6000 BC

• Neolithic sites.
• Can see in Stara Zagora.
• Pagan in religion. Worshipped fertility goddesses.
• Beautiful pottery

4000 BC

• Necropolis in Varna
• Necropolis in Varna. Found graves.
• Important because of the amount of gold. 6 KG of gold found.
• Also important because they had symbolic graves. Representations of people who died elsewhere.
• Site shows that these people had experience in making pottery, copper ore extraction, farming, marine trade, and most of all incredible production o f gold articles for religious and ceremonial practices.

2000 BC

• Thracians
• Highly developed civilization.
• Herodotus describes the ideals of the Thracian aristocracy as “to do nothing is the finest thing, to work the land the most dishonorable; but grandest of all is to live by war and plunder.
• However, did not have a written language because they were torn into kingdoms, independent districts and territories like the Greek.
• Greek writers wrote of their activity.
• Thracians mentioned by Greek writers as ferocious warriors. They were known for their horrifying army which often made incursions down to the Aegean Sea to plunder villages and lands.
• Homer mentions them in the Iliad and the Odyssey
• Sailed freely from between the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea
• Territory took in what is now modern Bulgaria and much of Greece
• Several communities of Thracians with different names but tied together by culture
• Pagan in belief. Believed in a Great Mother Goddess (Earth). She self-conceived and gave birth to a son (heaven, sun, fire) with whom she mated and gave birth to another son. She was in touch with water as a life-giving and purifying element and the Air wrapped the earth. Her child was born either at sunrise or sunset as the rays of the sun hit her. Her child was called a son/sun.
• Thracians kings called themselves direct descendents of this Great Mother Goddess as the Son of the Son.
• They used earth, water, air, and fire in religious ceremonies.
• Pythagoras was Thracian and devised sacred number relationships and musical tones.
• At night the people would invoke the mother goddess and her son. Her son was represented by a bull that was slaughtered. The blood ran into the earth to make her pregnant. The son/son was reborn as Helios or Apollo.
• These beliefs in some form lasted until 600 AD when Bulgarian became Christian. You can see how they could migrate into Christianity.
• You can still see some of the Thracian ceremonies and celebrations being celebrated today. (Kukeries, fire walking, dancing)
• One of the greatest archeological sites is in Kazanluk.
• Thracian king Seutholis built town of Seuthopolis near Kazanluk. (now under water)
• Actually many Thracian tombs in this area. Valley of the Thracian kings.
• Also tomb in Sveshtari.
• Survived until the Celtic invasion in 280 BC.

280-279 BC

• Celtic invasion
• Celts moved into Greek and Thracian territory for 2 centuries before the Thracians removed them but then the Romans came.
• Traces of Celtic invasion exist in some jewelry and pottery. Reproductions done by a Bulgarian artist.

168 BC

• Romans begin conquest.
• Takes 200 years for Romans to completely subdue Thracians. Thracians stay and are assimilated with the Romans and with other tribes that will move down from the north.
• 45 AD, Roman Emperor Claudius made Thrace a formal Roman province.
• Spartacus, the slave who led a revolt against the Romans, was a Thracian leader born in Sandansky Bulgaria.
• Romans were very organized and built roads and fortresses throughout. Every Bulgarian town, no matter how small, has its Roman ruins.
• Romans let the Thracian towns exist as they wanted and let the Thracian beliefs continue as long as the honored the cult of the deified emperor as well.
• Romans instituted the Latin language and established the norms of law and expectation that people would live with them.
• Most impressive are in Sofia Plovdiv, Varna, Hissar.
• Sofia, known then as Serdica, was a Roman center.
• Plovdiv, known then as Philipopolis, had a spectacular Roman Theater
• Varna had baths
• Hissar had hot springs and spa
• Neseber, known then as Mesmeric, was a seaside resort
• Christianity has its beginnings in Bulgaria at this point because the Thracians had the belief in son of the great, self-impregnated great mother goddess. In fact, St. Paul the apostle, traveled along the Aegean coast spreading Christianity.
• Cultural note, Romans used Rose products cultivated in the Valley of the roses in Bulgaria.

330 AD

• Constantinople is founded on the site of an old Thracian city
• Founded by Emperor Constantine and began what was to become the Byzantine Empire in 395 AD. For the next almost 1000 years, Bulgaria and Byzantium would be at odds and trade territories.

