Eastern Rumelia

 ( 1878 Establishments In Bulgaria ) 

Eastern Rumelia (; ; ) was an autonomous province ( oblast in Bulgarian, vilayet in Turkish) of the Ottoman Empire with a total area of , which was created in 1878 by virtue of the Treaty of Berlin and de facto ceased to exist in 1885, when it was united with the Principality of Bulgaria, also under nominal Ottoman suzerainty.

It continued to be an Ottoman province de jure until 1908, when Bulgaria declared independence. Bulgarians formed a majority of the population in Eastern Rumelia, but there were significant Turkish people and Greeks minorities. Its capital was Plovdiv (Ottoman Filibe, Greek Philippoupoli). The official languages of Eastern Rumelia were Bulgarian, Greek language and Ottoman Turkish.

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History Eastern Rumelia was created as an autonomous province within the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. The region roughly corresponded to today's southern Bulgaria, which was also the name the Russians proposed for it; this proposal was rejected by the British.Luigi Albertini (1952), The Origins of the War of 1914, volume I (Oxford University Press), 20. It encompassed the territory between the Balkan Mountains, the Rhodope Mountains and Strandzha, a region known to all its inhabitantsBulgarians, Ottoman Turks, Greeks, Romani people, Armenians and Northern Thrace. The artificialBalkan studies: biannual publication of the Institute for Balkan Studies, Volume 19, 1978, p.235 name, Eastern Rumelia, was given to the province on the insistence of the British delegates to the Congress of Berlin: the Ottoman notion of Rumelia refers to all European regions of the empire, i.e. those that were in Antiquity under the Roman Empire. Some twenty Pomaks (Bulgarian Muslim) villages in the Rhodope Mountains refused to recognize Eastern Rumelian authority and formed the so-called Republic of Tamrash.

The province is remembered today by philately for having issued from 1880 on. See the main article, Postage stamps and postal history of Eastern Rumelia.

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Unification with Bulgaria After a bloodless revolution on 6 September 1885, the province was annexed by the Principality of Bulgaria, which was de jure an Ottoman tributary state but de facto functioned as independence. After the Bulgarian victory in the subsequent Serbo-Bulgarian War, the status quo was recognized by the Sublime Porte with the Tophane Agreement on 24 March 1886. With the Tophane Act, Sultan Abdul Hamid II appointed the Prince of Bulgaria (without mentioning the name of the incumbent prince Alexander of Bulgaria) as Governor-General of Eastern Rumelia, thus retaining the formal distinction between the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern RumeliaEmerson M. S. Niou, Peter C. Ordeshook, Gregory F. Rose. The balance of power: stability in international systems, 1989, p. 279. and preserving the letter of the Berlin Treaty.Stanley Leathes, G. W. (George Walter) Prothero, Sir Adolphus William Ward. The Cambridge Modern History, Volume 2, 1908, p. 408. However, it was clear to the Great Powers that the union between the Principality of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia was permanent, and not to be dissolved.Charles Jelavich, Barbara Jelavich. The establishment of the Balkan national states, 1804–1920, 2000, p. 167. The Republic of Tamrash and the region of Kardzhali were reincorporated in the Ottoman Empire. The province was nominally under Ottoman suzerainty until Bulgaria became de jure independent in 1908. 6 September, Unification Day, is a Public holiday in Bulgaria.

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Government According to the Treaty of Berlin, Eastern Rumelia was to remain under the political and military jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire with significant administrative autonomy (Article 13). The law frame of Eastern Rumelia was defined with the Organic Statute which was adopted on 14 April 1879 and was in force until the Unification with Bulgaria in 1885.See According to the Organic Statute the head of the province was a Christian Governor-General appointed by the Sublime Porte with the approval of the Great Powers. The legislative organ was the Provincial Counsel which consisted of 56 persons, of which 10 were appointed by the governor-general, 10 were permanent and 36 were directly elected by the people.

Arkady Stolypin was the Russian civil administrator from 9 October 1878 to 18 May 1879. The first governor-general was Prince Alexander Bogoridi (1879–1884), a Bulgarian aristocrat, who was acceptable to both Bulgarians and Greeks in the province. The second governor-general was Gavril Krastevich (1884–1885), a Bulgarian historian.

During the period of Bulgarian annexation Georgi Stranski was appointed as a commissioner for South Bulgaria (9 September 1885 – 5 April 1886), and when the province was restored to nominal Ottoman sovereignty, but still under Bulgarian control, the prince of Bulgaria was recognized by the Sublime Porte as the governor-general in the Tophane Agreement of 1886.

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Governors-general

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Administrative divisions Eastern Rumelia consisted of the departments (called in Bulgarian окръзи okrazi, in Ottoman terminology ) of Plovdiv (Пловдив, Filibe), Pazardzhik (Татарпазарджик, Tatarpazarcığı), Haskovo (Хасково, Hasköy), Stara Zagora (Стара Загора, Eski Zağra), Sliven (Сливен, İslimye) and Burgas (Бургас, Burgaz), in turn divided into 28 cantons (equivalent to Bulgarian околии okolii, Ottoman kazas).

