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 A brief history of bulgaria. The Thracians were an ancient people who inhabited what is now Bulgaria. They were divided in numerous tribes until King Teres united most of them in a single state around 500 BC. This kingdom was called the Odrysian state and reached its peak under the Kings Sitalkes and Cotys I (383-359 BC). In 341 BC it was destroyed by the Macedonian state but rose from its ashes at the end of the 4th century BC under Seuthes III. In 188 BC the Romans invaded Thrace and the wars with them continued to AD 45, when it became a Roman Province. The Thracians did not have writing and now their legacy survives mainly in the numerous treasures and tombs they left. One of the most talented ancient commanders, Spartacus, was a Thracian born in the Rhodope Mountains. In the late 7th century a branch of the Bulgars led by Khan Asparuh migrated into the Northern Balkans, where they merged with the local Slavic and Thracian population to form the First Bulgarian Empire in AD 681. In 717 the Bulgarians helped relieve the Arab siege of Constantinople, killing some 40,000-60,000 soldiers. Their khan Tervel was called by his contemporaries The Saviour of Europe. In 864 Bulgaria accepted the Orthodox Faith and became a major European power in the 9th and the 10th century, while fighting with the Byzantine Empire for the control of the Balkans. The greatest territorial extension was reached under Simeon I, the first Tsar, covering much of the Balkans and modern-day Romania. Following a decline in the middle of the 10th century the Bulgarian state was crushed by an assault by the Rus' in 969. The Byzantines then began campaigns to conquer Bulgaria. In 971 they seized the capital Preslav and captured emperor Boris II. The resistance continued in the Western Bulgarian lands for nearly half a century until the state was completely destroyed by the Byzantines led by Basil II in 1018.  Simeon I (893-927, first Emperor of Bulgaria.                                                                                   In 1185 the Bulgarian Empire was re-estabilished under the Asenevtsi Dynasty and continued to be an important power in Europe for two more centuries, while fighting for dominance in the region with the Byzantine Empire, the Crusader states and Hungary, reaching its zenith under Ivan Asen II (1218-1241). By the end of the 14th century the country had disintegrated into several feudal principalities and was eventually conquered by the Ottoman Empire. A Polish-Hungarian crusade under the rule of Władysław III of Poland to free the Balkans was crushed in 1444 in the battle of Varna. The 5-century period of Ottoman rule was characterized by great violence and oppression. The Bulgarian population was decimated and most of its cultural relics were lost. Large towns and the areas where Ottoman power was strong were severely depopulated until the 19th century. Following the Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78 and the Treaty of San Stefano of March 3, 1878, an autonomous Bulgarian principality was proclaimed. The treaty was immediately rejected by the Great Powers for fear that a large Slavic country on the Balkans would serve Russian interests. This led to the Treaty of Berlin (1878) which provided for an autonomous Bulgarian principality comprising Moesia and the region of Sofia. The first Bulgarian prince was Alexander Battenberg. Most of Thrace was included in the autonomous region of Eastern Rumelia, whereas the rest of Thrace along with the whole of Macedonia was returned under the sovereignty of the Ottomans. After uniting with Eastern Rumelia in 1885 (following the Serbo-Bulgarian War), the principality was proclaimed a fully independent kingdom in 1908. This happened during the reign of Ferdinand I of Bulgaria. He became the Bulgarian prince after Alexander Battenberg abdicated in 1886 following a coup d'etat staged by pro-Russian army officers. (Although the counter coup d'etat coordinated by Stefan Stambolov was successful, Alexander Battenberg could not remain Bulgarian prince without the approval of the Russian emperor Alexander III.) The struggle for liberation of the Bulgarians in the Adrianople Vilayet and Macedonia continued throughout the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century culminating with the Ilinden-Preobrazhenie Uprising organised by the IMARO in 1903.
These numbers increased in the 1930s following Serbian state-sponsored aggression against its native Bulgarian population. After regaining control over Southern Dobruja in 1940, Bulgaria allied with the Axis Powers in World War II, although no Bulgarian soldiers participated in the war against the USSR. During this time the country occupied parts of Greece and Yugoslavia inhabited mostly by Bulgarians. Bulgaria was the one of two countries (another one being Finland) that saved its entire Jewish population (around 50,000) from the Nazi camps by refusing to comply with a 31 August 1943 resolution. However, Jews in newly acquired territories from Greece and Yugoslavia were sent to death camps by the Bulgarian authorities on German request. In September the Soviet army entered into Bulgaria which later enabled the Bulgarian Communists to seize power and establish a Communist dictatorship. Bulgaria had to fight against Germany (initially with a 450 000 strong army in 1944, reduced to 130 000 in 1945). More than 30,000 Bulgarian soldiers and officers were killed in the war.
Bulgaria joined NATO on 29 March 2004 and has since joined the European Union on 1 January 2007 after signing the Treaty of Accession on 25 April 2005.
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