Dobruja
Dobruja is a historic region in modern Romania and Bulgaria. Rather than a national or ethnic region, Dobruja very specifically refers to the geographic region along the Black Sea coast south of the Danube delta.
History
Dubruja was settled by a variety of nations with loose tribal governments. Largely these were Dacians and Slavs.
The Roman and Byzantine empires both organized the territory as Scythia, although it is more accurately described as Scythia Minor.
The Bulgarians developed the region significantly; they built Pliska and rebuilt Varna.
Bulgarians, Byzantines, and Tatars frequently fought for control, although the Byzantines largely kept to the coastline; most notably they established a despotate under Dobrotitsa by 1357.
Through the conquests of Mircea the Elder, Wallachia also briefly conquered the region.
Under Ottoman control, the region was administered by the sanjak of Silistra, which later was elevated to an independent eyalet.
Bessarabia was contested between the Ottomans and Russians through the Russo-Turkish Wars. The region claimed by both Moldavia and Bessarabia, generally referred to at the time as Southern Bessarabia, was ceded to Russia in 1829. The remainder of the region was subject to Russian military occupation, though it remained an Ottoman vassal.
The revolutions of 1848 were expressed here as Danubian nationalism, which the Ottomans and Russians jointly suppressed.
In 1864, Dobruja was included in the reformed vilayet of Danube.
After having returned Southern Bessarabia to Moldavia following the Crimean War, Russia again seized the Black Sea coast in the Russo-Turkish War of 1878. Although the Treaty of Berlin confirmed the independence of Romania, it was compelled to cede Southern Bessarabia to Russia. As a consolation, Russia ceded Dobruja to Romania and Bulgaria. These portions are referred to as Northern Dobruja and Southern Dobruja, respectively.
In 1913, following the Balkan Wars, Romania annexed Southern Dobruja.
Shortly after the Second Vienna Award, Hitler also brokered border negotiations between Bulgaria and Romania. The Treaty of Craiova transferred Southern Dobruja back to Bulgaria in 1940.