The reconstruction of South-Eastern Europe

THE RECONSTRUCTION OF

there. Turkey, ruled by Abdul Hamid, was every day falling deeper and deeper into corruption and decrepitude—she was no danger. Russia, whatever her bureaucracy might have dreamt when Bulgaria was created, had completely banished from her mind any idea of conquering Bulgaria, and was rather a protector. The AustroHungarian danger was far off or was never taken seriously in Sofia. The Bulgarian throne was occupied by Ferdinand of Coburg, a German prince who received his whole political education in Berlin, Vienna and Budapest. Prussia was his model, Kaiser William II his idol, and he endeavoured with some success to make Bulgaria the Prussia of the Balkans. The Bulgarian people, being obedient by nature and easily disciplined, were just the kind of people who suited his ambition. Being in any case debarred from building his authority upon the Divine Right and Providence working through his dynasty like his idol in Prussia, he ruled in Bulgaria like a party boss in an American town, by flattering the national ambitions and lower instincts and corrupting influential men in Bulgaria. He could temporise and await the propitious moment for the realisation of his dream, which was a Bulgaria extending from the Adriatic to Constantinople and himself crowned with the crown of a Byzantine emperor.

The Young Turkish revolution, by promising a reorganisation of Turkey as a strong military

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