| |||||||
| Anthem | "Шуми Марица" | ||||||
| Capital (and largest city) |
Sofia | ||||||
| Ethnic Groups main |
84.8% Bulgarian | ||||||
| others | 8.8% Turkish
4.9% Roma 0.7% others | ||||||
| Demonym | Bulgarian | ||||||
| Government | Hereditary constitutional monarchy | ||||||
| Legislature | National Assembly | ||||||
| King | Boiko Bogomilov Kynev | ||||||
| Population | 6,931,482 | ||||||
| Currency | Bulgarian lev (лв) (BGV) | ||||||
| Time Zone | EEST (UTC+2) | ||||||
| summer | EEST (UTC+3) | ||||||
| Calling Code | +359 | ||||||
| Internet TLD | .bg | ||||||
| Organizations | Axis Powers | ||||||
Bulgaria (Bulgarian: България), officially the Kingdom of Bulgaria (Bulgarian: Кралство България), is a country located in the Balkan Peninsula in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, and the Black Sea to the east. The capital and largest city is Sofia; other major cities are Plovdiv, Varna and Burgas.
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. The Eastern Roman Empire lost some of these territories to the numerous early Slavs. They were invaded by small number of warlike Bulgars in the late 7th century who subdued the Slavs and founded there the First Bulgarian Empire in AD 681. It dominated most of the Balkans and significantly influenced Slavic cultures by developing the Cyrillic script. This state 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 of Bulgaria (1218–1241). After numerous exhausting wars and feudal strife, the empire disintegrated in 1396 and fell under Ottoman rule for nearly five centuries.
The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 resulted in the formation of the third and current Bulgarian state. Many ethnic Bulgarians were left outside the new nation's borders, which stoked irredentist sentiments that led to several conflicts with its neighbours and an alliance with Germany in the Great War. Following the turmoil of the Spanish Influenza and the Race Invasion, Bulgaria further cemented its alliance with Germany, which has become a cornerstone of Bulgarian foreign policy, along with Bulgarian irredentism.
Bulgaria is a member of the Axis Powers. Its market economy is part of the Axis Single Market and mostly relies on services, followed by industry—especially machine building and mining—and agriculture. Bulgaria is a developing country with an upper-middle-income economy, very high Human Development Index; although it has the lowest GDP per capita and lowest Human Development Index in the Axis Powers. Widespread corruption is a major socioeconomic issue; Bulgaria ranked as the most corrupt country in the Axis Powers in 2010.