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There is a gaping hole in the story - the Black Death. There were two pandemic waves on the Balkans in the last 50 years of the Bulgarian Empire (1350 - 1400). These decimated the population of the entire peninsula. The huge loss of human life sapped the strength of the Bulgarian state. Few men were available to recruit in the army and the economy was in shambles.

I also think that this is oversimplified. First Bulgarian Empire had even more numerous and fearsome enemies than the Second, yet it achieved great success - to say that the Second Empire was destined to fail from its very creation is bit of a stretch. Hell even the First Bulgarian Empire could have survived, had there been no such emperor as the "child" emperor Basil II. When Second Bulgarian Empire emerged the "mighty" Byzantine Empire had only formal control over Bulgarian territory, so it was obviously not that mighty. You have to note that the Turks that eventually made a very powerful empire were really nobody in the beginning of 13th century, the start of the Second Bulgarian Empire. Didn't they have many and powerful enemies? Did they have any friends at all? Yet they succeeded. Your conclusions are just made to sound interesting, but are just your personal interpretations, and not based on much facts or knowledge.

Thanks for the video, great job! One note though, please refrain from using the phrase “Byzantine Empire” because they never called themselves as such. It’s a much later invented Western terminology. The proper name is the Eastern Roman Empire.

Actually the new historical sources say that Bulgaria had put really big resistance to the ottomans since the first war started around 1350 and it went till 1420 when the last fortress Lovech fell. Basically Bulgaria and the tsar Ivan Shishman was called the most rebellious of all Balkan leaders since he never payed his tribute to the Ottomans like Serbs or Byzantines.

Finally my country 🎉 Love you from 🇧🇬 and love to watch your videos 🤍💚❤️ Can you make in future video for First Bulgarian empire? Specially for Tsar Simeon I ?

Incredibly simplified video of the entire situation. A lot of extremely important points glossed over, misspelled the name of Simeon the 1st. Sorry, but this video was rushed and subpar in comparison to many of your videos. I'd advise you to revisit the topic more indepth and not rush it :)

Im a Serbian a age old foe of the Bulgarians and today our battles revolve around who has better Rakija and ajvar/ljutenica. But still this is badly done in a typical western manner. You did not even bother to check the names and misspelled several. You skipped several massive wars that were of extreme importance to the Bulgarian state. I understand our balkan empires are "Exotic" to you but in the middle ages it was the reverse situation of today. You westerners came to be gastarbaiters for us. So please we demand no special treatment, just show us the same consideration you do to your own historical events. For example you for the Bulgarians you can point out that their and the Serbian and Roman court were intermarried to the point you had second or third knee cousins leading all the states. Then the myriad of extremely interesting historical figures in Bulgaria at this case. Or maybe the fact that for example whenever Serbia and Bulgaria would battle, the common soldiers would not be executed because "We are of the same blood" and only the nobles would be ransomed. As for the second Bulgarian tsardom you missed the greatest battle they never recovered from fully. The battle of Velbuzhd. Or perhaps during the Mongol times the fact that their land of Vidin was home to nobles who had significant nomad mercenaries and raided Serbia until king Milutin of Serbia massacred the nomads at the Morava river and captured Vidin, but had to release them due to their protection from the Mongols and send hostages to the Mongols so they would not raze Serbia amongst whom was his oldest son etc. Just because we are a shithole today for the moment does not mean we have no history. So i ask again treat us with the same respect you treat your own history and for Christs sake its not SRIMEON but Simeon its not even hard.

Yet another great video

In 1393, the Ottomans captured Tarnovo, the capital of the Second Bulgarian Empire, after a three-month siege. In 1396, the Vidin Tsardom fell after the defeat of a Christian crusade at the Battle of Nicopolis. With this the Ottomans finally subjugated and occupied Bulgaria.

2:55 Видин не е бил в пределите на Сърбия.

Vidin would last as an ottoman vassal until 1422 and Bulgaria controlled half of Romania until 1240s which isn't shown

I'm loving the consistent video releases. Knowledgia is spoiling us!

Nice look into an interesting subject

Thank you!

I love all of this pre modern history we get from you

Time to learn about the first Slavic Empire

It's the state that remains in existence today while both byzantine and ottoman states are gone. So bulgaria ultimately is the victor.

