Bulgaria, a country that dies unrepentantly.
On April 26, 1915, when the dreams of the participating countries on both sides of the First World War were dashed, Italy, which had belonged to the Triple Alliance, decisively betrayed Germany after receiving the benefits of the Entente, and declared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary in May, which was one of the few correct choices for Italy.
Unlike Italy' choice, in September 1915 Bulgaria chose to join the Allied forces and sent 300,000 troops to cooperate with Germany and Austria in launching an attack on Serbia.
In 1918, the curtain of the First World War finally fell, and the defeated countries must have the consciousness of the defeated countries, and the indemnity for the cession of land is indispensable, and Bulgaria has lost the Aegean Sea.
If you were given a chance to do it all over again, would you fall into the same pit? Bulgaria said: I will.
During World War II, Bulgaria was successfully fooled by Hitler, and on March 1, 1941, Bulgaria announced its accession to the Triple Alliance Treaty signed by Germany, Italy and Japan, becoming a servant state of German fascism.
There was no good end with Hitler, and the land swallowed by The German and Italian fascists and their vassal states during World War II eventually had to be spit out with the defeat of Germany, such as Hungary swallowing up southern Slovakia from Czechoslovakia and transylvania from Romania; Romania spitting out bereaved Bessarabia in 1941...
Falling into the same "pit" of Germany, Bulgaria not only had no territorial losses after the war, but was internationally recognized as The South Dobroga that was returned from Romania in 1940 under Hitler's "arbitration". Why?
Why did the "Little Prussia" in World War I join the Allies?
Why did Bulgaria join the Allies in 1915? You know, after Italy's anti-water, the Allies were left with only Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, and the balance of power was obviously inferior to that of the Allies. This is directly related to the Balkan wars in which Bulgaria participated.
Bulgaria's ancestors were regional powers facing the Mediterranean, Aegean and Black Seas, but they have been ruled by the Second Bulgarian Kingdom since its destruction by the Ottomans in 1397.
In 1877, the Tenth Russo-Turkish War broke out, and on January 30 of the following year, Russian troops approached the Ottoman capital of Istanbul, forcing the Ottoman Empire to sign the alliance under the city, the independence of Romania and Serbia, and Bulgaria became a semi-independent autonomous principality, the Principality of Bulgaria. On October 5, 1908, it became completely independent and the Kingdom of Bulgaria was established.
Restoring the glory of the ancestors was the goal of Bulgaria after independence. The ambition of Ferdinand I of Bulgaria can be seen in the title of Bulgarian Tsar, who aspired to establish a "new Byzantine Empire".
In 1912, Bulgaria formed the "Balkan Alliance" with Serbia, Greece and Montenegro against the Ottoman Empire, and the First Balkan War broke out on October 9. Less than three months into the war, the Ottomans could not hold out, and in May 1913 signed the Treaty of London with the countries of the "Balkan Alliance".
Through this peace treaty, Bulgaria received a small part of Thrace and Macedonia in the Ottoman Empire, which greatly displeased Bulgaria, knowing that it contributed the most and died the most soldiers, but not as much as Greece and Serbia.
Serbia incorporated Kosovo and North Macedonia, while Greece acquired Southern Epirus and Aegean Macedonia. You know, The Macedonian region is one of the core territories of the First and Second Kingdoms of Bulgaria, and Bulgaria hopes to gain more territory in the Macedonian region, but Serbia and Greece have the same idea. Serbia wanted more land in Macedonia to open up access to the Adriatic Sea, while Greece believed that southern Macedonia and Western Thrace belonged to Greece "since ancient times" and deserved to be returned.
The problem of the Balkans was never the problem of the Balkan states, and under the influence of Germany and Austria-Hungary, less than two months after the end of the first Balkan War, Bulgaria declared war on Serbia and Greece, and then Romania, The Negorom and the Ottoman Empire joined the warband and besieged Bulgaria.
Fight the enemy on one side against five, on five sides? Bulgaria obviously did not have such a great ability, so it had been fighting for a month and then prostrated itself.
On August 10, 1913, the Treaty of Bucharest was signed, and most of the land bulgarian acquired in the First Balkan War was lost, western Thrace was ceded to Greece, eastern Thrace was returned to the Ottoman Empire, the western region was ceded to Serbia, and South Dobroga was occupied by Romania.
