The formation of the First Bulgarian Empire (681-1018)

Bulgarian draws its name from the Bulgar people probably of Turkic origin, who formed a political and military alliance with the Slavic tribal union in what is present-day northern Bulgaria.

In the 480s the Byzantines recruited them as mercenaries to fight against the Ostrogoths. By the 6th century Bulgars were powerful enough to attack Byzantines province.

In the 560s they were forced to defend themselves from the Avars out of Asia - some tribes killed displaced or absorbed by them. In 640, the Khanate of the Onogur Bulgars to the north of the Black Sea fragmented into several tribes following their conquest by the Khazars.

One group led by Asparaukh Khan migrated southwest and founded a new state in the Danubian plain annexing local Slavic tribes in the process. They establishing the First Bulgarian Empire and internationally recognized after a successful war with the Byzantine Empire in 681.

The First Bulgarian Empire reached its political and cultural zenith in the late month and early tenth centuries.

This empire lasted until 972, when Bulgaria fell to the Byzantine Empire during the rule of Boris II, the Bulgarian khan. By 1018, all of Bulgaria had been incorporated into the Byzantine Empire.
The formation of the First Bulgarian Empire (681-1018)

Kingdom of Aragon

Aragon was a kingdom in northeastern Spain, bordering on southern France and the Pyrenees.

The principality of Aragon had its origins in 1035, when Sancho III of Navarre left part of the region to his illegitimate son, Ramiro I.

Ramiro and his successors, as kings of Aragon, extended the Aragonese territory southward as land was retaken from Moors: Zaragoza, the capital of the Al Moravid kingdom fell to Alfonso I of Aragon.

In 1118 Zaragoza replaced Huesca as the kingdom’s capital. The reconquest of present day Aragon was completed by the late 12th century.

Modern day of Zaragoza

In the 13th - 15th centuries it came to rule Sicily, Sardinia, Naples and Navarre.  In 1469 Ferdinand II married Isabella of Castile, uniting the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile and forming the nucleus of modern Spain.

The old kingdom of Aragon survived as an administrative until 1833, when it was divided into the three provinces of Huesca, Zaragoza and Teruel.
Kingdom of Aragon