Bulgaria /bʌlˈɡɛəriə/ (Bulgarian: България, Balgariya, IPA: [bɤ̞ɫˈɡarijɐ]), officially the Republic of Bulgaria (Република България, transliterated: Republika Balgariya, IPA: [rɛˈpublikɐ bɤ̞ɫˈɡarijɐ]), is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east. With a territory of 110,994 square kilometers (42,855 sq mi), it ranks as the 15th-largest country in Europe.

Prehistoric cultures began living on Bulgarian lands starting in the Neolithic period. Its ancient history has been marked by the presence of the Thracians, and later by the Greeks and Romans. The emergence of a unified Bulgarian ethnicity and state date back to the 7th century AD and the First Bulgarian Empire, which covered most Balkans, becoming a cultural hub for Slavic peoples in the Middle Ages. With the downfall of the Second Bulgarian Empire in 1396, its territories came under Ottoman rule for nearly five hundred years. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 resulted in the Third Bulgarian State, recognized in 1908. Shortly afterwards, Bulgaria had a series of major conflicts with its neighbours and allied with Germany for both World Wars. After World War II it became a people's republic and was a part of the Warsaw Pact until 1989, when the Communist Party allowed multi-party elections. At this time Bulgaria transitioned to democracy and free market capitalism was introduced. Bulgaria is a member of the European Union, NATO, the Council of Europe, a founding state of the OSCE, and has taken a seat in the UN Security Council three times.

Bulgaria's population of 7.37 million people is predominantly urban and is concentrated mainly in the administrative centers of its 28 provinces. With 1.2 million people Sofia is the largest city, where most economic and political activities are concentrated. The economy relies on local natural resources with the strongest sectors being heavy industry and agriculture. Bulgaria is home to some of the most ancient cultural artifacts in the world and is a historical crossroad of various civilizations.

Prehistory and antiquity

Prehistoric cultures in the Bulgarian lands include the Neolithic Hamangia culture and Vinča culture, the eneolithic Varna culture (5th millennium BC), and the Bronze Age Ezero culture. The Varna Necropolis serves as a tool for understanding the social hierarchy of the earliest European societies.

The Thracians, one of the three primary ancestral groups of modern Bulgarians, lived separated in various tribes until king Teres united most of them in the Odrysian kingdom around 500 BC. They were eventually subjugated by Alexander the Great in the 4th century and later by the Roman Empire in 46 AD. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the easternmost South Slavs gradually settled on the territory of modern Bulgaria during the 6th century and assimilated the Hellenized or Romanized Thracians. Eventually the élite of the Central Asian Bulgars incorporated all of them into a new state which formed upon khan Asparukh's arrival on the Balkans.

First Bulgarian Empire

Asparukh, son of Old Great Bulgaria's khan Kubrat, migrated with several Bulgar tribes to the lower courses of the rivers Danube, Dniester and Dniepr. After 670, he crossed the Danube with a horde of up to 50,000 people and conquered Moesia and Scythia Minor (Dobrudzha) from the Byzantine Empire, expanding his new kingdom further into the Balkan Peninsula. The local south Slavic language was gradually adopted by the advancing Bulgars, who nevertheless preserved a dominant position over the Slavic majority. A peace treaty with Byzantium in 681 and the establishment of a permanent capital at Pliska south of the Danube mark the beginning of the First Bulgarian Empire.

Succeeding khans strengthened the Bulgarian state throughout the 8th and 9th centuries—Tervel established Bulgaria as a major military power by defeating a 26,000-strong Arab army during the Second Arab Siege of Constantinople; Krum doubled the country's territory, killed Byzantine emperor Nicephorus I in the Battle of Pliska, and introduced the first written code of law; Boris I abolished Tengriism in favor of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in 864, and introduced the Cyrillic alphabet. Simeon the Great's 34-year rule began in 893 and saw the largest territorial expansion of Bulgaria in its history, along with a golden age of Bulgarian culture and a military supremacy over the Byzantine Empire, demonstrated in the Battle of Achelous.

