The Second Bulgarian Empire (1185 - 1396)

The Byzantine rule was a complete failure and great disaster for Bulgarians. The Pechenegs, Cumans, Vikings, Normans, Varangians, Polovtsi, Alans, and other Turkic tribes, initially used by the Byzantine emperors against Bulgaria, were getting out of control and began to attack indiscriminately all regions of the empire. The injudicious economic rule and the devastating corruption provoked several internal disorders at Constantinople. In 1040, Peter Delyan, grandson of Samuel was proclaimed Bulgarian tsar in Belgrade (present capital of Serbia). For two years he succeeded in liberating Bulgarian lands. At the end he is treacherously blinded by one of his relatives on the sold of the Byzantine emperor. In 1072, Georgi Voiteh and Constantine Bodin leaded the Bulgarians and proclaimed the independent Bulgarian state in the town of Skopje (present capital of Macedonia). After two years of fighting the revolt is put down by the Byzantine empire with the help of Norman, Pecheneg, and Varangian mercenaries.

In 1185, the noble brothers Ivan Asen and Peter led the Bulgarians in a revolt against the oppressive Byzantine rule and established the second Bulgarian Empire (1185 - 1396). In 1186 Ivan Asen (John I Asen II) was crowned tsar in the new Bulgarian capital, the town of Veliko Turnovo.

The triple entry gate of Tsarevets (the imperial residence of Bulgarians rulers) and the Patriarchal Church at the top

By the early 13th century, the third brother Kaloyan (John II Asen II) restores the mighty power of Bulgaria. On 14 April 1204 near Adrianople, Kaloyan crushed the powerful army of the Latin emperor Baldwin I of Flanders. The crusaders instead of going to Jerusalem and liberate the Holy Land preferred to take the defenseless Constantinople by surprise and to pillage the neighboring countries, namely Bulgaria. The dramatic defeat at Adrianople (chronicle of G. Villehardouin) where the emperor Baldwin was taken as a prisoner brought to an end the crusaders offensive against East Europe and thus determined the failure of this empire. The second Bulgarian Empire stands out again as a major power in East Europe. Bulgaria recovered the neighboring territories, inhabited by Bulgarians - notably sections of present-day Serbia, Romania, Greece and all of Macedonia.

The height of Bulgarian power was reached under Ivan Asen II (John III Asen II), whose rule (1218–1241) extended over nearly the whole Balkan Peninsula except the south of Greece. Under Ivan Asen II, the fifth ruler of the Asen dynasty, Bulgaria reached its highest efflorescence establishing political supremacy in East Europe, expanding its borders, pushing forward economical and cultural development. After the historical victory against the Byzantine despot Theodore Comnenos at Klokotnitza in 1230, Bulgaria restored its territorial power with an outlet to the three seas - the Aegean sea, Black sea and Adriatic sea. Large parts of Greece, Tessalia, Epirus, and Albania were added to the Bulgarian Empire.

In 1330 tsar Michael Shishman dies in a disastrous battle against Serbia. Aggressive Serbian imperialism destroys the unity of Christian states in Balkans. The Ottoman Turks take great advantage of this conflict, invading and spreading rapidly over Balkans. After 1360, the Islam invaders dominated by the Ottoman dynasty began to ravage, pillage and loot the cities in the Maritsa Valley and South Bulgaria.

After the tragic fall down of Bulgarian Empire, the Christian Europe begin to recognize the danger of the Islam invasion. In response to a crusade preached by Pope Boniface IX a French-led army of 10,000 joined a Christian army under King Sigismund of Hungary. The crusaders marched to the relief of Bulgarian, Armenian, Georgian, Greek and other Christians abysmally oppressed by Islamic invaders. On 22 September 1396, at Nicopolis they met the Ottoman army and its Serbian allies in the dramatic battle of Nicopolis.

(Bibliothèque nationale de France, FR 2646) fol. 255v
Jean Froissart, Chroniques
Flandre, Bruges, XVe s. (170 x 200 mm)

Dark Ages: Bulgaria Under Ottoman Domination

Turkish rule was often oppressive, and rebellions were frequent. By recognizing the authority of the Orthodox Eastern Church in Constantinople over all Christians in their empire, the Turks undermined the basis of Bulgarian culture. A determined effort was made to destroy Bulgarian Christianity and the Bulgarian language. The role of the Phanariots was particularly resented.

In the 18th century Paissiy, a Bulgarian monk of the Khilendar Monastery on Mt Athos, used medieval texts to prepare a history of his people, calling on them to remember their past and former greatness. Paissiy's history is regarded as the beginning of the National Revival that was marked by the rapid expansion of Bulgarian schools and by the achievement of an independent Bulgarian Orthodox Exarchate in 1870.

Although the administration (1864–69) of Midhat Pasha made Bulgaria briefly a model province, by then Bulgarian nationalism was strong. The Mount Athos monastery had continued to use Bulgarian; there, in 1762, a monk had written a history, the first modern literary work in Bulgarian. Bulgarian schools were allowed to open in 1835. In 1870 the Bulgarian Church was reestablished.

In 1876 the Bulgarians revolted against the tyrannical Ottoman rule, but were quelled; in reprisal, the Ottomans massacred indiscriminately an estimated 30,000 Bulgarian men, women, and children. The brutal Turkish reprisals (famous as the “Moslem atrocities”) provided a casus beli for the Russian empire to declare war on the Ottoman Sublime Porte in order to preserve Bulgarians and other Christians. In 1877, prompted both by the desire to expand toward the Mediterranean Sea and by Pan-Slavic sentiment, Russia attacked the Ottoman empire on two fronts: Bulgarian and Caucasian and after series of thorny and bloody battles defeated it in 1878. The war ended with the Treaty of San Stefano that created a single Bulgarian state, whose borders were based on those of the Bulgarian Exarchate. The European Powers, however, feared that Bulgaria would be a satellite of Russia and insisted on a revision of the treaty.

At the Congress of Berlin in 1879 only the part of the country between the Balkan range and the Danube was allowed to become an autonomous principality. The lands south of the Balkan Range were given the name "Eastern Rumelia" under a Christian governor appointed by the Sublime Porte, and Macedonia was returned entirely to the Ottoman administration.