The Study Of Byzantine's Conquest Of Bulgaria(10-12 Century)

Byzantium and Bulgaria are two important countries in the medieval Balkans.The exchanges between the two have a long history.Early Byzantium took the consideration of setting up a series of satellite countries in the periphery,and mainly defended Bulgaria and adopted the policy of mollification.By the beginning of the 10th century,with changes in the situation at home and abroad,Byzantium changed its previous policy toward Bulgaria and began to send troops directly to conquer Bulgaria.Byzantium conquered Bulgaria and strengthened its rule over Bulgaria in all aspects of politics,economy,culture,religion,and military affairs.The Byzantine conquest not only accelerated the "Christianization"and "Byzantineization''of Bulgaria,but also had a major impact on the situation in Byzantine itself and in the Balkan region.This article focuses on the Byzantine policies to Bulgaria in the 10th to 12th centuries,including the process of Byzantine conquest of Bulgaria,the Byzantine policy of ruling Bulgaria,and its influence.The main body is divided into four parts:The first part mainly analyzes the causes of Byzantine's policy change to Bulgaria.Byzantine and Bulgaria's early contacts were mainly defensive,and the policies of mollification were used in many cases.However,by the beginning of the 10th century,Bulgaria's increasing strength had threatened Byzantine's hegemony,The latter began to change its previous moderate policy and determined to send troops directly to conquer Bulgaria.The second part mainly elaborates the process by which Byzantine conquered Bulgaria and the reasons for its success.Byzantium first instigated Rus to attack Eastern Bulgaria,and then sent troops to capture East Bulgaria from Rus;the western Bulgaria,which had not been affected by the war,quickly rose and regained lost ground.However,under the leadership of the Emperor Vassili ?,Byzantium eventually conquered the entire territory of Bulgaria.Byzantium was able to successfully conquer Bulgaria because of the decline of Bulgaria's power,Byzantine's flexible foreign policy and Vassili ?'s personal talent.The third part mainly discusses the domination policies adopted by Byzantium after conquering Bulgaria.After Byzantium conquered Bulgaria,in order to ease ethnic conflicts,the conqueror Vassili ? adopted a "tolerant" policy.However,Vassili's successors did not continue his policy and instead started to strengthen their rule over Bulgaria.Byzantine's adjustment of Bulgaria's ruling policy was mainly due to the decline of the Byzantine military system,the invasion of the northern nomads and Byzantine's ethnic discrimination against Bulgaria.The fourth part focuses on the influence of Byzantium in conquering Bulgaria.Byzantine conquered Bulgaria and ruled for more than 160 years,This process accelerated the "Christianization" and "Byzantineization" of Bulgaria and added new elements to the recasting of the second Bulgarian kingdom.Byzantine's conquest of Bulgaria consumed its own strength and changed the situation in the Balkans which made it's dream of uniting the Eastern Mediterranean turn into bubbles.