The history of Ottoman Bulgaria spans nearly five hundred years, from the conquest by the Ottoman Empire of the smaller kingdoms emerging from the disintegrating Second Bulgarian Empire in the late fourteenth century, to the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1878.

Bulgarian territories are administrated as the Rumelia Eyalet.

The Ottoman rule is a period marked by oppression and misgovernment and represents a deviation of Bulgaria's development as a Christian European state.

A process of cultural revival occurs with the weakening of the Ottoman administration after 1700, which ultimately results in an organized, armed struggle for liberation.

As a result of the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878), the Principality of Bulgaria, a self-governing Ottoman vassal state that is functionally independent, is created.

In 1885 the autonomous province of Eastern Rumelia comes under the control of the Bulgarian Tsar.

Bulgaria declares independence in 1908.