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{{short description|Suppressed rebellion in Ottoman Bulgaria}}
{{Redirect|April Uprising|the John Butler Trio's fifth studio album|April Uprising (album)}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = April Uprising
| image             = BulgarianRebels1876Antonoff.jpg
| image_size        = 
| caption           = 
| partof            = [[Great Eastern Crisis]]
| date              = 20 April – 26 May 1876 <br/>({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=04|day1=20|year1=1876|month2=05|day2=26|year2=1876}})
| place             = [[Ottoman Bulgaria]]
| result            = Uprising suppressed
| combatant1        = {{flagicon image|Zname Aprilsko vastanie.svg}} [[Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee]]
| combatant2        = {{flag|Ottoman Empire}}
| commander1        = {{flagicon image|Zname Aprilsko vastanie.svg}} [[Georgi Benkovski]]{{KIA}}<br /> {{flagicon image|Zname Aprilsko vastanie.svg}} [[Ilarion Dragostinov]]{{KIA}} <br /> {{flagicon image|Zname Aprilsko vastanie.svg}} [[Panayot Volov]]{{KIA}}<br /> {{flagicon image|Zname Aprilsko vastanie.svg}} [[Hristo Botev]]{{KIA}}
| commander2        = {{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} [[Hafuz Pasha|Hafiz Pasha]]<br>{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} [[Yusuf Aga of Sofya]]<br>{{flagicon|Ottoman Empire}} [[Hasan Pasha of Niş]]
| strength1         = Around 10,000 men
| strength2         = Around 100,000 men
| casualties1       = 15,000–30,000 killed (including civilians)<ref>Historical Dictionary of Bulgaria, Raymond Detrez, Edition 3, Publisher	Rowman & Littlefield, 2014, {{ISBN|1442241802}}, p. 38.</ref>
| casualties2       = 200–4,000 killed{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}|
}}
{{Campaignbox Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)}}
{{Campaignbox Bulgarian-Ottoman Wars}}

The '''April Uprising''' ({{langx|bg|Априлско въстание|Aprilsko vastanie}}) was an [[insurrection]] organised by the [[Bulgarians]] in the [[Ottoman Empire]] from April to May 1876. The rebellion was suppressed by [[irregular military|irregular]] Ottoman [[bashi-bazouk]] units that engaged in indiscriminate slaughter of both rebels and non-combatants (see [[Batak massacre]]).

The American community around [[Robert College]] in Istanbul, the Protestant mission in Plovdiv headed by J.F. Clarke as well as two other Americans, journalist [[Januarius MacGahan]] and diplomat [[Eugene Schuyler]], were indispensable in bringing knowledge of Ottoman atrocities to the wider European public.<ref name="ReferenceB">{{London Gazette|issue=24365|date=19 September 1876 |pages=5140–5144}}</ref><ref name=GladstoneDisraeli>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/gladstone-disraeli-and-bulgarian-horrors|title=Gladstone, Disraeli and the Bulgarian Horrors}}</ref>

Their reports of the events, which came to be known in the press as the '''Bulgarian Horrors''' and the '''Crime of the Century''', caused a public outcry across Europe and mobilised both common folks and famous intellectuals to demand a reform of the failed Ottoman model of governance of the Bulgarian lands.<ref name=MacGahan>{{Cite web|url=https://attackingthedevil.co.uk/related/macgahan.php|title=The Batak Massacre (1876) &#124; Bulgarian Horrors &#124; J. A. MacGahan &#124; Turkish Atrocities &#124; The W.T. Stead Resource Site|website=attackingthedevil.co.uk}}</ref><ref name=Gladstone>{{Cite web|url=https://attackingthedevil.co.uk/related/bulgarian_horrors.php|title=[W]illiam [E]wart Gladstone, "Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East" (1876) &#124; W.T. Stead Resource Site|website=attackingthedevil.co.uk}}</ref><ref name=Schuyler>{{cite book|last=MacGahan|first= Januarius A.|title= Turkish Atrocities in Bulgaria, Letters of the Special Commissioner of the "Daily News," J.A. MacGahan, Esq. |publisher=Bradbury Agnew and Co.  |location= London |year= 1876|chapter= Mr. Schuyler's Preliminary Report |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/MacGahanTurkishAtrocitiesInBulgaria/MacGahan_Turkish%20Atrocities%20in%20Bulgaria#page/n89/mode/2up |page=89|access-date=30 September 2013}}</ref><ref name="ODwight">{{cite journal|journal=Southeastern Europe/L'Europe du Sud-Est|year= 1977|volume=4|issue=1|last1=Clarke|first1=J.F.|last2=O. Dwight|first2=Henry|title=Reporting the Bulgarian Massacres: The Suffering in Bulgaria, by Henry O. Dwight and the Rev. J. F. Clarke (1876)|pages=278–279|doi=10.1163/187633377X00177}}</ref>

The shift in public opinion, in particular, in the Ottoman Empire's hitherto closest ally, the [[British Empire]], eventually led to the [[Liberation of Bulgaria|re-establishment of a separate Bulgarian state]] in 1878.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Bulgaria/History}}</ref>

