BULGARIA AND HER PAST
Progress of Bulgaria—Origin of her Peoples—The Bulgari—First
Russian Invasion of Bulgaria—The Assenide Dynasty—Turkish
Tyrannies—Emancipation of Bulgaria—Russia’s Intrigues against Prince
Alexander—The Late Balkan Disturbances.
But now, for a moment, let us look at the serious side of this little
warlike principality which has only recently wiggled from under
the vassalage of Turkey, at the same time proclaiming her absolute
independence, and which, to my mind, is the Bulwark of the Balkans.
Although having enjoyed but a short thirty-one years of partial
independent existence, for it is the youngest of the Balkan States, the
progress of Bulgaria during that thirty-one years has been little short
of remarkable. A visitor to the country is at once impressed with the
look of indomitable determination that characterizes the features of
the Bulgars. That indomitable determination has convinced the outside
world of their worthiness of the freedom as a state conferred upon
them in 1877; it will continue in the future to convince the outside
world of their worthiness of the indefinite prolongation of this
freedom.
It is impossible to recognize in the proud, full-blown kingdom of
to-day the down-trodden province of Turkey of three decades ago. In
thirty years Bulgaria has built more than four thousand three hundred
primary schools; she has established, and maintains, a standing army of
one hundred and twenty thousand men and is capable of putting in the
field in time of emergency two hundred and fifty thousand more; the
value of her annual exports has reached the figure of $250,000,000;
seventy per cent. of her total area has been rendered susceptible to
the highest degree of cultivation; the agricultural and stock-raising
adaptability of her peoples has opened the eyes of all Europe; while
her ottar of rose industry, down in the little valley of Toundja, “The
Rose Valley,” has become world-renowned.
But to fully appreciate and feel this miraculous development we must
delve, briefly, into Bulgaria’s past.
The ancient Roman name of Thrace was the one generally applied to
the entire territory lying between the Macedonian frontier and the
Danube River, while the territory to the north of the Balkans was
then called Moesia. Savage tribes, known as the Thraco-Dacians, the
Thraco-Illyrians and the Thraco-Macedonians, held sway over the whole
of the Balkan Peninsula until, historians tell us, Philip and his
successor, Alexander, came upon and took the country. The date of the
beginning of Roman conquests in Thrace is indefinite, but it remains an
undisputed fact that Vespasian annexed the country and proclaimed it a
Roman province in A. D. 75.
The Slavs, moving westward from their confines in Asia, and having
waged successful warfare upon the Huns and the Goths, populated
Bulgaria between the third and the seventh centuries. They introduced
their customs and language throughout a large part of eastern and
southeastern Europe, and their descendants, influenced, of course, by
the later dominant races, constitute the present population of Bulgaria.
At this point of history we hear for the first time of the Bulgari, “a
horde of Asiatics of Turkish strain,” who were also destined to be a
prime factor in the general make-up of the present-day Bulgarians. They
swarmed over the country in the seventh century and founded the first
Bulgarian empire, which attained its height between the years 893
and 927 A. D. under the Tzar Simeon, only to fall ignominiously under
Byzantine rule hardly a century later.
In the year 965, Greece endeavoured to subject Bulgaria to her power,
and the Emperor Nikephoros Phakos sought aid in his undertakings from
a tribe of Northmen (and we have every reason to believe that this
tribe was composed of the antecedents of the Russians of to-day) under
a leader named Sviatoslav. Sviatoslav condescended to become an ally
of the Greeks, but the latter became so jealous of his many successful
conquests in their behalf that they grew afraid of him and finally made
a treaty with the Bulgarian Tzar, Boris II.
Upon the death of Nikephoros, Sviatoslav decided to make war on
Bulgaria for his own aggrandizement, and in 969 he captured Boris,
carrying him as far east as Philippopolis. Here the Greek Emperor,
Zinisces, the successor of Nikephoros, with the help of the defeated
Bulgarians themselves, drove the Northmen back. Sviatoslav was
compelled to seek refuge in Silistria, where he sustained a siege of
three months. After his final capture he was liberated and allowed to
return to his native land, but, while on the march, he and his few
surviving adherents were ruthlessly slain by a marauding band of
hostile tribesmen.
[Illustration: THE SAINT CRAL CATHEDRAL, SOPHIA.]
This may be said to have been the first Russian invasion of Bulgaria,
the direct result of which was the fusion of the Northern and the
Southern Slavs. Bulgarian history proper begins, however, with the
nation’s conversion to Christianity under the Tzar Boris, late in the
ninth century. About the same time the Cyrillic alphabet—now adopted
by all Slav peoples, including the Russians—was introduced by the
great apostles, Cyril and Methodius.
