Bulgaria/Bulgarians: Development of a Nation
How Bulgaria became Bulgaria, and how the Bulgarians became Bulgarian.

How Bulgarians as a people, and the country of Bulgaria as a nation-state, evolved and materialized into current form, in terms of ancestral bloodlines, the Bulgarian language, borders, culture, and even how they received their name.

Ancestral Background
Development of Language
Formation of Borders
Etymology (How Name Received)
Culture
Bulgaria in 2008

Bulgarian Ancestral Background:
 

1. 200 – The Bulgars, an Iranian people originating around modern Afghanistan, migrated northwest into Europe, settling along the northwest coast of the Black Sea, east of the Axiacus River (modern Ukraine).
2. 361 – Huns take Pannonia from Rome, forcing Germanics into Roman territory where they would come into conflict with the Romans. Huns were either of Mongolian or Turkish descent, but assimilated several tribes between Central Asia and Europe, so they were not likely a homogenous ethnogroup. The Bulgars were one of the tribes that joined the Huns in these raids, while remaining a separate distinct group within the Hunnic alliance.
3. 451 – Battle of Chalons. Huns are decisively defeated by the Romans and Germanic tribes in southeast Gaul (modern France), forcing them back east. The Bulgars that fought as part of Hunnish army withdrew into modern Bulgaria. Bulgars, who became the dominant people in the region, intermixed with the local Thracians.
4. The 6^th century marked the arrival of the Slavs to Balkan peninsula. Avars, a Central Asian Turkic people, were driven west into Europe (through modern Ukraine) by the Persians and other, more powerful Turkic empires, forcing them into contact with the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire. The Avars were paid off by the Romans to settle the area north of the Danube River, and to subdue barbarians (Germanics) in the vicinity. The Avars succeeded in driving Germans out of area, where they became the ruling class. At this time, large groups of Slavic peoples were also settled north of the Danube. The Avar raids forced them into the Balkans, where they settled the lands abandoned by Germanic peoples, including as far southeast as modern Bulgaria. Slavic peoples would inhabit the entire Balkan region by 700. In the region of modern Bulgaria, Slavic people overwhelmd the local Bulgarian population, absorbing them and forming new ethnogroup (of Slavic/Bulgar/Thracian mix), taking upon themselves the Bulgarian name.
5. The genetic composition of the Bulgarian ethnogroup was largely set after the Slavic migrations. A very minor Turkish and Middle-East component was blended into the mix after the Ottoman Empire conquered and ruled Bulgaria for nearly 500 years.

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Development of the Bulgarian Language:
 

1. 3000 BC – People along the Baltic coast centered around modern Lithuania begin speaking the Proto-Balto-Slavic language, a branch off from Proto-Indo-European. This serves as the genesis of the Slavic and Baltic languages/peoples.
2. 1000 BC – A group splinters from the Proto-Balto-Slavic people, migrating southeast into modern Ukraine. This branch off group were the predecessors to Slavs, who would ultimately extend outward in all directions. Their language evolves into the original Slav language, a sub-branch of Proto-Balto-Slavic, and the ancestral language to all Slav sub-branches, including Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Serbian, Croatian and others.
3. South Slav Language begins to separate from Western Slav Language in the 9^th to 10^th century, after Magyars settled into modern Hungary, separating the West Slavs (in modern Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia) from the South Slavs (territory roughly approximating the former Yugoslavia).
4. South Slav languages begin to slowly diverge from one another, from separate dialects to separate sub-branches from the South Slav family of languages. The Slav language took root among the Bulgarian-Thracian admixture in modern Bulgaria, as Slavs thoroughly intermixed with the local inhabitants. The sub-branch that developed among the Bulgarians becomes known as Bulgarian, which underwent significant evolution during the history of Bulgaria. During Ottoman rule, Bulgarian borrowed significantly from Turkish, the official language of the Ottoman Empire. But after independence in the late 19^th century, Bulgarians began to conscientiously weed out elements of Turkish language, as part of a fervent nationalist movement. As a result, modern Bulgarian exhibits little Turkish influence.

