| Kingdom of Bulgaria Царство България (Bulgarian) Timeline: Pharaonic SurvivalTsarstvo Balgariya | ||||||
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| Motto: Съединението прави силата Saedinenieto pravi silata ("Unity makes strength") |
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| Anthem: Мила Родино "Mila Rodino" ("Dear Motherland") Royal anthem: Химн на Негово Величество Царя "Himn na Negovo Velichestvo Tsarya" ("Anthem of His Majesty the Tsar") |
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| Capital (and largest city) | Sofia | |||||
| Official languages | Bulgarian | |||||
| Religion | Orthodox Christianity (Official) | |||||
| Demonym | Bulgarian | |||||
| Government | Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy | |||||
| - | Tsar | Simeon II | ||||
| - | Prime Minister | Rosen Zhelyazkov | ||||
| Legislature | National Assembly | |||||
| Establishment | Establishment | |||||
| - | 1st Bulgarian Empire | 681–1018 | ||||
| - | 2nd Bulgarian Empire | 1185–1396 | ||||
| - | Principality of Bulgaria | 3 March 1878 | ||||
| - | Independence from the Ottoman Empire | 5 October 1908 | ||||
| - | Monarchy abolished | 15 September 1946 | ||||
| - | Fall of the Last Royalist Remnant | 26 September 1971 | ||||
| - | Restoration | 15 November 1990 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 110,993.6 km2 42,855 sq mi |
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| Population | ||||||
| - | estimate | 6,519,789 | ||||
| GDP (PPP) | 2025 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $264.699 billion | ||||
| - | Per capita | $41,901 | ||||
| GDP (nominal) | 2025 estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $117.007 billion | ||||
| - | Per capita | $18,522 | ||||
| Gini (2025) | 37.2 | |||||
| HDI (2025) | 0.865 | |||||
| Currency | Lev (BGN) |
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| Time zone | UTC+2 (EET) | |||||
| - | Summer (DST) | (UTCUTC+3 (EEST)) | ||||
| Drives on the | Right | |||||
| Internet TLD | .bg • .бг | |||||
| Calling code | +359 | |||||
Bulgaria (Bulgarian: България), officially the Kingdom of Bulgaria (Bulgarian: Царство България), is a sovereign Slavic country in the Southern Balkans. It is bordered by Greece to the southwest, the Roman Empire to the southeast, and Romania to the north, Macedonia to the west, Serbia to the northwest, and the Black Sea to the east.
History[]
Balkans Wars[]
Bulgarian Army Forces in the First Balkan War.
The Bulgarians demonstrated an impressive ability to win in the First Balkan War, defeating the Ottomans with unparalleled success at the Battle of Lula Burgas. However, despite their successes, the Bulgarians advanced against Istanbul in a very depleted state of their forces and increasingly weakened logistics, ending in a Bulgarian defeat after being defeated by the Ottomans at the Battle of Chataldzha. Bulgaria's defeat in this battle was due to the excessive fatigue of its troops and poor logistics and lack of supplies in the face of the continuous and exhausting advance into Ottoman territory. Following the failure to breach the defences around Istanbul, the Bulgarians finally agreed to a ceasefire with the Ottomans and under international pressure the war ended in February 1913. However, a conflict arose over the division of Northern Macedonia and the territories with access to the Aegean between the victorious allies, with Serbia and Greece complaining about Bulgaria's constant and blatant failure to comply with the terms previously established in the treaties with its allies.
First World War I[]
Bulgarian soldiers during World War I.
Bulgarian neutrality was implicit during the early part of World War I, and although it was very close to the Central Powers initially, the Bulgarians would not take sides with either alliance. It was not until the entry of Italy and Greece in February and March 1915 respectively against the Central Powers of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire that Bulgaria's position in the conflict became increasingly determined by a formal alliance with the Central Powers. It was finally in mid-1915 that the Bulgarian-German Agreement of September 1915 was signed, which led to the Bulgarians participating in the war against the Entente in October 1915. Bulgaria declared war on the Entente on 13 July 1915, beginning the war against the allied forces of the Entente.
Bulgaria's performance in the war was extremely important for the development of the conflict in the Balkans. They would support the attack of German and Austro-Hungarian forces against the Serbs during the Second Serbian Campaign, capturing the eastern towns of Kumanovo, Vardar and Skopje and stopping an Anglo-Hellenic-French relief force that had been sent to aid the Serbs. It would be by the end of November that the country's fall and partition between the parties involved would end, with the Bulgarians obtaining the territories of North Macedonia for their country, carrying out a bloody campaign of cultural assimilation of "bulgarization" against the inhabitants of the region. A month later, they would launch their offensive against Greece, which was taken by surprise by the rapid fall of Serbia and were barely able to present a consistent defense against the brutal advance of the Bulgarians who would dominate the territory until they besieged the city of Thessaloniki, which was surrounded by them in November, coinciding with the naval disaster of the members of the Entente in the last attempt to enter the Sea of Marmara and which ended with the loss of two ships against the Ottomans and the failure to advance on the Gallipoli Peninsula after the stagnation present after the first advances, which further weakened Greece's support for the campaign given the need to defend its borders against the Bulgarians.
