I Can’t Sleep - Bulgaria | Gentle Bedtime Reading for Sleep

Episode Date: September 22, 2024

Ease into rest with this calm bedtime reading about Bulgaria, a country rich in history, culture, and natural beauty. Benjamin’s soothing narration explores its geography, traditions, and role throughout history, all delivered in a steady and peaceful cadence. With fact-filled storytelling—no whispers, no hypnosis—this episode is designed to help ease insomnia, reduce stress, and quiet restless thoughts while you gently learn. Perfect for sleepless nights or simply winding down. Press play, breathe deeply, and drift into restful sleep while discovering the story of Bulgaria. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the Discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Bulgaria, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia – Bulgaria. Happy sleeping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch. I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause.

With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast, where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled Bulgaria. Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans, directly south of the Danube River,

and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey to the south, Serbia, and North Macedonia to the west, and Romania to the north. It covers a territory of 110,944. square kilometers, and is the 16th largest country in Europe. Sophia is a nation's capital and largest city. Other major cities include Burgas, Blavdiv, and Varna. One of the earliest societies in the lands of modern-day Bulgaria was a Karanova culture, 6,500 BC. In the 6th to 3rd century BC, the region was a battleground for ancient Thracians, Persians, Celts, and Macedonians.

Stability came when the Roman Empire conquered the region in AD 45. After the Roman states splintered, tribal invasions in the region resumed. Around the 6th century, these territories were settled by the early Slavs. The Bulgarians, led by Asparu, attacked from the lands of Old Great Bulgaria, and permanently invaded the Balkans in the late 7th. century. They established the first Bulgarian Empire, victoriously recognized by treaty in 681 AD, by the Byzantine Empire. It dominated most of the Balkans and significantly influenced Slavic cultures by developing the Cyrillic script. The first Bulgarian Empire lasted until the early

11th century, when Byzantine Emperor Basil II conquered and dismantled it. A successful Bulgarian revolt in 1185 established a second Bulgarian Empire, which reached its apex under Ivan Asen II, 1218 to 1241. After numerous exhausting wars and feudal strife, the empire disintegrated, and in 1396 fell under Ottoman rule for nearly five centuries. The Russo-Turkish War of 1877 to 78 resulted in the formation of the third and current Bulgarian state, which declared independence from the Ottoman Empire in 2008. Many ethnic Bulgarians were left outside the new nation's borders, which stoked Irredentis sentiments that led to several conflicts with its neighbors

and alliances with Germany and both world wars. In 1946, Bulgaria came under the Soviet-led Eastern Bloc, and became a socialist state. The ruling Communist Party gave up its monopoly on power after the revolutions of 1989 and allowed multi-party elections. Bulgaria then transitioned into a democracy and a market-based economy.

Since adopting a democratic constitution in 1991, Bulgaria has been a unitary parliamentary republic composed of 28 provinces, with a high degree of political, administrative, and economic centralization. Bulgaria has a high-income economy. Its market economy is part of the European single market and is largely based on services, followed by industry, especially machine building and mining, and agriculture.

The country faces a demographic crisis, Its population peaked at 9 million in 1989 and has since decreased to under 6.4 million as of 2024. Bulgaria is a member of the European Union, the Schengen area, NATO, and the Council of Europe. It is also a founding member of the OSCE and has taken a seed on the United Nations Security Council three times. The name Bulgaria is derived from the Bulgars, a tribe of Turkic origin, that founded the first Bulgarian Empire. Their name is not completely understood and is difficult to trace it back earlier than the 4th century AD, but it is possibly derived from the proto-Turkic word Bulga to mix, shake, stir, and its derivative Bulgak, Revolt, Disorder.

The meaning may be further extended to rebel, in sight, or produce a state of disorder. And so, in the derivative, the disturbers. Tribal groups in Inner Asia with phonologically close names were frequently described in similar terms. As a Biloji, a component of the five barbarian groups, which during the 4th century were portrayed as both a mixed race and troublemakers. Neanderthal remains dating to around 150,000 years ago, or the Middle Paleolithic, are some of the earliest traces of human activity in the lands of modern Bulgaria. Remains from Homo sapiens found there are dated circa 47,000 years BP.

