The Bulgarians in the nineteenth century achieve…

The Bulgarians in the nineteenth century achieve renewed national self-awareness, which influences events in Macedonia.

The sultan grants the Bulgarians ecclesiastical autonomy in 1870, creating an independent Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

Nationalist Bulgarian clergymen and teachers soon found schools in Macedonia.

Bulgarian activities in Macedonia alarm the Serbian and Greek governments and churches, and a bitter rivalry arises over Macedonia among church factions and advocates of a Greater Bulgaria, Greater Serbia, and Greater Greece.

The 1878 Russo-Turkish War drives the Turks from Bulgarian-populated lands, and the Treaty of San Stefano (1878) creates a large autonomous Bulgaria that includes Macedonia.

The subsequent Treaty of Berlin (1878), however, restores Macedonia to the Ottoman Empire, and leaves the embittered Bulgars with a much-diminished state.