Photo by Felix J. Koch 



CHRISTIAN PEASANT WOMEN : SOFIA, BULGARIA 



The movements which culminated in 

 the hberation of Servia, of Greece, of 

 the trans-Danubian principahties, and 

 more recently of Bulgaria, were heralded 

 in each case by a literary renaissance and 

 an educational propaganda. The school- 

 master has gone hand in hand with the 

 insurgent chief, and the same individual 

 has often combined the two functions. 



THE BULGARIANS HAD MORE DIFFICUL- 

 TIES TO OVERCOME THAN ANY 

 OTHER SUBJECT RACE 



The Bulgarian national revival, the last 

 in order of time, has been attended by 

 peculiar complications. In their efforts 

 to obtain political freedom and the union 

 of their race, the Bulgarians have found 

 themselves confronted not only with the 

 power of Islam, but with the hostility of 

 sister Christian nations. Thus a new 

 factor has been introduced which renders 

 the struggle infinitely more arduous. 



The Bulgarians, indeed, have few 

 friends, but they manifest no signs of 

 despair. In the short period of their 

 political existence they have gone through 

 so many vicissitudes that they have be- 

 come inured to desperate situations. 

 Their tenacity, their shrewdness, their 



dogged perseverance — the characteristics 

 of an agricultural race — their cool-headed 

 judgment and intuitive sagacity, and — • 

 shall we add? — the luck which has hith- 

 erto attended them, may once more stand 

 them in good stead (see pages 1117 and 

 1 127). 



A hundred years ago the existence of 

 the Bulgarian race had been almost for- 

 gotten by Europe. A nation which, un- 

 der its powerful Tsars Simeon (893-927) 

 and Ivan Asen II (1218-1241), had ruled 

 over the greater part of the Balkan 

 Peninsula had been practically obliter- 

 ated by four centuries of Turkish des- 

 potism and Greek ecclesiastical domi- 

 nation (for the origin of the Bulgarians, 

 see page 11 22). 



The Bulgarians had suffered more 

 severely from the Turkish conquest than 

 any of the other Christian races of the 

 peninsula. Their geographical position 

 in the heart of the peninsula isolated 

 them from Christendom and exposed 

 them to the ravages of the Turkis'h 

 armies which traversed their country 

 during the campaigns against Austria 

 and Russia. 



An industrious agricultural race, they 

 became the serfs of the Mohammedan 



1 106 