The cantons were:

• Department of Plovdiv: Plovdiv, Konush (the canton seat was in Stanimaka), Ovchi Halm (seat in Golyamo Konare), Stryama (seat in Karlovo), Sarnena Gora (seat in Brezovo) and Rupchos (seat in Chepelare)
• Department of Pazardzhik: Pazardzhik, Peshtera, Panagyurishte and Ihtiman
• Department of Haskovo: Haskovo, Parvomay, Harmanli and Kardzhali
• Department of Stara Zagora: Stara Zagora, Kazanlak, Chirpan, Nova Zagora and Simeonovgrad
• Department of Sliven: Sliven, Yambol, Elhovo, Kavakli and Kotel
• Department of Burgas: Burgas, Pomorie, Karnobat and Aytos

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Population and ethnic demographics

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Pre 1878 The following is a district-by-district population extract from the 1876 Ottoman salname for the Vilayet of Adrianople, which is in turn based on the vilayet-wide census of 1875. As is common for Ottoman statistics, figures refer to males only (figures at the bottom are male-female aggregated estimates):

+Ethnoconfessional Groups per Kaza in the Future Eastern Rumelia in 1876 Based on the 1875 Adrianople Vilayet Census ! style="border: 2px solid black; width:100pt;" rowspan="2"	Kaza (District)
Filibe/Plovdiv	35,400	28.1	80,165	63.6	380	0.3	3,462	2.7	691	0.5	5,174	4.1	495	0.4	125,767	100.00
Pazarcık/Pazardzhik	10,805	22.8	33,395	70.5	94	0.2	-	0.0	344	0.7	2,120	4.5	579	1.2	47,337	100.00
Hasköy/Haskovo	33,323	55.0	25,503	42.1	3	0.0	-	0.0	65	0.1	1,548	2.6	145	0.2	60,587	100.00
Zağra-i Atik/Stara Zagora	6,677	20.0	24,857	74.5	-	0.0	-	0.0	740	2.2	989	3.0	90	0.3	33,353	100.00
Kızanlık/Kazanlak	14,365	46.5	14,906	48.2	-	0.0	-	0.0	219	0.7	1,384	4.5	24	0.0	30,898	100.00
Çırpan/Chirpan	5,158	23.9	15,959	73.8	-	0.0	-	0.0	-	0.0	420	1.9	88	0.4	21,625	100.00
Ahi Çelebi/Smolyan 1	8,197	57.8	5,346	37.7	268	1.9	-	0.0	-	0.0	377	2.7	-	0.0	14,188	100.00
Sultanyeri/Momchilgrad 1	13,336	96.9	262	1.9	-	0.0	-	0.0	-	0.0	159	1.2	-	0.0	13,757	100.00
Filibe sanjak subtotal	105,728	33.07	194,785	60.92	477	0.15	3,642	1.14	2,059	0.64	11,635	3.64	1,421	0.44	319,747	100.00
İslimye/Sliven	8,392	29.8	17,975	63.8	143	0.5	-	0.0	158	0.6	596	2.1	914	3.2	28,178	100.00
Yanbolu/Yambol	4,084	30.4	8,107	60.4	-	0.0	-	0.0	396	3.0	459	3.4	377	3.2	13,423	100.00
Misivri/Nesebar	2,182	40.0	3,118	51.6	-	0.0	-	0.0	-	0.0	153	2.8	-	0.0	5,453	100.00
Karinâbâd/Karnobat	7,656	60.5	3,938	31.1	-	0.0	-	0.0	250	2.0	684	5.4	125	1.0	12,653	100.00
Aydos/Aytos	10,858	76.0	2,735	19.2	19	0.1	-	0.0	36	0.2	584	4.1	46	0.3	14,278	100.00
Zağra-i Cedid/Nova Zagora	5,310	29.4	11,777	65.2	-	0.0	-	0.0	-	0.0	880	4.9	103	0.6	18,070	100.00
Ahyolu/Pomorie	1,772	33.7	3,113	59.2	-	0.0	-	0.0	-	0.0	378	7.2	2	0.0	5,265	100.00
Burgas	4,262	22.1	14,179	73.6	46	0.2	-	0.0	4	0.0	448	2.3	320	1.6	19,259	100.00
Islimiye sanjak subtotal	44,516	38.2	64,942	55.7	208	0.2	-	0.0	844	0.6	4,182	3.6	1,887	1.6	116,579	100.00
Male Population Islimiye & Filibe sanjak	150,244	34.43	259,727	59.53	685	0.16	3,642	0.83	2,903	0.67	15,817	3.63	3,308	0.76	436,362	100.00
Total Population 3 Islimiye & Filibe sanjak	300,488	34.43	519,454	59.53	1,370	0.16	7,284	0.83	5,806	0.67	31,634	3.63	6,616	0.76	872,652	100.00
Kızılağaç/Elhovo 2	1,425	9.6	11,489	89.0	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	12,914	100.00
Manastir/Topolovgrad 2	409	1.5	26,139	98.5	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	26,548	100.00
Eastern Rumelia GRAND TOTAL 3	302,322	33.15	1,370	0.15	7,284	0.79	5,806	0.64	31,634	3.47	6,616	0.72	912,114	100.00

