Готово ли бе българското общество в началото на ХХ век за изпитанието Балканска война – поглед от началото на ХХІ в.
Was the early twentieth Century Bulgarian Society ready for the Balkan War Test – Glance from the Beginning of the twenty-first Century

Summary/Abstract: The article attempts to examine the national liberation movements on the Balkans against the background of the common European process of formation and development of the phenomenon of modern nationalism in the 18th and 19th centuries. Unlike Western and Central Europe, Balkan nationalism took place in the context of a crumbling empire - the Ottoman empire – due to which the three historic Balkan nations: Greek, Serbian and Bulgarian were able to acquire the establishment of albeit small, limited in area but still independent monarchies. The lands inhabited by Bulgarians – Thrace, Moesia and Macedonia were located closest to the center of government of the Ottoman Empire – Istanbul. Due to this fact, quite logically, Bulgaria was not among the first modern Balkan states that emerged in the 19th century. The Greeks and the Serbs managed to create their own states about half a century before the establishment of the Bulgarian principality. Historically, the difference was not so great but it was crucial, as it was during that half a century that Greek and Serbian statehood and national elites gained the experience that would “make the difference” to the detriment of Bulgaria during the Balkan wars. Bulgarian society entered the Balkan wars relatively immature, less experienced, with unclear strategic priorities, with gambling, impulsive, and even naïve diplomatic preparation. In this sense, the fate of Bulgaria was doomed in advance and Serbian-Greek-Romanian unity against it was a matter of time.

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