Sofia

As a result of the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878, Bulgaria gained its autonomy from the Ottoman Empire in March 1878 with the Treaty at San Stefano. Four months later, a new treaty negotiated by the European powers at the Congress of Berlin revised those preliminary agreements and divided the country into two principalities – semi-autonomous Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia, still under the direct authority of the Ottoman Empire. The Bulgarian state remained a vassal principality of the Ottoman Empire, but was established as a Christian constitutional monarchy to be developed under the supervision of a nine-month Russian Provisional Administration. The Constituent Assembly of Bulgaria nominated Prince Alexander von Battenberg from the Hessen-Darmstadt dynasty (Alexander I) as ruler in 1879. During his reign, the unification of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia (1885) was carried out through an internal coup which led to a war between Serbia and Bulgaria. Its aftermath brought international recognition for the new territorial union of Bulgaria and the abdication of Prince Alexander I (1886). The major political change that marked the subsequent rule of Ferdinand Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was the proclamation of full independence and the establishment of the Third Kingdom of Bulgaria (1908) which gained international recognition in 1910.