After Simeon's death, Bulgaria was weakened by wars with Croatians, Magyars, Pechenegs and Serbs and the spread of the Bogomil heresy. Two consecutive Rus' and Byzantine invasions resulted in the seizure of the capital Preslav by the Byzantine army in 971. Under Samuil, Bulgaria somewhat recovered from these attacks and managed to conquer Serbia and Duklja, but this rise ended when Byzantine emperor Basil II defeated its armies at Klyuch in 1014. Samuil died shortly after the battle, and by 1018 the Byzantines conquered the remaimed parts of the First Bulgarian Empire, putting it to an end.

Second Bulgarian Empire

After conquering Bulgaria, Basil II retained the rule of the local nobility by incorporating them into Byzantine aristocracy as archons or strategoi, and recognized the autocephaly of the Bulgarian Archbishopric of Ohrid, thus preventing discontent and revolts. After his death Byzantine domestic policies changed and a series of unsuccessful rebellions broke out, the largest being led by Peter II Delyan. It was not until 1185 when Asen dynasty nobles Ivan Asen I and Peter IV organized a major uprising and succeeded in re-establishing the Bulgarian state, laying the foundations of the Second Bulgarian Empire.

The Asen dynasty set up the new capital capital in Tarnovo. Kaloyan, the third of the Asen monarchs, extended his dominions to Belgrade, Nish and Skopje; he acknowledged the spiritual supremacy of the Pope, and received a royal crown from a papal legate. Cultural and economic growth persisted under Ivan Asen II (1218–1241), who extended Bulgaria's control over Albania, Epirus, Macedonia and Thrace. In his time the empire attained a prosperity unknown by that moment—commerce, the arts and literature flourished. Tarnovo became a major economic and religious center—a "Third Rome", unlike the already declining Constantinople.

The country's military and economic might declined after the end of the Asen dynasty in 1257, facing internal conflicts, constant Byzantine and Hungarian attacks and Mongol domination. By the end of the 14th century, factional divisions between the feudal landlords and the spread of Bogomilism had caused the Second Bulgarian Empire to split into three small tsardoms—Vidin, Tarnovo and Karvuna—and several semi-independent principalities that fought among themselves, and also with Byzantines, Hungarians, Serbs, Venetians and Genoese. In the late 14th century the Ottoman Turks, who had already started their invasion of the Balkans, conquered most Bulgarian towns and fortresses south of the Balkan Mountains and began their northwards conquest.

Ottoman rule and national awakening

In 1393, the Ottomans captured Tarnovo 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 all Bulgarian lands south of the Danube. North of the Danube, where a significant number of Bulgarian nobility and common folk remained, the population was under the jurisdiction of various autonomous, predominately Wallachian-led Christian principalities, where the Bulgarian alphabet continued to be used and many cities, like the Wallachian capital of Targovishte, kept their Bulgarian names. The nobility in these principalities continued to be known by their Bulgarian titles of bolyars and regularly helped the southern population to migrate north. The southern nobility however, was eliminated and the peasantry was enserfed to Ottoman masters. The population lost its national consciousness under the oppression, intolerance and misgovernment of the invaders. Bulgarian culture was suppressed and the educated clergy fled to other countries, while Bulgarians were considered an inferior class of people and were subjected to heavy imposts.

