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Bulgaria was devestated by World War I, but unlike the other Cental Powers (Austraia, Germany, and the Ottomans) did not lose the manarchy. Bulgarian domestic politics largely turned inward. Bulgaria had a range of foreign policy goals aimed at recovering lost territory and regions with Bulgarian populations, this included territory assigned to Allied countries (Greece, Serbia, and Romania). The War was such a harrowing event in Bulgarian history that all but the most extreme nationalists were not prepared to seek redress through military means. And Bulgaria did not have the military means to do so. The Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine ending the war, like the Versailles Treaty limiting the German miliitary, placed severe limitations on the Bulgarian military. The Treaty prohibited conscription and set a 20,000 man limit on the military (including internal forces and border guard). Acquiring tanks, naval vessels (with an emphsis on submarines, aircraft, and heavy artillery was also prohibited. Bulgaria managed to evade some of these prohibitions. Bulgaria was, however, not a rich, industrial power. It did not have the capanility of building a military that was able to win back those territories and did not have a sponsor to help arm it as was the case of Germany in World War I. Thus Primeminister Stamboliiski sought a rapprochement with all European powers, including the Allied countries as well as the Turkish government of Kemal Atatürk in Turkey. They joined the new League of Nations. And they sought to regularize relations with their former arch enemy--Serbia. The Serbs were in the process of creating the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes / Yugoslavia. Relations with Turkey, another former arch enemy, but World War I partner were also improved. Stamboliiski supported Atatürk's revolutionary Turkish Republic (1920). Stamboliiski's vision was a multi-ethnic Balkan peasant federation. The Army officers participated in repressions during the Tsankov regime as part of paramilitary groups known as shpitskomandi.
The Army, along with shpitskomandi and Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) militia, violently suppressed the leftist September Uprising (1923). A correct relationship with Yugoslavia required confronting the powerful Macedonian extremist movement which wanted an independent country. Stamboliiski began a 2-year effort to supress IMRO (1921). Yugoslavia and Bulgaria agreed at the Nis Convention to cooperate in supressing extremist groups. Complicating this was Bulgaria's relationship wuth Greece.Stamboliiski was less sucessful in developing a new relationship with Greece. A serious border incident developed requiring League of Nations adjudication (1925). This was a short-lived Greek invasion of southwestern Bulgaria, known as the War of the Stray Dog.
After the NAZI seizure of power in Germany, the Germans began a diplomatic effort to undemine Allied influemce in the Balkans. A source of advanced weaponry thus became available in limited quantities. The Army had begun an open expansion in violation of the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine, but without the reources available to the German Army. The Bulgarian military began to obtain combat aircraft from Germany and France, and light tanks from Italy. As with the other future Axis allies (Hungary and Romania), the Germans would provide some advanced weapory, but not enough to give these countrie the capability of taking on well-armed modern army. (Here there were not only limitations created by Germany's industrial capacity, but also Hitler's desore to limit their military capavility.) At the time that Hitler and Stalin launched World War II, Bulgarias did not have the military capability to invade its neighbors, but it did have the capability of occupying territory seized by the Germans.
Bulgaria believed that it had a right to Macedonia. Nationalists were upset with thecsmall part of Macedonia it received in the First Balkan War (1912-13). As a result it largely caused the Second Balkan War (June–Aug. 1913). This time Bulgaria not only fought Turkey, but its former Christian allies as well. Not surprisinly Bulgaria lost the War and substantial territory, primarily to Serbia. The territory gained by Serbia made it a growing threat to Austria-Hungary which had a Slavic minority in its southern provinces, especially newly annexed Bulgaria. The desire to destroy Serbia as a threat to the Empire was why Austrian authorities made such onerous demands on Serbia following the assasination of Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand (June 1914). With the outbreak of the World War I (August 1914), Germany courted allies. One of the few countries to respond was Bulgaria. German diplomats promissed Bulgaria territories it lost during the Balkan Wars if they joined the Central Powers. And Bulgaria was still intent or obtaining Macedonia. Even before Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, the Bulgarians allowed the German to ship pontoon bridges to the Ottomons to be used in crossing the Suez Canal in an attack on Egypt. Bulgaria participated in the attack on Romania after that country joined the Allies (1917). A new front opened up when Greece entered the War on the Allied side (1917). Although Romania was defeated, the Bulgarians had to face a new front opened from Greece with Greek, Serbia, and British troops. The demise of Austria-Hungary and the defeat of Germany on the Western Front ended the War. The defeat of Germany on the Western Front (1918), With his failures to obtain Macedonia in the Balkan WSars and World War I, King King Ferdinand abdicated in favor of his son (1918). Bulgaria was punished by the victorious Allies in the the Peace treaty of Neuilly (1919). Bulgaria had to cede southwest Thrace to Greece and much of Macedonia to Serbia which became Yugoslavia. Bulgaria as a result lost access to the Aegean Sea. Bulgaria also had to ceed territory to Romania. Bulgaria was devestated by World War I, but unlike the other Cental Powers (Austraia, Germany, and the Ottomans). Bulgaria did not lose the manarchy.
