Prehistory and Antiquity in the
National History Museum Neanderthal remains dating to around 150,000 years ago, or the
Middle Paleolithic, are some of the earliest traces of human activity in the lands of modern Bulgaria. Remains from
Homo sapiens found there are dated . This result represents the earliest arrival of modern humans in Europe. The
Karanovo culture arose and was one of several
Neolithic societies in the region that thrived on
agriculture. The
Copper Age Varna culture (fifth millennium BC) is credited with inventing
gold metallurgy. The associated
Varna Necropolis treasure contains the oldest golden jewellery in the world with an approximate age of over 6,000 years. The treasure has been valuable for understanding social hierarchy and stratification in the earliest European societies. The
Thracians, one of the three primary ancestral groups of modern
Bulgarians, appeared on the
Balkan Peninsula some time before the 12th century BC. The Thracians excelled in
metallurgy and gave the
Greeks the
Orphean and
Dionysian cults, but remained tribal and stateless. The Persian
Achaemenid Empire conquered parts of present-day Bulgaria (in particular eastern Bulgaria) in the 6th century BC and retained control over the region until
479 BC. The invasion became a catalyst for Thracian unity, and the bulk of their tribes united under king
Teres to form the
Odrysian kingdom in the 470s BC. It was weakened and vassalised by
Philip II of Macedon in 341 BC, attacked
by Celts in the 3rd century, and finally
became a province of the
Roman Empire in AD 45. By the end of the 1st century AD, Roman governance was established over the entire Balkan Peninsula and
Christianity began spreading in the region around the 4th century. The region came under
Byzantine control after the
fall of Rome in 476. The Byzantines were engaged in prolonged warfare against Persia and could not defend their Balkan territories from barbarian incursions. This enabled the
Slavs to enter the Balkan Peninsula as marauders, primarily through an area between the Danube River and the Balkan Mountains known as
Moesia. Gradually, the interior of the peninsula became a country of the
South Slavs, who lived under a
democracy. The Slavs assimilated the partially
Hellenised,
Romanised, and
Gothicised Thracians in the rural areas.
First Bulgarian Empire : The Morning Star of Slavonic Literature,
The Slav Epic cycle by Alfons Mucha|leftNot long after the Slavic incursion,
Moesia was once again invaded, this time by the
Bulgars under
Khan Asparukh. Their horde was a remnant of
Old Great Bulgaria, an extinct tribal confederacy situated north of the Black Sea in what is now Ukraine and southern Russia. Asparukh attacked Byzantine territories in Moesia and conquered the Slavic tribes there in 680. Succeeding rulers strengthened the Bulgarian state throughout the 8th and 9th centuries.
Krum introduced a written code of law and checked a major Byzantine incursion at the
Battle of Pliska, in which Byzantine emperor
Nicephorus I was killed.
Boris I abolished paganism in favour of
Eastern Orthodox Christianity in 864. The
conversion was followed by a Byzantine recognition of the
Bulgarian church and the adoption of the
Cyrillic alphabet, developed in the capital,
Preslav. The common language, religion and script strengthened central authority and gradually fused the Slavs and Bulgars into a unified people speaking a single
Slavic language. A
golden age began during the 34-year rule of
Simeon the Great, who oversaw the largest territorial expansion of the state. The literature produced in Old Bulgarian soon spread north from Bulgaria and became the
lingua franca of the Balkans and Eastern Europe. The political, cultural, and spiritual power of the Bulgarian Empire during the
Krum's dynasty turned Bulgaria into one of the
three superpowers in Europe at that time, alongside the Byzantine Empire and the
Carolingian Empire of the
Franks, which would later become the
Holy Roman Empire. After Simeon's death, Bulgaria was weakened by wars with
Magyars and
Pechenegs and the spread of
Bogomilism. Simeon's successor
Peter I negotiated a favourable
peace treaty. The Byzantines agreed to recognise him as Emperor of Bulgaria and the
Bulgarian Orthodox Church as an independent Patriarchate, as well as to pay an annual tribute. The peace was reinforced with a marriage between Peter and Romanos's granddaughter
Irene Lekapene. This agreement ushered in a period of 40 years of peaceful relations between the two powers. During the first years of his reign, Peter I faced revolts by two of his three brothers, John in 928 and
Michael in 930, but both were quelled. During most of the reign of Emperor Peter I, the empire enjoyed a period of political consolidation, economic expansion, and cultural activity.