Under Assen, Bulgaria, then belonging to Greece, revolted, conquered,
and Assen I, the founder of the Assenide dynasty, was chosen Tzar. This
dynasty reached its height under Assen II (1218-1241) and a century
later the country fell under Servian rule; to its advantage, however,
for King Dushan of Servia proved himself a wise and jealous protector.
After the death of King Dushan, the Northern provinces of the Balkan
Peninsula commenced to feel the effects of Turkish invasions. For
some years the Bulgarians defended their lives and their property
heroically; but, finally, Tzar Shishman III, having been deserted by
his allies, surrendered and acknowledged himself a subject of Sultan
Murad I. Not, however, until after the bloody battle of Kossovo in
1389 was Bulgaria brought completely under Ottoman rule.
For the following five hundred years the Turks pillaged and sacked the
country and outraged its inhabitants. Europe remained in ignorance of
the atrocities, for her mind was distracted by her own sanguinary wars.
The Ottoman domination and tyranny was social as well as political; it
was felt keenly, not only in manners and morals, but in social liberty
also. Nevertheless, it is a singular fact that no determined attempt to
assimilate Bulgaria, as a whole, to Turkish customs and Mohammedanism
was made during all these years. The only instances of religious
coercion were prevalent in the cases of young Bulgarian girls who had
been snatched from their very doorsteps and placed in the harem of some
bigoted Pasha.
Even the Crimean War of 1854-56, which resulted in the liberation of
Roumania from Ottoman rule, brought no relief to oppressed Bulgaria.
The Turks seemed to persecute the Christians more terribly after it
than before. In 1876 Gladstone’s vitriolic speeches, in the exposure
of Turkish atrocities and demanding the emancipation of Bulgaria, were
heeded, and the successful defence of Shipka Pass was not in vain.
Bulgaria became a principality under Alexander; but, after a successful
war with Servia as the aggressor, Russia instigated a conspiracy
against him which led to his ultimate abdication.
[Illustration: THE RUINED CHURCH OF SAINT SOPHIA, SOPHIA.]
With glowing promises of promotion, Russia’s agents, Bendereff and
Greuff by name, were bribed to influence Bulgarian officers to turn
traitors to the Prince. Parts of two regiments and the cadets of the
military college at Sophia, all more or less under the influence
of liquor, invaded the palace on the night of August 21st, 1886,
and ordered Alexander, at the point of drawn revolvers, to sign an
illegible document which he was told was his abdication paper. He was
forthwith carried aboard his own private yacht, taken down the river
and delivered to the Russian authorities at Reni, where, for a time, he
was held prisoner.
Then Europe, indignant, lent a hand and secured his liberation.
Re-entering Sophia on September 3, he assumed triumphant control, for
his people, incensed beyond measure at such intrigue, awaited anxiously
his home-coming. Bendereff and Greuff were tried and convicted by
court-martial, but Russia, Germany and Austria demanded that they
should be released.
Upon the final abdication of Alexander, the Bulgarian Sobranje, or
Parliament, elected unanimously Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, the
present ruling “Tzar of the Bulgars,” as his newly acquired title reads.
As a part of the history of present-day Bulgaria, principally, and of
the Near East, generally, it would be unwise to exclude from these
pages a brief rehearsal of the late eruptions in that part of Europe,
which have proven the futility of international treaties and, at the
outset of the troubles, tended to shatter the pacific exertions of the
Old World.
This time Bulgaria exploded the percussion-cap, and the primary cause
of the resulting imbroglio was a strike of the employees of the Orient
Railway, which threads its way through the country from west to east,
but which is really Turkish property, for it is operated under a
concession from the Porte that does not expire until January 1, 1958,
although it thrives under the protection of Austria, and is capitalized
largely by Germany.
Bulgarian troops occupied the railway line provisionally during the
strike but, when an agreement was effected, refused to relinquish the
road to the officers of the Oriental Railways Company.
[Illustration: MONUMENT TO THE “TZAR LIBERATOR,” SOPHIA.]
While Bulgaria’s answer to a formal request by Turkey to surrender
the railway still hung fire her people were aroused to fever heat
by an untoward incident that took place in Constantinople: Their
representative at the Porte failed to find his name included in the
list of guests invited to be present at an international diplomatic
banquet. Turkey’s apology for this slight came too late, for the then
Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria had already repaired to the ancient
capital, Tirnova, probably out of pure sentiment, and was solemnly
crowned “Tzar of the Bulgars” on Monday, October 5th, 1908.
