New Bulgarian History - Bulgarian Renaissance -
from XVII c. till 1878

The Bulgarian renaissance is one of the most productive periods in our past - a transition to a new era. The first signs of the Renaissance process were noticed in the end of XVII c. mainly in the industrial life. Its essence, however, was seen better in the next century. In historiography almost everyone say that the lower border of the epoch is the beginning of XVIII c. It is not connected with any exact happenings, resulting in its uncertainty and it just marks a new tendency in history. Its first appearance in culture was the appearance of the Paisii’s “History of the Slavonians and Bulgarians” in 1762. This gives the reason historians to think that it was the first sign of the Renaissance. In the discussion over the problem of the conception that Father Paisii Hilendarski expresses an existing tendency in the development of the Bulgarian community takes higher chances.

In the Renaissance the Bulgarian community lived through a renewing process. But it passed several stages and was not monotonous. The first one was from the beginning of XVIII c. and continued till the end of the first quarter of XIX c. This was the Early stage. The bourgeois-market relationships were at their starting position and had weak surrounding in their communal life. From the end of the 20s of XIX c. till the Crime war (1853-1856) was the second stage. The producing forces in Bulgaria grew, and with them the bourgeois - manufacturing relationships grew clearer. The third stage began with the end of the Crime war and continued till the 60s and 70s of XIX c. when the capital relationships took place. The inner and outer trade grew dynamically, changing its outlook and character: the number of the manufactures, on the basis of rented labor grew extremely; the first factories and shareholder joints appeared. New roads, railways, ports, telegraph communications and technical appliances were built.

The quality piles in the material sphere and the social relations were expressed with some various cultural-spiritual and political achievements - the building of a modern education and culture, the gaining of church independence and the creation of a Bulgarian nation. All of this incorporated the Bulgarian lands to a modern European bourgeois civilization and made way for the Bulgarians to a new age.

The upper level of the Renaissance is accepted to be the liberation and the rebuilding of the Bulgarian national government in 1878. According to some historians, however, the process continued afterwards - till the Balkan war on 1912, but it was in the Bulgarian ethnic territories out of the boundaries of the new country (Thrace, the Rhodopes and Macedonia).