Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 26 - AUS-CHI.pdf/500

 [history BULGARIA 452 The great development of postal and telegraphic communica- decision was fraught with momentous consequences for the future tion attests the advance of civilization. The number of letters of the race. The nation altered its religion in obedience to its posted in 1886 was 1,468,494 ; in 1896, 4,370,216 ; in 1898, sovereign, and some of the boyars who resisted the change paid 5,869,034. The number of telegrams in 1886 was 527,556 ; in with their lives for their fidelity to the ancient belief. The inde1896, 1,082,326 ; in 1898, 1,099,163. Receipts of posts and pendence of the Bulgarian church was recognized by the Patritelegraphs were in 1886, 1,024,386 leva ; in 1896, 2,327,660 leva ; archate, a fact much dwelt upon in recent controversies^ The in 1898, 2,900,732 leva. In 1898 there were 5244 kilometres of Bulgarian primates subsequently received the title of patriarch ; their see was transferred from Preslav to Sofia, Voden, and telegraph lines and 87 kilometres of telephones. Prespa successively, and finally to Okhrida. The national power reached its zenith under Simeon (893-927), 2. Political History. a monarch distinguished in the arts of war and peace. In his The ancient Thraco-Illyrian race which inhabited the reign, says Gibbon, “Bulgaria assumed a rank among p;rst civilized powers of the earth.” His dominions . district between the Danube and the Hilgean was expelled, the extended from the Black Sea to the Adriatic, and from or more probably absorbed, by the great Slavonic immigra- the borders of Thessaly to the Save and the Carpathians. Having tion which took place at various intervals between the become the most powerful monarch in Eastern Europe, Simeon end of the 3rd century after Christ and the beginning assumed the style of “ Emperor and Autocrat of all the Bulgars Greeks ” (tsar i samodrzhetz vsem Blgarom i Grkorn), a title of the 6th. The numerous tumuli which are found in all and which was recognized by Pope Formosus. During the latter years parts of the country (see Herodotus, v. 8) and some of his reign, which were spent in peace, his people made great stone tablets with bas-reliefs remain as monuments of the progress in civilization, literature flourished, and Preslay, accoidaboriginal population; and certain structural peculiari- incr to contemporary chroniclers, rivalled Constantinople in magniAfter the death of Simeon the Bulgarian power declined ties, which are common to the Bulgarian and Rumanian ficence. owing to internal dissensions ; the land was distracted by the languages, may conceivably be traced to the influence of the Bogomile heresy, and a separate or western empire, including primitive Illyrian speech, now represented by the Albanian. Albania and Macedonia, was founded at Okhrida by Shishman, a The Slavs, an agricultural people, were governed, even boyar from Trnovo. A notable event took place in 967, when the under Sviatoslav, made their first appearance in Bulgaria. in those remote times, by the democratic local institutions Russians, The Bulgarian tsar, Boris II., with the aid of the emperor John to which they are still attached ; they possessed no national Zimisces, expelled the invaders, but the Greeks took advantage of leaders or central organization, and their only political their victory to dethrone Boris, and the first Bulgarian empire unit was the pleme, or tribe. They were considerably thus came to an end after an existence of three centuries. The at Okhrida, however, rose to considerable importance under influenced by contact with Roman civilization. _ It was empire Samuel, the son of Shishman (976-1014), who conquered the greater reserved for a foreign race, altogether distinct in origin, part of the Peninsula, and ruled from the Danube to the Morea. religion, and customs, to give unity and coherence to the After a series of campaigns this redoubtable warrior was defeated scattered Slavonic groups, and to weld them into a com- at Belasitza by the emperor Basil II., surnamed Bulgaroktonos, put out the eyes of 15,000 prisoners taken in the fight, and pact and powerful State which for some centuries played who sent them into the camp of his adversary. The Bulgarian tsar an important part in the history of eastern Europe and was so overpowered by the spectacle that he died of grief. A few threatened the existence of the Byzantine empire. years later his dynasty finally disappeared, and for more than a and a half (1018-1186) the Bulgarian race remained subject The Bulgars, a Turanian race akin to the Tatars, Huns, Avars, century the Byzantine emperors. Petchenegs, and Pinns, made their appearance on the banks of to In 1186, after a general insurrection under the brothers Ivan the Pruth in the latter part of the 7th century. They and Peter Asen of Trnovo, who claimed descent from the dynasty The were a }10rd.e of wild horsemen, fierce and barbarous, Bulgars. practising polygamy, and governed despotically by their of the Shishmanovtzi, the nation recovered its