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Bulgaria is a country on the Balkan
Peninsula, in Southern Europe. It borders the Black Sea
to the east, Greece and Turkey to the south, Serbia and
the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Romania to
the north, mostly along the Danube. Bulgaria also shares
a sea border with Turkey, Romania, Ukraine, Russia, and
Georgia. The capital is Sofia.
Bulgaria is a country with an ancient history dating
back to prehistoric times, the Thracian, Greek and Roman
worlds of antiquity, and the powerful medieval Old Great
Bulgaria founded in 632 CE and Bulgarian Empire founded
in 681 CE. Geographically and climatically, Bulgaria
is noted for its diversity, with the landscape ranging
from the Alpine snow-capped peaks in Rila, Pirin and
the Balkan Mountains to the mild and sunny weather of
the Black Sea coast, from the typically continental
Danubian Plain (ancient Moesia) in the north to the
strong Mediterranean influence in the valleys of Macedonia
and the lowlands in the southernmost parts of Thrace.
Bulgaria joined NATO on March 29, 2004 and the European
Union on January 1, 2007. The country has been a member
of the United Nations since 1955, and is a founding
member of OSCE. As a Consultative Party to the Antarctic
Treaty, Bulgaria takes part in the governing of the
territories situated south of 60° south latitude.
Thracians inhabited what is now Bulgaria
in antiquity. They were divided in numerous tribes until
King Teres united most of them around 500 BC in the Odrysian
kingdom, which peaked under the kings Sitalkes and Cotys
I (383-359 BC). In 341 BC, it was destroyed by the Macedonian
state but rose from its ashes at the end of the fourth
century BC under Seuthes III. In 188 BC, the Romans invaded
Thrace and the wars with them continued to 45 CE, when
Thrace became a Roman province.
The Thracians did not have writing and now their legacy
survives mainly in the numerous treasures and tombs they
left. It is believed that the oldest golden treasure,
the Varna treasure which is 6,500 years old, is Thracian-made.
One of the most talented ancient commanders, Spartacus,
was a Thracian born in the middle Struma region.
In 632, the Bulgars led by Khan Kubrat formed an independent
state called Great Bulgaria, bounded by the Danube delta
to the west, the Black Sea to the south, the Caucasus
to the southeast, and Volga River to the east. Byzantium
recognized the new state by treaty in 635.
Pressure by the Khazars led to the loss of the eastern
part of Great Bulgaria in the second half of the seventh
century. Some of the Bulgars from that territory later
migrated to the northeast to form a new state called Volga
Bulgaria around the confluence of the Volga River and
Kama River.
The Battle of Anchialos, in which the Bulgarians defeated
the Byzantines, was one of the bloodiest battles of the
Middle Ages.
Death of Tsar Samuil.Kubrat’s successor, Khan Asparuh
kept the Bulgar territories in the lower courses of the
rivers Danube, Dniester and Dniepr (known as Ongal), and
conquered Moesia and Scythia Minor (Dobrudzha) from the
Byzantine Empire, expanding Great Bulgaria on the Balkan
Peninsula. The peace treaty with Byzantium in 681 and
the establishment of the new capital of Pliska south of
the Danube is considered the beginning of the First Bulgarian
Empire.
The Family of Ivan Alexander.In 717, the Bulgarians helped
relieve the Arab siege of Constantinople, killing some
40,000-60,000 soldiers. Their Khan, Tervel, was called
"The Saviour of Europe" by his contemporaries.
In 864, Bulgaria accepted the Orthodox Faith and became
a major European power in the ninth and the tenth century,
while fighting with the Byzantine Empire for the control
of the Balkans. The greatest territorial extension was
reached under Simeon I, the first Tsar, covering most
of the Balkans.
Following a decline in the mid tenth century, worn out
by the wars with Croatia and frequent Serbian rebellions
sponsored by Byzantine gold, Bulgaria was crushed by an
assault of the Rus' in 969. The Byzantines then began
campaigns to conquer Bulgaria. In 971, they seized the
capital Preslav and captured Emperor Boris II. Resistance
continued in the western Bulgarian lands for nearly half
a century until the state was completely destroyed by
the Byzantines led by Basil II in 1018.
In 1185, the Bulgarian Empire was reestablished under
the Asenevtsi Dynasty and was an important power in Europe
for two more centuries, while fighting for dominance in
the region against the Byzantine Empire, the Crusader
states and Hungary, reaching its zenith under Ivan Asen
II (1218–1241).
