Several failed proposals were made during the 19th and 20th centuries to unify Bulgaria and Romania into a common state, under either a federation, a personal union or a confederation. Such ideas found support, especially in Bulgaria, and there were several opportunities to realize them. Proposals usually came from Bulgarians, but it was Romanians who were to hold the leading positions. These proposals ultimately failed because of cultural and political differences between the two peoples and opposition from great powers like Austria-Hungary and especially Russia.
This idea had historical precedents: Bulgarians and Romanians had first lived together under the rule of the First Bulgarian Empire, which extended its power into areas that form part of Romania today; under the Second Bulgarian Empire, established through the cooperation of Bulgarians and Vlachs (Romanians); and under the Ottoman Empire, which defeated the Second Bulgarian Empire and conquered and ruled territories populated by Bulgarians and Romanians for centuries. During the late 18th century, a popular concept emerged in the Balkans: the federalization of the region, aimed at fighting nearby empires and solving conflicts between its peoples. The idea eventually spread in Bulgaria and Romania's predecessors (Moldavia and Wallachia), gaining some support by figures such as Georgi Sava Rakovski. After the establishment of an autonomous Bulgarian principality and the full independence of Romania in 1878, relations between the countries were enhanced and there were several Romanian nominees for the Bulgarian throne. These were King Carol I of Romania and the nobleman , son of a former Wallachian prince. They were not taken into account in the final selection, and the eventual choice in 1879 was Alexander of Battenberg, a German prince.
Although Alexander had good relations with Romania, he was forced to abdicate in 1886 following a period of political turmoil in Bulgaria caused by Russia, which tried to exert its influence over the country. Due to this, Stefan Stambolov, who was politically anti-Russian, became leader of the regents. Stambolov tried again to establish a personal union with Romania, and negotiations were conducted. Carol I would be the head of such a state with either two separate governments or a single, united one. Though Carol I had an interest in becoming ruler of Bulgaria, Russia strongly opposed this. Russia threatened to break off diplomatic relations with Romania and to invade both Romania and Bulgaria, forcing Carol I to abandon the possibility. Afterwards, Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was elected Prince of Bulgaria in June 1887. New approaches to effect a union were attempted decades later in the communist era, especially by Georgi Dimitrov, but the Soviet Union strongly rejected them. Joseph Stalin, its leader, deemed the proposal unthinkable.
A Bulgarian–Romanian union was never established. The disapproval of several great powers, the differences in the Bulgarians' and the Romanians' national goals and the lack of actual interest or even opposition between these peoples, added to the hostile environment of the region in which they lived, prevented it. The idea of the federalization of the Balkans, which had great support in its time, diminished across the region after the conflicts at the beginning of the 20th century that occurred throughout Europe and, later, the violent breakup of Yugoslavia. Despite all this, the European Union, of which Bulgaria and Romania have been members since 2007, puts democratic values and pluralistic visions for European integration on the horizon of the Balkans, which has led to an idea within the academic world that a new federation proposal could emerge in the region as a result of all of this.
Background
The Bulgarians and Romanians lived under a common state on several occasions. In 680 AD, the Bulgars, a Turkic people from the Pontic–Caspian steppes, crossed the Danube and posteriorly established a state in the area, with its capital at Pliska. They assimilated with the Slavic culture brought there a century earlier, which eventually gave rise to the modern Bulgarian people. The First Bulgarian Empire expanded its territory north of the Danube to the Tisza River and, during the 9th century, covered large parts of Romania's present-day territories. There, the Bulgarians strongly enforced Slavic and Christian influences and cultural elements over the Romanians' ancestors. This state was nevertheless defeated by the Byzantine Empire and incorporated into its dominions in 1018.
In the 12th century, an attempt to restore the empire, the Uprising of Asen and Peter, ended in the establishment of the Second Bulgarian Empire. Numerous Vlachs (Romanians) participated in this rebellion, especially in its initial phase. They played a decisive role during the creation of the new empire, with its first leaders, the brothers Ivan Asen I, Kaloyan and Peter II, described as Vlachs by contemporaneous sources. Kaloyan was given the title ("Emperor Kaloyan, Lord of All Bulgarians and Vlachs") by Patriarch Basil I of Bulgaria and the title ("King of the Bulgarians and the Vlachs") by Pope Innocent II. Additionally, Moesia, the region where the rebellion began, had a high Vlach population at the time of the revolt. Over time, just like the Turkic Bulgars in the first empire, the Vlachs lost their relevance in governance.