Throughout the nearly five centuries of Ottoman rule, the Bulgarian people responded to their oppression by strengthening the haydut tradition, and attempted to re-establish their state by organizing several revolts, most notably the First and Second Tarnovo Uprisings (1598 / 1686) and Karposh's Rebellion (1689). The National awakening of Bulgaria became one of the key factors in the struggle for liberation, resulting in the 1876 April uprising—the largest and best-organized Bulgarian rebellion. About 15,000 to 30,000 Bulgarians were killed as the Ottoman authorities put down the uprising. The massacres prompted the Great Powers to take action. They convened the Constantinople Conference in 1876, but their decisions were rejected by the Ottoman authorities. This allowed the Russian Empire to seek a solution by force without risking military confrontation with other Great Powers, as had happened in the Crimean War. In 1877 Russia declared war on the Ottoman empire, and with the help of Bulgarian volunteers defeated the Ottoman forces. The Treaty of San Stefano, which set up an autonomous Bulgarian principality on the territories of the Second Bulgarian Empire, was signed on 3 March 1878.

The other Great Powers immediately rejected the treaty out of fear that such a large country in the Balkans might threaten their interests. The subsequent Treaty of Berlin provided for a much smaller autonomous state comprising Moesia and the region of Sofia, leaving large populations of Bulgarians outside the new country. This defined Bulgaria's militaristic approach to foreign affairs and its participation in four wars during the first half of the 20th century. The Bulgarian principality won a war against Serbia and incorporated the semi-autonomous Ottoman territory of Eastern Rumelia in 1885, and proclaimed itself an independent state on 22 September 1908.

Third Bulgarian State

In the years following the achievement of independence Bulgaria was becoming increasingly militarized and was often referred to as "the Balkan Prussia". Between 1912 and 1918, Bulgaria became involved in a string of three consecutive conflicts—the Balkan Wars and World War I. After a disastrous defeat in the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria again found itself fighting on the losing side as a result of its alliance with the Central Powers in World War I. Despite fielding more than a quarter of its population in a 1,200,000-strong army and achieving several decisive victories at Doiran and Monastir, the country capitulated in 1918. The war resulted in significant territorial losses, a total of 412,000 casualties, and a wave of more than 253,000 refugees who put an additional strain on the already ruined national economy.

The political unrest resulting from these losses led to the establishment of a royal authoritarian dictatorship by Tsar Boris III (1918–1943). Bulgaria entered World War II in 1941 as a member of the Axis but declined to participate in Operation Barbarossa and saved its Jewish population from deportation to concentration camps. In the summer of 1943 Boris III died suddenly, an event which pushed the country into political turmoil as the war turned against Nazi Germany and the Communist guerilla movement gained momentum. Following strikes and unrest, in September 1944 the Communist-dominated Fatherland Front took power, ending the alliance with Nazi Germany and joining the Allied side until the end of the war in 1945.

The Communist uprising of 9 September 1944 led to the abolition of monarchic rule, but it was not until 1946 that a people's republic was established. It became a part of the Soviet sphere of influence under the leadership of Georgi Dimitrov (1946–1949). Bulgaria installed a Soviet-style planned economy with some market-oriented policies emerging on an experimental level under Todor Zhivkov (1954–1989). By the mid-1950s standards of living rose significantly. Lyudmila Zhivkova, daughter of Zhivkov, promoted Bulgaria's national heritage, culture and arts worldwide. On the other hand, an assimilation campaign of the late 1980s directed against ethnic Turks resulted in the emigration of some 300,000 of them to Turkey. On 10 November 1989, the Bulgarian Communist Party gave up its political monopoly, Zhivkov resigned, and Bulgaria embarked on a transition from a single-party republic to a parliamentary democracy.

The first free elections took place in June 1990 and were won by the moderate wing of the Communist Party (the Bulgarian Socialist Party—BSP). A new constitution that provided for a relatively weak elected President and for a Prime Minister accountable to the legislature was adopted in July 1991. The new system eventually failed to improve living standards or create economic growth—the average quality of life and economic performance actually remained lower than in the times of Communism well into the early 2000s. A reform package introduced in 1997 restored positive economic growth, but living standards continued to suffer. After 2001 economic, political and geopolitical conditions improved greatly, and Bulgaria achieved High Human Development status. It became a member of NATO in 2004 and of the European Union in 2007.

