The Danube Plateau

The Balkan Mountains, the extension of the Carpathians, divide Bulgaria into two sections differing in relief, soil, climate, products, and type of population. North of the mountains an uplifted plateau slopes gradually toward the Danube and breaks off abruptly in a wall of loess and limestone about 500 feet high facing the river. This wall or cliff presents a remarkably sharp contrast to the very flat plains and broad swamps along the Rumanian side of the river. At the top of the cliff the plateau is quite flat, and is covered with fertile loess, but it is broken into many small sections by deep, steepsided valleys where the streams have entrenched themselves.

There is a strong contrast between the valley bottoms with their narrow but level, well-watered, and fertile plains, and the uplands with their far broader stretches of soil which is also fertile but which is dry and poorly watered. The valleys are full of villages, and in them lie the small cities; the surrounding valley floors are devoted to corn and to crops like lucerne, sugar beets, vines in some sheltered spots, and vegetables like tomatoes and peppers which are very important among people whose main food is so tasteless a product as corn. From the villages in the valley the peasants climb long distances to their wheatfieds on the plateau above. Although the individual fields up there are small, the general effect is of one vast field of wheat and corn, or perhaps barley, unbroken by trees or houses, except at long intervals. The wheat is sold as a money crop and is consumed in the towns or exported; the cheaper and less easily transported maize is eaten in the villages. A similar situation prevails very widely in most of the countries of Europe, although the product eaten at home may be rye, potatoes, or even oats, rather than corn.

The contrast between the valleys and the plateau is the joint result of relief and climate. The general climate is like that of the Wallachian Plain of Rumania north of the Danube. The winters are cold; and strong, disagreeable, dusty winds are common. The summers are warm, averaging above 70° F. in July, and most of the rain falls in early summer. The eastern section is too dry for crops and is therefore largely devoted to sheep, but in the western section and along the mountains the rainfall is heavier. The porous character of the loess and limestone combine with the pronounced drop in the rainfall in August and September to make it hard to get water at all seasons on the plateau. The valleys, however, have plenty of springs, and they are also protected from the bitter, dusty winds of winter. So it is not strange that the people prefer to live there in spite of the long walk to the fields. Cattle are kept mainly for draft purposes, dairying is little developed, and dung is so often used for fuel that the value of the animals as a help in agriculture is much reduced.

The population of the plateau, including of course its valleys, is relatively dense. It produces a surplus of grain that is exported from the Danube harbors, of which Ruschuk is the most important, or from Varna, the northern Bulgarian harbor on the Black Sea. The plateau is the old center of the Bulgarian race, where they settled on their first arrival during the time of the Hungarian invasion, and whence they advanced toward the south. Here again was the cradle of their movement for independence in the nineteenth century.

Bulgaria Bulgarians Balkan State

Two conflicting qualities, those of the warrior and the peasant, have dominated Bulgarian history. Like Serbia, Bulgaria is a country of warriors who struggled on through centuries of Turkish servitude until they gained their independence during the nineteenth century. But, dissatisfied with what they had obtained, they recalled the ninth century when their nation under Czar Simeon ruled from the Black Sea to the Adriatic, and from the southern Carpathians to the Aegean.

Twice their dream of the restoration of such an empire was almost realized. The first time was during the Balkan War in 1912 when the Bulgarian armies had conquered the region around the mouth of the Maritsa River, and were fighting near the walls of Constantinople. But discord between Bulgaria and its Balkan allies was followed by a war that shattered the dream, and Bulgaria lost some of her gains, although she temporarily retained the Maritsa Valley. The second opportunity for the dream to be realized came during the World War when Bulgaria joined the Central Powers, helped to crush Serbia, occupied a great part of it, and reconquered the Dobruja from the Rumanians. Again she failed to find her allies in full sympathy with her aims, and it was probably in the main from dissatisfaction and disappointment that Bulgaria broke down in 1918 at the beginning of the total collapse of the Central Powers. Once more she lost; the Dobruja remained Rumanian, the new-born Yugoslavia obtained boundary rearrangements which brought the western frontier still nearer to Sofia, and Greece shut Bulgaria off from the Aegean.

Beaten and bankrupt, Bulgaria again awaits an opportunity for expansion. Except where the country's boundaries are formed by the waters of the Danube and the Black Sea, the Bulgarians wish to push them farther back. Most of all they want an outlet on the Aegean Sea. Friendly understanding among the Balkan States is indeed helping to eliminate the friction of the "Balkan problem" which has long been a great source of unrest in Europe, and is also helping to bring progress and prosperity among the Balkan people themselves. Nevertheless, Bulgaria is in essence a second Hungary, ready at any moment to renew the long fight for what it conceives to be its national destiny.

The other side of the Bulgarian character is quite different. The word Bulgar means not only peasant, but a humble sort of plowing peasant who perhaps works for others rather than on his own land. Bulgaria is as completely agricultural as any country in Europe. Most of them cultivate their own small farms, for the large estates owned by their former Turkish rulers are almost gone. The Bulgarians have a high reputation in many respects. Their efforts to secure education are especially notable. So, too, are their industry, frugality, and eagerness to learn new methods of work. Sometimes their thriftiness makes them stingy, and their eagerness for progress and education destroys or prevents light-hearted gaiety such as is so common in Spain, Italy, and Serbia. Moreover, the land-holdings are so sadly small, the amount of land lying fallow is so large, and the available capital therefore so limited that it is very difficult to adopt modern methods. Wooden plows, the sowing of wheat by hand, and the reaping of it with sickles are still very widespread. Nevertheless, it is often said that no other Balkan country gives so strong an impression of sturdy and determined progress in spite of great discouragements.