| Tsardom of Bulgaria Царство България Timeline: The Balkan Prussia
OTL equivalent: Bulgaria, Republic of North Macedonia, Northern Dobruja, Aegean Macedonia and Trache, the valleys of the rivers Timok and Morava and Western outlands in Serbia, most of European Turkey, Mala Prespa and Golo Burdo in Albania, Gora in Albania and Kosovo | ||||||
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| Motto: Съединението прави силата Saedinenieto pravi silata ("Unity makes strength") |
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| Anthem: Шуми Марица Shumi Maritsa ("Maritsa Rushes") |
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| Capital | Hagia (in bulgarian: Sveta) Sofia (OTL Sofia) | |||||
| Largest city | Solun (OTl Thessaloniki) | |||||
| Other cities | Veliko Tarnovo, Ohrid, Pleven, Levskigrad, Skopje, Solun, Burgas, Varna, Vidin, Plovdiv, Voden, Odrin, etc. | |||||
| Official languages | Bulgarian | |||||
| Regional languages | Greek, Bulgarian version of Turkish, Albanian | |||||
| Religion | Bulgarian Orthodox Church (majority) | |||||
| Demonym | Bulgarian | |||||
| Government | Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy | |||||
| - | Tsar | Simeon II | ||||
| - | Prime Minister | Rumen Radev | ||||
| Legislature | National Assembly | |||||
| Establishment | ||||||
| - | First Bulgarian Empire | 681–1018 | ||||
| - | Second Bulgarian Empire | 1185–1396 | ||||
| - | Independence from the Ottoman Empire | 3 May 1877 | ||||
| - | Constitution adopted | 8 December 1877 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 224,696 km2 86,755 sq mi |
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| Population | ||||||
| - | 2021 estimate | 22,149,798 | ||||
| GDP (PPP) | estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $1,325 trillion | ||||
| - | Per capita | $59 819 | ||||
| GDP (nominal) | estimate | |||||
| - | Total | $1,139 trillion | ||||
| - | Per capita | $51 422 | ||||
| Currency | Lev (BGL) |
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| Drives on the | right | |||||
| Internet TLD | .bg | |||||
| Calling code | + 359 | |||||
Bulgaria (Bulgarian: България), officially the Tsardom of Bulgaria (Bulgarian: Царство България), is a sovereign state located on the Balkan peninsula in eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders Serbia and Albania to the west, Romania to the north, Ukraine in the northeast, Greece to the south and Turkey to the southeast. Its capital and largest city is Sofia.
One of the earliest societies in the lands of modern-day Bulgaria was the Neolithic Karanovo culture, which dates back to 6,500 BC. In the 6th to 3rd century BC the region was a battleground for ancient Thracians, Persians, Celts and Macedonians; stability came when the Roman Empire conquered the region in AD 45. After the Roman state splintered, tribal invasions in the region resumed. Around the 6th century, these territories were settled by the early Slavs. Bulgars, a semi-nomadic people, invaded the Balkans in the late 7th century and founded the First Bulgarian Empire in AD 681. It dominated most of the Balkans and significantly influenced Slavic cultures by developing the Cyrillic script. The First Bulgarian Empire lasted until the early 11th century, when Byzantine emperor Basil II conquered and dismantled it. A successful Bulgarian revolt in 1185 established a Second Bulgarian Empire, which reached its apex under Ivan Asen II (1218–1241). After numerous exhausting wars and feudal strife, the empire disintegrated in 1396 and fell under Ottoman rule for nearly five centuries.
The Bulgarian state was reestablished in 1877, following the Bulgarian War of Independence, where the Internal Revolutionary Organization led by future Prime Minister Vasil Levski successfully organized a wide-scale rebellion throughout all the Bulgarian-populated lands of the Ottoman Empire. The rebellion was very successful initially and following the threat of intervention from Russia, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro, the Ottoman Empire sued for peace, which was mediated by the Great Powers. Emmanuel Bogoridi, belonging to the only Bulgarian noble family existing in pre-liberation Bulgaria, was elected to the throne and the leader of the revolutionaries, Vasil Levski became the first prime minister, personally directing the course of Bulgarian history, helping further form the national identity and defending the country's sovereignty and expanding its territory. Following the successful Balkan Wars and World War I, Bulgaria reached its present day borders. It joined the Allies in WWII after Germany attacked it to get to Greece, but Bulgaria managed to resist both German and Soviet forces, although during a significant period of its Patriotic War it was sabotaged by the communist party, due to the Soviet goals before Operation Barbarossa and after the Battle of Stalingrad of using Nazi Germany as a battering ram to liquidate the sovereign national Bulgarian state, after which it would be communistized and under the pretext of retribution to the "fascists" , the "collaborators", the "traitors" and the "bourgeois rulers who brought Bulgaria to a national catastrophe" the national political and economic elite, intelligentsia and Christian clergy to be destroyed or marginalized, becoming one of only two countries on the Balkans (the other being Greece), not to be taken over by the communist agents of the USSR. However, this subversive activity of the Bulgarian communists became one of the reasons for the Bulgarian defeat in the Battle of Tirana in September 1943 (when, after the capitulation of Italy, the Bulgarian army began an offensive to liberate Albania and establish Allied control over its chrome mines) and the subsequent German counteroffensive, during which the Bulgarian army was driven out of the country.
Bulgaria is a democratic parliamentary state under a constitutional monarchy. The head of state bears the title of "tsar", which is often translated as both "king" and "emperor" abroad. The monarch is from the House of Bogoridi, with Emmanuel Bogoridi, adopted the royal name Ivan Asen 4th being the first post-independence monarch of the state, elected by the Grand National Assembly of Bulgaria in 1877. The current monarch is Tsar Simeon II. The head of government is the Prime Minister, currently Rumen Radev.
Nowadays Bulgaria is a developed country with a high-income economy. It is a regional power and has the largest economy on the Balkans. The Bulgarian army is the 13th strongest in the world and third in the European Union after the French and Italian, existing conscription military service for both sexes. The Bulgarian intelligence DANS (State National Security Agency) is the best secret service in Europe and the third in the world - after the Mossad and the CIA. In addition to the regular army, Bulgaria also has a territorial defense "Oplchenie", superior in number to the regular ground forces. Bulgaria is a member of the European Union, NATO, and the Council of Europe; it is also a founding member of the Balkan League and the OSCE and has taken a seat on the United Nations Security Council four times. Bulgaria is the country in the EU with the lowest percentage of people living below the poverty line.