Bulgarization: How National Independence Became Financial Dependence
## *From the Ottoman Empire to the Empire of Debt* ## Introduction: The Nation That Borrowed Its Freedom Every nation possesses two histories. The first is written in monuments, school textbooks, patriotic speeches and national holidays. It celebrates heroes, battles, revolutions and declarations of independence. The second history is written in ledgers, bank contracts, sovereign bonds, debt restructurings and bankruptcy agreements. One tells the story of freedom; the other records the price paid for it. Rarely do these two histories coincide. Even more rarely do historians attempt to read them together. Yet the modern history of Bulgaria cannot be understood without recognising that its political liberation and its financial dependence emerged almost simultaneously. The creation of the Bulgarian state after 1878 did not simply mark the end of Ottoman rule. It marked the beginning of another form of imperial integration—one organised not by armies or governors but by international ...