Editing History of Bulgaria (section)

==Bulgaria under Ottoman rule (1396–1878)==
{{Main|Ottoman Bulgaria}}

In 1393, the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]] captured Tarnovo, the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire, after a three-month siege. In 1396, the Vidin Tsardom fell after the defeat of a Christian [[crusade]] at the [[Battle of Nicopolis]]. With this the Ottomans finally subjugated and occupied Bulgaria.<ref name = "xixcnf">
[https://books.google.com/books?id=Ylz4fe7757cC R.J. Crampton, A Concise History of Bulgaria, 1997, Cambridge University Press] {{ISBN|0-521-56719-X}}
</ref>
<ref>
[[Lord Kinross]], ''The Ottoman Centuries'', Morrow QuillPaperback Edition, 1979
</ref><ref name = "xouksi">
D. Hupchick, The Balkans, 2002
</ref>
A [[Poland|Polish]]-[[Hungary|Hungarian]] crusade commanded by [[Władysław III of Poland]] set out to free Bulgaria and the Balkans in 1444, but the Turks emerged victorious at the [[battle of Varna]].

[[File:Chelebowski varna.jpg|thumb|250px|''The Battle of Varna'' by [[Stanisław Chlebowski]]]]
The new authorities dismantled Bulgarian institutions and merged the separate [[Bulgarian Church]] into the [[Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople|Ecumenical Patriarchate]] in [[Constantinople]] (although a small, autocephalous Bulgarian archbishopric of [[Ohrid]] survived until January 1767). Turkish authorities destroyed most of the medieval Bulgarian fortresses to prevent rebellions. Large towns and the areas where Ottoman power predominated remained severely depopulated until the 19th century.<ref name=Dimitrov1>
Bojidar Dimitrov: ''Bulgaria Illustrated History''. BORIANA Publishing House 2002, {{ISBN|954-500-044-9}}
</ref>{{Page needed|date=September 2010}}

[[File:Rumelia Eyalet, Ottoman Empire (1609).png|thumb|[[Rumelia Eyalet]] in 1609 with capital [[Sofia]] from 1530 to 1836]]

The Ottomans did not normally require the Christians to become Muslims. Nevertheless, there were many cases of forced individual or mass Islamization, especially in the [[Rhodopes]]. Bulgarians who converted to Islam, the [[Pomaks]], retained Bulgarian language, dress and some customs compatible with Islam.<ref name = "xixcnf"/><ref name = "xouksi"/>{{Page needed|date=September 2010}}.

The Ottoman system began declining by the 17th century and at the end of the 18th had all but collapsed. Central government weakened over the decades and this had allowed a number of local Ottoman holders of large estates to establish personal ascendancy over separate regions.<ref>
Kemal H. Karpat, ''Social Change and Politics in Turkey: A Structural-Historical Analysis'', BRILL, 1973, {{ISBN|90-04-03817-5}}, pp.&nbsp;36–39
</ref> During the last two decades of the 18th and first decades of the 19th centuries the Balkan Peninsula dissolved into virtual anarchy.<ref name = "xixcnf"/><ref name="ReferenceA">Dennis P. Hupchick: ''The Balkans: from Constantinople to Communism'', 2002</ref>

Bulgarian tradition calls this period the ''kurdjaliistvo'': armed bands of Turks called ''[[Kirdzhalis|kurdjalii]]'' plagued the area. In many regions, thousands of peasants fled from the countryside either to local towns or (more commonly) to the hills or forests; some even fled beyond the [[Danube]] to [[Moldova]], [[Wallachia]] or southern [[Russia]].<ref name = "xixcnf"/><ref name="ReferenceA"/> The decline of Ottoman authorities also allowed a gradual [[National awakening of Bulgaria|revival of Bulgarian culture]], which became a key component in the ideology of national liberation.