Thank you for this video. It does have some mistakes but the general presentation is correct. Here are some importan mistakes: The ottomans step on a Balkan soil in 1342 and they were in constant fight with Bulgarian Tzardam, Serbia and Eastern Roman Empire. The ottomans had huge advantage in share numbers but it took 60 years to conquer us. Our Tzar Ivan Shishman did put a greate fiight against the Ottomans he never gave up but the general picture was as you presented it. Secon and minor The rebels that restored the second Bulgarian Tzardam are Asen and Teodor (who took the name Petar from the Bulgadian Tzar Petar 927-971). Ivan is a later add to the rullers names after the reign of the mantioned Ivan Asen 2.

And the Bulgarian emperors claimed the title of "Emperors of Bulgarians & Greeks" (or Romans, they used it interchangeably) after conquering Byzantine territories in Greece claiming therefore a right to the imperium. So of course the Byzantines would meddle in their affairs.

I strongly recommend Schwerpunkts series on Medieval Bulgaria on the topic, there's also a video dedicated specifically to it

Having so many powerful enemies, it is hard to blame the fall of Bulgaria to anything... Mongols were the biggest empire ever! Byzantines were the Eastern Roman empire. Both united against Bulgaria, and with Serbs and Hungarians on the other side, what chance do we had? But still we managed to survive until the Turks came and almost conquered whole Europe. They were stopped barely from all European united front in the middle of today Austria... So really what chance did we had against the 4 of the biggest empires ever (including Rus, Mongols, Byzantin and Turks) and with the Serbs as pain in the a...

I was disappointed as until the 3rd minute nothing was mentioned on the plague which was instrumental as Bulgaria lost half of it's population. That's why I did not watch till the end

In summary, their geopolitical situation at the time was fvcked.

Pretty sure AOE2 DE has a Ivaylyo campaign or he is in one of them. Recognize the name

Yes that is true but Bulgaria is so ancient and great I'm proud Bulgarian my name is Petar like King Petar one of the greatest ever

lets go Bulgariaaaaa

Very good video friends. Thank you!!

There's a beautiful video by Schwerpunkt that deals in depth with the topic, strongly advised

Its very simple actually. Bulgaria and the ERE never stopped fighting each other and used turks (especially Kantakuzin) for that purpose. We should bare in mind they couldn't have known that this will have such a huge impact of the history of the Balkans. Nobody could forsee the future and realise that the three big countries (Serbia, ERE and Bulgaria) shall unite in the middle of the 14th c. After that it was too late anyways. The plague didnt help also.

As a Bulgarian myself I am deeply grateful that you make videos about our rich history which is hardly mentioned anywhere. Kudos to you!

Bulgaria mentioned!!!❤🇧🇬🇧🇬🦁🌹🇧🇬🇧🇬🌹🦁🌹🦁🦁🦁❤️❤️🇧🇬🦁🇧🇬

Thanks for this fantastic video about Bulgaria but since I am about to be sleeping in a shortwhile since here is now 2:54am,Monday morning,let me watch the video soon,admin!!!🏋‍♂️

It took the ottomans 50 years to destroy the second Bulgarian empire so it wasn't that easy for them as you describe in your video , also don't forget Venice and and other Italian republics that helped the ottomans, The Serbian helped as well either their constant military aid to the ottomans , example is the battle of Nikopololis ! So there were many enemies, but today we have the third Bulgarian state , that shows a very solid foundations for almost 1500 years

Too oversimplified. Maybe because of insufficient ammount of research. Nothing for some important battles, nothing significant for Ivaylo and another main reason - The black death. What about the name Добротица - it is not so hard to spell Dobro-titza. Dobroshima sounds a bit japanese.

Да живее България, Бог ще е възроди !❤Амин ❤

Not Michael but Mihail. Just read it how you see

This is a certified Ivan Alexander moment

The First Bulgarian Empire was very stable and united and the rulers dynasty was absolute. When the Byzantines used the help of the Kievan Rus who defeated 3 of the armies Bulgaria sent, the situation grew dire. Bulgaria was conquered but Basil the Second integrated the Bulgarian nobility into the empire to ensure no revolts and claims into the future. In this period bulgarian nobility grew familiar with the plague that was Byzantine nobility and its politics and infighting. Bulgaria until then didnt have any resembling revolts or generals rebelling to become emperors and so on, the only infighting with real strugle was a revolt when Christianity was addopted. In the Second Bulgarian empire. The remaining nobility thought like a byzantine one and strived for the same idiocy of glory and power over the stability of the state. The line was crossed in the minds of these people and it was ok, if others did it for so long and still were fine ( Byzantine empire ). The rest of the bulgarian nobility was young and as houses of their own and lacked and clarity and discipline. In some way Byzantium "fucked us over". Their mindset was very toxic and fought more like a snake than actual warriors. The first Bulgarian empire has more nobility that prioritized battle skill and ability to lead in such way, that would be barbarian for the "cultured" (they were really but... very toxic) byzantine courts.