The Treaty of Bucharest humiliated Bulgaria, knowing that it had contributed to the Ottoman Turks, but it had not been able to catch any hair.
The opportunity finally came in 1914, when gunfire in Sarajevo detonated World War I, and Bulgaria joined the war in September 1915 with the aim of revenge.
Bulgaria deserved the reputation of "Little Prussia" and performed perfectly militarily, and Serbia, which the Austro-Hungarian Empire had not gnawed down for a year, ended within 3 months of Bulgaria's entry into the war, occupied all of Serbia, and recaptured South Dobroga in 1916.
But a Bulgaria could not change the natural disadvantage of the Allies, and with the surrender of Germany, Bulgaria had to accept the humiliating Treaty of Nai, lost one-tenth of its territory, and paid 2.25 billion gold francs (about 90 million pounds). Bulgaria thus lost access to the Aegean Sea, while South Dobroga was firmly controlled by Romania.
Unrepentant World War II:
On October 3, 1918, at the urging of the Entente, the Tsar of Bulgaria passed the throne to his 24-year-old eldest son, Boris III, and himself went into exile in Austria. The young new Bulgarian tsar understood that he needed to pay for the wrong bet of the year, and the compensation for the cession of land was indispensable, but he did not expect to lose one-tenth of the land.
On September 1, 1939, 58 German divisions launched a blitzkrieg against Poland, and the Polish cavalry could not resist the German mechanized troops, and the Polish government fled overseas in only half a month. The Second World War finally broke out as scheduled, as Marshal Foch of France commented on the Treaty of Versailles 20 years earlier: "This is not peace, but a 20-year truce." "
Bulgaria in World War I and Germany eventually ended up fighting, so this time, although Germany and Britain and France were both wooing Bulgaria, Boris III insisted on a policy of "strict neutrality" and tried to gain greater benefits in the two camps of Europe.
In order to achieve this goal, Boris III actively visited European countries before the outbreak of World War II, and maintained good relations with Britain, France, Germany and Italy, but the outbreak of World War II broke the diplomatic balance of Bulgaria and had to choose sides.
Bulgaria, from the heart of the people, wanted to recover the territories lost in the Treaty of Bucharest and the Treaty of Neue, and with the re-emergence of Germany, it still had illusions about restoring the lost territory without bloodshed, so its relations with Nazi Germany were imminent.
How can Bulgaria be mixed with him without giving some sweetness, hitler naturally understood that Germany chose to cut romanian meat to feed it, which is Nandobroga.
In the Second Balkan War of 1913, Nandobroga was seized by Romania, a land that Bulgaria has always held in its hands.
In Romania, Hitler was prepared to strike and beat to trigger an internal political crisis, thus tying up his chariot. So in August 1940, Hitler conducted the second Vienna arbitration in Vienna, assigning Romanian Northern Transylvania to Hungary and South Dobroga to Bulgaria through the Treaty of Craiova, which eventually led to a political crisis in Romania. Antonescu, who was supported by Hitler, came to power through a coup d'état and joined the Axis powers.
Although Boris III wanted to be neutral, Hitler did not allow him to do so.
In 1941, Hitler prepared to cross the border bulgaria to attack Greece, so he issued a final ultimatum to Bulgaria, either to join or to die. At this time in Europe, Poland perished in 17 days, even the European power of France only resisted for 6 weeks, the European continent has long been the domain of Germany, Bulgaria in line with the decision of good men not to suffer immediate losses, on March 1, 1941 joined the Axis camp.
In the early morning of April 29, 1945, seeing that there was no hope of victory in the siege of Berlin, Hitler chose to commit suicide by drinking bullets, and on May 8, Germany chose to surrender. World War II, the end of the European theater, Nazi Germany and its vassal states were put on trial. Germany lost 120,000 square kilometers of territory, 40% of the pre-war territory, and Northern Transylvania, which Hungary had acquired from Romania, was forced to return, but only Bulgaria's land area increased compared with before the war.
Hitler's arbitration, Stalin recognized:
In February 1947, the Five Nations Peace Treaty was signed in Paris, which stipulated the territorial boundaries of the five countries.
