The Day of Final Independence

Bulgaria celebrates its independence on 22 September, which was the date that (now) Tsar Ferdinand issued his proclamation in the old Bulgaria capital of Tarnovo.  To much of the rest of the world, the date was already 5 October – but the truth is that the actual date mattered far less than the momentous events shaking the world at that moment.  

Crete and Greece also took advantage of the internal strife in the Ottoman Empire to join together.  Austria-Hungary annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina.  

The world, which had seemed so stable just a few years before, was rapidly changing. Bulgaria, the nation that spent 500 years under foreign rule, was to join together with its Balkan brothers just four years after their independence to completely drive the Ottomans out of Europe.

For more about Bulgaria, visit our Bulgaria history archive.