In the

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

history of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

's status as the Bulgarian Empire ( bg, Българско царство, ''Balgarsko tsarstvo'' ) occurred in two distinct periods: between the seventh and the eleventh centuries and again between the twelfth and the fourteenth centuries. The two "Bulgarian Empires" are treated not as separate entities but rather as one state that was restored after a period of

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

rule over its territory.

First Bulgarian Empire

Moesia was repeatedly invaded by both Slavs and

Bulgars The Bulgars (also Bulghars, Bulgari, Bolgars, Bolghars, Bolgari, Proto-Bulgarians) were Turkic semi-nomadic warrior tribes that flourished in the Pontic–Caspian steppe and the Volga region during the 7th century. They became known as noma ...

during the 5th, 6th and 7th centuries. In 499, the Bulgars crossed Danube and reached Thrace where on the banks of the river Tzurta (considered a tributary of Maritsa) defeated 15,000 men strong Roman army led by magister militum Aristus. In the 670s under the rule of Asparukh the Bulgars settled further south on territories of the

Eastern Roman Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantino ...

in Scythia Minor near the Danube Delta in a region called Ongal and allied with the local Slavs. Their horde was a remnant of Old Great Bulgaria, an extinct tribal confederacy or rudimentary state situated north of the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Rom ...

in what are now parts of Ukraine and Russia. There was a major battle between Asparukh and the Byzantine Emperor in Moesia in 680. A peace treaty with the

Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

was signed in 681, marking the foundation of the

First Bulgarian Empire The First Bulgarian Empire ( cu, блъгарьско цѣсарьствиѥ, blagarysko tsesarystviye; bg, Първо българско царство) was a medieval Bulgar- Slavic and later Bulgarian state that existed in Southeastern Eur ...

on the territory both

north North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north ...

and south of the lower course of the

Danube River The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

as an alliance between the ruling

and the numerous Slavs in the area, becoming the oldest still existing Slavic state. The minority Bulgars formed a close-knit ruling caste. It is usually described as having lasted between 681 and 1018, when it was subjugated by the

despite Emperor Samuel's fierce resistance. Tervel of Bulgaria, son of Asparukh, was the ruler at the beginning of the 8th century. In 705, Emperor Justinian II named him Caesar, the first foreigner to receive this title.Хан Тервел - тема за кандидат студенти
Tervel played an important role in defeating the Arabs during the Siege of Constantinople in 717–718. During

Krum Krum ( bg, Крум, el, Κροῦμος/Kroumos), often referred to as Krum the Fearsome ( bg, Крум Страшни) was the Khan of Bulgaria from sometime between 796 and 803 until his death in 814. During his reign the Bulgarian territor ...

’s reign in the early 9th century, Bulgarian territory doubled in size, spreading from the middle

Danube The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...

to the

Dnieper } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine an ...

and from

Odrin Edirne (, ), formerly known as Adrianople or Hadrianopolis (Greek: Άδριανούπολις), is a city in Turkey, in the northwestern part of the province of Edirne in Eastern Thrace. Situated from the Greek and from the Bulgarian borders, ...

to the Tatra Mountains. His able and energetic rule brought law and order to Bulgaria and developed the rudiments of state organization. Bulgaria gradually reached its cultural and territorial apogee in the 9th century and early 10th century under Prince Boris I and Emperor Simeon the Great, when its early Christianization in 864 allowed it to develop into the cultural and literary center of Slavic Europe, as well as one of the largest states in Europe, thus the period is considered the

Golden Age of medieval Bulgarian culture The Golden Age of Bulgaria is the period of the Bulgarian cultural prosperity during the reign of emperor Simeon I the Great (889—927).Kiril Petkiv, The Voices of Medieval Bulgaria, Seventh-Fifteenth Century: The Records of a Bygone Culture' ...

. Major events included the development of the

Cyrillic script The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking c ...

at the Preslav Literary School, declared official in 893, and the establishment of the liturgy in Old Bulgarian, also called Old Church Slavonic. In 971, the capital city of Preslav was occupied by the

Kievan Rus' Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas o ...

and the

consequently. In 1018, the First Bulgarian Empire ended and Bulgaria became a province of the Byzantine Empire, the Theme of Bulgaria (1018-1185).

