For the same reasons already mentioned Bulgaria was the last Balkan state to emancipate itself; for these reasons also it is the least trammelled by prejudices and by what are considered national predilections and racial affinities, while its heterogeneous composition makes it vigorous and enterprising.

Modern Bulgaria is only a couple of generations old, and though all this part of the world has been invaded and reinvaded and fought over since the beginning of things, the little kingdom (it seems more like a republic) has the air of a new country.

In 1908 and 1910 Bulgaria and Montenegro became kingdoms like their neighbours; and in 1913, after the two Balkan Wars, all the five Balkan StatesRoumania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and Montenegroobtained accession of territory, and the principality of Albania was constituted out of the Albanian portion of the old Turkish dominion.

The language of the Baschirs and of the Hungarians is the same, and they are all shepherds, having no cities; and their land is bounded on the west by the Greater Bulgaria; from which country eastwards, in these northern parts, there are no cities whatsoever, so that the Greater Bulgaria is the last country which possesses towns and cities.

But this treaty was torn to pieces by the Powers, who feared that "Big Bulgaria" would become a mere Russian dependency, and they substituted for it the Treaty of Berlin.

On October 6, when Bulgaria was said to have sent an ultimatum to Serbia demanding the territory ceded after the recent Balkan wars, the envoys of the Allies at Sofia requested their passports, and Bulgaria became an active participant in the war.