Preslav was seized by the Byzantine army in 971 after consecutive
Rus' and Byzantine invasions. but this ended when Byzantine emperor
Basil II defeated the Bulgarian army at
Klyuch in 1014. Samuil died shortly after the battle, and by 1018 the Byzantines
had conquered the First Bulgarian Empire. After the conquest, Basil II prevented revolts by retaining the rule of local nobility, integrating them in
Byzantine bureaucracy and aristocracy, and relieving their lands of the obligation to pay taxes in gold, allowing
tax in kind instead. The
Bulgarian Patriarchate was reduced to an
archbishopric, but retained its
autocephalous status and its
dioceses.
Second Bulgarian Empire Following the death of Basil II in 1025, Byzantine domestic policy shifted from centralized, militaristic consolidation to a fragile, civilian-led administration that neglected provincial defences, directly triggering massive unrest—most notably the
uprising of Peter Delyan (1040–41)—as alienated Bulgarian subjects and disgruntled military elites rebelled against crushing taxation and bureaucratic mismanagement. The empire's authority declined after a catastrophic military
defeat at Manzikert against
Seljuk invaders, and was further disturbed by the
Crusades. This prevented Byzantine attempts at
Hellenisation and created fertile ground for further revolt. In 1185,
Asen dynasty nobles
Ivan Asen I and
Peter IV organised a
major uprising and succeeded in re-establishing the Bulgarian state. Ivan Asen and Peter laid the foundations of the Second Bulgarian Empire with its capital at
Tarnovo.
Kaloyan, the third of the Asen monarchs, extended his dominion to
Belgrade and
Ohrid. He acknowledged the spiritual supremacy of
the pope and received a royal crown from a
papal legate. The empire reached its zenith under
Ivan Asen II (1218–1241), when its borders expanded as far as the coast of
Albania, Serbia and
Epirus, while commerce and culture flourished. Bulgarian architecture, arts, and literature spread beyond the borders of Bulgaria into
Serbia,
Wallachia,
Moldavia, and the
Rus' Principalities and affected Slavic culture.
Ottoman rule The Ottomans were employed as mercenaries by the Byzantines in the 1340s, but later became invaders in their own right. The Bulgarian nobility was subsequently eliminated and the peasantry was
enserfed to Ottoman masters, while much of the educated clergy fled to other countries. Bulgarians were subjected to heavy taxes (including
Devshirme, or
blood tax), their culture was suppressed, Ottoman authorities established a religious administrative community called the
Rum Millet, which governed all Orthodox Christians regardless of their ethnicity. Most of the local population then gradually lost its distinct national consciousness, identifying only by its faith. The clergy remaining in some isolated monasteries kept their ethnic identity alive, enabling its survival in remote rural areas, and in the militant
Catholic community in the northwest of the country. As Ottoman power began to wane,
Habsburg Austria and Russia saw Bulgarian Christians as potential allies. The Austrians first backed an
uprising in Tarnovo in 1598, then
a second one in 1686, the
Chiprovtsi Uprising in 1688 and finally
Karposh's rebellion in 1689. The
Russian Empire also asserted itself as a protector of Christians in Ottoman lands with the
Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca in 1774.