Second Bulgarian Empire

The medieval Bulgarian state was restored as the Second Bulgarian Empire after a successful

uprising Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...

of two nobles from Tarnovo, Asen and Peter, in 1185, and existed until it was conquered during the Ottoman invasion of the

Balkans The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...

in the late 14th century, with the date of its subjugation usually given as 1396, although some fringe views place it at 1422. Until 1256, the Second Bulgarian Empire was the dominant power in the

, defeating the

in several major battles. In 1205, Emperor Kaloyan defeated the newly established

Latin Empire The Latin Empire, also referred to as the Latin Empire of Constantinople, was a feudal Crusader state founded by the leaders of the Fourth Crusade on lands captured from the Byzantine Empire. The Latin Empire was intended to replace the Byza ...

in the Battle of Adrianople. His nephew Ivan Asen II defeated the Despotate of Epiros and made Bulgaria a regional power again. During his reign, Bulgaria spread from the Adriatic to the

and the economy flourished. Under Ivan Asen II in the first half of the 13th century the country gradually recovered much of its former power, though this did not last long due to internal problems and foreign invasions. Bulgarian artists and architects created their own distinctive style. Until the 14th century, during the period known as the Second Golden Age of Bulgarian culture, literature, art and

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...

flourished. The capital city Tarnovo, which was considered a " New Constantinople", became the country's main cultural hub and the centre of the Eastern Orthodox world. The Empire became tributary to the

Golden Horde The Golden Horde, self-designated as Ulug Ulus, 'Great State' in Turkic, was originally a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate established in the 13th century and originating as the northwestern sector of the Mongol Empire. With the fragmen ...

, a successor state of the

Mongol Empire The Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries was the largest contiguous land empire in history. Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to parts of Eastern Europe, ...

in the 13th to 14th centuries. After the death of Emperor

Ivan Alexander Ivan Alexander ( bg, Иван Александър, transliterated ''Ivan Aleksandǎr'', ; original spelling: ІѠАНЪ АЛЄѮАНдРЪ), also sometimes Anglicized as John Alexander, ruled as Emperor (''Tsar'') of Bulgaria from 1331 to 1371, ...

in 1371 Bulgaria was split into three countries and in the following decades fell under the domination of the Ottomans. In 1393 after siege Tarnovo was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and in 1396 Vidin (Бъдин) kingdom was defeated. After the Ottoman conquest, many Bulgarian clerics and scholars emigrated to

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hu ...

, Wallachia,

Moldavia Moldavia ( ro, Moldova, or , literally "The Country of Moldavia"; in Romanian Cyrillic: or ; chu, Землѧ Молдавскаѧ; el, Ἡγεμονία τῆς Μολδαβίας) is a historical region and former principality in Centr ...

, and

Russian principalities The following is a list of tribes who lived on the territories of contemporary Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. The tribes were later replaced or consolidated by Slavs, starting with the formation of Kievan Rus', including the semi-autonomous pr ...

, where they introduced Bulgarian culture, books, and hesychastic ideas.

Maps

Image:Old Great Bulgaria and migration of Bulgarians.png, Bulgar settlements in the 6th and 7th centuries Image:The foundation of the BG.png, Foundation of Danubian Bulgaria by Asparuh in 681 Image:Territorial expansion during the reign of Khan Krum (803-814).png, Bulgaria during the reign of Krum (803-814) Image:Territorial expansion during the reign of Khan Krum 803-814-es.svg, Territorial expansion during the reign of Krum (803-814) Image:EuropaZurZeitDerKarolinger.jpg, Europe in 814 Image:Krum Omurtag.jpg, Bulgaria during the reign of Omurtag (814-831) Image:Balkans 925AD.png, Bulgarian Empire under Tsar Simeon the Great (893-927) Image:RizMap09.jpg, Largest territorial extension south of the

under Simeon the Great (893-927) Image:First Bulgarian Empire (976-1018).png, First Bulgarian Empire (976-1018) Image:Culture of the First Bulgarian Empire.png, Culture of the First Bulgarian Empire (904) and the Golden Age of Bulgaria (10th century) Image:Second Bulgarian_Empire (1185-1196).png, The Bulgarian Empire under the reign of brothers Peter and Asen (1185-1196) Image:Kalojan Asen.jpg, Bulgaria under Tsar Kaloyan (1197 – 1207) Image:Car-ivan-asen-ii html bbd799d.jpg, Bulgarian Empire during the reign of Ivan Asen II (1218-1241) Image:Bulgaria-Theodore Svetoslav.png, Bulgaria under Tsar Theodore Svetoslav (1300-1322) Image:Bulgaria-1371.jpg, After the death of Tsar Ivan Alexander in 1371 Image:Culture of the Second Bulgarian Empire (fixed).png, Culture of the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185-1396)

References

Works cited

* * *

First Bulgarian Empire

Second Bulgarian Empire

Maps

See also

References

Works cited

Further reading