500 AD

• Slavs begin coming into Roman territory from the north east.
• Waves of people over the next centuries. Some driven by the Chinese who pushed them west from Russia. Slavs, Goths, Huns, Avars and then Bulgars who conquered, merged with all the others. Did not just send soldiers to conquer but rather sent people to settle. Also merged with what was left of the Thracians and any stray Romans around.
• Roman Empire was declining fast and could not prevent he incursion of the Slavs and Bulgars
• Traditions begun here have carried forward to the future such as Kukeries. Began as pagan celebrations for health and successful farming, entertaining allowed for creativity, and related to specific ethnic groups.
• Later Christians considered them pagan so the celebrations were incorporated into the Christian ceremonies on the first day of lent (spring). Resurgence under Ottoman rule to celebrate nationality. Communist felt they were too Christian so they became secular again. Today see in celebrations.

681 AD

• First Bulgarian Kingdom established by Khan Asparuh, son of Khan Kubrat.
• He ruled for 61 years
• Byzantium could not halt the settling of the slavs who came in great waves.
• Byzantine tried to conquer the slavs. They invited in the Bulgar leader Kahn Asparuh who defeated the Byzantine army at the delta of the Danube.
• Asparuh of the Bulgars united all of the Slavs and others into the First Bulgarian Kingdom. He told the Slavs they could come under his control or the Byzantines and they chose him.
• Established the tradition of Martinitzas. First of March. Still goes on today. Twining of red and white.
• Continue to battle with the Byzantines for centuries over territory. At one point could have taken Constantinople but did not because they did not want to defend against the Moslems.
• Established a capitol in Pliska what is now Shuman.
• In 811 the Byzantines invaded Pliska with an army of 60,000. Murdered soldiers, women and children. Bulgarian Khan Krum laid an ambush, killed most of the Byzantine soldiers and finally the emperor. Had his skull embossed with gold and silver and raised a toast from this drinking from this bowl. This defeat actually kept east and west Roman Empire from uniting again. Believed just as one god and kingdom in heaven should be “one kingdom, one religion, one people and one language” on earth. Bulgaria prevented this.
• Khan Krum expanded territory and his son Khan Omurtag conducted large scale construction, law making, and became a patron of the arts.
• This was a period of great cultural development through building, the first written laws, stable government, literary classics, a written language and a new religion. At its height it included what are now Romania, Greece, Macedonia, Albania, Yugoslavia and northern Turkey.
• Omurtag negotiated a 30 year peace treaty with Byzantium. Territory went as far as Belgrade and Pest.
• For centuries, Bulgarians had honored a cult of the horse and rider as hero. Omurtag had this carved into a large rock in Shuman. Known as the Madara Horseman.

864 AD

• Bulgaria accepts Christianity.
• Khan Boris has problems. He loses a war to Charles II the Bald, King of the Franks. There are natural disasters of earthquakes and famine. Byzantines take advantage of this weakness and agreed not to invade if Bulgaria would become Christian.
• Boris may also have felt that a common religion, rather than the multitude of pagan beliefs, would help unite his people further
• He also liked the ethical and moral values of Christianity.
• Khan Boris is baptized. When the old aristocracy resisted, 52 aristocratic families, including women and children, were executed.
• Khan Boris, who took the name of Mihail, tried to steer between Roman Catholicism and the Pope and between Byzantine churches. He first recognized the Supremacy of the Catholic Church and sent a long list of questions about Christian morals and ethics. These questions ranged from how marriage should be celebrated, to whom one could marry, to whether one could bathe on Sunday, to how often one should eat meat, to how often one should take communion during Lent. Available on Google.
• This was also the beginning of the icon painting in Bulgaria
• When Byzantium discovered that the Khan was approaching the Pope, it offered the new Bulgarian church recognition and an independent metropolitan see. This proved critical to the future of the Bulgarian church.
• Khan Boris’s son tried to go back to paganism but he was dethroned and blinded.
• Another son, Simeon, returned to Christianity and established the largest territory that Bulgaria was ever to have.
• Simion had graduated from the University of Constantinople and was quite cosmopolitan. His reign was known as the Golden Age of medieval Bulgaria.
• Pushed back Byzantium’s borders and even had his daughter marry the underage Byzantium’s emperor and thus took the title of “father of the emperor”
• Monasteries, first build in 4^th-5^th centuries, are built during this time. They were art studies for ceramic icons, scriptoria for liturgical books, and new literature. Glass and sculptures were made.
• Classic Bulgarian architecture.