Traditional Bulgarian culture contains mainly Thracian, Slavic and Bulgar heritage, along with Greek, Roman, Ottoman, Persian and Celtic influences. Traces of Gothic culture also exist on Bulgaria's territory, as testified by the Wulfila Bible—the first book written in a Germanic language, created in Nicopolis ad Istrum in northern Bulgaria during the 4th century.

Bulgaria has the third-largest total number of uncovered archaeological sites in Europe after Italy and Greece. In 1972 the oldest golden treasure in the world was discovered in a necropolis near Varna, consisting of coins, weapons and jewelry that date back to 4,600 BC. The Varna necropolis also reveals evidence of the first European civilization. Nine historical and natural objects have been inscribed in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites: the Madara Rider, the Thracian tombs in Sveshtari and Kazanlak, the Boyana Church, the Rila Monastery, the Rock-hewn Churches of Ivanovo, Pirin National Park, Sreburna Nature Reserve and the ancient city of Nesebar. Nestinarstvo, a ritual fire-dance of Thracian origin, is in the list of UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Both the First and the Second Bulgarian empires functioned as the center of Slavic culture during much of the Middle Ages, exerting considerable cultural influence over the Eastern Orthodox world by means of the Preslav, Ohrid and Tarnovo literary schools. The Cyrillic alphabet, used as a writing system to many languages in Eastern Europe and Asia, originated in the Preslav Literary School around the 9th century AD. However, Bulgaria's advancement in the arts ended with the Ottoman conquest when many masterpieces were destroyed, and artistic activities did not re-emerge until the National Revival in the 19th century. After the Liberation war, Bulgarian literature quickly adopted European literary currents such as Romanticism and Symbolism. Notable authors include Ivan Vazov, Pencho Slaveykov, Peyo Yavorov, Yordan Radichkov and Tzvetan Todorov. In 1981 Bulgarian-born writer Elias Canetti was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Bulgarian folk music has slowly developed throughout the ages as a fusion of Eastern and Western influences. It contains Far Eastern, Oriental, medieval Eastern Orthodox and standard Western European tonalities and modes. Folk music has a distinctive sound and uses a wide range of traditional instruments, such as gudulka, gaida (bagpipe), kaval and tupan. One of its most distinguishing features is the extended rhythmical time, which has no equivalent in the rest of European music. The State Television Female Vocal Choir is the most famous performing folk ensemble, and received a Grammy Award in 1990. Bulgarian musical composition can be traced back to the early Middle Ages and the works of Yoan Kukuzel (c. 1280–1360). Classical music, opera and ballet are represented by composers Emanuil Manolov, Pancho Vladigerov and Georgi Atanasov and singers Ghena Dimitrova and Boris Hristov.

Bulgaria's religious visual arts heritage includes frescoes, murals and icons, many of them produced by the medieval Tarnovo Artistic School. Vladimir Dimitrov, Nikolay Diulgheroff and Christo are some of the most famous modern Bulgarian artists.

Bulgarian cuisine is similar to those of other Balkan countries and demonstrates a strong Greek and Turkish influence. Yogurt, lukanka, banitsa, shopska salad, lyutenitsa and kozunak are among the best-known Bulgarian foods. Oriental dishes such as moussaka, gyuvech, and baklava are also present. There is a notable variety of salads, and meat consumption is lower than the average for Europe. Rakiya is a traditional Bulgarian fruit brandy which has been consumed as early as the 14th century. Bulgarian wine is known for its Traminer, Muskat and Mavrud sorts, of which up to 200,000 tonnes are produced annually.