==Background==
{{main|Ottoman Bulgaria}}
In Europe, in the 18th century, the classic non-national states were the ''[[Multinational state|multi-ethnic]] empires''<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ethnic Nationalism|url=https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/whp-1750/xcabef9ed3fc7da7b:unit-2-liberal-and-national-revolutions/xcabef9ed3fc7da7b:2-3-nationalism/a/read-ethnic-nationalism-beta |access-date=2022-12-18 |website=Khan Academy |language=en}}</ref> such as the [[Ottoman Empire]] and the [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]], whose population belonged to many ethnic groups and spoke many languages. The idea of [[nation state]] became more prominent during the 19th century. The most noticeable characteristic was the degree to which nation states used the state as an instrument of ''national unity'' in economic, social and cultural life. By the 18th century, the Ottomans had fallen well behind the rest of Europe in science, technology, and industry. However, the Bulgarian population was also suppressed socially and politically under [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] rule. Additionally, more immediate causes for the greater mobilisation compared to earlier revolts were the severe internal and external problems which the Ottoman Empire experienced in the middle of the 1870s. In 1875, taxes levied on non-Muslims were raised for fear of [[National bankruptcy|state bankruptcy]], which, in turn, caused additional tension between [[Muslims]] and [[Christians]] and led to the [[Herzegovina Uprising (1875-1878)|Herzegovinian rebellion]] and the [[Stara Zagora Uprising|Stara Zagora revolt]] in Bulgaria. The failure of the Ottomans to handle the Herzegovinian uprising<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ottoman Empire – The 1875–78 crisis  |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Ottoman-Empire/The-1875-78-crisis |access-date=2022-12-18 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref> successfully showed the weakness of the Ottoman state, and the atrocities committed during its suppression discredited it internationally. In the late 19th century, European ideas of [[nationalism]] were adopted by the Bulgarian elite.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Dimitrova |first1=Snezhana |last2=Kaytchev |first2=Naum |date=1998 |title=Bulgarian nationalism, articulated by the textbooks in modern Bulgarian history 1878–1996 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43057128 |journal=Internationale Schulbuchforschung |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=51–70 |jstor=43057128 |issn=0172-8237}}</ref>

[[Image:Zname Aprilskoto vastanie.jpg|thumb|right|Rebel flag from [[Gorna Oryahovitsa]]. The text reads '[[Свобода или смърть]]' (''Freedom or Death'').]]

==Preparation==
In November 1875, activists of the [[Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee]] met in the Romanian town of [[Giurgiu]] and decided that the political situation was suitable for a general uprising. The uprising was scheduled for April or May 1876. The territory of the country was divided into five revolutionary districts with centers in [[Vratsa]] (leader-[[Stoyan Zaimov]]), [[Veliko Tarnovo]] ([[Stefan Stambolov]]), [[Sliven]]  ([[Ilarion Dragostinov]]), [[Plovdiv]] ([[Panayot Volov]]—who later gave his position to his assistant [[Georgi Benkovski]]) and [[Sofia]] ([[Nikola Obretenov]]).

The rebels had been hoarding arms and ammunition for some time and even constructed a makeshift [[Cherry gun|cannon out of cherry-wood]].<ref>A description of how these cherry-wood cannons were made appears in the historical fiction work: [[Ivan Vazov|Vazov, Ivan Minchov]] (1971) ''[[Under the Yoke|Under the yoke]]'' (Translated from the Bulgarian ''Под игото'' by Marguerite Alexieva and Theodora Atanassova.) Twayne Publishers, New York, and many other editions.</ref><ref>A picture entitled [https://books.google.com/books?id=eH1MSHM1hLUC&pg=PA83 "Plate 4.8 A wooden cannon captured from the Bulgarian insurgents by the Turks, January 1877"] appears in: Crampton, R. J. (1997) ''A Concise History of Bulgaria'' Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England, p. 83, {{ISBN|0-521-56183-3}}</ref>

In the progress of the preparation of the uprising, the organisers gave up the idea of a fifth revolutionary district in [[Sofia]] due to the deplorable situation of the local revolutionary committees and moved the centre of the fourth revolutionary district from [[Plovdiv]] to [[Panagyurishte]]. On 14 April 1876, a general meeting of the committees from the fourth revolutionary district was held in the Oborishte locality near [[Panagyurishte]] to discuss the proclamation of the insurrection. However, one of the delegates disclosed the plot to the Ottoman authorities. As a result, the Ottoman police made an attempt to arrest the leader of the local revolutionary committee in [[Koprivshtitsa]], [[Todor Kableshkov]] on {{OldStyleDate|2 May|1876|20 April}}.

The [[Bulgarian Revolutionary Central Committee]]'s minutes from 17th of April 1876 chaired by [[Georgi Benkovski|Benkovski]] discuss retaliation against the Turkish and Muslim population in mixed regions opposing the uprising. These actions include killing, arson of property and homes and seizure of assets. On the other hand, Muslims who did not resist were to be protected in the same way as the Bulgarian population.  The committee also gave approval for torching towns and villages.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.virtualnabiblioteka.com/images/upload/books/Novi/Zahari_Stojanov_-_Zapiski_po_bylgarskite_vystanija_-1771-b.pdf |title=Захари Стоянов Записки по българските въстания pp. 339–334 |access-date=2016-04-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190130175519/http://www.virtualnabiblioteka.com/images/upload/books/Novi/Zahari_Stojanov_-_Zapiski_po_bylgarskite_vystanija_-1771-b.pdf |archive-date=2019-01-30 |url-status=dead }}</ref> However, there is no evidence that this plan was implemented.

