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Home | Overview | Controversies | Timeline | Combatants | Biographies | Glossary | Learn More
Combatant States - Central powers | Austro - Hungary | Germany | Turkey (Ottoman Empire) | Bulgaria
Combatant States - Allies | Serbia | Russia | France | Belgium | United Kingdom | Australia | Canada | India | New Zealand | Rhodesia | Union of South Africa | United States of America| Italy | Romania | Greece | Montenegro | Portugal | Japan
Entered War : 12 October 1915 (declared war against Serbia)
Political system : Monarchy. Bulgaria's parliament, elected by male suffrage, could veto royal legislation.
Leader : Ferdinand I: tsar, 1896-1918
Population : 4.5 million (1914)
Army : 250,000 men at the time of the Balkan wars (1913). All men aged between 20 and 46 were liable for conscription. A total of 1.2 million Bulgarians were mobilised for army service during the war.
Recent Diplomacy : Ferdinand was internationally recognised as Bulgaria's ruler in 1896 and he declared Bulgaria independent of the Ottoman empire in 1908.
Four years later, Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and Montenegro joined forces to drive Turkey out of Macedonia. However, Bulgaria was unhappy with its gains from the First Balkan War and attacked its former allies during the Second Balkan War in 1913. Bulgaria was defeated when Romania entered this war. This partly explains Bulgaria's decision to align itself with Germany during the First World War.
Casualties by 1918 : 90,000 dead, 152,390 wounded.