Third Bulgarian state The
Treaty of San Stefano was signed on 3 March 1878 by
Russia and the
Ottoman Empire. It was to set up an autonomous Bulgarian principality spanning
Moesia,
Macedonia and
Thrace, roughly on the territories of the
Second Bulgarian Empire, and this day is now
a public holiday called
National Liberation Day. The other
Great Powers immediately rejected the treaty out of fear that such a large country in the
Balkans might threaten their interests. It was superseded by the
Treaty of Berlin, signed on 13 July. It provided for a much smaller state, the
Principality of Bulgaria, only comprising Moesia and the region of
Sofia, and leaving large populations of ethnic Bulgarians outside the new country. This significantly contributed to Bulgaria's militaristic foreign affairs approach during the first half of the 20th century. The Bulgarian principality won
a war against Serbia and incorporated the semi-autonomous Ottoman territory of
Eastern Rumelia in 1885, proclaiming itself an independent state on 5 October 1908. In the years following independence, Bulgaria increasingly militarised and was often referred to as "the Balkan
Prussia". It became involved in three consecutive conflicts between 1912 and 1918—two
Balkan Wars and
World War I. After a disastrous defeat in the
Second Balkan War, Bulgaria again found itself fighting on the losing side as a result of its alliance with the
Central Powers in World War I. Despite fielding more than a quarter of its population in a 1,200,000-strong army and achieving several decisive victories at
Doiran and
Monastir, the country capitulated in 1918. The war resulted in significant territorial losses and a total of 87,500 soldiers killed. More than 253,000 refugees from the lost territories
immigrated to Bulgaria from 1912 to 1929, placing additional strain on the already ruined national economy. The resulting political unrest led to the establishment of a royal
authoritarian dictatorship by Tsar
Boris III (1918–1943). Bulgaria entered World War II in 1941 as a member of
the Axis but declined to participate in
Operation Barbarossa and
saved its Jewish population from deportation to
concentration camps. The sudden death of Boris III in mid-1943 pushed the country into political turmoil as the war turned against Germany, and the communist guerrilla movement gained momentum. The government of
Bogdan Filov subsequently failed to achieve peace with the Allies. Bulgaria did not comply with Soviet demands to expel German forces from its territory, resulting in a declaration of war and an invasion by the USSR in September 1944. The communist-dominated
Fatherland Front took power, ended participation in the Axis and joined the Allied side until the war ended. Bulgaria suffered little war damage and the Soviet Union demanded no reparations. But all wartime territorial gains, with the notable exception of
Southern Dobrudzha, were lost. , leader of the
Bulgarian Communist Party from 1946 to 1949 The
left-wing coup d'état of 9 September 1944 led to the abolition of the monarchy and
the executions of some 1,000–3,000 dissidents, war criminals, and members of the former royal elite. But it was not until 1946 that a
one-party people's republic was instituted following a referendum. It fell into the Soviet sphere of influence under the leadership of
Georgi Dimitrov (1946–1949), who established a repressive, rapidly industrialising
Stalinist state. By the mid-1950s, standards of living rose significantly and political repression eased. The Soviet-style
planned economy saw some experimental market-oriented policies emerging under
Todor Zhivkov (1954–1989). Compared to wartime levels, national
GDP increased five-fold and per capita GDP quadrupled by the 1980s, although severe debt spikes took place in 1960, 1977 and 1980. Zhivkov's daughter
Lyudmila bolstered national pride by promoting Bulgarian heritage, culture and arts worldwide. Facing declining birth rates among the ethnic Bulgarian majority, Zhivkov's government in 1984 forced the minority ethnic
Turks to adopt Slavic names in an attempt to erase their identity and assimilate them. These policies resulted in the emigration of some 300,000 ethnic Turks to Turkey. The Communist Party was forced to give up its political monopoly on 10 November 1989 under the influence of the
Revolutions of 1989. Zhivkov resigned and Bulgaria embarked on a transition to a
parliamentary democracy. The first free elections in June 1990 were won by the Communist Party, now rebranded as the
Bulgarian Socialist Party. A
new constitution that provided for a relatively weak elected president and for a prime minister accountable to the legislature was adopted in July 1991. The new system initially failed to improve living standards or create economic growth—the average quality of life and economic performance remained lower than under communism well into the early 2000s. After 2001, economic, political and geopolitical conditions improved greatly, and Bulgaria achieved high Human Development status in 2003. It became a member of
NATO in 2004 == Geography ==