
Principality and Kingdom of Bulgaria (1878 to 1944/46)
In the preliminary peace of San Stefano (March 3, 1878; national holiday since 1988), a Greater Bulgarian state was created which, in addition to the heartland, should also include access to the Aegean Sea with most of Macedonia and Thrace. Under British and Austrian influence, the Berlin Congress reduced(July 1, 1878) this Russian dictation on the division of Bulgaria into an autonomous feudal principality Bulgaria, which is tributary to the sultan, consisting of Moesia and the Sanjak Sofia, as well as the province of Eastern Rumelia (southern Bulgaria; capital Plovdiv) and the areas remaining under Turkish rule (Macedonia, Thrace). Contrary to the wishes of the provisional Russian administration, on April 28, 1879, an assembly of notables in Tarnowo passed a liberal constitution; Sofia became the capital. Alexander I von Battenberg,…