==Outbreak and suppression==
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:Bulgarian cap badge from April Uprising.jpg|thumb|150px|right|The gold-plated [[cap badge]] of an insurgent from [[Panagyurishte]]]] -->
[[Image:April Uprising.png|thumb|left|April Uprising]]

In conformity with the decisions taken at [[Oborishte locality|Oborishte]], the local rebel committee attacked and surrounded the headquarters of the Ottoman police in [[Koprivshtitsa]] on 20 April 1876. At least two Ottoman police officers were killed, and the commander, Necip Aga, was forced to release arrested rebel suspects. Necip Aga and his close officials managed to escape the siege. However, due to this incident, the Bulgarian rebels had to proclaim the insurrection two weeks in advance of the planned date.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HDQn3tJkyUcC&pg=PA306|title=История на българите|first=Димитър|last=Зафиров|date=2007|publisher=Trud Publishers|isbn=9789545287527 |via=Google Books}}</ref> 

Within several days, the rebellion spread to the entire [[Sredna Gora]] and to a number of towns and villages in the northwestern [[Rhodopes]]. The insurrection broke out in the other revolutionary districts, though on a much smaller scale. The areas of [[Gabrovo]], [[Tryavna]], and [[Pavlikeni]] also revolted in force, along with several villages north and south of [[Sliven]] and near [[Berovo]] (in present-day [[North Macedonia]]).

The Ottoman response was immediate and severe. [[irregular military|Irregular]] ''[[bashi-bazouk]]s'', sometimes accompanied by army detachments, were swiftly mobilized. These forces attacked the first insurgent towns as early as 25 April. The Ottomans massacred civilian populations, the principal places being [[Panagurishte]], [[Perushtitza]], [[Klisura, Plovdiv Province|Klisura]], and [[Batak, Bulgaria|Batak]] (see [[Batak massacre]]).<ref name="ReferenceA"/> By the middle of May, the insurrection was completely suppressed. One of the last sparks of resistance was poet [[Hristo Botev]]'s attempt to come to the rebels' rescue with a detachment of Bulgarian political émigrés resident in Romania, which ended with the unit's rout and Botev's death.

Nevertheless, a unit of [[Circassians|Circassian]] paramilitaries managed to commit a final atrocity well after the end of hostilities. They butchered 145 non-combatants at [[Boyadzhik massacre|Boyadzhik]] after confusing the preparation for a Bulgarian holiday with a rebellion in the making.<ref name=Patriarchia>{{cite web | title=135 години от Бояджишкото клане през 1876 г. | trans-title=135th Anniversary of the Boyadzhik Massacre | url=https://bg-patriarshia.bg/news/135-godini-ot-boyadzhishkoto-klane-prez-1876-g |publisher=[[Bulgarian Patriarchate]] | date=18 May 2011 }}</ref><ref name=Atanasoff>{{cite journal |last=Atanasoff |first=John V. |title=The Beginning |location=Sofia |publisher=Narodna Mladezh Publishers |year=1985 }} (Bulgarian version of his 1984 paper).</ref>

The [[Sublime Porte|Porte]]'s refusal to send additional regular army detachments, and the decision of the [[Bey]]s of [[Edirne]] and [[Plovdiv|Filibe]] to instead arm [[bashi-bazouk]] forces greatly determined the number of casualties and the aftermath of the uprising's suppression.<ref>MacGahan, 1876, p. 89</ref><ref name="PrelReport">{{cite web|title=Mr. Schuyler's Preliminary Report on the Moslem Atrocities|last=Schuyler|first=Eugene|date=10 August 1876|url=https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Stout33-t2-body-d3.html}}</ref> Thus, the village of [[Bratsigovo]], which was one of the best prepared centres of the rebellion and managed to fiercely resist enemy attacks for days, suffered only 250 casualties, very few of whom civilian, after fighting a regular Ottoman army unit.<ref>Stoyanov, 1892, Chap. VIII</ref> The leader of the Bratsigovo resistance, [[wikt:bg:Васил Петлешков|Vasil Petleshkov]], also assumed all blame for what had happened. By contrast, [[Perushtitza]], [[Panagurishte]] and [[Batak, Bulgaria|Batak]], which faced bashi-bazouk forces, all suffered enormous casualties, estimated by Schuyler at approx. 1,000, 3,000 and 5,000, respectively.<ref name="MacGahan, 1876, pp. 92-93">MacGahan, 1876, pp. 92–93</ref>

Schuyler qualified the uprising as poorly prepared and undeserving of the brutality of the Ottoman response.<ref name="MacGahan, 1876, pp. 92-93"/> Modern Bulgarian historiography also calls it premature and poorly prepared and considers that the organisers only wanted to draw European and Russian public attention to the plight of Ottoman Bulgarians, with no illusions that the revolt would succeed.<ref name="mitev">{{citation|last=Mitev|first=Plamen|title=Българското Възраждане|trans-title=The Bulgarian National Revival|year=2012|isbn=978-954-8976-56-5|pages=178–180|publisher=Стандарт }}</ref> 

In view of the poor preparation of the insurgents, but the enormous repercussions of their deeds, American Protestant missionary and author Henry Otis Dwight called the revolt ''"the maddest freak that ever led men to death"''.<ref name="ODwight"/>

==Casualties==
[[Image:Пиотровский. батакская резня. 1889 год.jpeg|right|250px|thumb|''The [[Batak massacre]]'' (1889), painted by [[Antoni Piotrowski]].]]
[[File:The interior of the church in Batak two years after the suppression of the April Uprising.jpg|thumb|right|250px|The interior of the church in Batak two years after the bloody suppression of the April Uprising and the massacre of the inhabitants of the village. Photographer and exact date not known.]]
The most detailed contemporary account of the uprising was prepared by American diplomat [[Eugene Schuyler]]. He learned about the events from faculty members at [[Robert College]], who feared that the coming investigation of Englishman Walter Baring would turn into a cover-up because of the British Empire's strongly pro-Ottoman official stance and his own reputation as a [[Turkophilia|Turkophile]].<ref>{{citation|last=Larkin|first=Brendan|title=The Times and the Bulgarian Massacres|year=2009|url=https://digitalcollections.wesleyan.edu/object/ir-1070|pages=75}}</ref>