861 AD

• Sts Cyril and Methodious create the Cyrillic alphabet in the native Bulgarian tongue...
• Cyril and Methodious were born in Thessalonica. They are claimed by both Byzantium and Bulgaria who claims they are descendants from some past Bulgarian Khan. Possible because some deposed khans had gone to Byzantium and the Brothers spoke excellent Bulgarian. Cyril was a librarian.
• They decided they wanted to spend their lives converting the Slavs so they developed their written language. They created what became the Cyrillic alphabet, named after one of the brothers.
• Khan Boris felt an urgent need to strengthen Bulgaria’s national identity as he was pushed by both Constantinople and Rome. He met with Cyril and Methodious as they were traveling to Constantinople and convinced them to open two schools in Bulgaria to teach the language they had created
• At that time, the Bible could only be rendered in Hebrew, Latin and Greek. The brothers went to Rome and argued: “Does not God send the sun and air and rain to all the people? That is the proof that God loves all the people in the same way. Why then do you think that God wishes to be glorified in the languages of only three people?” It took years and both brothers died and were buried in Rome.
• Rome acquiesced because they were trying to lure the Bulgarians loyalty back.
• Khan Simeon asked the disciples of the brothers to travel throughout Bulgaria and teach the new alphabet to the people.
• Monasteries took up the task of translating religious works into the new language. And then other literacy works were written in the new language
• Bulgarian missionaries were sent all over Eastern Europe and Russia to teach the new alphabet.

971 – 1187

• Byzantium gets stronger and strikes back. (MAP)
• Northern Bulgaria falls to the Byzantines and the Bulgarians are pushed south into Greece
• Battle back and forth for territory.
• Major battle in 1014 where the Byzantines took 15,000 prisoners. To demonstrate their victory, they blinded 99 out of every 100 prisoners and left the 100^th with only one eye to lead the others home. When Tsar Samil saw this he died of a heart attack. The Byzantine leader, Basil II, stopped at nothing, destroying Bulgarian towns and villages to the ground, killing and blinding men and women.
• Bulgaria became part of the “Byzantine Commonwealth of Nations” for 150 years.
• During these years it was the monasteries that preserved Bulgarian language, written culture, traditions and identify.

1188

• Second Bulgarian Kingdom
• Several attempts to overthrow the Byzantines
• Major battle at Lovech defeated the Byzantines and pushed them south to Greece.
• Tsar Kaloyan rule was challenged by the French Crusaders who decided to turn their attention to the Byzantine’s rather than the Muslims. They took Constantinople and headed toward Bulgaria. They were defeated in Constantinople in 1205. Thousands of crusaders were killed or captured. A contemporary author wrote that the “flower of French Chivalry perished at Constantinople.
• By 1230, Tsar Ivan Assen II had as large a territory as Simeon.
• He restored the Bulgarian Orthodox Patriarch in the church
• Tsar Ivan Alexander 1331 – 1371 ruled over the Second Golden Age of medieval Bulgaria.
• Architectural monuments. Castle complex at Tsarvets.
• Boyana frescoes. Sebastocrator Caloyan and wife Dessislava.
• Veliko Tarnovo Pottery
• Church construction. Lavishly decorated. Nesebur, Tarnovo, Melina, Rile.
• Ornately illuminated Bulgarian manuscripts
• Books written in schools and libraries

1395

• 500 years of Turkism Domination
• Gradually took over Bulgaria including Sofia, Shoumen, Veliko Tarnovo
• Story about Tsarvets
• Over the years there were at least 5 unsuccessful attempts to liberation, none successful.
• Three stages of Turkish domination
• First the conquerors let the subjugated peoples enjoy considerable freedoms. Many Christian feudal lords retained their wealth and privileges.
• In the 16^th and 17^th centuries, the strength of the Ottoman Empire began to decline. The Empire lost battles against Iran, Austria, and Venice. So the Turks came down hard on the Bulgarians, persecuting the Christians and instigating economic oppression. Christian martyrs were hung in public squares. Monasteries destroyed but rebuilt and again Bulgarian culture preserved there.
• Bulgarians were barred from profession their religion or were forced to do so out of sight of the “true believers”. They were forced to build low domeless churches, sunk below ground level.
• Monasteries became the protective havens of Bulgarian culture.
• In the 3^rd stage of Turkish Domination, the Turkish Empire began to disintegrate. A strong middle class of artisans and merchants grew up in Bulgaria. Schools were established. Chitalisthe’s were established. Bulgarian trade spread throughout Europe and west Asia.
• Merchants had elaborate houses and compounds.
• Large market-oriented farms developed. Cotton and tobacco. Arms for the Turkish wars. Istanbul had 1 million people and was a prime market.
• First textile mill was opened, first railways, first stock credit companies.
• Bulgarian population grew to over 5 million. Only 8 million today.
• Clergy joined by doctors, writers, publishers, teachers.
• People moved to towns for jobs. Elegant houses with “smart” horse drawn carriages and clothes styled in Vienna.
• This educated class produced a new sense of nationalism. A History of Bulgaria was written and widely circulated... Education moved from church oriented to secular. A girl’s school was opened.
• Fol writes: “The importance of the opening of secular schools in Bulgaria defies overestimation. New-style education changed the foundations of culture: the outlook on the word and man, and the connection between them.”
• By 1878, Bulgaria had 2000 schools.