Bulgaria had a range of foreign policy goals aimed at recovering lost territory and regions with Bulgarian populations, this included territory assigned to Allied countries (Greece, Serbia, and Romania). The War was such a harrowing event in Bulgarian history that all but the most extreme nationalists were not prepared to seek redress through military means. And Bulgaria did not have the military means to do so. The Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine ending the war, like the Versailles Treaty limiting the German miliitary, placed severe limitations on the Bulgarian military. The Treaty prohibited conscription and set a 20,000 man limit on the military (including internal forces and border guard). Acquiring tanks, naval vessels (with an emphsis on submarines, aircraft, and heavy artillery was also prohibited. Bulgaria managed to evade some of these prohibitions.
Bulgarian domestic politics largely turned inward. Bulgaria after World War I experienced a series of often unstable political coalitions, slow economic growth, and a serious Macedonia problem. There was considerable social unrest. King Boris proved to be a stabilizing influence. Bulgaria held general elections quickly after the War (1919). The pubic expressed displeaure with the results of the peace imposed upon the country and the results, including war reparations, inflation, and rising taxes. This in effect prolonged the adverse living conditions that developed during the War. And unlike its Central Power allies, the monarch did not fall. The socialist/communist and agrarian parties gained ground in the elections. BANU emerged as the country's largest political party. BANU led by Alexander Stamboliiski won nearly 30 percent of the 1919 votes. This gave it a plurality but not a majority in the new Subranie (National Assembly). Stamboliiski as a populist with notable political skill. He was certainly a man of principle, determined on doing good for Bulgaria. He is described as remarkably prescient, usually pragmatic, but some times misjudging both people and events. [Crampton] The Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) finished second in the 1919 election. Primeminister Stamboliiski attempted to form a grand coalition government. He wanted to include both the BCP and the Bulgarian Workers' Socialist-Democratic Party (BWSDP) in the colition as he planned major reforms. (The BCP and the BWSDP were both Communist parties, but separate factions. Both had broken off from the main-line Social Democratic Party founded in 1891. They were never able to reach agreement, even during the World War II crisis. Stalin ordered the BWSDP disbanded after occupying the counrry at the end of World War II.) Stamboliiski ofered the two parties a role in Government, but not the level of control they desired. Both thus refused to participate. As a result, Stamboliiski's postwar governing coalition included limited left-wing support. The left-wing parties immediately tested the Government. The communists and social democrats organized a transport strike (December 1919-February 1920). They achieved some support from urban workers as well as the middle-class. The Government eventuially broke the strike by force with the Army and the Orange Guard. The Orange Guard was a para-military group Stamboliiski organized to face off the mass demonstrations organized by the left-wing parties. His success in suppressing the transport strike, mobilizing the peasant vote, and intimidating voters at polls allowed BANU to win the parliamentary election of 1920, significantly out polling the Communists. As a result, Stamboliiski was able to form a new government without the need of coalition government. Tsar Boris was supported by the Bulgarian middle class and tended to side with BANU and the other agrarians having observed the Social Democrats and Communists in the Soviet Union. Stamboliiski immediately launched ground-breaking economic and social reforms. He abolished the merchants' trade monopoly on grain which had held down prices. The merchant's monopoly was replaced with a government consortium. He also divided the large urban and rural landholdings. Tracts were sold to the poor on attractive terms. He pushed through an obligatory labor law in an effort to ease the country post-war labor shortage. He then pased the country's first progressive income tax. A major effort was made in education. The Government made secondary school attendance compulsory at a time that many children in Europe did not attend secondary schools. Many of the reforms had a strong socialist tinge. Ojnly the spectre of the Communists brought the Governmrnt royal support. Stamboliiski radical reforms were designed to rid Bulgarian society from 'harmful' groups incluing lawyers, usurers, and merchants. He sought to redistribute both wealth and obligations. He was particularly intent on raising the living standards of the country's landless and poor peasants. Attemps to limit free markets and disregard for property rights adversely affected economic growth.