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Formation of Bulgarian Borders:
 

1. In ancient times, modern Bulgaria was primarily inhabited by Thracians, a distinct, ancient nationality of people in early Europe. Bulgars, part of the Hunnic alliance, settled in the area after the Huns were decisively defeated in western and central Europe.
2. The 6^th century marked the arrival of the Slavs to Balkan peninsula. Avars, a Central Asian Turkic people, were driven west into Europe (through modern Ukraine) by the Persians and other, more powerful Turkic empires, forcing them into contact with the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire. The Avars were paid off by the Romans to settle the area north of the Danube River, and to subdue barbarians (Germanics) in the vicinity. The Avars succeeded in driving Germans out of area, where they became the ruling class. At this time, large groups of Slavic peoples were also settled north of the Danube. The Avar raids forced them into the Balkans, where they settled the lands abandoned by Germanic peoples, including as far southeast as modern Bulgaria. Slavic peoples would inhabit the entire Balkan region by 700. In the region of modern Bulgaria, Slavic people overwhelmd the local Bulgarian population, absorbing them and forming new ethnogroup (of Slavic/Bulgar/Thracian mix), taking upon themselves the Bulgarian name.
3. 632 – Bulgars escaped Avar control, creating the First Bulgarian Empire, encompassing modern northern Bulgaria and southern Romania.
4. 680 – Bulgars defeated the Byzantines (continuation of the Roman Empire by the Greeks), forcing the Byzantines to officially recognize the Bulgarian Empire.
5. 813 – The First Bulgarian Empire expanded to cover all of modern Romania, Moldova, down to Adrianople (encompassing all of modern Bulgaria).
6. 837 – Slavs of modern Macedonia were incorporated into Bulgaria (become known as ethnic Macedonians), as are the Albanians.
7. 865 – As the First Bulgarian Empire is in decline, they are invaded by the Byzantines, forcing a peace settlement. The only Byzantine condition is that the Bulgarians become Christianized (they were still pagan), precipitating the Bulgarians' mass conversion to Christianity.
8. 900 – 917 – The First Bulgarian Empire expanded to Bosnia in the west, and eastern Hungary in the north. At this point, it encompassed all of modern Bulgaria and Romania. Bulgaria would also grow to encompass Albania and Macedonia by 904. In another battle with Byzantine in 917, they would gain nearly the whole of the Balkan peninsula.
9. 927 – Slavs in the modern Yugoslavia area broke free from the Bulgarian Empire, establishing the Serbian Empire. Serbia became a client state to Byzantine. Montenegro (an area of mixed Slav and Romanized Illyrian inhabitants) also came under Byzantine reign.
10. 968 – Byzantine began to push back against the Bulgarian Empire, taking eastern Bulgaria, while Bulgaria was also under attack by the Magyars from the north, pushing their northern borders inward as well.
11. 1002 – 1018 – Byzantine carries out series of invasions against Bulgaria, incorporating it into the Byzantine Empire by 1018, establishing Danube as northern border of the Byzantine Empire.
    
12. 1185 – Bulgarians successfully revolted against a weakening Byzantine Empire, beginning the Second Bulgarian Empire.
13. 1230 – Bulgaria expanded to cover Serbia and Albania.
14. 1256 – Bulgaria lost parts of Serbia to Hungary, and southern Macedonia and parts of Thrace to the Empire of Nicaea (A Roman Catholic crusader state).
15. 1362 - 1395 – The Ottoman Empire (Ottomans were a Muslim Turkic people) conquered the Second Bulgarian Empire, which by this time consists primarily of modern Bulgaria.
    
