Ottoman forces had captured the commercial center…
1396 CE to 1539 CE
Serbia, at this time the strongest Christian power in the Balkans, is decisively defeated by the Ottomans at the Battle of Kosovo Polje in 1389, leaving Bulgaria divided and exposed.
Within ten years, the last independent Bulgarian outpost is captured.
Bulgarian resistance continues until 1453, when the capture of Constantinople gives the Ottomans a base from which to crush local uprisings.
In consolidating its Balkan territories, the new Ottoman political order eliminates the entire Bulgarian state apparatus.
The Ottomans also crushed the nobility as a landholding class and potential center of resistance.
The new rulers reorganize the Bulgarian church, which has existed as a separate patriarchate since 1235, making it a diocese under complete control of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate at Constantinople.
The sultan, in turn, totally controls the patriarchate.
Groups
Greeks, Medieval (Byzantines)
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Bulgarians (South Slavs)
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Serbs (South Slavs)
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Bulgaria, Theme of
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Christians, Eastern Orthodox
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Bulgarian Empire (Second), or Empire of Vlachs and Bulgars
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Serbia, Kingdom of
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Serbian Empire
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Ottoman Empire
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Serbia, Moravian
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Bulgaria, Ottoman
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Ottoman Empire
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Turkish people
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Ottoman Empire
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