After visiting 3 cities and 11 villages, Schuyler compiled a report detailing the burning of sixty-five villages, the demolition of five monasteries and the slaughter of at least 15,000 people—rebels and non-combatants alike.<ref>MacGahan, 1876, p. 91</ref><ref name="PrelReport"/> However, what Schuyler emphasised the most was the exceptional, highly unnecessary brutality employed, in particular, at [[Batak, Bulgaria|Batak]]. Eventually, despite his reputation as a Turkophile, Baring by and large confirmed Schuyler's findings. The report of his investigation only reduced the estimated number of victims to 12,000.<ref name="ReferenceC">{{London Gazette|issue=24365|date=19 September 1876 |pages=5115–5140}}</ref>

[[Januarius MacGahan]] also put the number of Bulgarian casualties at 15,000, with the reservation that the figure does not cover the insurrection north of the [[Balkan mountains|Balkan]].<ref name="MacGahan, 1876, p. 11">MacGahan, 1876, p. 11</ref> Subsequent investigations by the French and Russian Consuls estimated the number of Bulgarian casualties at 25,000–40,000.<ref name="MacGahan, 1876, p. 11"/> In mid-June 1876, Turkish sources claimed some 18,000 casualties, and Bulgarian ones 30,000.<ref>{{citation|last=Larkin|first=Brendan|title=The Times and the Bulgarian Massacres|year=2009|url=https://digitalcollections.wesleyan.edu/object/ir-1070|pages=72}}</ref>

According to Baring, the civilian Muslim population was not materially affected by the rebellion.<ref>{{Cite book |year= 1894 |title=The Diplomatic Reminiscences of Lord Augustus Loftus. 1862–1879|publisher= Cassell & Company, Limited |place=London |edition= 1|volume= II |page=170  |url= https://archive.org/stream/diplomaticremin02loftgoog#page/n184/mode/2up|access-date=30 July 2016 |via= Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Duke of Argyll  |year=1877 |title=The Eastern Question: From the Treaty of Paris, 1856, to the Treaty of Berlin, 1878, and to the Second Afghan War |publisher= Strahan & Company Limited |place=London |edition= |volume= I |page=229  |url=https://archive.org/stream/easternquestionf01argyuoft#page/228/mode/2up |access-date=30 July 2016 |via= Internet Archive}}</ref> This is also substantiated in the reports of [[Eugene Schuyler]] and James F. Clarke, who testify that very few peaceful Muslims were killed.<ref>Andrew G. Bostom (2005) ''The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims'' p. 664</ref> According to Schuyler, Muslim casualties numbered 115, of whom 12 women and children.<ref name="PrelReport"/> Ottoman officials at the time claimed approx. 500 Muslim casualties.<ref name="MacGahan, 1876, p. 13">MacGahan, 1876, p. 13</ref>

While contemporary witnesses are unanimous on the scale of destruction of human life and property among the rebels and agree that there were few Muslim casualties, there is disagreement on both issues among modern Western historians. Some of them not only take issue with the number of Muslim victims but also disparage or negate Bulgarian casualties. 

Thus, American historian [[Justin McCarthy (American historian)|Justin McCarthy]] claims that more than 1,000 Muslims were slaughtered and many more expelled during the revolt, while putting Bulgarian casualties at 3,000–12,000.<ref>McCarthy, Justin. ''Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims, 1821–1922'' The Darwin Press Inc., Princeton, 6th Printing 2008, p. 60</ref> He also stresses that Russian atrocities against Muslims during the [[Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878]] were far worse than those against insurgent Bulgarians.<ref>McCarthy, Justin. ''Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims, 1821–1922'' The Darwin Press Inc., Princeton, 6th Printing 2008, p. 92–94</ref> In ''History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey'', [[Stanford Shaw]] claims that far more Muslims than Christians were killed in the uprising.<ref name=Shaw>Shaw and Shaw (1977) ''History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Nide 2'' Cambridge University Press, p. 162</ref> He also estimates Bulgarian casualties at fewer than 4,000. 

On the other hand, [[Barbara Jelavich]], who admits that the beginning of the April Uprising was accompanied by a massacre of Muslim civilians, upholds Baring's estimate of 12,000 Bulgarian casualties.<ref name=jelavich>Jelavich, Barbara (1999) ''History of the Balkans: Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Nide 1'', Cambridge University Press, p. 347 {{ISBN?}}</ref> According to British historian [[Richard Shannon (historian)|Richard Shannon]], the insurgents killed less than 200 Muslims, very few of whom were non-combatants.<ref name="Shannon">{{citation|last=Shannon|first=Richard|title=Gladstone and the Bulgarian agitation|year=1975|pages=47|isbn=020801487X}}</ref>

According to the report written by Schuyler and American journalist [[Januarius MacGahan]], the Ottoman government at the time did not claim more than 500 Muslims killed—most of whom in battle.<ref name="MacGahan, 1876, p. 13"/> Polish scholar [[Tomasz Kamusella]] opines that the numbers of victims may not distinguish between Orthodox Christians and Muslims, but acknowledges that there were only some 500 Muslim deaths.<ref>Kamusella, Tomasz (2018) ''Ethnic Cleansing During the Cold War: The Forgotten 1989 Expulsion of Turks'', Routledge {{ISBN?}}{{page needed|date=April 2023}}</ref> 