16. 1878 - Bulgaria won its independence against the Ottoman Empire with the help of Russia, who supported the South Slav people in their independence movements, hoping to gain a strong foothold in the Balkan region with their fellow Slavic peoples. The newly-independent Kingdom of Bulgaria covered a large portion of the southern Balkan peninsula. In 1878, upon the defeat of Ottomans in Russo-Ottoman war, Macedonia broke away from the Ottoman Empire as well, becoming absorbed into the Kingdom of Bulgaria.
17. 1912 – 1913 – Balkan Wars. Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Greece initiated war against the Ottoman Turks with the objective of gaining more Balkan lands, and consolidating more of their peoples into their respective kingdoms. Initially they are victorious, but then fight against one another over the spoils, allowing the Ottomans to gain a portion of Balkan lands back (roughly equivalent to modern Republic of Turkey on European side). Macedonia was taken by Bulgaria in the First War (1912), while Greece took possession of large portions of southern Bulgaria, due to Bulgaria's weakened condition during the war, as it suffered the brunt of the Ottoman counter-offensive. Upon the end of the First War, Bulgaria demanded that since it suffered the greatest amount of losses, it should be entitled to the greatest gains, desiring to restore its former glory and expansion. Serbia and Greece did not agree, keeping the lands they occupied, boxing Bulgaria into its approximate modern boundaries. Bulgaria would attempt to gain its lands back by force, but would be defeated on all sides, by a coalition of Serbia, Greece, the Ottoman Empire, and Romania. Consequently, the disputed territories were lost by Bulgaria, and kept by Serbia (Macedonia), Greece (large southern strip of territory), Romania (northern strip) and the Ottoman Empire (southeast corner). Bulgaria did retain West Thrace, giving it access to the Mediterranean Sea via the Aegean Sea.
18. 1915 – Bulgaria declared war on Serbia, allied with Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottomans as part of the Central Powers in World War I. After losing to other Balkan powers in the Balkan Wars, Bulgaria became anti-west and anti-Russia, perceiving they did little to help, while seeking retribution from their fellow Balkan neighbors, who took large pieces of land from Bulgaria. Bulgaria sat out the first year of WWI, recuperating from the Balkan Wars, but Germany promised to restore its traditional borders, persuading Bulgaria to join their side, even if it meant siding with the Ottomans, a traditional enemy. Bulgaria would conquer territories from Greece, Macedonia and Romania early in WWI, but the war would prove highly unpopular, forcing the government to resign in 1917, ending their participation in WWI. The allies would retake the conquered territories in 1918, establishing pre-war boundaries. West Thrace was taken from Bulgaria and given to Greece by the Allies in the 1923 post-war treaty, cutting it off from the Mediterranean Sea via the Aegean Sea.
19. 1940 (World War II) – Nazi sponsored the territorial gain of Southern Dobruja for Bulgaria, which had been taken by Romania during Balkan Wars. Bulgaria would then fall under Nazi occupation in 1941. After the war, the Allies would allow Bulgaria to keep Southern Dobruja, finalizing Bulgaria's modern borders.
20. In 1944, toward the end of World War II, the Soviets drove out the Nazis, occupying Bulgaria themselves, and establishing the communist People’s Republic of Bulgaria, a Soviet influenced government.
21. The USSR collapsed in 1990 ending the communist regime, giving birth to the Republic of Bulgaria.

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Etymology (How Name Received):

Named after the Bulgars, who settled the territory of modern Bulgaria before the Slavic migrations into the Balkan peninsula, and one of the principal ancestors to modern Bulgarians. The Bulgar name may derive from the Greek term for “those that maintain forts”, referring to those tribes that built forts along northern border of Roman Empire. The Turkic, nomadic group that would become known as Bulgars may have been the actual fort builders referred to by this name by the Greeks, as they joined the Huns in invasions of Roman lands.

Bulgarian Culture:

Bulgaria was the dominant force in South Slavic culture during the Middle Ages, with the Bulgarian Orthodox Church gaining prominence. Under the Islamic Ottoman Empire rule, Bulgarian culture declined drastically, as the Greek Orthodox Church was given the favoritism by the Muslim, Ottoman Turks. Since Bulgarians were largely sidelined, they suffered academically, since education was largely administered through the church.

Bulgaria in 2008:

Economy: Strong growth since 1996, but still the second poorest nation in the EU, and plagued by corruption which hinders the economy.
Government: Democratic Republic
Religion: Bulgarian Orthodox 83%, Muslim 12%. Survey: 40% believe in God, 40% in some other intelligent design, 13% atheist/agnostic. Different religions peacefully co-exist.
Demographics: Bulgarian 84%, Turk 9% (holdovers from Ottoman rule), Roma 5%. One of the slowest population growth rates, with population contraction since escaping Soviet rule in 1990s, due to economic crisis (especially in years immediately following independence) and the consequential high emigration.
Foreign Policy: Maintaining friendly relations with Russia a primary objective, as it is highly dependent upon Russia for raw materials and energy. No real controversies at this time. Joined NATO.
Population: 7,262,675 (2008)

 

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