Bulgaria

**Bulgaria** or the **Tsardom of Bulgaria** is a country in the Balkans. It borders Greece to the southwest, Turkey to the southeast, Romania and Serbia to the north, and Albania to the west. It is a constitutional monarchy under the rule of Boris III.

## History

### Balkan Wars

In 1910, Bulgaria approached Serbia on matters of freeing the rest of the Balkans. After negotiations, Serbia agreed to a secret alliance. Later in the year, Bulgaria and Serbia approached Greece. Greece, after listening to the proposals, joined the two, official using the Alliance between the three of them. The next year, Romania and Montenegro joined the alliance.

Later that year, the first Balkan war kicked off. Bulgaria surprisingly was pushed back a bit by the Ottomans, and even had trouble pushing into the country. But by the end of the year, the ottomans gave up. Bulgaria was given southern Bulgaria and part of Macedonia. However, the rest of the pact thought that Bulgaria's gains were unfair to the rest of them. So in 1912, the Balkan Pact declared a state of war with Bulgaria. Later in the war, the Ottoman joined, and Bulgaria surrendered. It was forced to give Northern Macedonia and Vidin to Serbia, Southern Macedonia and Eastern Thrace to Greece, Southern Dobrudja to Romania, and Western Thrace and Strandzha to the Ottomans.

### Provisional Government Era

]After the humiliation the nation endured, Ferdinand I Abdicated on November 3 1912. Him and his family were sent into exile in Albania. The Prime Minister at the time, Aleksander Malinov, declared that the Tsardom of Bulgaria was no more, and that he was now President. The Bulgarian Provisional Government was very unstable, lacking any support from the people and the military. In 1913, these protests escalated to an even further degree in Sofia. The Germans sent Prince Oskar to negotiate an alliance. The terms were;

1. Restoration of the Tsardom.
2. An army revival.

The man representing Bulgaria, Admiral Dimitar Dobrev, refused the terms, and Malinov also refused. Prince Oskar, realizing that negotiations were no longer possible, began setting forth the plan. Riots in Sofia and other cities began, German troops started emerging and capturing important buildings in Sofia. on October 17, two days after the begin of the coup, Oskar led a force of German and Bulgarian fighters into the provisional government building, capturing it. President Malinov, Admiral Dobrev, and the rest of the Bulgarian Provisional Government were rounded up and taken outside, where they were executed, ending the short and chaotic reign of Malinov.

### Restoration and War.

After the coup, the Tsardom was restored. The Germans decided that it would be better for Ferdinand to stay in exile, and instead let his son Boris become Tsar. Boris was crowned Tsar Boris III on October 29, 1913. Bulgaria, shortly after, joined the Central Powers. The next year, a Serbian sponsored assassin attempted to kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand, though it was unsucssesful. This triggered the Weltkrieg, which Bulgaria quickly joined, and pressured Albania to join as well. Though at first, Bulgaria experienced some minor pushbacks in Serbia and Thrace, Bulgaria quickly pushed towards Istanbul. In 1915, Bulgaria made huge progress when it defeated Serbia and captured Istanbul. Bulgaria would push into Romania and Greece after the fall of Serbia. After the German invention of tanks, the fronts incredibly improved, and Bulgaria captured Bucharest, and made signifigant pushes into Greece. Even after the British joined the war, Bulgaria was still able to capitulate Romania in 1916. In 1917, after the Russian and Turkish Revolution began, Bulgaria was finally given justice in the treaty of Bucharest. Bulgaria gained back all old land in Romania, and was able to secure the rest of Dobrudja and reparations for the second Balkan war. The next year, the Central Powers negotiated with Turkey in the Treaty of Ankara. Bulgaria was granted all Turkish lands in the Balkans, though they were denied Istanbul, which was to remain under Turkish control. After the treaty, Bulgaria and Albania began a push into Greece, making it all the way to the gates of Athens. Finally, Bulgaria was given Justice in the treaty of Sofia. They were given back all of their lost territory and got to take Macedonia and territories that were considered "Greater Bulgarian." Before the final treaty of Konigsberg, Bulgaria continued to occupy Greece and Serbia until Serbia would cede Southern Kosovo and Greece would cede northern Eripus to Albania, which they eventually obliged. Bulgaria would latter join the succesor state to the Central Powers, called Mitteleuropa.