Bulgaria performs well in sports such as wrestling, weight-lifting, boxing, gymnastics and tennis. The country fields one of the leading men's volleyball teams, ranked 6th in the world according to the 2011 FIVB rankings. Football is by far the most popular sport in the country. Some famous players are Manchester United forward Dimitar Berbatov and Hristo Stoichkov, twice winner of the European Golden Shoe and the most successful Bulgarian player of all time. Prominent domestic football clubs include PFC CSKA Sofia and PFC Levski Sofia. Bulgaria's best performance at World Cup finals came in 1994, where the national team consecutively eliminated Greece, Germany and Argentina and finished 4th. Bulgaria participates in most Olympic competitions since its first appearance at the 1896 games, when it was represented by Charles Champaud. The country has won a total of 218 medals: 52 gold, 86 silver, and 80 bronze, which puts it at 24th place in the all-time ranking.

Bulgaria's geographic coordinates are 43° N 25° E. Its total area is 110,994 square kilometers, which ranks it as the 105th-largest country in the world. A total of 1,808 kilometers of land borders are shared with five countries—Greece (494 km), Macedonia (148 km), Romania (608 km), Serbia (318 km) and Turkey (240 km). The coastline has a length of 354 kilometers.

Bulgaria has several notable topographical features: the Danubian Plain, which runs along both sides of the border with Romania; the Balkan Mountains; the Thracian Plain; and the Rhodope Mountains. The southern edge of the Danubian Plain slopes upward into the foothills of the Balkans, which are highest in the western part of the country. The Thracian Plain is roughly triangular, beginning near Sofia in the west and broadening as it reaches the Black Sea coast.

About 30 percent of the land is made up of plains, while plateaus and hills account for 41 percent. The mountainous southwest of the country has two alpine ranges—Rila and Pirin, and further east stand the lower but more extensive Rhodope Mountains. The Balkan mountain chain runs west-east through the middle of the country, north of the Rose Valley. Hilly countryside and plains lie to the southeast, along the Black Sea coast, and along Bulgaria's main river, the Danube, to the north. Bulgaria's highest point is Musala at 2,925 meters (9,596 ft) and its lowest point is the sea level at 0 meters.

The climate is temperate, with cold winters and hot summers. Considering its relatively small size, Bulgaria has substantial climatic variation because it is located at the meeting point of Mediterranean and continental air masses and because its mountains partition climatic zones. Precipitation averages about 630 millimeters (24.8 in) per year. In the lowlands rainfall varies between 500 and 800 millimeters (19.7 and 31.5 in), and in the mountain areas between 1,000 and 2,500 millimeters (39.4 and 98.4 in). Drier areas include Dobrudja and the northern coastal strip, while the higher parts of the Rila, Pirin, Rhodope Mountains, Stara Planina, Osogovska Mountain and Vitosha receive the highest levels of precipitation.

The country has a dense network of about 540 rivers, most of them—with the notable exception of the Danube—short and with low water levels. Most rivers flow through mountainous areas. The longest river located solely in Bulgarian territory, the Iskar, has a length of 368 kilometers (229 mi). Other major rivers include the Struma and the Maritsa in the south.

Environment and wildlife

Bulgaria has signed and ratified the Kyoto protocol and has completed the protocol's objectives by achieving a 30 percent reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from 1990 to 2009. However, pollution from outdated factories and metallurgy works, as well as severe deforestation, continue to be major problems. Urban areas are particularly affected mostly due to energy production from coal-based powerplants and automobile traffic, while pesticide usage in the agriculture and antiquated industrial sewage systems have resulted in extensive soil and water pollution with chemicals and detergents. Bulgaria remains the only EU member which does not recycle municipal waste, although an electronic waste recycling plant was put in operation in June 2010. The situation has improved in recent years, and several government-funded programs have been initiated in order to reduce pollution levels.

Three national parks, 11 nature parks and 17 biosphere reserves exist on Bulgaria's territory. Nearly 35 percent of its land area consists of forests, where some of the oldest trees in the world, such as Baikushev's Pine and the Granit oak, have grown. The flora of Bulgaria encompasses more than 3,800 species of which 170 are endemic and 150 are considered endangered. The fauna is represented prominently by the brown bear and the jackal, while the Eurasian lynx and the Eastern imperial eagle have small, but growing populations.