The resettlement of people be ongoing to the Bulgarian branch actually had quite old traditions. After deflecting the advance of the Huns, part of the Bulgarians headed for Central Europe as early as the beginning of the 6th century. For some time they lived in what are today Bavaria and southern Germany. It is unclear how they came into conflict with the local lord who ordered them killed to the last man. Those who survived turned south. They lived on the territory of present-day Italy for centuries and gradually mixed with the local population to the point where only names like Bulgar and Bulgarelli remind of their centennial presence there. After the fall of Old Great Bulgaria part of the people crossed half of Europe and settled in Italy. After three or four centuries they had blended entirely into the local population.

Continue reading The Fate of the Bulgarians

The Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age were already periods about which mankind has memories. These were the heroic times of the Trojan War described by the great Homer in the 8th - 7th century BC. The Iliad narrates about the Thracians and their leaders, who lived in the present-day Bulgarian lands and fought bravely under the walls of Troy together with the Greek heroes.
Continue reading The Rock People from the Rhodope, Strandja and Sakar Mountains

Khan Krum was in power from 803 to 814. He layeth the smack down on Byzantine! But first, Khan Krum joined forces with the Frankish empire of Charles the Great and destroyed the Avar Khanate. Krum annexed the Avar Khanate’s lands and incorporated Transylvania into Bulgaria; in 812 he pushed the frontiers of his domain all the way north to the Tisza {or Tisa, or Theiss} River. Thus Bulgaria’s territory was expanded to cover the lands between the Danube and the Carpathians. A common border was established with the empire of Charles the Great and Bulgaria became an outstanding power in Europe. It is understandable that now the Byzantine emperor felt very alarmed. Nicephorus I Genik’s planned campaign against Bulgaria was prevented by infighting amongst the Byzantines. But Khan Krum wasn’t going to sit still and wait, attack is the best means of defense. In 808-809 the Khan’s soldiers defeated the Byzantine army in the Struma valley, seizing an immense loot and much gold. The defenders of Sredets {Serdika} laid down their arms and surrendered the town which was later to become Bulgaria’s capital. Not long after that Nish and Belgrade fall into the hands of the Bulgarians. Krum was ready to march on Macedonia.
Continue reading Why Khan Krum is maybe the first most important bulgarian ruler

As amazing as the opportunities offered by these lands were, the dangers were equally great. Bulgaria’s location produced a history which eliminates all but the strongest.
The Thracians were an awe inspiring people. Until 46 AD {when Thrace became a Roman province} the Greeks and Romans lived in fear of a dark Thracian cloud descending from the north, devastating civilisation in the Balkans. Fortunately, this only happened twice. According to Herodotus: “… after the Indian, the Thracian people are the most numerous”. He goes on to say that: “Were they under one ruler, or united, they would, in my judgement be invincible and the strongest nation on earth.”

But the Thracians never united. And that cost them dearly. The destiny of Bulgaria’s lands is such as to mercilessly punish any weakness. The price that the Thracians paid for their failure to unite as one nation, was an end to their independent existence, the ultimate price. The Thracians did not unite into a single nation until they were assimilated into the state of the Salvs and Bulgars. The Bulgars who’s national consciousness helped them found not one but 3 states by the same name. The Thracians contributed greatly to the new state, they passed on a lot of their culture, customs, and traditions to the new nation. But it was a new nation, not a Thracian one. It was that Thraco-Slavo-Bulgarian nation, that managed to survive 1300+ years as a single unified nation, withstanding everything Bulgaria’s location could throw at it.
Continue reading Thracians, the oldest people in the Balkans Part 3

Little is known about the origins of the Bulgars that reached the Balkan peninsula in the 7th century AD (according to some sources even earlier) because during the ages the original Bulgars melted into the local population of what is nowadays Bulgaria.

One theory is that the Bulgars originated in central Asia but their origin is not entirely clear. The established theory is that the Bulgars are related to the Huns. Clues for this can be found in the advanced calendar and system of government of the early Bulgars.

However more recent studies in genetics have tried to show that the Bulgars were not directly linked to the Huns and the Bulgars originated from what is nowadays Eastern Ukraine. It is possible that Bulgarian rulers employed Huns and had close cultural relations with them but were very ethnically different.
Continue reading The most wide carried theory of Who Bulgars are