The history of Ottoman Bulgaria spans nearly 500 years, from the conquest by the Ottoman Empire of the smaller kingdoms emerging from the disintegrating Second Bulgarian Empire in the late 14th century, to the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1878.
Bulgaria had been a widely autonomous principality since 3 March [O.S. 19 February] 1878, when it was liberated from Ottoman rule in the wake of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78).
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photo: Battle of Nicopolis in the year 1396, was the high mark of Ottoman domination in Bulgaria
[Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.]