At a time when the Ottoman Empire was weakening, Bulgarian nationalists attempted a revolt that was ruthlessly suppressed but which nevertheless led to the establishment of an independent Bulgarian state in 1878, while contributing to national animosities that would help provoke the Balkan Wars in the early twentieth century.
The Turkish conquest of Bulgaria in 1396 resulted in nearly five hundred years of virtually complete Ottoman domination of Bulgaria. However, some elements of the Bulgarian population, through the activity of the Eastern Orthodox Church
The Ottoman sultan’s constant warfare had reduced the Turkish male population, as had disease and a low birthrate, at a time when improving economic and social opportunities were providing the Bulgarians with increasing trade and manufacturing possibilities. On the other hand, the proximity of Turkey to Bulgaria, and the presence in the Bulgarian countryside of former Janissaries,
The destruction of the Turkish
Uprisings in Greece and Serbia
Schools offering instruction in the Bulgarian
The Bulgarians also began to resist the domination of their church by Greek clergy. Public protests complained about the excesses of the Greek priests and a desire for a return to a Bulgarian national church. In 1870, the sultan extended recognition of a separate Bulgarian church headed by an exarch. Since the patriarchate refused to recognize this new church and even excommunicated many of its leaders, the creation of the exarchate precipitated a national crisis. The new Bulgarian Orthodox Church, however, soon became a focus in Bulgarian national life and was firmly allied with advances in education and enlightenment.
Although some Bulgarians had participated in political opposition to the Turks earlier in the century, for the most part Bulgaria was not heavily involved in the anti-Ottoman movements in the Balkans during the early years of the nineteenth century. There was some peasant unrest sporadically, but it was largely based on dissatisfaction with the system of taxation and land tenure. Such unorganized rebellions were easily put down by the Ottoman authorities. Within the Ottoman Empire itself, the 1840’s and subsequent decades were a period of reform, during which the rights of non-Muslim religious groups became an important issue. In 1839, the Tanzimat reforms began working to change abuses in taxation and the treatment of national groups throughout the empire.
A more immediate cause of revolutionary activity was the aftermath of the Crimean War (1853-1856). Russia’s
In 1862, a Bulgarian legion was formed in Belgrade with the aid of the Serbian
A new organization, the Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee, was formed with the program of establishing a federation of autonomous Balkan nations to achieve liberation from Ottoman control by revolutionary means. Levski returned to Bulgaria to try to achieve this goal but was apprehended by the Ottomans and hanged in Sofia. His martyrdom made him a national hero to the Bulgarians. His work was continued outside of Bulgaria by Karavelov,
When Serbia
The Balkans at the End of the Nineteenth Century
This premature uprising was a failure in that it led to the deaths of a large number of Bulgarians and failed to instigate a general peasant uprising. Atrocities were committed on both sides, with mass killings of resident Turks followed by massacres of Bulgarians by Turkish forces. The atrocities perpetrated against the Bulgarians enlisted European sympathies to the cause of Bulgaria and strengthened the feeling of national consciousness among the Bulgarians themselves.
The Ottoman atrocities also contributed indirectly to the expansion of Bulgaria’s borders in the aftermath of Russia’s victory in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878
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Clark, James Franklin. The Pen and the Sword: Studies in Bulgarian History. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988. Collection of essays on Bulgarian history that includes discussions of the Bulgarian national revival and its consequences. -
Crampton, R. J. A Short History of Modern Bulgaria. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987. Although focusing on events after the Treaty of Berlin, the first chapter of this book treats the important developments in Bulgaria that led up to the massacres of 1876. -
Jelavich, Charles. The Establishment of the Balkan National States, 1804-1920. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977. Treats the historical development of the Balkan nations from ancient cultures, through nearly five hundred years of Turkish domination, and the national movements of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. -
Karpat, Kemal H. The Politicization of Islam: Reconstructing Identity, State, Faith, and Community in the Late Ottoman State. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Study of the transformation of the Muslim world under the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Ottoman Empire, the period during which Bulgaria was forging its independence from the empire. -
MacDermott, Mercia. A History of Bulgaria, 1393-1885. London: Allen & Unwin, 1962. Focuses on the years of Ottoman domination, the cultural revival, and the movements to liberate Bulgaria from the Turks. -
Tzvetkov, Plamen. A History of the Balkans: A Regional Overview from a Bulgarian Perspective. San Francisco, Calif.: Edwin Mellen Press, 1993. Volume 1 covers Bulgaria through the Ottoman period, with detailed information on the revolutionary movement and the conspirators. -
Yasamee, F. A. K. Ottoman Diplomacy: Abdülhamid II and the Great Powers. Istanbul: Isis Press, 1996. Study of the complicated foreign policy of Sultan Abdülhamid II, who came to power shortly after the Bulgarian Revolt was suppressed.
Ottomans Suppress the Janissary Revolt
Treaty of Adrianople
Crimean War
Siege of Sevastopol
Battle of Balaklava
Greece Unifies Under the Glücksburg Dynasty
Three Emperors’ League Is Formed
Third Russo-Turkish War
Congress of Berlin
Ottomans Attempt to Exterminate Armenians
Abdülhamid II; Benjamin Disraeli; William Edward Forster.