Bulgarian armored cruiser Nadezhda.
Bulgaria established itself as the main force of the Central Powers in the Balkans on the Macedonian front, taking charge of the defence of the southern flank and maintaining territorial conquests and communications with the Ottomans. Bulgarian forces managed to withstand several Allied offensives that ended in huge Bulgarian victories against the various coalitions of British, French, Albanian, Greek and ANZAC forces for most of the conflict, including the Battle of Krigolak in October–November 1915, the Battles of Lake Doiran in August 1916 and April–May 1917, with only one minor tactical defeat at the Battle of Monastir against the Allies in September–December 1916. The situation changed when Romania entered the war for the Allies on 27 August 1916 and began an unsuccessful offensive against Austria-Hungary, immediately the Central Powers forces launched their offensive against the Romanians, with the Bulgarians launching a daring lightning offensive against the Romanian fortresses on the Danube taking them and capturing over 28,000 Romanian soldiers, while the Bulgarians launched a massive offensive against the Romanian Danube fortresses, capturing them and over 28,000 Romanian soldiers. The Bulgarian Navy, although not so important in the initial conflict, participated in the attack on the port of Constanta where they sank several Romanian ships and secured the city for the central forces, allowing Ottoman Navy ships to operate momentarily in the region.
However, the campaign in Romania left the Bulgarians in enormous trouble with the almost total expenditure of ammunition supplies, food and fresh troops, which added to the unexpected dismemberment of the Austro-Hungarians in October 1917 caused even more problems with the overextension of forces to cover the conquered territory led to an enormous strain on the Bulgarian defenses which was slowly exploited by the Allies. By the beginning of 1918, the Bulgarian forces were extremely worn down by the conflict, with famine, disease, internal crises and the weariness of the conflict by the population making the collapse of the nation only a matter of time away. Only the few supplies from Germany after their successful offensive against Amiens helped to improve their situation, but the massive defeats of their allies only reinforced the disaster that was to come.
The Allied attack finally came in September 1918, with the Lake Vardar Offensive by the coalition of British, French, Serbian, Greek and ANZAC troops that immediately broke through the Bulgarian defences after several days of intense fighting and finally, under pressure, led to the collapse of the entire Macedonian Front. The Bulgarian forces were barely able to stop the disaster that was looming over them and on September 25, 1918, the Radomir Uprising took place. Those who were fed up with the hardships of war and marched with the revolutionary government on the capital of Sofia to force the signing of an armistice and peace from Tsar Ferdinand I, which was finally achieved with his abdication and the accession to the throne of his son, Tsar Boris III. The Armistice of Salonika would be signed on September 29, which ended with Bulgaria's exit from the war, being the second of the Central Powers to be defeated.
Bulgaria would sign in 1919, the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine. In which territorial losses were given to Bulgaria that had to cede; Western and Eastern Thrace to Greece, Southern Dobruja to Romania and Northern Macedonia to Yugoslavia. It was required to pay reparations for 35 years, reduce the size of its armed forces to less than 50,000 troops, give up its current fleet of one armored cruiser and three torpedo boats, renounce the possession of any warships larger than 100 tons, and finally prohibit the creation of its own air force. This treaty would become known as the "Great National Tragedy" in later years.
Second World War II[]
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Bulgarian Panzer IV during World War II.
Cold War and communism[]
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Simeon II of Bulgaria. He would be restored to the throne after the fall of communism.
Restoration of the monarchy[]
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Pair of Bulgarian MiG-29 fighters en 2024.
Present Day[]
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Government and politics[]
International Relations[]
Armed Forces[]
F-16 of the Bulgarian Air Force.
The Bulgarian Armed Forces, or more simply the Bulgarian Armed Forces, are the main military force of the nation and are in charge of the defense and integrity of the Bulgarian state, both externally and internally. Its components are the following:
- Bulgarian Land Army: It is the component in charge of the defense of the borders and the protection of the national territory. It has a force of 350,000 active duty personnel and 534,000 reservists; its armored component is composed of 100 tanks divided between the C1BG Ariete and Leopard 1A5BG types, 227 infantry fighting vehicles between the BC-35 Cunaguaro, Stryker and the new Italian Centauro types, 235 Marder 1A4, M113 and TB-23 Jaguar armored personnel carriers. They have 293 pieces of field artillery and 141 pieces of self-propelled artillery.
- Bulgarian Air Force: This is the component in charge of safeguarding and defending the nation's skies and airspace. Its arsenal is composed of 82 MiG-29AB fighters (manufactured and modernized locally), 41 F-16 Block 70 and C-10 Sparrowhawk; while in transport it has 47 cargo aircraft of various types; 2 early warning and electronic warfare aircraft. Its rotary wing force is composed of 89, with a force of 28 AH-64 Apache helicopters and the rest transport.
- Bulgarian Navy: This is the branch in charge of the defense and protection of the nation's river and maritime sovereignty. The Bulgarian fleet has a force of 1 frigate, 2 corvettes and 12 missile boats.
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