[[File:Vasil Levski.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Vasil Levski]], key figure of the revolutionary movement and national hero of Bulgaria]]
Conditions gradually improved in certain areas in the 19th century. Some towns — such as [[Gabrovo]], [[Tryavna]], [[Karlovo]], [[Koprivshtitsa]], [[Lovech]], [[Skopie]] — prospered. The Bulgarian peasants actually possessed their land, although it officially belonged to the sultan. The 19th century also brought improved communications, transportation and trade. The first factory in the Bulgarian lands opened in [[Sliven]] in 1834 and the first railway system started running (between [[Rousse]] and [[Varna, Bulgaria|Varna]]) in 1865.

Bulgarian nationalism was emergent in the early 19th century under the influence of western ideas such as [[liberalism]] and [[nationalism]], which trickled into the country after the [[French Revolution]], mostly via [[Greece]]. The Greek revolt against the Ottomans which began in 1821 also influenced the small Bulgarian educated class. But Greek influence was limited by the general Bulgarian resentment of Greek control of the Bulgarian Church and it was the struggle to revive an independent Bulgarian Church which first roused Bulgarian nationalist sentiment.

In 1870, a [[Bulgarian Exarchate]] was created by a [[firman]] and the first Bulgarian Exarch, [[Antim I]], became the natural leader of the emerging nation. The Constantinople Patriarch reacted by [[excommunication|excommunicating]] the Bulgarian Exarchate, which reinforced their will for independence. A struggle for political liberation from the Ottoman Empire emerged in the face of the [[Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee]] and the [[Internal Revolutionary Organisation]] led by liberal revolutionaries such as [[Vasil Levski]], [[Hristo Botev]] and [[Lyuben Karavelov]].

===April Uprising and Russo-Turkish War (1870s)===
[[File:Vsemirnaya Illyustratsia Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) 03.jpg|thumb|In 1877, Russian general [[Iosif Gurko]] liberated [[Veliko Tarnovo]], ending the 480-year rule of the Ottoman Empire.]]

[[File:April Uprising.png|thumb|April Uprising]]

In April 1876, the Bulgarians revolted in the [[April Uprising]]. The revolt was poorly organized and started before the planned date. It was largely confined to the region of [[Plovdiv]], though certain districts in northern Bulgaria, in Macedonia, and in the area of [[Sliven]] also took part. The uprising was crushed by the Ottomans, who brought in irregular troops ([[bashi-bazouk]]s) from outside the area. Countless villages were pillaged and tens of thousands of people were massacred, the majority of them in the insurgent towns of [[Batak, Bulgaria|Batak]], [[Perushtitsa]], and [[Bratsigovo]], all in the area of Plovdiv.

[[File:Konstantin_Makovsky_-_The_Bulgarian_martyresses.jpg|thumbnail|left|''The Bulgarian Martyresses'' by [[Konstantin Makovsky]], 1877]]
The massacres aroused a broad public reaction among liberal Europeans such as [[William Ewart Gladstone]], who launched a campaign against the "Bulgarian Horrors". The campaign was supported by many European intellectuals and public figures. The strongest reaction, however, came from Russia. The enormous public outcry which the April Uprising had caused in Europe led to the [[Constantinople Conference]] of the [[Great Powers]] in 1876–77.

Turkey's refusal to implement the decisions of the conference gave Russia a long-waited chance to realise her long-term objectives with regard to the Ottoman Empire. Having its reputation at stake, Russia [[Russo-Turkish War, 1877-1878|declared war on the Ottomans]] in April 1877. The Bulgarians also fought alongside the advancing Russians. Russia established [[Provisional Russian Administration in Bulgaria|a provisional government in Bulgaria]]. The Russian army and the Bulgarian Opalchentsi decisively defeated the Ottomans at [[Battle of Shipka Pass|Shipka Pass]] and [[Battle of Pleven|Pleven]]. By January 1878 they had liberated much of the Bulgarian lands. (See [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)]].)