhabited since antiquity. Proofs of this are the multiple settlement and burial mounds. The lands of the present Bulgaria were a cradle of some of the earliest civilizations in Europe – the oldest processed gold every found, dug out of the Chalcholite necropolis near Varna, is an evidences of that. From the age of Ancient Thrace we have inherited valuable cultural monuments – tombs (Kazanlak tomb, Aleksandrovska tomb, Sveshtarska tomb, etc.), treasures (Panagyursko, Rogozensko, Valchitransko, etc.), sanctuaries and temples (Perperikon, Starosel, Kozi Gramadi, Begliktash, etc.).

The cultural interactions between the Thracians and the Hellenistic civilization were particularly active. Multiple cities and towns, which were transfers of Greek cultural influence, were established within the period 6th-2nd century BC in Thrace, Misia and along the shores of the Black Sea. In the middle of the 1st century AD all Bulgarian lands became a part of the Roman Empire. Many architectural and archaeological monuments have been preserved from this period – the Ancient Theater and the Roman Stadium in Plovdiv, the remains of the Roman cities Ulpia Escus, Nove, Nikopolis ad Istrum, Nikopolis ad Nestum, Augusta Trayana, Abritus, etc.

After the breaking up of the Roman Empire, the present Bulgarian lands were a part of the East Roman Empire, later called Byzantium by historians. In the second half of the 7th century the proto-Bulgarians settled on the territory of the present Northeast Bulgaria. In a union with the Slavs they formed the Bulgarian state, recognized by Byzantium in 681. The head of the state was the leader of proto-Bulgarians – khan Asparuh, and the city of Pliska was declared a capital. 
During the ruling of khan Krum (803-814) Bulgaria bordered to the west with the empire of Karl the Great, and to the east the Bulgarian armies reached the gates of the Byzantium capital – Constantinople. In 864, during the reign of Prince Boris I (852-889), Bulgarians adopted Christianity as an official religion and Bulgaria became one of the oldest Christian states in Europe.

At the end of the 9th century, the brothers Cyril and Methodius created and spread the Slavonic alphabet. Ohrid and Veliki Preslav became centers of the Bulgarian and Slavonic culture. From Bulgaria the Slavonic letters spread in other Slavonic states as well. Even nowadays, countries like Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, Macedonia and Belarus use the Cyrillic alphabet, which spelling rules were established by the students of Cyril and Methodius and their followers in the Bulgarian capital Preslav. The ruling of Tsar Simeon the First (893 – 927) is famous as the Golden Age of Bulgarian Culture, and the borders of the country at that time reached the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea and the Adriatic Sea.

In 1018, after prolonged wars, Bulgaria was conquered by Byzantium. In 1186, the uprising led by the boyar brothers Asen and Peter, rejected the Byzantine ruling. The Second Bulgarian Kingdom was established, and Tarnovo was declared a capital.

The former might of Bulgaria was restored during the ruling of their youngest brother – Kaloyan (who ruled within 1197-1207), and during the ruling of tsar Ivan Asen the Second (1218-1241) the Second Bulgarian Kingdom reached its greatest zenith – it established political hegemony in Southeast Europe; it spread its borders to the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea and the Adriatic Sea; its economy and culture developed. Some of the most important monuments preserved of that time are the wall paintings in the Boyana church, the churches in Veliko Tarnovo, Zemenski Monastery, Ivanovski Rock Churches, the miniatures in the London Gospel and the Manasiy Chronicle.

In the end of the 14th century the country was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. In the first years of the Ottoman Dominion there were individual attempts for the liberation of Bulgaria. Later the Haydiouk movement created preconditions for the occurring of an organized national liberation movement.

The Bulgarian Revival began in the beginning of the 18th century. The Bulgarian church, education and culture were established. The beginning of the organized national liberation movement for rejection of the Ottoman dominion is related to the activities of Georgi Rakovski (1821-1867). Basic figures in the liberation movement were Vasil Levski (1837-1873), Lyuben Karavelov (1834-1879), Hristo Botev (1848-1876) and others.

In 1876 the April Uprising burst. This was the largest and the most organized attempt for liberation from the Ottoman Dominion. The uprising was suppressed with unheard violence, but it placed the national Bulgarian issue in the center of the international political life.

In 1878, as a result of the liberation war between Russia and Turkey, the Bulgarian state was restored. The Berlin Congress (1878) divided the former Bulgarian territories into three parts – Principality of Bulgaria, ruled by a prince, Eastern Roumelia with a Christian governor, appointed by the sultan, and Thrace and Macedonia, which were left under the ruling of the Ottoman Empire. Alexander Battenberg was selected for the first prince of the Principality of Bulgaria.

The first constitution of Bulgaria was adopted in 1879. It was one of the most democratic constitutions for its time. In 1885 the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia united. In 1908, the Bulgarian Prince Ferdinand Sachsen-Coburg-und-Gotha proclaimed independence of Turkey and he was declared a tsar of the Third Bulgarian Kingdom.

Bulgaria conducted the victorious Balkan War in 1912. Together with Serbia and Greece Bulgaria fought for the freedom of Thrace and Macedonia. The discords between the former allies led to the burst of the First Balkan War (1913), in which Bulgaria was defeated. As a result of this war, more territories inhabited with Bulgarians were cut off from the state. The interference of Bulgaria in the First World War on the side of the so called Allied Powers ended with a national catastrophe. The Neuilly Peace Treaty (1919) imposed strict clauses to Bulgaria. It lost a large part of its territories. In the Beginning of the 1940s Bulgaria’s policy was pointed towards the interests of Germany and the powers of the Axis. In 1941 Bulgaria was involved in the war on the side of the Axis, but the Bulgarian army did not participate in the battles on the East Front. Tsar Boris the Third supported the social pressure and did not allow the deporting of about 50,000 Bulgarian Jews. Of all European countries only Denmark and Bulgaria managed to protect their Jew population from the gas chambers of the Nazis. In the autumn of 1944 Bulgaria joined the allied forces and actively participated in the expulsion of the German forces from Southern and Central Europe.

After the Second World War, Bulgaria fell within the political and economical influence of the USSR. In 1946 the country was declared a republic. The Bulgarian communist party came to power. The political parties except for the so called Fatherland Front (Otechestven Front) were forbidden; the economy and the banks were nationalized, the agricultural land was organized in cooperations.

The democratic changes in Bulgaria started in the end of 1989. Multiparty elections were conducted. A new constitution was adopted. Bulgaria started the way towards democratic development and market economy. In its external policy Bulgaria is oriented towards rapprochement with the European structures. Since 1991 it has been a member of the Council of Europe. In 2004 Bulgaria became a member of NATO. In 1995 it filed an application for membership in the European Union. In 1999 the negotiations for joining began. On 25 April 2005 in Luxemburg was signed the Accession Treaty of Republic of Bulgaria to the European Union. As of 1 January 2007, after completing the membership criteria, Bulgaria became of full right member of the European Union.