Thus did Bulgaria bring into play a lame excuse to break faith with the
Powers of Europe, which, in a clause of the Treaty of Berlin, signed
by them in 1878 (but not signed by Bulgaria, and therefore it can
hardly be said that Bulgaria _broke_ the treaty), compelled Bulgaria to
pay a yearly tribute to Turkey for certain concessions of territory,
including the province of Eastern Roumelia.
Three days after Bulgaria’s proclamation, Austria, in direct violation
of this same Treaty of Berlin, declared her intention (and later
fulfilled the same) of usurping for her own the one-time Servian
provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, over which she had been appointed
guardian. This move provoked the Servians to clamour for war with
Austria while Montenegro swore her allegiance to Servia. It looked for
a time as if King Peter of Servia would be forced to abdicate in favour
of his son George, the Crown Prince, or fulfil the demands of his
super-patriotic subjects; and even king-killing is not a lost art in
Belgrade.
To further the dismemberment of Turkey in Europe, the Island of Crete
declared itself Grecian territory, and Albania, also inoculated with
the serum of liberty, commenced to howl for independence and courted
the sponsorship of Italy.
For several obvious reasons the convention of the original signatories
of the Berlin Treaty for the promulgation of European peace was at
that time impossible. Great Britain would not consent to such a
convention unless all agreed that the original treaty should not be
changed, but that the present issues alone should be discussed; Russia
would not consent to such a convention unless the clause which barred
the Dardanelles to the passage of Russian war vessels was struck in
advance from the original treaty; Austria refused to be a part of
such a convention unless her annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was
acknowledged in advance by the other Powers.
At a conference held in the interests of permanent peace, France,
Russia and Great Britain submitted tentative plans, which were promptly
adopted, for the re-distribution of authority in the Balkan provinces,
the most important decision being that Bosnia and Herzegovina go
permanently to Austria. The original stipulations of the Treaty of
Berlin did not even have a hearing. France, of course, blamed Germany
for instigating the troubles in order to humiliate Great Britain
and force the “Young Turks’ Party,” which compelled the Sultan to
acknowledge a new constitution and later dethroned him, to re-adopt the
old régime, under which Germany is alleged to have benefited greatly by
trade with Turkey. Germany, in turn, felt slighted at not having been
invited to join Great Britain, France and Russia in the drawing up of
their proposals. For a time the guy-ropes of the European peace-tent
were stretched mighty taut. Had just one of them parted there would
have been the liveliest scramble among the Powers for Balkan territory
that Europe had seen in many a day.
Although Bulgaria complied with the demand of Turkey that the Roumelia
tribute be capitalized, Turkey was loth—and is yet, for that
matter—to acknowledge the independence of Bulgaria or the annexation
of Bosnia and Herzegovina by Austria; Antivari, Montenegro’s only
seaport, enjoyed for a time a splendid view of an Austrian war fleet;
Montenegro claimed, but failed to collect, indemnity from Austria
for the detention by officials on Austrian territory of a special
Montenegrin envoy to Servia; and the strained relations between Austria
and Servia took on a ridiculous aspect by Austria’s refusal to allow
war materials to be imported into Servia through her domain ... about
the only way Servia would be able to obtain such materials.
Bulgaria said she had been preparing for a possible war with Turkey
for ten years, and it is a known fact that, although barely one-fifth
the size, in population, of the Ottoman Empire, she could have placed
in the field fully as many men, some three hundred and seventy-five
thousand, vastly better drilled and better versed in the tactics of
war. The expenses of keeping the reserve forces with the colours during
the recent disturbances and the “compensations” which she had to pay
because of her prince’s assumption to the title of “Tzar” were met by
increased taxes upon her peasantry, and upon the apathy or enthusiasm
of this peasantry would have depended the defeat or victory of
Bulgarian arms in a war with Turkey. In advent of hostilities, however,
it is safe to say that the pugnacious Bulgarians, with Austria nagging
them on, would have bade fair to sweep the Turk from the map of Europe.
Had the unsatisfied Servians, on the other hand, been foolish enough
to force themselves into war with Austria, the continuance of Servia
as a nation would have been doubtful indeed. It would be difficult to
imagine an alliance between the Servians, including the Montenegrins,
and the Turks, their life-long enemies, but under the conditions at
that time such a thing was not out of the question.