Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 26 - AUS-CHI.pdf/502

 [history B U L G ARIA r delayed till February 1872, owing to the opposition of as w ell as the districts of Yranya and Pirot, and possessing a Mediterranean port at Kavala. The Dobruja, notwiththe Patriarch, who immediately afterwards excommunicated the new head of the Bulgarian church and all his standing its Bulgarian population, was not included in the followers. The official recognition now acquired tended new state, being reserved as compensation to Rumania to consolidate the Bulgarian nation and to prepare it for for the Russian annexation of Bessarabia; Adrianople, the political developments which were soon to follow. A Salonika, and the Chalcidian peninsula, were left to great educational activity at once displayed itself in all Turkey. The area thus delimited constituted threefifths of the Balkan Peninsula, with a population of the districts subjected to the new ecclesiastical power. Under the enlightened administration of Midhat Pasha 4,000,000 inhabitants. The Great Powers, however, (1864-68) Bulgaria enjoyed comparative prosperity, but anticipating that this extensive territory would become a that remarkable man is not remembered with Russian dependency, intervened; and on the 13th July of Revolt of gratitude by the people owing to the severity the same year was signed the Treaty of Berlin, which with which he repressed insurrectionary move- in effect divided the “ Big Bulgaria ” of the San Stefano ments. In 1861, 12,000 Crimean Tatars, and in 1864 Treaty into three portions. The limits of the principality a still larger number of Circassians from the Caucasus, of Bulgaria, as now defined, and the autonomous province have been already described ; the were settled by the Turkish Government on lands taken of Eastern Rumelia, or n without compensation from the Bulgarian peasants. The remaining' p fi° j including almost the whole of MaceCircassians, a lawless race of mountaineers, proved a verit- donia and part of the vilayet of Adrianople, was left able scourge to the population in their neighbourhood. under Turkish administration. No special organization In 1875 the insurrection in Bosnia and Herzegovina pro- was provided for the districts thus abandoned; it was duced immense excitement throughout the Peninsula. The stipulated that laws similar to the organic law of Crete fanaticism of the Moslems was aroused, and the Bulgarians, should be introduced into the various parts of Turkey in fearing a general massacre of Christians, endeavoured to Europe, but this engagement was never carried out by anticipate the blow by organizing a general revolt. The the Porte. Yranya, Pirot, and Nish were given to Servia, rising, which broke out prematurely at Koprivshtitza and and the transference of the Dobruja to Rumania was Panagurishte in May 1876, was mainly confined to the sanjak sanctioned. This artificial division of the Bulgarian of Philippopolis. Bands of bashi-bazouks were let loose nation could scarcely be regarded as possessing elements throughout the district by the Turkish authorities, the of permanence. It was provided that the prince of BulPomaks, or Moslem Bulgarians, and the Circassian colonists garia should be freely elected by the population, and were called to arms, and a succession of horrors followed confirmed by the Sublime Porte with the assent of the to which a parallel can scarcely be found in the history of Powers, and that, before his election, an assembly of the Middle Ages. The principal scenes of massacre were Bulgarian notables, convoked at Trnovo, should draw up Panagurishte, Perushtitza, Bratzigovo, and Batak j at the the organic law of the principality. The drafting of a last-named town, according to an official British report, constitution for Eastern Rumelia was assigned to a 5000 men, women, and children were put to the sword European commission. Pending the completion of their political organization, by the Pomaks under Achmet Aga, who was decorated by the Sultan for this exploit. Altogether some 15,000 Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia were occupied by Russian persons were massacred in the district of Philippopolis, troops and administered by Russian officials. The and fifty-eight villages and five monasteries were destroyed. assembly of notables, which met at Trnovo in 18/9, was Isolated risings which took place on the northern side of mainly composed of half-educated peasants, who from the the Balkans were crushed with similar barbarity. These first displayed an extremely democratic spirit, in which atrocities, which were first made known by an English they proceeded to manipulate the very liberal constitution journalist and an American consular official, were denounced submitted to them by Prince Dondukoff-Korsakoff, ^ by Gladstone in a celebrated pamphlet which aroused the the Russian governor-general. The long period of co*stjtu. indignation of Europe. The Great Powers remained in- Turkish domination had effectually obliterated all tion% active, but Servia declared war in the following month, social distinctions, and the radical element, which and her army was joined by 2000 Bulgarian volunteers. now formed into a party under Tzankoft and Karaveloff, A conference of the representatives of the Powers, held at soon gave evidence of its predominance. Manhood suffrage, Constantinople towards the end of the year, proposed, a single chamber, payment of deputies, the absence of a among other reforms, the organization of the Bulgarian property qualification for candidates, and the prohibition provinces, including the greater part of Macedonia, in t o of all titles and distinctions, formed salient features in vilayets under Christian governors, with popular repre- the constitution now elaborated. The organic statute of sentation. These recommendations were practically set Eastern Rumelia was largely modelled on the Belgian aside by the Porte, and in April 1877 Russia declared constitution. The governor-general, nominated for five war. In the campaign which followed the Bulgarian years by the Sultan with the approbation of the Powers, volunteer contingent in the Russian army played an was assisted by an Assembly, partly representative, partly honourable part; it accompanied Gourko’s advance over composed of ex-officio members; a permanent committee the Balkans, behaved with great bravery at Stara Zagora, was entrusted with the preparation of legislative measures where it lost heavily, and rendered valuable services in and the general supervision of the administration, while a council of six “directors” fulfilled the duties of a the defence of Shipka. The victorious advance of the Russian army to Con- ministry. On the 29th April 1879 the Assembly at Trnovo, on stantinople was followed by the treaty of San Stefano (3rd March 1878), which realized almost to the proposal of Russia, elected as first sovereign of Treaty of t]ie fuq the national aspirations of the Bul- Bulgaria Prince Alexander of Battenberg, a prince Berl,n ' garian race. All the provinces of European member of the grand ducal house of Hesse Alexander. Turkey in which the Bulgarian element predominated and a nephew of the Tsar Alexander II. were now included in an autonomous principality, which Arriving in Bulgaria on the 7th July, Prince Alexander, extended from the Black Sea to the Albanian mountains, then in his twenty-third year, found all the authority, and from the Danube to the vEgean, enclosing Okhrida, military and civil, in Russian hands. The history of the the ancient capital of the Shishmans, Dibra, and Kastoria, earlier portion of his reign is marked by two principal

454