page_title: Kingdom of Bulgaria
section_title: Formation
hierarchical_section_title: Kingdom of Bulgaria / Formation
caption_attribution_description: English: His Tzarist Majesty Ferdinand I of Bulgaria at the proclamation of Bulgarian independence. Български: Негово Царско Величество Фердинанд I Български на обявяването на Независимостта на България.
context_page_description: The Tsardom of Bulgaria, also referred to as the Third Bulgarian Tsardom, was a constitutional monarchy in Eastern and Southeastern Europe, which was established on 5 October 1908, when the Bulgarian state was raised from a principality to a Tsardom. Ferdinand was crowned a Tsar at the Declaration of Independence, mainly because of his military plans and for seeking options for unification of all lands in the Balkans region with an ethnic Bulgarian majority.
  The state was almost constantly at war throughout its existence, lending to its nickname as "the Balkan Prussia". For several years Bulgaria mobilized an army of more than 1 million people from its population of about 5 million and in the 1910s it engaged in three wars – the First and Second Balkan Wars, and the First World War. Following the First World War, the Bulgarian army was disbanded and forbidden to exist by the Allied Powers, and all plans for national unification of the Bulgarian lands failed. Less than two decades later Bulgaria once again went to war for national unification as part of the Second World War, and once again found itself on the losing side, until it switched sides to the Allies in 1944.
context_section_description: Despite the establishment of the Principality of Bulgaria (subject to Ottoman suzerainty) in 1878, and the subsequent Bulgarian control over Eastern Rumelia after 1885, there was still a substantial Bulgarian population in the Balkans living under Ottoman rule, particularly in Macedonia. To complicate matters, Serbia and Greece too made claims over parts of Macedonia, while Serbia, as a Slavic nation, also considered Macedonian Slavs as belonging to the Serbian nation. Thus began a three-sided struggle for control of these areas which lasted until World War I. In 1903, there was a Bulgarian insurrection in Ottoman Macedonia and war seemed likely. 
  In 1908, Ferdinand used the struggles among the Great Powers to declare Bulgaria an independent kingdom with himself as Tsar. He did this on 5 October (though celebrated on 22 September, as Bulgaria remained officially on the Julian Calendar until 1916) in the St Forty Martyrs Church in Veliko Tarnovo. Even before then, however, Bulgaria had only acknowledged the overlordship of the sultan in a formal way. Since 1878, Bulgaria had had its own constitution, flag and anthem, and conducted a separate foreign policy.
  Ferdinand took the Bulgarian title "Tsar" in honor of the rulers of the First and Second Bulgarian Empires. However, while previous Bulgarian "tsars" were reckoned as emperors, Ferdinand and his successors were called "king" outside Bulgaria.  The Tarnovo Constitution was retained, with the word "tsar" replacing the word "prince."
caption: Ferdinand I of Bulgaria at the proclamation of Bulgarian independence, 1908
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