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Feudal strife and involvement in foreign wars caused gradual disintegration of the empire after the death of Ivan Asen II. The Bulgarian armies were decisively defeated by the Serbs in 1330, and for the next quarter century the second empire was little more than a dependency of Serbia. Shortly after 1360, armies of the Ottoman Empire began to ravage the Maritsa Valley and by 1396 they controlled all of Bulgaria. During the next five centuries the political and cultural existence of Bulgaria was almost obliterated although Bulgaria's national customs and values were preserved in the monasteries and in mountain villages isolated from Turkish influence. After a century of terrorism and persecution, Ottoman administration improved, and the economic condition of the remaining Bulgarians rose to a level higher than it had been under the kingdom, although unsuccessful revolts against Ottoman rule occurred from time to time.
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.
In 1876 the Bulgarians revolted against the Ottomans, but were quelled; in reprisal, the Ottomans massacred an estimated 30,000 Bulgarian men, women, and children. In 1877, prompted by the desire to expand toward the Mediterranean Sea and by Pan-Slavic sentiment, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire and defeated it in 1878. The war ended with the Treaty of San Stefano that created a large Bulgarian state, whose borders were based on those of the Exarchate. The Western 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 Porte, and Macedonia was returned entirely to Ottoman administration.
For further information, please contact Mr. Neytcho Iltchev, to whom you can send your remarks and recommendations. Telephone: +359 2 9842 7579 ; Fax: +359 2 981 1719 ; E-mail: neylegrand@ifrance.com; nbulgaria@yahoo.com;
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