By the end of the fourteenth century, the country had
disintegrated into several feudal principalities and was
eventually conquered by the Ottoman Empire. A Polish-Hungarian
crusade under the rule of Wladyslaw III of Poland to free
the Balkans was crushed in 1444 in the battle of Varna.
The five centuries of Ottoman rule were characterized
by great violence and oppression. The Bulgarian population
was decimated and most of its cultural relics were lost.
Large towns and the areas where Ottoman power was strong
were severely depopulated until the nineteenth century.
Following the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78 and the Treaty
of San Stefano of March 3, 1878, an autonomous Bulgarian
principality was proclaimed. The treaty was immediately
rejected by the Great Powers for fear that a large Slavic
country on the Balkans would serve Russian interests.
This led to the Treaty of Berlin (1878) which provided
for an autonomous Bulgarian principality comprising Moesia
and the region of Sofia. The first Bulgarian prince was
Alexander von Battenberg. Most of Thracewas included in
the autonomous region of Eastern Rumelia, whereas the
rest of Thrace and all of Macedonia was returned under
the sovereignty of the Ottomans. After the Serbo-Bulgarian
War and unification with Eastern Rumelia in 1885, the
principality was proclaimed a fully independent kingdom
on October 5 (September 22 O.S.), 1908, during the reign
of Ferdinand I of Bulgaria.
Ferdinand, a prince from the ducal family of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha,
became the Bulgarian prince after Alexander von Battenberg
abdicated in 1886 following a coup d'etat staged by pro-Russian
army officers. (Although the counter coup d'etat coordinated
by Stefan Stambolov was successful, Battenberg could not
remain Bulgarian prince without the approval of Alexander
III of Russia.) The struggle for liberation of the Bulgarians
in the Adrianople, Vilayet and Macedonia continued throughout
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries culminating
with the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising organised by the
Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization in 1903.
In 1912 and 1913, Bulgaria became involved in the Balkan
Wars, entering into conflict with Greece and Serbia against
the Ottoman Empire and then against its former Balkan
allies in a desperate effort to achieve national unity.
After being defeated in the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria
lost most of the territory conquered in the first war,
as well as Southern Dobruja. During World War I, Bulgaria
found itself fighting on the losing side after its alliance
with the Central Powers. The defeat led to new territorial
losses (the Western Outlands to Serbia, Western Thrace
to Greece and the reconquered Southern Dobruja toRomania.
The Balkan Wars and World War I led to the influx of over
250,000 Bulgarian refugees from Macedonia, Eastern and
Western Thrace and Southern Dobruja. These numbers increased
in the 1930s following Serbian state-sponsored aggression
against its native Bulgarian population.
After regaining control over Southern Dobruja in 1940,
Bulgaria allied with the Axis Powers in World War II,
although no Bulgarian soldiers participated in the war
against the USSR. During World War II, Nazi Germany allowed
Bulgaria to occupy parts of Greece and Yugoslavia, including
territories long coveted by the Bulgarians. Bulgaria was
one of three countries (with Finland and Denmark) that
saved its entire Jewish population (around 50,000) from
the Nazi camps by refusing to comply with a 31 August
1943 resolution. But Jews in territories newly acquired
from Greece and Yugoslavia were sent to death camps by
the Bulgarian authorities on German request. In September
1944, the Soviet army entered Bulgaria which later enabled
the Bulgarian Communists to seize power and establish
a Communist dictatorship. In 1944, Bulgaria's forces were
turned against its former German ally (a 450,000 strong
army in 1944, reduced to 130,000 in 1945). More than 30,000
Bulgarian soldiers and officers were killed in the war.
After World War II, Bulgaria fell within the Soviet sphere
of influence, became a People's Republic in 1946 and one
of the USSR's staunchest allies. In the late 1970s, it
began normalizing relations with Greece, and in the 1990s
with Turkey. The People's Republic ended in 1989 as many
Communist regimes in Eastern Europe, as well as the Soviet
Union itself, began to collapse. The Bulgarian Communist
leader Todor Zhivkov was removed from power on 10 November
1989.
Bulgaria has held multiparty elections and privatized
its economy, but economic difficulties and a tide of corruption
led over 800,000 Bulgarians, most of them qualified professionals,
to emigrate.
Bulgaria joined NATO on 29 March 2004. After signing
the Treaty of Accession on 25 April 2005, it became a
member of the European Union on 1 January 2007.
Original text From Wikipedia 
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