This is countered by American historian [[Richard Millman (historian)|Richard Millman]], who states that Schuyler visited in person only 11 of the villages he reported on, even though Schuyler himself admits that on the first page of his report.<ref name="PrelReport"/> However, it is certain that Schuyler visited Batak and other towns and villages that suffered a particularly gruesome fate, e.g., [[Perushtitsa]]<ref>{{Citation |last=Schuyler  |first= Eugene |year= 1901 |title= Selected Essays, with a Memoir by Evelyn Schuyler |publisher=  Scribner |publication-date= 1901 |publication-place= New York |pages= 66–74  |url= https://archive.org/stream/selectedessayswi00schu#page/66/mode/2up |access-date=30 July 2016}}</ref> and [[Panagyurishte]].<ref>William Cary (1965) ''Bulgaria Today: the Land and the People, a Voyage of Discovery'' p. 45</ref> Millman also claims that the accepted reality of the massacres is largely a myth.<ref>Millman, Richard. ''The Bulgarian Massacres Reconsidered'' pp. 218, 227–228</ref>

McCarthy, Shaw and Millman all blame the accounts of Baring, MacGahan, Schuyler and Gladstone's actions on a colonial mindset, an ingrained anti-Turkish bias, "othering", preconceived ideas of Turkish barbarism and guilt or, at best, on pro-Russian leaning.<ref>Millman, Richard. ''The Bulgarian Massacres Reconsidered'' pp. 218, 227–230</ref><ref>McCarthy, Justin. ''Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims, 1821–1922'' The Darwin Press Inc., Princeton, 6th Printing 2008, p. 94</ref><ref name=Shaw/> McCarthy has since dedicated an entire book to the issue, where he attributes all negative perceptions of Turkey in the US to 19th century American missionaries—such as pastor James F. Clarke, who first gave an alert about the treatment of the Bulgarian rebels.<ref>''The American missionaries were the primary source of the negative image that has persisted long after the missions had closed and the churches that sent the missionaries had evolved into advocates of an unprejudiced acceptance of other cultures….The missionaries…widened and deepened the prejudice of Americans''. For more see: [[Justin McCarthy (American historian)|Justin McCarthy]] (2010) The Turk in America: The Creation of an Enduring Prejudice, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, p. 8, {{ISBN|1607810131}}.</ref>

However, McCarthy, Shaw and Millman have in turn themselves been accused by fellow Western historians of being an ''"apologist for the Turkish state"'', of having ''"an indefensible bias toward the Turkish official position"'' (McCarthy), of suffering from a ''"Turkish-nationalist bias"'', of offering a ''"vehemently anti-Armenian and Hellenophobic interpretation of modern Turkish history"'' (Shaw), of ''"being irredeemably pro-Turkish and pro-Disraeli"'' (Millman), etc. multiple times throughout their careers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hickok |first=Michael Robert |date=1996 |title=Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims, 1821–1922, by Justin Mccarthy. 368 pages, maps, tables, notes, appendix, bibliography, index. Princeton, NJ: Darwin Press, 1996. $35.00 (Cloth) ISBN 0-87850-094-4 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-middle-east-studies/article/abs/death-and-exile-the-ethnic-cleansing-of-ottoman-muslims-18211922-by-justin-mccarthy-368-pages-maps-tables-notes-appendix-bibliography-index-princeton-nj-darwin-press-1996-3500-cloth-isbn-0878500944/BB02FDFF14D67DC27E26FA880205A383 |journal=Review of Middle East Studies |language=en |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=214 |doi=10.1017/S0026318400034337 |s2cid=164893463 |issn=0026-3184|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kieser |first1=Hans-Lukas |last2=Oktem |first2=Kerem |last3=Reinkowski |first3=Maurus |author1-link=Hans-Lukas Kieser |title=World War I and the End of the Ottomans: From the Balkan Wars to the Armenian Genocide |date=2015 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-0-85772-744-2 |chapter=Introduction |language=en|chapter-url=https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/world-war-i-and-the-end-of-the-ottomans-from-the-balkan-wars-to-the-armenian-genocide/introduction-world-war-i-and-the-end-of-the-ottomans-from-the-balkan-wars-to-the-armenian-genocide?from=search}}</ref><ref>Zürcher, Eric J. ''Turkey: A Modern History, 3rd. Ed''. London: I.B. Tauris, 2004, p. 360.</ref><ref name="ShawCharny">{{Cite journal |last=Charny |first=Israel W. |date=2000-04-01 |title=Innocent denials of known genocides: A further contribution to a psychology of denial of genocide |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s12142-000-1019-6 |journal=Human Rights Review |language=en |volume=1 |issue=3 |pages=15–39 |doi=10.1007/s12142-000-1019-6 |s2cid=144586638 |issn=1874-6306|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|journal=The English Historical Review|volume=XCVI|issue=CCCLXXVIII|year=1981|last=Shannon|first=Richard|title=Britain and the Eastern Question, 1875-1878 [Review]|pages=170|doi=10.1093/ehr/XCVIII.CCCLXXXIX.721|doi-access=free}}</ref> Most relevant in the context of the April Uprising's casualty figures is fellow historian Hakem Al-Rustom's critique that
<blockquote>''"Justin McCarthy is an apologist for the Turkish state and supports the official version of history, which denies the Armenian genocide. He thus might have exaggerated the number of Muslim victims in the Balkans in order to underplay the number of Armenian victims in Anatolia."''<ref name="JWS">{{Cite book |last=Al-Rustom |first=Hakem |url=http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/9781118475683 |title=A Companion to the Anthropology of the Middle East |date=2015 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Inc |isbn=978-1-118-47568-3 |editor-last=Altorki |editor-first=Soraya |location=Hoboken, NJ |pages=387 |language=en |chapter=Rethinking the "Post-Ottoman" |doi=10.1002/9781118475683}}</ref></blockquote>

