Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 17.djvu/150

 BXJIiOAKIA

134

BULOAKIA

Bulgaria (cf. C. E., m-46a).— The frequent changes in the bomidaries of Bulgaria make it difficult to determine the general population with any degree of accuracy. By the terms of the treaty of Neuilly the present boundaries of Bulgaria again approach those of 1910, when the official Bulgarian census gave the population as 4,337,513. The esti- mated area (1920) is 42,000 square miles, and the estimated population 5,000,000. The census of 1910 gave the following figures: Bulgarians, 3,203310; Turks, 488,010; Rumanians, 75,773; Greeks, 63,487; Gipsies, 98,004; other races, 61,690. Of the new population, added in 1913 after the treaty of Bukarest, 227,598 were Bulgarians, 75,337 Pomaks (Bulgarian Mohammedans), 275,498 Turks, and 58,- 709 Greeks, total 637,142; but as about 273,000 in the Dobrudja passed to Rumania, the total gain is about 364,000. According to the Peace Treaty of Neuilly, signed on 27 November, 1919, Bulgaria cedes Thrace to Greece, and the Strumitsa line and a strip of territoi:^ on the northwest frontier to Servia. Bulgaria is deprived of her JSgean littoral, but an efficient economic outlet to the sea is provided for her in the treaty. •

Economic (Ik>NDiTioNB.— The total area of Bul- garia is approsdmately 22,239,000 acres, 6394,090 acres or 31 per cent of which are cultivated and 4392,580 acres or 22 per cent uncultivated, the re- mainder being forest land. The chief products are fruit (109,945 acres), wheat (2,080,000 acres), maize (1,376,900 acres). The new Land Law of Bulgaria allows to each person only what he can work with his hands, or about 30 hectares, thus keeping Bul- garia the nation of small proprietors that it ha^ been. The Labor Law of 20 September, 1920, forces every man and woman between the a^es of twenty and fifty to work a certain leng^th of time for the State; thus the time formerly given to military service, which is now forbidden by the Treaty of Peace, will be turned to useful labor. Eveiy Bulgarian youth of twenty years of age must give the state 12 months of labor; every girl of sixteen years of age 6 months of labor. The income tax of Bulgaria is particularly unfortunate, with its drastic impost on large incomes and practical exemption of the great agrarian element from the operation of the law. It deprives the State of a much needed in- come from the peasants and by its unequal tax on profitable large-scale business it is driving foreign capital from the country.

Coal production in 1919 was 18,141 tons, valued at 43,450 1. There are 388 state-encouraged indus- trial institutions.

Education.— Elementary education is obligatory and free for all children between the ages of seven and fourteen. The following are the statistics of various classes of state schools in Bulgaria for 1918-19 :

3,592 354

37

46

437

78

Instructors | Attendance

Schoola

•3

4,172 765

233

820

1,828

551

•3 1

5396 1,623

337

407

2,367

156

•3

&

Elementaiy

Progymnasia ... Incomplete

Gymnasia

Complete

Normal Schools. Professional ....

271,205 50,950

11335

19,431

82,216

7,551

203,037 23,571

8,698 12,460 44,729

4,231

There are besides three superior training colleges with 19 instructors and an attendance of 98 males

and 93 females. There are also 1,199 private schools with 1,671 male and 276 female instructors and 35,948 male and 28,702 females. Private schools are supported b3r religious communities, societies^ and by missionaries.

Reugion. — ^According to the census of 1910 the population numbered 4,035375, divided according to religion into 3,643,951 Greek Orthodox, 32,130 Catholics of the Latin Rite and Uniat Greeks, 12,270 Gregorian Armenians, 40,070 Jews, 602,101 Moslems, and 6,252 Protestants. Of the new popu- lation added by the Treaty of Bukarest, 286,307 were Orthodox (227,598 Bulgarians and 58,709 Greeks), and 350395 Moslems (75,337 Pomaks and 275,498 Turks). In the part of the Dobrudja ceded to Rumania by the same treaty there were about 90,000 Moslems and 100,000 Orthodox.

The Bulgarian exarch at Constantinople was transferred to Sofia after the Second Balkan War in 1913. The last exarch, Monsignor Joseph, died at Sofia in 1915 and has not had a successor. It is possible that another may not be appointed. The Greek Orthodox Church of Bulgaria is divided into twenty-two dioceses. For Catholic statistics see NioopoLis, Diocese of; Sofia and Phiuppopoub,

ViCARUTB ApOSTOUC OF.

Recent HisTORY^-On 6 October, 1908, Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Cobur^-Kohaiy was proclaimed the Tsar of the Bulganans. With her politicuJ ambitions thus aroused, Bulgaria desired to win back the territories acquired by the Peace of San Stefano. This, together with the continued Turkish misrule in Macedonia, the political aggrandizement of Austria, and the territorial ambitions of the Slavs, led to the union of Servia, Greece, Bulgaria, and Montenegro in the Balkan League against Turkev. In 1912 they demanded autonomy for Macedonia imder European governors, the conse- quence of which demand was war. In the hos- tilities with the Turks Montene^o was victorious, but was long baffled by the resistance of Scutari, which eventuaUy fell to her on 23 April, 1913; the Servians captured Prishtina, Kumanovo, Skoplye, Prisrend, and Monastir, Alessio and Durazzo; Greece overran Thessaly and Epirus, and took Salonica, Chio, and other islands ; Bulgaria beat the Turks at Kirk Kilisseh and Luleh Burgas. Adrian- ople fell to the Bulgars in 1913. By the treaty of London, Turkey ceded Oete to Greece and gave up all territory west of a line drawn from Enos to Midia. Of this Bulgaria demanded the chief share in virtue of a secret treaty with Servia in 1912. Servia, derprived by the allies of Albania, demanded a new apportionment, which Bulgaria refused. A second Balkan War ensued, Servia, Montenegro, Greece, Turkey, and Rumania against Bulgaria. A simultaneous invasion of Bulgana en- sued. Adrianople was re-occupied by the Turks. Closed in from every side the king of Bulgaria sued for peace. By the treaty of Bukarest (1913) Bulgaria surrendered her claims to western Mace- doma and ceded Dobrudja to Rumania, but re- tained a strip of Macedonia and western Thrace, Turkey holding Adrianople. The Turco-Bulgarian treaty of Constantinople (1913) delimited the new frontier in Thrace. The rest of the territory con- quered from Turkey was divided between Greece and Servia.

By these two Balkan wars Turkey lost four-fifths of her European territory; Rumania, Biilgaria, Servia, Albania, and Greece emerged with greater territory, but with a hatred for one another of indescribable bitterness. Bulgaria was reconciled with Turkey and Austria, and when the Great European War came she was naturally on their