Supporters of a Bulgarian–Romanian union looked back to the Second Bulgarian Empire as a common ground between the two, and historians now debate whether its historical heritage is Bulgarian or Romanian. The Turkish Ottoman Empire defeated this state in the late 14th century, and later extended its power over the Romanian principalities of Wallachia (in the 15th century) and Moldavia (in the 16th century). Unlike Bulgaria, these principalities were never directly incorporated as provinces but remained as vassal states.
In the late 18th century, the idea of unifying the Balkans under one federation appeared and gained strength. It was promoted as politically necessary, especially after wars and revolutions. One of the earliest proposals came during the 1790s from Rigas Feraios, a Greek with Aromanian origins, who conceived of the establishment of a Greek-ruled united Balkan state that would succeed the Ottoman Empire. The Balkan peoples saw unification as an opportunity to oppose the imperialist policies of the great powers, particularly those of the Habsburg and Ottoman empires, to ensure a more independent and stable development and to resolve the conflicts between the nations of the region. Proposals included uniting the Balkans alone (Balkan Federation) or with other neighboring nations (Danubian Federation), as well as the union of the Balkan Christians or only of the zone's South Slavs. The main advocates were intellectuals, revolutionaries and politicians from both the right and left wings. Some examples are the Romanian diplomat and politician Dimitrie Brătianu, the Romanian lawyer and politician Aurel Popovici and the Bulgarian writer Lyuben Karavelov. A federation, a confederation, a federal monarchic union or a federal republic were contemplated to accomplish this. A personal union was another option as this was a period when monarchies were numerous.
The Bulgarians and the Romanians were already familiar with the concept of national unification. Bulgaria, which was established as an Ottoman vassal state after a war in 1878, united with the Ottoman autonomous province of Eastern Rumelia in 1885, remaining in a personal union with it until 1908, when Bulgaria proclaimed its full independence from the Ottoman Empire. Romanians consider the brief union of the principalities of Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania of 1600 under Michael the Brave the first Romanian national union. Romania itself was the product of a personal union, that of Wallachia and Moldavia between 1859 and 1862 under Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza. This state was initially known as the "United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia", but it was renamed in 1866 to simply "Romania".
History Initial proposals During the 19th century, the idea of federalization was on the minds of both Romanians and Bulgarians. Romanians wanted to accomplish the independence, liberation and unification of the Romanian nation from the Habsburg (or Austrian or Austro-Hungarian), Russian and Ottoman empires, and some thought of using this idea to achieve these aims. Notable supporters of this were Nicolae Bălcescu, Dimitrie Brătianu, Mihai Eminescu and Aurel Popovici, who either suggested the integration of Romania into a larger Balkan state or the federalization of the Austrian or Austro-Hungarian empires in order to pass down power to the Transylvanian Romanians. Members of the Bulgarian liberation movement had similar goals to the Romanians. They looked at allying or uniting with nearly all of their neighbors, be they Romanians, Serbs, Greeks and even Turks, to accomplish them.
A Bulgarian revolutionary, Georgi Sava Rakovski, advocated for unity among the Balkans to liberate themselves from the Ottoman Empire. The uncooperative nationalist attitude of the Greek and Serbian ruling elites disappointed him, and thus, he went to Bucharest in late 1863. After seeing the resistance to control by the Greek Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople (for which measures such as the proclamation of independence of the Romanian Orthodox Church and the establishment of its were taken) and for independence from the Ottomans that was taking place in the Romanian United Principalities, he began to see the country as a favorable option for the liberation of the Bulgarians. In 1864, in the bilingual newspaper Badushtnost (Viitorulŭ in Romanian from that epoch), Rakovski talked about the relations between Bulgarians and Romanians, emphasizing they had always been full of "brotherly love and union" and that cooperation between the two was necessary. He called for a Bulgarian–Romanian rapprochement "based on equality" and described the Second Bulgarian Empire as a "strong state" in which Bulgarians and Romanians lived together. It is likely Rakovski said this envisioning a reestablishment of the empire. The newspaper set itself the goal of defending the rights of Romanians and Bulgarians against the Ottoman Empire and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.