The final provisions for Bulgarian liberation fall far short of the goals of the national liberation movement.

Large populations of Bulgarians remain outside the new nation in Macedonia, Eastern Rumelia, and Thrace, causing resentment that endures well into the next century. (Bulgarians still celebrate the signing of the Treaty of San Stefano rather than the Treaty of Berlin as their national independence day.)

In late 1878, a provisional Bulgarian government and armed uprisings has already surfaced in the Kresna and Razlog regions of Macedonia.

These uprisings are quelled swiftly by the Turks with British support.

During the next twenty-five years, large numbers of Bulgarians will flee Macedonia into the new Bulgaria, and will secret liberation societies appear in Macedonia and Thrace.

One such group, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO),will continue terrorist activities in the Balkans into the 1930s.