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Post 1878 According to a British report before the 1877–1878 war, the non-Muslim population (consisting mostly of Bulgarians) of Eastern Rumelia was about 60%, a proportion that grew due to the flight and emigration of Muslims during and after the war.Studies on Ottoman social and political history: selected articles and essay, Kemal H. Karpat, p.370 The 1878 census show a population of 815,946 people- 573,231 Bulgarians (70.29%), 174,759 Muslims (21.43%), 42,516 Greeks (5.21%), 19,524 Roma, 4,177 Jews, and 1,306 Armenians.Bŭlgarii︠a︡ 1300-institut︠s︡ii i dŭrzhavna tradit︠s︡ii︠a︡: dokladi na tretii︠a︡ Kongres na Bŭlgarskoto istorichesko druzhestvo, 3–5 oktomvri 1981, p. 326

The results of the first Regional Assembly elections of 17 October 1879 show a predominantly Bulgarian character: Of the 36 elected deputies, 31 were Bulgarians (86.1%), 3 were Greeks (8.3%) and two were Turks (5.6%).Делев, "Княжество България и Източна Румелия", История и цивилизация за 11. клас. The ethnic statistics from the censuses of 1880 and 1884 show a Bulgarian majority in the province. In the discredited census of 1880, out of total population of 815,951 people some 590,000 (72.3%) self-identified as Bulgarians, 158,000 (19.4%) as Turks, 19,500 (2.4%) as Roma, and 48,000 (5.9%) belonged to other ethnicities, notably Greeks, Armenians and Jews. The repetition of the census in 1884 returned similar data: 70.0% Bulgarians, 20.6% Turks, 2.8% Roma and 6.7% others.

The Greek inhabitants of Eastern Rumelia were concentrated on the coast, where they were strong in numbers,A Short History of Russia and the Balkan States, Donald Mackenzie Wallace, 1914, p.102 and certain cities in the interior such as Plovdiv (known in Greek language as Philippopolis), where they formed a substantial minority. Most of the Greek population of the region was exchanged with Bulgarians from the Greek provinces of Macedonia and Western Thrace in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars and World War I.

Eastern Rumelia was also inhabited by foreign nationals, most notably Austrians, Czechs, Hungarians, French people and Italians.

The ethnic composition of the population of Eastern Rumelia, according to the provincial census taken in 1884, was the following:

70.0%

20.6%

5.4%

2.8%

0.7%

0.2%

The population's ethnic composition in the Bulgarian provinces of Pazardzhik, Plovdiv Province, Stara Zagora, Haskovo Province, Sliven Province, Yambol Province and Burgas Province, which have approximately the same territory as Eastern Rumelia according to the 2001 census is the following:

83.7%
8.4%
6.2%
0.2%
0.2%
0.1%
0.3%
0.9%

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Property rights Property abandoned by Muslims fleeing the Imperial Russian Army during the 1877–1878 war was appropriated by the local Christians population. The former owners, mostly large landholders, were threatened with trial by military court if they had committed crimes during the war so that they would not return. Two Turkish landowners who did return were in fact sentenced to death thus preventing others from desiring to come back. Those Turkish landowners who were not able to take possession of their land were financially compensated, with the funds collected by the Bulgarian peasants, some of whom were indebted as a result. For those who did return a 10% property tax was issued, forcing many to sell off their property in order to pay the tax.Jelavich, p. 164.The Balkans since 1453; Leften Stavros Stavrianos, Traian Stoianovich; p. 442 Michael Palairet claimed that land rights of Muslim owners were largely disregarded, despite being guaranteed by the great powers, and the de-Ottomanization of Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia led to economic decline in the region.

Palairet, Michael R. (1997). 9780521522564, Cambridge University Press. . ISBN 9780521522564

Though this is contradicted by many other authors, who show rapid growth of the economy as well as rapid industrial development and growth of exports in Bulgaria after 1878.An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire, Volume 2; Halil İnalcık, Donald Quataert; 1997; p. 381The Balkans Since 1453; Leften Stavros Stavrianos; 2000; p.425Mikulas Teich, Roy Porter, The Industrial Revolution in National Context: Europe and the USA, 1996, p.300

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Notes and references

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Notes

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Sources

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External links

• Map 1, map 2, map 3

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