Bulgarisation

Bulgarisation (), also known as Bulgarianisation () is the spread of Bulgarian culture beyond the Bulgarian ethnic space carried out through educational and ecclesial campaigns, and, at times, policies of forced assimilation and emigration. Within the borders of modern-day Bulgaria, historic Bulgarianisation efforts were primarily, but not exclusively, directed at Muslims. There were also Bulgarianisation campaigns in present-day Greece, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Serbia, particularly during the First and Second World Wars.

==History== ===Ottoman rule=== Under Ottoman rule, much of the expansion of the Bulgarian ethnic group was reversed. While the Ottoman Empire provided for some cultural and religious autonomy under the "Millet System", and Bulgarians were briefly granted their own Bulgarian Millet, Bulgarians were no longer politically dominant in their own lands. While the Ottomans did not generally require Bulgarians to convert to Islam, the empire did enforce the Jizya tax and other forms of discrimination and practices on non-Muslims (such as the Devshirme). Those Bulgarians who converted to Islam but retained their Slavic language and customs became known as Pomaks. A sub-set of these converts to Islam also assimilated into the Turkish ethnic group. Between that assimilation and the settlement of many Turkish people in Bulgaria, much of modern-day Bulgaria had an ethnic Turkish Muslim majority prior to Bulgarian independence.