This is how bulgaria is regulated:
Maintain the original borders of 1 January 1941; dissolve all fascist organizations in the territory; ensure the arrest and surrender of those guilty of war crimes and breaches of peace or crimes against humanity; no more than 55,000 troops in the army, no more than 3,500 in the navy, no more than 90 aircraft and 5,200 in the air force; no more than 1,800 anti-aircraft artillery; $45 million in compensation for Greece and $25 million for Yugoslavia, to be paid within 8 years.
That is to say, the Treaty of Five recognized the Treaty of Craiova of September 1940, leaving South Dobroga within the Bulgarian map.
There are several reasons why the Allies were so "benevolent" to Romania and even recognized Hitler's ruling.
1. The historical connection between Suzhou and Bao:
Historically, Bulgaria has been ruled by alexander and Roman empires and is known as "Mosia".
The establishment of Bulgaria stemmed from the westward migration of the Bulgars. The Bulgars began to appear on the stage of history in the fourth century AD, showing themselves as huns. At this time, the Bulgars lived between the Caspian Sea and the Black Sea, but they were attacked by the Avars and turks, and could not be avoided?
At the end of the 7th century, one group of Bulgars moved north to the Volga region, forming the "Volga Bulgar Khanate" (which formed the Russian Tatars), while the other, led by the macho chief Asparuch, moved westward, crossing the Danube to the Mosia region in 679, opposite the Byzantine Empire. The so-called enemy of the enemy is a friend, out of the need to resist the Byzantine Empire together, the Bulgars established an alliance with the local Slavs, and defeated the Byzantine Empire in 681, forcing the Byzantine Empire to cede the area between the Danube River south of the River and the Balkan Mountains to the Bulgars, which marked the birth of the First Bulgarian Kingdom.
Bulgaria was militarily powerful, especially during the reign of Simon the Great in the 9th century AD, when the Bulgarian Kingdom occupied most of the Balkan Peninsula and even forced the Byzantine Empire to pay tribute to Bulgaria, but with Simon's death, the First Kingdom also split, and was eventually destroyed by the Byzantine Empire in 1018. The Second Kingdom of Bulgaria, founded by the Bulgarians in 1185, was destroyed by the Ottoman Empire and ruled by it for the next 500 years. The reason why Bulgaria was able to become independent was directly related to the Russo-Turkish War, and the Bulgarian people generally had a good feeling for the Soviet Union. Even now, statues of Tsar Alexander II of Russia are preserved in some parts of Bulgaria, who "rescued" Bulgaria from the clutches of the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria was even preparing to join the Soviet Union. This shows how close the relationship between the two countries is.
2. Romania is stained with Soviet blood:
In June 1941, Hitler launched the Barbarossa Plan to invade the Soviet Union, and Romania sent 360,000 troops to follow the Germans into the Soviet Union. Bulgaria, by contrast, was much smarter, and during World War II Bulgaria never declared war on the Soviet Union. Although Hitler repeatedly demanded that Bulgaria contribute more to the great cause of the Axis powers, Bulgaria always refused to join the Soviet-German battlefield on the grounds that the national treasury was empty, lacked money and food, and lack of troops. It can be said that Romania's hands are stained with Soviet blood, while Bulgaria is not stained with Soviet blood.
Coupled with the fact that Romanians, despite living in the hinterland of the Slavs of Eastern Europe, did not belong to the Slavic race, romanian belonged to the Latin language family and was closer to Italian, which made the Soviet Union naturally closer to Bulgaria.
3. Bulgaria's anti-water campaign accelerates the course of the Balkan War:
At the end of World War II, the Bulgarian government had already seen the defeat of Germany, so it had long been secretly communicating with the Allied pigeons. By the summer of 1944, the Soviet counter-offensive had reached the Balkans, and Romania had overthrew the fascist regime on August 23. On the evening of 8 September, the Bulgarian Workers' Party launched an armed uprising in the capital Sofia, overthrowing the monarchy and declaring war on Germany the following day.
The anti-water reaction in Bulgaria made the German troops deployed in Greece and other places fall into a situation of being shut down and had to be evacuated urgently, which objectively shortened the course of the war in the Balkans and promoted the end of the European battlefield to a certain extent.
In this case, Bulgaria and Romania were both vassal states of Nazi Germany and both were defeated countries, and there was no need for the Soviet Union to help Romania regain its lost territory, after all, this land had been under Bulgarian rule since 1878 and was not occupied by Romania until 1913.