Both McCarthy and Shaw are [[Armenian Genocide]] denialists.<ref name="Denial 2003, p. 248">[[Yair Auron|Auron, Yair]]. ''The Banality of Denial: Israel and the Armenian Genocide''. New Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2003, p. 248.</ref><ref>[[Israel W. Charny|Charny, Israel W.]] ''Encyclopedia of Genocide, Vol. 2''. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 1999, p. 163.</ref><ref>[[Vahakn Dadrian|Dadrian, Vahakn N]]. "Ottoman Archives and the Armenian Genocide" in ''The Armenian Genocide: History, Politics, Ethics''. Richard G. Hovannisian (ed.) New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 1992, p. 284.</ref><ref name="Hovannisian">[[Richard G. Hovannisian|Hovannisian, Richard G.]] "Denial of the Armenian Genocide in Comparison with Holocaust Denial" in ''Remembrance and Denial: The Case of the Armenian Genocide''.  Richard G. Hovannisian (ed.) Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1999, p. 210.</ref><ref name="HewsenLecture">Lecture delivered by [[Robert Hewsen]]. {{YouTube|Fmvc5p998Dg|"Genocide Denial: Evolution of a Process"}}, part of the 2007 Holocaust and Genocide Lecture Series at [[Sonoma State University]] (27:24 mark). 17 April 2007. Accessed 17 May 2011.</ref> McCarthy is also a member of, and has received [[Funding of science#Influence on research|grants]] from, the [[Institute of Turkish Studies]].<ref name =Linenthal>Edward Tabor Linenthal (2001) ''Preserving Memory: The Struggle to Create America's Holocaust Museum''. New York: Viking, 1995.</ref>

Contemporary Bulgarian historians generally accept the number of Bulgarian casualties at the end of the uprising to be around 30,000. According to British and French figures, 12,000–15,000 Bulgarian civilians were massacred during the uprising.<ref name=jelavich/>

==Reaction in the West==

===Press reports===

News of massacres of Bulgarians reached European embassies in Istanbul in May and June 1876 through Bulgarian students at [[Robert College]], the American college in the city. Faculty members at Robert College wrote to the British Ambassador and to the Istanbul correspondents of ''[[The Times]]'' and the ''[[The Daily News (UK)|Daily News]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last= Pears |first=Edwin |year=1916 |title=Forty Years in Constantinople, The Recollections of Sir Edwin Pears 1873–1915 |publisher=Herbert Jenkins Limited |place=London |edition= |page=16  |url=https://archive.org/stream/fortyyearsincons00pearuoft#page/16/mode/2up |access-date=29 July 2016 |via= Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last= Washburn|first=George |year=1909 |title=Fifty Years in Constantinople and Recollections of Robert College |publisher=Houghton Mufflin Company |place=Boston & New York |edition= |page= 104|url=https://archive.org/stream/fiftyyearsincons00wash#page/104/mode/2up|access-date=29 July 2016 |via= Internet Archive}}</ref>

[[Image:Konstantin Makovsky - The Bulgarian martyresses.jpg|200px|thumb|left|[[Konstantin Makovsky]] (1839–1915). ''The Bulgarian Martyresses'' (1877)]]
{{blockquote|''But let me tell you what we saw at Batak&nbsp;... The number of children killed in these massacres is something enormous. They were often spitted on bayonets, and we have several stories from eye-witnesses who saw the little babes carried about the streets, both here and at Olluk-Kni, on the points of bayonets. The reason is simple. When a Mohammedan has killed a certain number of infidels he is sure of Paradise, no matter what his sins may be&nbsp;... It was a heap of skulls, intermingled with bones from all parts of the human body, skeletons nearly entire and rotting, clothing, human hair and putrid flesh lying there in one foul heap, around which the grass was growing luxuriantly. It emitted a sickening odour, like that of a dead horse, and it was here that the dogs had been seeking a hasty repast when our untimely approach interrupted them&nbsp;... The ground is covered here with skeletons, to which are clinging articles of clothing and bits of putrid flesh. The air was heavy, with a faint, sickening odour, that grows stronger as we advance. It is beginning to be horrible.'' |Eyewitness account of J. A. MacGahan on Turkish atrocities in Bulgaria|in a letter to the London ''[[The Daily News (UK)|Daily News]]'' of August 22, 1876<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://attackingthedevil.co.uk/related/macgahan.php|title=The Batak Massacre (1876) &#124; Bulgarian Horrors &#124; J. A. MacGahan &#124; Turkish Atrocities &#124; The W.T. Stead Resource Site|website=attackingthedevil.co.uk}}</ref>}}

An article about the massacres in the ''Daily News'' on 23 June provoked a question in Parliament about Britain's support for Turkey, and demands for an investigation.<ref>{{cite book|first=William Ewart |last= Gladstone|title=Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East|url=https://archive.org/details/bulgarianhorrors00gladiala|publisher=John Murray|place=London|year=1876|page=[https://archive.org/details/bulgarianhorrors00gladiala/page/13 13]|edition=|access-date= 29 March 2016 |via= Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|editor=Frederick Moy Thomas |title=Fifty Years of Fleet Street being the Life and Letters of Sir John Richard Robinson |url=https://archive.org/stream/fiftyyearsofflee00thomiala#page/182/mode/2up|year=1904|publisher=Macmillan |place=London |edition= |pages= 183–186 |access-date= 5 June 2016| via=Internet Archive}}</ref> Prime Minister [[Benjamin Disraeli]] promised to conduct an investigation about what had really happened.

