Boundaries
Although external historical events often changed Bulgaria's national boundaries in its first century of existence, natural terrain features defined most boundaries after 1944, and no significant group of people suffered serious economic hardship because of border delineation. Postwar Bulgaria contained a large percentage of the ethnic Bulgarian people, although numerous migrations into and out of Bulgaria occurred at various times. None of the country's borders was officially disputed in 1991, although nationalist Bulgarians continue to claim that Bulgaria's share of Macedonia—which it shares with both Republic of Macedonia and Greece—is less than just because of the ethnic connection between Macedonians and Bulgarians.
Bulgaria has a total border of about 2,264 km. Rivers account for about 680 km and the Black Sea coast for 400 km; the southern and western borders are mainly defined by ridges in high terrain. The western and northern boundaries are shared with Serbia and Romania, respectively, and the Black Sea coastline constitutes the entire eastern border. The Romanian border follows the Danube for 464 km from the northwestern corner of the country to the city of Silistra and then cuts to the east-southeast for 136 km. The Danube, with steep bluffs on the Bulgarian side and a wide area of swamps and marshes on the Romanian side, is one of the most effective river boundaries in Europe. The line through Dobruja is arbitrary and was redrawn several times according to international treaties. In that process, most inhabitants with strong national preferences resettled in the country of their choice. Borders to the south are with Greece and Turkey, the border with Greece being 491 kilometres long, and the Turkish border having a length of 240 kilometres.
Read more about this topic: Geography Of Bulgaria
Famous quotes containing the word boundaries:
“We must be generously willing to leave for a time the narrow boundaries in which our individual lives are passed ... In this fresh, breezy atmosphere ... we will be surprised to find that many of our familiar old conventional truths look very queer indeed in some of the sudden side lights thrown upon them.”
—Bertha Honore Potter Palmer (1849–1918)
“Whereas the Greeks gave to will the boundaries of reason, we have come to put the will’s impulse in the very center of reason, which has, as a result, become deadly.”
—Albert Camus (1913–1960)
“Not too many years ago, a child’s experience was limited by how far he or she could ride a bicycle or by the physical boundaries that parents set. Today ... the real boundaries of a child’s life are set more by the number of available cable channels and videotapes, by the simulated reality of videogames, by the number of megabytes of memory in the home computer. Now kids can go anywhere, as long as they stay inside the electronic bubble.”
—Richard Louv (20th century)