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| 1900 |
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| Government troops clashed with agrarian protesters in Trustenik and in Daran Kulak. Protests continued, however, and forced the government to resign in Dec. The new government abolished the tithes. | 1 |
| The first opera by a local composer, Emmanuil Manolov, was performed. | 2 |
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| 1901 |
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| The Agrarian Union formally entered the political arena as the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, but fared poorly in elections as harvests improved. It became more important under the leadership of Alexander Stamboliski, but never acquired more than 15 percent of the vote before World War I. | 3 |
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| 1902 |
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| The government's relaxation of liability laws, coupled the following year with mortgage loan reforms, spurred the growth of the cooperative movement, which had begun in 1890. From 1904 to 1911 the number of cooperatives grew from 68 to 1,400. The majority of these cooperatives were credit cooperatives, culminating in the formation of the Central Cooperative Bank in 1911. | 4 |
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| 1905–7 |
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| Hellenist activities in Macedonia, sympathy with the Russian Revolution, and poor conditions for urban workers gave rise to growing unrest. The university was closed to prevent student participation in political activity. The unrest culminated in a strike among railway workers at the end of 1906. In Feb. 1907 the government reached a compromise with the railway workers, and the strike ended. | 5 |
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| 1907, March 11 |
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| Prime minister Petkov was assassinated in an act of personal vengeance. | 6 |
| The Bulgarian Operatic Association was formed. It later became the Bulgarian National Opera. | 7 |
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| 1908, Jan |
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| Ferdinand appointed Alexander Malinov, who reduced tensions by relaxing the earlier government responses to unrest. He spent his main efforts on securing independence, however. | 8 |
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| Oct. 5 |
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| DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE by Ferdinand, who assumed the title of tsar. Beginning of the Bosnian annexation crisis, which overshadowed this action of Bulgaria. | 9 |
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