Now do the first Bulgarian empire

Best history youtube channel

Those maps are a total mess! The explanation is also all over the place and extremely chaotic. This topic is complex and you chose to cover a very long time period which is nearly impossible in 10 minutes. There are also some factual mistakes and the wording is quite misleading in many places, so it would be better to put more time into the research next time.

In my opinion the introduction of feudalism by the crusaders is the main reason for the fall of the Balkan peninsula to the ottomans. The decentralisation of power led to inner fighting and plotting which significally weakend all the states.

Make a wideo about Serbian kingdoms and Croatian also please!

Make Bulgaria great again

Also, what is this map showing Vidin region not part of Bulgaria but Serbia?????? WTF

Why? Why? 1. Before you start presenting someone's story, you should check and find everything that is written not on the internet but books or videos made 2. Check what is true and what is not, that is enough.

interesting, I never knew the history of this

Could you ever make a video about the fall of Constantinople?? I believe that it would be great

The thumbnail map is literally ante bellum lmao

I feel like you guys missed the part where the mongols just sacked half of Bulgaria

First time viewer here, great video, however, you are mispronouncing most of the names (I'm not entirely sure what your historical source is), for future references, please spell check them before proceeding. Best of luck! България над всичко.

Thx for the video about Bulgaria

It was conquered, it didn't collapse.

The point is that the greed of Blakan Christians, the bogomil heretics, the black plague and hostile neighbors made the Balkan countries weak enough for the Ottomans to defeat them.

The whole structure was old, which is why not only Bulgaria but also whole Europe was collapsing

Not Stra-Tis-Mir, Stra-Tsi-Mir

Tsar Simeon, arguably the biggest military and political leader of Bulgaria, called "a man who chased dreams"... He wasn't defeated by Byzatine. He was assasinated at the walls of Constantinople, while there was a bulgarian siege on the city. He has been schooling Byzantine all his reign.

Hey, can you please make video how Islam & Christianity came to Indonesia? As an Indonesian, Islam didn't really come with trade especially to what happened with my ethnic groups, an indigenous ethnic group in the middle of Sumatran jungles and Bukit Barisan mountain range near the largest vulcanic lake in the world. In 1539, Acehnese Sultanate invaded my ancestors's kingdom when our king refused Islam. Aceh lost the war then they bought & hired Ottoman weapons & soldiers to invade us. In the 1810s during Padri War, an Islamic civil war in Minangkabau, Padri soldiers also heard a bunch of cannibalistic pagan tribes in the middle of North Sumatra who stayed as pagans, Padri soldiers massacred 200.000 people even executed our king for not accepting Islam, they brutally ransacked our villages/cities & massacred my ethnic groups who refused their religion. They were failed to conquer us when a cholera outbreak happened thanks to dead bodies that leaked cholera. After they failed to conquer us, our ancestors were devastated after watching our ransacked kingdoms and dead relatives even cholera outbreak happened and decimated our population. My ancestors became hostile towards outsiders/foreigners. A couple of US Baptist missionarists came and introduced Christianity. Too bad, the locals thought they were another hostile foreigners/outsiders and they caught & ate them. Before Christianity came, my people were pagans who had cannibalistic culture/rituals. My ancestors conducted cannibalism towards people who did terrible crimes such as rape, murder, or treason. POWs were also eaten back then. Before Christianity, my ancestors believed if we ate people, it'd grant us magical strength. Child sacrifice was also happened before we accepted Christianity. A German missionarist came and introduced Christianity among my people. He built schools, hospitals, etc. But a lot of kingdom citizens hated him coz Christianity could destroy our culture and religion such as our cannibalistic rituals. Cannibalism was eventually banned when Dutch colonial regime imposed anti cannibalism law towards us in 1900s. If Christianity never came, perhaps my people would still do capital punishment in form of cannibalism and conduct child sacrifice. Unlike other Indonesian regions which were colonized for 350 years, we only got conquered in 1907 when Dutch soldiers succesfully assassinated our priest king. Dutch faced difficulties at fighting a cannibalistic nation in the middle of Sumatran jungles near a large lake.

Guys, get the names right at least. Emperor Srimeon is turning in his grave ..

I ask myself this question every day when I see the capital of second Bulgarian Kingdom from my window...

wonder what will happen to the 3rs bulgarian empire

Bulgaria also controlled half of Romania during this time

As a Bulgarian I think this video is a huge mess. Too oversimplified and chaotic explanation. Also Bulgaria lasted until 1420s.