In July, the British Embassy in Istanbul sent a second secretary, Walter Baring, to Bulgaria to investigate the stories of atrocities. Baring did not speak Bulgarian (although he did speak Turkish) and British policy was officially pro-Turkish, so the Bulgarian community in Istanbul feared he would not report the complete story. They asked the American Consul in Istanbul, [[Eugene Schuyler]], to conduct his own investigation.

Schuyler set off for Bulgaria on 23 July, four days after Baring. He was accompanied by a well-known American war correspondent, [[Januarius MacGahan]], by a German correspondent, and by a Russian diplomat, Prince Aleksei Tseretelev.

[[File:Basibozuk-1877-78.jpg|thumb|250px|Ottoman bashi-bazouk]]
Schuyler's group spent three weeks visiting [[Batak, Bulgaria|Batak]] and other villages where massacres had taken place. Schuyler's official report, published in November 1876, said that fifty-eight villages in Bulgaria had been destroyed, five monasteries demolished, and fifteen thousand people in all massacred. The report was reprinted as a booklet and widely circulated in Europe.<ref name="MacGahan 1876">MacGahan, 1876, pp. 89–98</ref><ref name="ReferenceB"/>

Baring's report to the British government about the massacres was similar but put the number of victims at about twelve thousand.<ref name="ReferenceC"/>

MacGahan's vivid articles from Bulgaria moved British public opinion against Turkey. He described in particular what he had seen in the town of Batak, where five thousand of a total of seven thousand residents had been slaughtered, beheaded or burned alive by Turkish irregulars, and their bodies left in piles around the town square and the church.<ref name="MacGahan 1876"/>

===British response===
[[File:Acgladstone2.jpg|thumb|left|250px|''[[Portrait of William Ewart Gladstone]]'' painted by [[John Everett Millais]], 1879.]]

Liberal Party leader [[William Ewart Gladstone]] published a  pamphlet on 6 September 1876, ''Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East'',<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://attackingthedevil.co.uk/related/bulgarian_horrors.php|title=[W]illiam [E]wart Gladstone, "Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East" (1876) &#124; W.T. Stead Resource Site|website=attackingthedevil.co.uk}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=William Ewart |last= Gladstone|title=Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East|url=https://archive.org/details/bulgarianhorrors00gladiala|publisher=John Murray|place=London|year=1876|edition=|access-date= 10 June 2016 |via= Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/gladstone-disraeli-and-bulgarian-horrors|title=Gladstone, Disraeli and the Bulgarian Horrors {{!}} History Today|website=www.historytoday.com|access-date=2019-11-16}}</ref> in which he attacked the Disraeli government for its indifference to the Ottoman Empire's violent repression of the April Uprising. Gladstone made clear his [[Anti-Turkism|hostility focused on the Turkish people]], rather than on the Muslim religion. The Turks he said:
{{blockquote|''"... were, upon the whole, from the black day when they first entered Europe, the one great anti-human specimen of humanity. Wherever they went, a broad line of blood marked the track behind them; and as far as their dominion reached, civilisation disappeared from view. They represented everywhere government by force, as opposed to government by law. For the guide of this life they had a relentless fatalism: for its reward hereafter, a sensual paradise."''<ref>{{cite book|first=William Ewart |last= Gladstone|title=Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East|url=https://archive.org/stream/bulgarianhorrors00gladiala#page/9/mode/2up|year=1876|edition=|page=9|access-date=10 June 2016|via=Internet Archive|publisher= London : J. Murray}}</ref>}}

The political impact of the reports was immediate and dramatic. As the leader of the opposition, Gladstone called upon the government to withdraw its support for Turkey.<blockquote>''"I entreat my countrymen"'', he wrote, ''"upon whom far more than upon any other people in Europe it depends, to require and to insist that our government, which has been working in one direction, shall work in the other, and shall apply all its vigour to concur with the states of Europe in obtaining the extinction of the Turkish executive power in Bulgaria. Let the Turks now carry away their abuses in the only possible manner, namely, by carrying off themselves&nbsp;..."''<ref>{{cite book|last=Gladstone|first= William Ewart|title= Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East |publisher= J Murray |location= London |year= 1876|url= https://archive.org/details/bulgarianhorrors00gladiala  |page= [https://archive.org/details/bulgarianhorrors00gladiala/page/31 31]  |access-date= 2 February 2013}}</ref><ref>See also {{cite book|last=Gladstone|first= William Ewart|title= Lessons in Massacre; or the Conduct of the Turkish Government in and about Bulgaria since May 1876; chiefly from papers presented by command|publisher= J Murray |location= London |year= 1877|url=https://archive.org/stream/cu31924028512436#page/n3/mode/2up   |access-date= 2 September 2013}}</ref></blockquote>

Prominent Europeans, including [[Charles Darwin]], [[Oscar Wilde]], [[Victor Hugo]], and [[Giuseppe Garibaldi]], spoke against the Turkish behavior in Bulgaria. When [[Russo-Turkish War, 1877-78|war with Russia]] started in 1877, the Turkish Government asked Britain for help, but the British government refused, citing public outrage caused by the Bulgarian massacres as the reason.

