Vasil D. Stoyanov’s 1863 Project for New State Borders on the Balkans

Authors:

Pages: 201-226
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/WMCC3611

Abstract:

This article is concerned with a certain project, developed in 1863 by Vasil D. Stoyanov and first printed in the Czech publication “Národni Listy”. The project’s aim was for the Ottoman rule over the Balkan Peninsula to be brought to an end and replaced by a free Bulgarian state of considerable size bordering on four seas – the Adriatic, the Aegean, the Sea of Marmara, and the Black Sea. The Greek and Serbian states would have received a threefold increase in territory. Due to its wildly unrealistic nature, the project fell into obscurity and remained virtually forsaken for a long time. Nonetheless, it had the important distinction of being the first Bulgarian project in modern history to delineate in some detail the borders of a future Bulgarian state.

Keywords:

Vasil Stoyanov; project; new state borders; Balkans; large Bulgarian state

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