Rivalry between byzentine empire and Bulgarian empire was greatest in Balkan history which nobody mentions.

Greetings from the real Greek Macedonia

Serbo-Bulgaria: Yes? No? Maybe? Can we have Serbo-Bulgaria? Like it? Hate it? Not sure?

This video is rushed. I'm happy Bulgaria is getting more coverage, but this is very subpar.

All I see is Stannis with a big beard.

Great video but why are you calling the ruler of Bulgaria Emperor?

It's supposed to be emperor Simeon

Wrong maps. Many border where wrong.

The video is great, really good representation of the history as I learned in school 🏫 as Bulgarian. Only the maps are not so accurate 😅, but not so bad

The whole sentence "Second Bulgarian Empire" is completely wrong and makes absolutely no sense at all. The sons of Kubrat, establish 3 separate states called Bulgaria. One on the Balkans, one in today Italy and one on the Volga River .His Brother makes his own kingdom as well, but names it Duloba, all of this after the fall of Old Great Bulgaria. I don't even know what is written in modern day history books, but holy fucking shit....

Seems doubtful this is the definitive answer. In both cases, the Bulgarians rose and fell from the Byzantine empire, so the answer likely lies in the Byzantines , rather than than Bulgarian internal dynamics. Yes, Hungary and the Mongols were stronger external neighbours. But the Byzantine tradition and system of government must have been the deciding factor.

Good video, but the name pronunciations are so off, it's almost comical.

It should have been Mikhail not Michael.

WE NEED SUNGLASSES

History is critical topic, and if you make videos about countries history then they must be 100% true not half true half false like this video...

Hello

Dude, what is this comedy? You can read Dobtrotitsa and Stratsimir as you see the letters. Then the relation with the Byzantine, Serbs and Wallachians (the latters actually contributing to the foundation and early leadership of the second empire) was alot more nuanced than is told here. Was used with a higher level of things presented here, this is a mockery.

Because Mongols

In fact was bulgarian-wallachian empire, because moldavia and wallachia was never under bulgarian ocupation, theh wasn't conquered by bulgarian armies, bug kind of allied nations. But.. how to expect from british EMPIRE channel? British even wait for war at danube delta to take controll over it, as it is their dream from begining of twenty century.. as very few people knows..

Ivaylo didn't "murder" constantine tikh. He killed him in battle

The worst thing happend not only for the bulgarians, but for europe.

Моля обърнете внимание, че през 80% от съществуването си, България е била ЦАРСТВО. Има голяма разлика между царство и империя. Please note that during 80% of its existence, Bulgaria was a KINGDOM. There is a big difference between a kingdom and an empire.

Mon-gol Hun-gary and Bulga-Volga are all Kozak tribes from the east and the Russian Knyaz was a prince subjected to the Mongols but gained independence; Hungarian Pushtas are remnants of those horsemen. If you are talking about the Orthodox Church, then that originated from the Mediterranean. I don't know if you speak a Slavic language yourself but Bulgarian is so similar to Russian that you understand newspaper headlines without actually studying and Bulgarians abroad visit Greek or Russian Churches if no Bulgarian one is available, so I think they used to be a loose collection of settlements rather than an empire with a vast bureaucracy and anyway, they are even happy to substitute Bulgarian stuff with Russian or Greek ones today. Ask them.

Historically correct is the Wallachian-Bulgarian Empire not the Second Bulgarian Empire. Because the Asan ruling dynasty, a very large part of the population and territory was walachian (romanian).

WHayyyyyy finally BULGARIAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Because the balcans are total war on extreme difficulty and not every ruler is good at the game

Such a significant topic...can u do next importance of Bulgarian Fashion Week? Its like so important 🙄

its T E R T E R , not Turtur...

Division, like always, and still :)

Anyone know how the Old Bulgaria fell in Modern day Russia

This skips so many relevant events, it's basically not even a story it claims to be ....

Second DANUBE BULGARIAN Empire

In medieval Bulgaria they already had a Hans Zimmer soundtrack.

Teteraș..and Șișman..cuman rulers of Bulgaria.

Not bad video, Bulagarian Empire is mainly being compared to the Byzantine Empire who was the main regional power for centuries. I know you are foreigner but you totally butchered many rulers names. Also fun fact is the some modern romanian historians consider that the Second Bulgarian Empire is somehow also their proto state, which is total nonsense, but the close ties between Wallachia and SBE were evident.

Third time's a charm.