mde- Second and Ivan Asen assumed the title of “Tsar empire. khans and boyars (or bolyars). Their original abode was the tract pendence, the Bulgars and Greeks.” The seat of the second between the Ural mountains and the Volga, where the kingdom of was at Trnovo, which the Bulgarians regard as the histone of Great (or Black) Bolgary existed down to the 13th century. empire of their race. Kaloyan, the third of the Asen monarchs, In 679, under their khan Asparukh (or Isperikh), they crossed the capital extended his dominions to Belgrade, Nish, and Skopie (Uskub); Danube, and, after subjugating the Slavonic population of Moesia, he the spiritual supremacy of the Pope, and received advanced to the gates of Constantinople and Salonika. The By- theacknowledged royal crown from a papal legate. The greatest of all Bulzantine emperors were compelled to cede to them the province ot garian rulers wj.s Ivan Asen II. (1218-1241), a man of humane Moesia and to pay them an annual tribute. The invading horde and enlightened character. After a series of victorious campaigns was not numerous, and during the next two centuries it became he established his sway over Albania, Epirus, Macedonia, and gradually merged in the Slavonic population. Like the Franks in Thrace, and governed his wide dominions with justice, wisdom, Gaul the Bulgars gave their name and a political organization to and moderation. his time the nation attained a piosperity the more civilized race which they conquered, but adopted its hitherto unknown :Incommerce, the arts, and literature flourished , language, customs, and local institutions. Not a trace of the Trnovo, the capital, was enlarged embellished, and great Ugrian°or Finnish element is to be found in the Bulgarian speech. numbers of churches and monasteriesand were founded or endowed. This complete assimilation of a conquering race may be illustrated The dynasty of the Asens became extinct in 1257, and a period ot by many parallels. _ . began. Two other dynasties, both of Kuman origin, The history of the early Bulgarian dynasties is little else than decadence followed—the Terterovtzi, who ruled at Trnovo, and the felnstia record of continuous conflicts with the Byzantine emperors. The manovtzi, who founded an independent State at Vidm, but altertribute first imposed on the Greeks by Asparukh was Early. agDain exacted by Kardam (791-797) and Krum (802-815), wards reigned in the national capital. Eventually, on the 28tli dynasties. a sovereign noted alike for his cruelty and his military June 1330, a day commemorated with sorrow in Bulgaria, Isar Michael Shishman was defeated and slain by the Servians, under and political capacity. Under his rule the Bulgarian realm ex- Stephen Urosh III., at the battle of Velbuzhd (Kustendil). Bultended from the Carpathians to the neighbourhood of Adrianople ; garia, though retaining its native rulers, now became subject Serdica (the present Sofia) was taken, and the valley of the to Servia, and still formed part of the short-lived empire of Stephen Struma conquered. Preslav, the Bulgarian capital, was attacked Dushan 1331-1355). The Servian hegemony vanished alter ttie and burnt by the emperor Nikephoros, but the Greek army on its of Dushan, and the Christian races of the Peninsula, disreturn was annihilated in one of the Balkan passes 5 the emperor death by the quarrels of their petty princes, fell an easy prey to was slain, and his skull was converted by Krum into a goblet. tracted might of the Moslem invader. The reicn of Boris (852-884) is memorable for the introduction of theInadvancing the Turks had begun to ravage the valley ol the Christianity into Bulgaria. Two monks of Salonika, SS. Cyril Maritza1340 in 1362 they captured Philippopolis, and m 1382 feona. and Methodius, are generally reverenced as the national apostles ; In 1366 Ivan Shishman III., the last Bulgarian Turkish the scene of their labours, however, was among the Slays of tsar, was compelled to declare himself the vassal ol conquest. Moravia, and the Bulgars were evangelized by their disciples. the Sultan Murad 1., and to send his ro seuu ms sister to ^ the ^ harem — — _., Boris, finding himself surrounded by Christian states, decided of the conqueror. I.,Inana the rout of the Servians Bosnians and from political motives to abandon paganism. He was baptized in Croats on the famous1389 field of Kossovo decided the fate ol tiie 864 the emperor Michael III. acting as his sponsor. It was at Shortly afterwards Ivan Shishman was attacked DJ this* time that the controversies broke out which ended in 0,the Peninsula. the Turks • and Trnovo, after a siege of three months, was capschism between the Latin and Orthodox communities. L ’L tured, sacked, and burnt in 1393. The fate of the last BuJf™ long wavered between Constantinople and Rome, but the refusal sovereign is unknown: the national legend represents him of the Pope to recognize an autocephalous Bulgarian church determined him to offer his allegiance to the Greek Patriarch. The perishing in a battle near Samakov. Vidm, where Ivan s brother,