Stamboliiski also launched major foreign policy inititives. This involved an ideological shift against hyper-nationalism that had led to a a seies of debilitating wars ultimnately leading to the disaster of World War I. There was also a relaistic assessment of the country's military capabilities. He officially abandoned Bulgaria's territorial goals, including the desire to recoup the losses in the World War I peace settlement. He saw pursuit of these claims as leading to a large and expensive standing army, monarchy, unecessary government expenditures, and other political phenomena that had led to the war and that the agrarians with their socialist leanings saw at anachronistic. After the War, not only had the Bulgarian Army been smashed, but there was no major power interested in championing Bulgarian interests in the Balkans. Thus Stamboliiski sought a rapprochement with all European powers, including the Allied countries as well as the Turkish government of Kemal Atatürk in Turkey. They joined the new League of Nations.
Bulgaria was not a rich, industrial power. It did not have the capanility of building a military that was able to win back those territories and did not have a sponsor to help arm it as was the case of Germany in World War I. Thus Primeminister Stamboliiski sought a rapprochement with all European powers, including the Allied countries as well as the Turkish government of Kemal Atatürk in Turkey. They joined the new League of Nations. And they sought to regularize relations with their former arch enemy--Serbia. The Serbs were in the process of creating the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes / Yugoslavia. Relations with Turkey, another former arch enemy, but World War I partner were also improved. Stamboliiski supported Atatürk's revolutionary Turkish Republic (1920).
Stamboliiski's vision was a multi-ethnic Balkan peasant federation. The Army officers participated in repressions during the Tsankov regime as part of paramilitary groups known as shpitskomandi. The Army, along with shpitskomandi and Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) militia, violently suppressed the leftist September Uprising (1923).
Balkan relations were of coure a prioity. Conflicting national claims had tore the Balkans up in a series of wars before World War I. After the War, Bulgaria sought friendship with their former arch enemy--Serbia. The Serbs were in the processof creating the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes / Yugoslavia. Relations with Turkey, another former arch enemy, but World War I partner were also improved. Stamboliiski supported Atatürk's revolutionary Turkish Republic (1920). Stamboliiski's vision was a multi-ethnic Balkan peasant federation. A correct relationship with Yugoslavia required confronting the powerful Macedonian extremist movement which wanted an independent country. Stamboliiski began a 2-year effort to supress IMRO (1921). Yugoslavia and Bulgaria agreed at the Nis Convention to cooperate in supressing extremist groups. Stamboliiski was less sucessful in developing a new relationship with Greece. A serious border incident developed requiring League of Nations adjudication (1925). A correct relationship with Yugoslavia required confronting the powerful Macedonian extremist movement which wanted an independent country. Stamboliiski began a 2-year effort to supress IMRO (1921). Yugoslavia and Bulgaria agreed at the Nis Convention to cooperate in supressing extremist groups. Complicating this was Bulgaria's relationship wuth Greece. Stamboliiski was less sucessful in developing a new relationship with Greece. A serious border incident developed requiring League of Nations adjudication (1925). This was a short-lived Greek invasion of southwestern Bulgaria, known as the War of the Stray Dog.
After the NAZI seizure of power in Germany, the Germans began a diplomatic effort to undemine Allied influemce in the Balkans. A source of advanced weaponry thus became available in limited quantities. The Germany Army had begun an open expansion in violation of the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine, but without the reources available to the German Army. The Bulgarian military began to obtain combat aircraft from Germany and France, and light tanks from Italy. As with the other future Axis allies (Hungary and Romania), the Germans would provide some advanced weapory, but not enough to give these countrie the capability of taking on well-armed modern army. (Here there were not only limitations created by Germany's industrial capacity, but also Hitler's desore to limit their military capavility.) At the time that Hitler and Stalin launched World War II, Bulgarias did not have the military capability to invade its neighbors, but it did have the capability of occupying territory seized by the Germans.
Crampton, T.J. Alexander Stamboliiski.
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