1878

• First Bulgarian Republic
• As nationalism got stronger, more attempts were made by Bulgarians to free itself from Turkish rule. This was made difficult by resistance from European countries to see European boundaries change. They had just gone through the Napoleon wars and after 500 years of Turkish domination, they didn’t see Bulgaria as a country onto itself.
• A national hero. Vassil Levksi tried to instigate a national uprising but was betrayed and hanged in 1871. Another attempt in 1875 resulted in 600 people arrested and seven hanged. A third attempt in 1876 in Koprivshitsa failed again. An April uprising led by poet Hristo Botev also failed. This time the Turks killed tens of thousands of Bulgarians and burned villages to the ground. The American and French press wrote about it and raised the concern of European powers.
• When diplomatic means failed, Russia came to Bulgarian aid in what became called the Russo-Turkish war even though it was Bulgaria where it was fought and what was liberated.
• At Shipka, 5,500 Russian and Bulgarian soldiers defended Shipka Pass against 27,000 Turkish soldiers for 3 days. This led to the defeat of the Turks.
• At a peace conference in San Stefano, Bulgaria was given by the Turks their historic ethnic lands. They were thrilled.
• But the European powers were afraid of such a large new country so they invited the parties to Berlin to renegotiate. The Bulgarian territory was greatly reduced (see map) never to return to its traditional boundaries.

Modern Bulgaria

• After 500 years, Bulgaria was not used to self-government. They did not have government leaders or experience.
• So the Russian Bureau of Civil Government helped. They were allowed to stay for only 9 months. During that time a military school was opened, a national bank and a national library.
• Sofia was chosen as the capitol.
• 1879 Bulgaria held a constitutional convention with 229 delegates including Bulgarians, Turks, Greeks and Jews, showing ethnic and religious tolerance that would remain until the present (except for a slight detour during the communists.)
• A very liberal constitution was written with civil protections. It called for a limited monarchy. But they needed a Monarch.
• European countries got together with Bulgaria and selected a young German Prince, Alexander of Battenberg to be the King. But the king only lasted about 7 years during which time he negated the constitution.
• In 1887, Bulgaria went looking for another kind and found Ferdinand Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, another German prince. This time the line was successful and lasted until 1945. Ferdinand lasted until 1918 but wasn’t a very good king.
• His rule was dominated by his prime minister, Stefan Stambolov. He broke ties with Russia and turned west for allies. The goal was to reunite Bulgaria with its historic boundaries.
• Popular parties grew up such as agrarian, social democratic, socialist and communist. The agrarian party was made up of peasants.
• The Communist Party began during this time period and was to grow following WWII.
• Bulgaria remained a country of agriculture with a middle class in the cities and towns.
• This caused tension because the Agrarian Party didn’t trust the city people yet the Agrarian Party didn’t have the experience to actually rule the country.
• This country tradition is what preserved the folk traditions and celebrations and rituals that still survive today.
• Throughout these years, the treaty of Berlin rankled. Macedonian wanted its independence from Ottoman Rule. Serbia was afraid of Bulgaria and declared war which Bulgaria won. Bulgaria decided to help liberate Macedonian.
• Serbia allied with Greece and Romania against Bulgaria and defeated Bulgaria. The edges of Bulgaria were taken by the countries surrounding it.
• When WWI broke out, Bulgaria was subject to pressure both from France/Britain/Russia and the Central Powers, Germany/Austria/Hungary. Germany offered revenge for past losses so Bulgaria made the disastrous decision to join with Germany.
• There were early victories but the war drained Bulgaria’s economy and manpower. In the end, Bulgaria lost all land it had gained and had to pay huge reparations and contributions in gold, livestock and foodstuffs. The army was disbanded. Ferdinand abdicated to his son Boris III.
• The years between 1919 and 1945 were turbulent. The Agrarian Party took power and attempted a redistribution of wealth. The Extreme Right overturned the Agrarians in a bloody revolution. They suffered in the depression. The King was continually challenged by leftist forces inspired by Russia.
• Culturally, Rose festival began in 1903 and continues until today.
• Relations with the U.S. began in 1903 as well. Celebrating 100 years of Bulgarian/US History