This result represents the earliest arrival of modern humans in Europe. The Karanova culture arose circa 650 BC and was one of several Neolithic societies in the region that thrived on agriculture. The copper-age Varna culture, 5th millennium BC, is credited with inventing gold metallurgy. The associated Varna necropolis treasure contains the oldest golden jewelry in the world, with an approximate age of over 6,000 years. The treasure has been valuable for understanding social hierarchy and stratification in the earliest European societies. The Thracians, one of the three primary ancestral groups of modern Bulgarians, appeared on the Balkan Peninsula sometime before the 12th century BC.

The Thracians excelled in metallurgy and gave the Greeks the Orphean and Dionysian cults, but remained tribal, and stateless. The Persian Achaemenid Empire conquered parts of present-day Bulgaria, in particular Eastern Bulgaria, in the 6th century BC, and retained control over the region until 479 BC. The invasion became a catalyst for Thracian unity, and the bulk of their tribes united under King Tiri's to form the Adrysian Kingdom in the 470s BC. It was weakened, and vassalized by Philip II of Macedon in 341 BC, attacked by the Celts in the 3rd century, and finally became a province of the Roman Empire in AD 45. By the end of the first century A.D., Roman governance was established over the entire Balkan peninsula,

and Christianity began spreading in the region around the 4th century. The Gothic Bible, the first Germanic language book, was created by Gothic Bishop Ophyllis, in what is today northern Bulgaria around 381. The region came under Byzantine control after the fall of Rome in 476. The Byzantines were engaged in prolonged warfare against Persia and could not defend their Balkan territories from barbarian incursions. This enabled the Slavs to enter the Balkan. Peninsula as marauders, primarily through an area between the Danube River and the Balkan

mountains, known as Misia. Gradually, in the interior of the peninsula, became a country of the South Slavs, who lived under a democracy. The Slavs assimilated the partially Hellenized, Romanized, and Gothicized Thracians in the rural areas. Not long after the Slavic incursion, Misia was once again invaded, this time by the Bulgar's under Khan Asperuk. Their horde was a remnant of old Great Bulgaria, an extinct tribal confederacy situated north of the Black Sea, in what is now Ukraine and southern Russia. Asperug attacked Byzantine territories in Misia

and conquered the Slavic tribes there in 680. A peace treaty with the Byzantine Empire was signed in Sperug, 681, marking the foundation of the first Bulgarian Empire. The minority Bulgarians formed a close-knit ruling cast. Succeeding rulers strengthened the Bulgarian state throughout the 8th and 9th centuries. Kramm introduced a written code of law and checked a major Byzantine incursion at the Battle of Blisca, in which Byzantine Emperor and Isephyrus I was killed. Boris I abolished paganism in favor of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in 864.

The conversion was followed by a Byzantine recognition of the Bulgarian Church and the adoption of the Cyrillic alphabet developed in the capital, Praslav. The common language, religion, and script strengthened central authority and gradually fused the Slavs and the Bulgars into a unified people, speaking a single Slavic language. A golden age began during the 34-year rule of Simeon the Great, who oversaw the largest territorial expansion of the state. After Simeon's death, Bulgaria was weakened by wars with Madyars and Pachenegs

and the spread of Bulgamel heresy. Preslav was seized by the Byzantine army in 971, after consecutive Rus and Byzantine invasions. The empire briefly recovered from the attacks under Samuel, but this ended when Byzantine Emperor Basil II defeated the Bulgarian army at Kluach in 1014. Samuel died shortly after the battle, and by 1018 the Byzantines had conquered the first Bulgarian Empire. After the conquest, Basil II prevented revolts by retaining the rule of local nobility, integrating

them in Byzantine bureaucracy and aristocracy, and relieving their lands of the obligation to pay taxes and gold, allowing tax in kind instead. The Bulgarian Patriarchate was reduced to an archbishop, but retained its autocephalous status in its diocese. Byzantine domestic policies changed after Basil's death, and a series of unsuccessful rebellions broke out, the largest being in the and led by Peter Delian. The Empire's authority declined after a catastrophic military defeat at Manzocurt against Seljuk invaders and was further disturbed by the Crusades. This prevented Byzantine attempts at Hellenization

and created fertile ground for further revolt. In 1185, Ascend Dynasty nobles, Yvonne Asin I and Peter the 4th, organized a major uprising and succeeded in re-establishing the Bulgarian state. Ivan Asen and Peter laid the foundations of the Second Bulgarian Empire with its capital at Tarnovo. Kalyan, the third of the Asen monarchs, extended his domain to Belgrade and Orid. He acknowledged the spiritual supremacy of the Pope and received a royal crown from a papal legate. the empire reached its zenith under ivan ascent the second when its borders expanded as far as the coast of albania

