The longest ever period of peace between the Ottomans and the European powers comes to an end just as Ottoman decentralization and increasing religious conservatism are making life unbearable for many Bulgarians. The resulting war will yet again reshape the Ottoman world, but will it bring any respite for Bulgaria?

Major Characters in this Episode

Sultan Mahmud I

Sultan Osman III

Sultan Mustafa III

Empress Catherine the Great

Constantine Mavrocordatos

Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab

Baron de Tott

Paisii Hilendarski

Stoyko Vladislavov

Timeline for this episode

• 1754, death of Sultan Mahmud I, succeeded by his brother Osman III because his only two sons were both dead

• 1755, French officer Baron de Tott arrived in the Ottoman Empire to help develop its artillery corps

• 1756, A Fransiscan Friar Andriia Kacic Mishic publishes a historiographical work which talks extensively about the first and second Bulgarian Empires.

• 1757 Osman III dies of natural causes at 57 and is replaced by his cousin Mustafa III

• 1758, Hajduks around Sofia 

• 1759, unrest and mob violence around Nikopol

• 1760, Unrest breaks out in Southern Dobrudja

• 1761, Mustafa III signs a peace treaty with Prussia and attempts to build an anti-Austrian alliance

• 1762, Paisii Hilendarski writes the Slavo-Bulgarian History

• 1762, There’s armed violence by the Bulgarians living around Kazanluk

• 1765, Meeting between Paisii Hilendarski and Stoyko Vlasislavov

• 1766, Mustafa III orders something relating to the Ecumenichal Patriarch allowing the Greeks to control all of the clergy in the Balkans

• 1766, The Rila Monastery is attacked by bandits

• 1767, Bulgarian archbishopric of Ohrid is dismantled

• 1768-74 Russo-Turkish War

• 1769, Constantine Mavrocordatos taken captive by the Russians

• 1770, Plague breaks out around Tarnovo

• 1770-1771, Orlov Revolt

• 1770, Egypt declares independence

• 1771, the plague spreads to Plovdiv, which had just been ravaged by a major fire the year before