Bulgarians

The Bulgarians (Bulgarian: ???????) are a southern Slavic people generally associated with Bulgaria and the Bulgarian language. The majority of the Bulgarians nowadays live in the Republic of Bulgaria, although there are Bulgarian minorities or immigrant communities in a number of countries.

Related Topics:
Bulgarian - Slavic people - Bulgaria

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The modern Bulgarians are descendants of two peoples - the Bulgars, a nomadic Turkic people from Central Asia who settled in the Balkans in the 7th century, as well as of a number of southern Slavic tribes who had done the same a century earlier. Together the two groups formed the First Bulgarian Empire in 681. The Bulgars were later assimilated by the Slavs, who outnumbered them, but their name was retained.

Related Topics:
Bulgars - Turkic - Central Asia - Balkans - 7th century - Slavic tribes - 681 - Slavs

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To an extent the Bulgarians were also influenced by the indigenous Romanised and non-Romanised Thracian and Daco-Getic population, which had lived in the territory of modern Bulgaria before the Slavic invasion. However, the number of Thracians and Getae had been reduced significantly by the 6th century due to repeated invasions of barbarians; thus their influence in the formation of the modern Bulgarians was less pronounced than that of the other two peoples.

Related Topics:
Thracian - Daco - Getic

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