Serbia and alpyrus while commerce and culture flourished Ivan asen's rule was also marked by a shift away from Rome and religious matters the ascent dynasty became extinct in 1257 internal conflicts and incessant Byzantine and Hungarian attacks followed enabling the Mongols to establish suzerainty over the weakened Bulgarian state. In 1277, Swineherty Vilo led a great peasant revolt that expelled the Mongols from Bulgaria and briefly made him emperor. He was overthrown in 1280 by the feudal landlords,

whose factional conflicts caused the Second Bulgarian Empire to disintegrate and a small feudal dominions by the 14th century. These fragmented rump states, Tud sardoms at Veden and Tarnovo, and the despotate of Tabrutsa became easy prey for a new threat arriving from the southeast, the Ottoman Turks.

The Ottomans were employed as mercenaries by the Byzantines in the 1340s, but later became invaders in their own right. Sultan Murad I took Adrenople from the Byzantines in 1362, Sophia fell in 1882, followed by Schumann in 1388. The Ottomans completed their conquest of Bulgarian lands in 1393, when Tarnovow was sacked after a three-month siege, and the Battle of Nicarbolus, which brought about the fall of Vieden, Sardom, in 1396. Sazopo was the last Bulgarian settlement to fall in 1453.

The Bulgarian nobility was subsequently eliminated, and the peasantry was inserved to Ottoman masters, while much of the educated clergy fled to other countries. Ottoman authorities established a religious administrative community called the Rum Millet, which governed all Orthodox Christians regardless of their ethnicity. Most of the local population then gradually lost its distinct national consciousness, identifying only by its faith. The clergy remaining in some isolated monasteries kept their ethnic identity alive, enabling its survival in remote rural areas and in the militant Catholic community

in the northwest of the country. As Ottoman power began to wane, Hadsborgastria and Russia saw Bulgarian Christians, as potential allies. The Austrians first backed an uprising in Tarnvo in 1598, then a second one in 1686, the Cheaprofti uprising in 1688, and finally Carpash's rebellion in 1989. The Russian Empire also asserted itself as a protector of the Christians in Ottoman lands, with the Treaty of Kuchuk, Carnage, in 1774. The Western Europe Enlightenment in the 18th century influenced the initiation of a national awakening of Bulgaria. It restored national consciousness and provided an ideological basis

for the liberation struggle, resulting in the April uprising of 1876. The Treaty of San Stefano was signed on the 3rd of March 1878 by Russia and the Ottoman Empire. It was to set up an autonomous Bulgarian principality spanning Misia, Macedonia, and Thrace, roughly on the territories of the Second Bulgarian Empire. And this day is now a public holiday called National Liberation Day. The other great powers immediately rejected the treaty out of fear that such a large country in the Balkans, might threaten their interests. It was superseded by the Treaty of Berlin,

signed on the 13th of July. It provided for a much smaller state, the principality of Bulgaria, only comprising Misia and the region of Sofia, and leaving large populations of ethnic Bulgarians outside the new country. This significantly contributed to Bulgaria's militaristic foreign affairs approach

during the first half of the 20th century. The Bulgarian principality won a war against Serbia and incorporated the semi-autonomous Ottoman territory of eastern Rumalia in 1885, proclaiming itself an independent state on the 5th of October 1908. In the years following independence, Bulgaria increasingly militarized and was often referred to as the Balkan Prussia. It became involved in three consecutive companies, between 1912 and 1918, two Balkan wars and World War I. After a disastrous defeat in the

Second Balkan War, Bulgaria again found itself fighting on the losing side as a result of its alliance with the Central Powers in World War I. Despite fielding more than a quarter of its population in a 1.2 million strong army and achieving several decisive victories at Doiran and Monastery, the country capitulated in 1918. Between 19th of October, 1925, and the 29th of October 1925, the incident at Petritch nicknamed the War of the Stray Dog occurred, which was a minor armed conflict. Greece invaded Bulgaria after the killing of a Greek captain and sentry by Bulgarian soldiers. The conflict was settled by the League of Nations and resulted in a Bulgarian diplomatic victory. Hilly ordered a ceasefire, Greek troops to withdraw from Bulgaria, and Greece to pay 45,000 pounds to Bulgaria.

