Serbia-Bulgaria union

On Bulgarian independence a protestant german was chosen to be king. Could a Serbian Prince have been chosen instead?

Would the surrounding powers have allowed the two states to form a personal union?

If Serbia-Bulgaria came into being, what would its primary aims be?
 
On Bulgarian independence a protestant german was chosen to be king. Could a Serbian Prince have been chosen instead?

Would the surrounding powers have allowed the two states to form a personal union?

If Serbia-Bulgaria came into being, what would its primary aims be?
When in 1908? I am wondering if tensions in the region would even allow it to happen?
 
Hell no. The Great Powers other than Russia would never accept that considering Serbia was very much in the Russian sphere, a Serbian prince on a Bulgarian throne would be considered even more of a move for Russia to control the Balkans. There's a reason the San Stefano borders were rectified beforehand.
 
It's not completely impossible, but...nah.

When a country's government decide to invite a foreign prince, they are usually doing so with their future ruler's connections in mind - the idea is that he could use his familiarity with Europe's ruling dynasties to better represent the interests of the country. At this time, the princes of Serbia are connected to...some Romanian and Hungarian nobility, and that's it. A monarch who is personally friendly with the German or Russian court is, in theory, much better than a monarch who is personally friendly with the Hunyadi or Catargiu estates.

Then there's the attitude of great powers. Russia wouldn't want it because the man who sat on the Serbian throne in 1878 was an Austrian stooge. Austria probably wouldn't want it because, stooge or not, they don't want to encourage any ideas of Slavic unity.
 
Well Yugoslavia and Bulgaria did enter such talks into forming such a Union after World War 2, It also included absorbing Albania and a communist Greece(which Tito supported but Stalin did not)but the Soviets nixed that talk, fear that they would have no control over such a larger and more powerful state.

And While Serbia was in Russia's Sphere would the Tsars have wanted a Large Southern Slavic state? or would they prefer a bunch of smaller ones they can push around.
 

raharris1973

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Austria probably wouldn't want it because, stooge or not, they don't want to encourage any ideas of Slavic unity.

Sad, because I can think of no better way to hobble the Serbs and distract them from their irredentism vs. Bosnia and Krajina than by yoking them to Bulgaria under a dual monarchical constitution modeled on ...Austria-Hungary.
 
Aren't there two families competing for Control in this era anyway? Maybe one of them gets Bulgaria?
 
Sad, because I can think of no better way to hobble the Serbs and distract them from their irredentism vs. Bosnia and Krajina than by yoking them to Bulgaria under a dual monarchical constitution modeled on ...Austria-Hungary.

That might have worked in hindsight, but it was completely incompatible with the Dual Monarchy's mode of thinking.

Vienna wasn't just afraid of Serbia - it was afraid of anything that might draw the attention of its Slavs away from the Monarchy and/or inspire them to form a common political front. It even feared the Bulgarians, believing that a sufficiently strong Bulgaria could also attract Austria-Hungary's south Slavs and take Serbia's place as a major threat.

Which mostly sounds bizarre and unlikely, but even a broken clock can be right twice a day.
 
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