Bulgaria is a small regional state located in the Balkan Peninsula, showing a roughly rectangular outline on the map, surrounded on three sides by neighboring countries except for the eastern side bordering the Black Sea. Not far south of Bulgaria is the Aegean Sea, which itself is part of the Mediterranean Sea, but this part of the coastline is completely divided by Greece and Turkey, and Bulgaria can clearly hear the sea breeze from the south, but it cannot directly enter the Mediterranean Sea.
In fact, before world war I, Bulgaria still retained the mouth of the Aegean Sea, but after that it could only bypass the Turkish Strait from the Black Sea in the east to the Mediterranean Sea. Earlier the peoples of the Balkans had no obvious boundaries, and when the power of the Roman Empire had expanded to this point, these peoples were brought under the rule of Rome. But like many newly conquered regions, Roman rule in the Balkans faced resistance from the natives.
In the struggle with Rome, the Eastern Roman Empire recognized Bulgarian independence on the condition that the other side accept the Orthodox faith, and from then on Orthodox Church became the state religion of Bulgaria. Since then, the Eastern Roman Empire has been weakening, and bulgaria can show its strength without new foreign forces, but unfortunately the Ottoman Turks have attacked from the east. The Ottoman Turks, which had wiped out the Eastern Roman Empire, were clearly more difficult to deal with than their former enemies, and Bulgaria, which had embraced the Orthodox faith, was naturally at odds with the prevailing Islam.
In the midst of fire and swords, Bulgaria was wiped out and its territory became part of the Ottoman Empire, but the Bulgarian revolt never stopped. Beginning in 1397 AD, Turkic rule over Bulgaria lasted about 500 years, and the struggle between the Balkan peoples and the Ottoman Empire lasted for five centuries. After entering the nineteenth century, Greece in the south took the lead in gaining independence, and the encouraged Bulgarians began to get rid of Turkish control in a more fanatical way.
After several battles, the overwhelmed Ottoman Turks finally recognized Bulgaria's "autonomy", and the territory of Bulgaria reached not only the Black Sea in the east, but also the Aegean Sea in the south. However, despite its autonomy, Bulgaria remained a principality under ottoman Turkey and wanted complete independence. The world pattern at this time was extremely unfavorable to the Ottoman Empire, and in the mouths of the Western powers, Ottoman Turkey was called the "sick man of West Asia", and Bulgaria finally got rid of this suzerainty in 1908.
Photo - Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria
After independence, Bulgaria formed a "Balkan Alliance" with Greece, Serbia and Montenegro, and this military alliance pointed to a common goal of the dying Ottoman Turkish Empire. Only three years later, war broke out between Italy and the Ottomans over Libya, and the Balkan Alliance began to take advantage of the fire, so the Turks were caught in a two-front battle. There is no suspense about the outcome of the war, and the Balkan Alliance, as the victor, mercilessly divides up the legacy of Ottoman Turkey in the Balkans.
The bane of uneven sharing of the spoils abounds in history, and this victory was no exception, as Bulgaria profited the most from the distribution of the fruits of the war, and the other countries of the Balkan League were dissatisfied with it. Soon the Second Balkan War broke out, this time an internal tear between former allies, and bulgaria declared its surrender under the combined attack of Greece, Serbia and Romania. It was also after this war that Bulgaria lost its Thracian part between it and the Aegean Sea.
Nevertheless, Greece did not completely take away all of the coastline of southern Bulgaria, and it was World War I that really caused the situation in Bulgaria today. By choosing the wrong camp, Bulgaria sided with Germany and was naturally slaughtered in the post-war reckoning. Since then, the border between Greece and Turkey has been bordered by Bulgaria in the south, and Bulgaria can only communicate with the world through the Black Sea.
Text: Teacher Yan, Picture: Map Ji, welcome to reprint.