Bulgaria is a middle-sized country situated in southeastern Europe and the east of the Balkans. Its territory covers an area of 110,994 square kilometers, while land borders with its five neighboring countries run a total length of 1,808 kilometers, and its coastline is 354 kilometers long. Bulgaria's geographic coordinates are 43 degrees north, 25 degrees east. The most notable topographical features of the country are the Danubian Plain, the Balkan Mountains, the Thracian Plain, and the Rila Rodopeimassif. The southern edge of the Danubian plain slopes upward into the foothills of the Balkans,

while the Danube defines the border with Romania. The Thracian plain is roughly triangular, beginning southeast of Sofia, and broadening as it reaches the Black Sea coast. The Balkan Mountains run laterally through the middle of the country from west-to-east. The mountain southwest has two distinct alpine-type ranges, Rila and Pyrin, which border the lower but more extensive Rodope mountains to the east, and various medium-altitude mountains to west, northwest, and south.

Like Vitocha, Osagovo, and Belasitsa. Masala, at 2,925 meters, is the highest point in both Bulgaria and the Balkans. The Black Sea Coast is the country's lowest point. Plains occupy about one-third of the territory, while plateau and hills occupy 41%. Most rivers are short, and with low water levels. The longest river located solely in Bulgarian territory, the Eastcar, was a length of 368 kilometers.

The struma and the Maritzha are two major roads. rivers in the south. Bulgaria has a varied and changeable climate, which results from being positioned at the meeting point of the Mediterranean, oceanic, and continental air masses, combined with the barrier effect of its mountains. Northern Bulgaria averages 1 degrees Celsius cooler and registers 200 millimeters more precipitation than the regions south of the Balkan mountains. Temperature amplitudes varies significantly in different areas. The lowest recorded temperature is negative 38.3 degrees Celsius, while the highest is 45.2 degrees Celsius. Precipitation averages about 630 millimeters per year, and varies from 500 millimeters in Dubruja to more than 2,500 millimeters in the mountains.

Continental air masses bring significant amounts of snowfall during winter. Considering its relatively small area, Bulgaria has variable and complex climate. The country occupies the southernmost part of the continental climate zone, with small areas in the south falling within the Mediterranean climate zone. The continental zone is predominant because continental air masses flow easily into the unobstructed Danubian plain. The continental influence, stronger during the winter, produces abundant snowfall. The Mediterranean influence increases during the second half of the summer and produces hot and dry weather.

Bulgaria is subdivided into five climate zones, continental zone, transitional zone, continental Mediterranean zone, Black Sea zone along the coastline with an average length of 30 to 40 kilometers inland, and alpine zone in the mountains above 1,000 meters altitude. The interaction of climatic, hydrological, geological, and topographical conditions has produced a relatively wide variety of plant and animal species. Bulgaria's biodiversity, one of the richest in Europe,

is conserved in three national parks, 11 nature parks, 10 biosphere reserves, and 565 protected areas. 93 of the 233 mammal species of Europe are found in Bulgaria, along with 49% of butterfly and 30% of vascular plant species. Overall, 41,493 plant and animal species are present. Larger mammals with sizable populations include deer, wild boar, golden jackal, and red fox. Partridges numbers some 328,000 individuals, making them the most widespread game bird. A third of all nesting birds in Bulgaria can be found in Rila National Park,

which also hosts Arctic and alpine species at high altitudes. Flora includes more than 3,800 vascular plant species, of which 170 are endemic, and 150 are considered endangered. A checklist of larger fungi in Bulgaria by the Institute of Botany identifies more than 1,500 species. More than 35% of the land area is covered by forests. In 1998, the Bulgarian government adopted the National Biological diversity conservation strategy, a comprehensive program seeking the preservation of local ecosystems, protection of endangered species, and conservation of genetic resources. Bulgaria has some of the largest

natural 2,000 areas in Europe, covering 33.8% of its territory. It also achieved its Kyoto Protocol objective of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 30% from 1990 to 2009. Thank you for listening to the I Can't Sleep podcast. This completes the episode on Bulgaria. For more information, see Wikipedia.org.