=== Political affairs and propaganda ===
During the 19th century, [[British Empire]] typically supported Ottomans against their conflicts against Russian Empire, a common rival at the time, to curb its [[Pan-Slavism|pan-Slavist]] and [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Orthodox Christian]] influence in [[Balkans]]. William Gladstone assumed a pro-Russian position on the conflict and was not concerned with the expansion of Russia's power projection. In contrast, the works of [[Frederick Burnaby]] present a pro-Turkish understanding of events. To investigate the accounts of massacres in British media, Burnaby embarked on a travel through Ottoman lands; his memoirs were published under the titles ''A Ride to Khiva: Travels and Adventures in Central Asia'' (1876) and ''On Horseback through Asia Minor'' (1877). According to Burnaby, many Western accounts of atrocities were exaggerated and sometimes fabricated and atrocities against Muslims were omitted from the press reports. The landlord of Burnaby in Ankara complains to him about this as such,<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Akilli |first=Sinan |date=2009-06-15 |title=Propaganda through travel writing: Frederick Burnaby's contribution to Great Game British politics |url=https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/597840 |journal=Hacettepe Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi |language=en |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=1–12 |issn=1301-5737}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|text=''Your newspapers always published the accounts of the Bulgarian women and children who were slaughtered, and never went into any particulars about the Turkish women who were massacred by the Bulgarians, or about our soldiers whose noses were cut off, and who were mutilated by the insurgents in the Herzegovina. A Turk values his nose quite as much as a Christian.''}}
Burnaby's goal was to present a counter-narrative to the general Russophile attitude in Britain. According to Turkish historian Sinan Akıllı, his attempts manifested mixed results and were only partially successful in reversing the public opinion.<ref name=":0" />

===Aftermath===
{{main|Constantinople Conference}} {{main|Treaty of San Stefano}}
[[File:Constantinople conference.png|thumb|300px|Boundaries of the Bulgarian autonomous provinces proposal tabled in Constantinople]]
The April uprising was not successful in itself, but its bloody suppression by the Ottomans caused such outrage across Europe that public opinion, even in Turcophile England, shifted, demanding a reform of the model of Ottoman governance.<ref>{{citation|last=Crampton|first=Richard|title=A Concise History of Bulgaria|chapter=The struggle for political independence and the liberation of 1878|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=New York|year=2005|isbn=0-521-85085-1 |pages=75–85}}</ref> As a result, the [[Great Powers]] called the [[Constantinople Conference]] in December 1876, where they presented the Sultan with a combined proposal that envisaged the creation of two autonomous Bulgarian provinces, largely overlapping with the borders of the [[Bulgarian Exarchate]]. By splitting the autonomy in two and ensuring extensive international oversight of provincial affairs, the proposal reflected all of the [[British Empire]]'s wishes and allayed its fears that the provinces would become Russian puppets.

Thus, the decades-long Bulgarian struggle for self-governance and freedom appeared to finally bear fruit. And this the Bulgarians had achieved entirely by themselves—through the efforts of both clergy and the young Bulgarian bourgeoisie, which had successfully argued before and succeeded in convincing Grand Vizier [[Mehmed Emin Âli Pasha|Âli Pasha]] in the need for a separate [[Bulgarian Exarchate|Bulgarian church]] and millet, thus initiating the Bulgarian nation-building process even under foreign rule,<ref>{{citation|last=Crampton|first=Richard|title=A Concise History of Bulgaria|chapter=The struggle for political independence and the liberation of 1878|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=New York|year=2005|isbn=0-521-85085-1 |pages=65–75}}</ref> and through the blood shed by the hothead revolutionaries who had managed to cause a seismic shift in European public opinion.

However, on 20 January 1877, Grand Vizier [[Midhat Pasha]] officially and finally rejected the autonomy proposal.<ref>{{citation|last=Mitev|first=Plamen|title=Българското Възраждане|trans-title=The Bulgarian National Revival|year=2012|isbn=978-954-8976-56-5|pages=184–185|publisher=Стандарт }}</ref> Bulgarian historiography has traditionally cast the blame for the failure of the Conference on the go-to villain in modern Bulgarian history, the English. However, newer research rather indicates that the power that sabotaged the Conference was the Russian Empire itself. The Russians had already apportioned Ottoman holdings in Europe amongst themselves and [[Austria-Hungary]] by virtue of the secret [[Reichstadt Agreement]] and [[Budapest Convention of 1877|Budapest Convention]] and stood to lose the most from a Bulgarian state that was not under their control—namely, their century-old dream of controlling the [[Turkish Straits]] and having a warm-water port (a.k.a. [[Catherine the Great]]'s "[[Greek Plan]]").<ref name=tsvetkov1>{{cite book |title=Светът на мегамитовете|trans-title=The World of the Megamyths |language=bg |author1=[[Plamen Tzvetkov]] |publisher=New Bulgarian University Publishing House|location=София|year=2008|isbn=978-954-535-498-4|chapter=Chapters 9–11}}</ref><ref>"''the Bulgarians... should be turned into an '''obedient tool''' of Russian policy and into our permanent allies by annihilating any option for them to cross to the enemy side''" (pp. 51–53); "''the Austrian and Turkish Slavs must be our allies and '''tools''' of our policy towards Germany''" (pp. 51–53); "''if the nations that rebelled against the Turks fall under Western '''rather than our influence''', the situation on the Balkans will become far more untenable for Russia than it is now''"' (pp. 57). For more, see: [[Nikolay Pavlovich Ignatyev]] (1986): Записки 1875–1878 (Diaries 1875–1878), Отечествен фронт, София, 1986.</ref>

The date of finalisation of the Budapest Convention, 15 January 1877, mere five days before Midhat Pasha's rejection of the autonomy proposal, and its clauses, where the [[Russian Empire]] explicitly undertakes not to create a large Slavic state but rather two small autonomous Bulgarian principalities/provinces north and south of the [[Balkan mountains]] have even caused several researchers to call the [[Treaty of San Stefano]] a "trick" or a "charade".<ref name=indzhev>{{cite book |title=Измамата Сан Стефано|trans-title=The San Stefano Deceit|language=bg  |author=[[Ivo Indzhev]] |publisher=Ciela |location=София |year=2022|edition=2nd reworked|isbn=9789542838708}}</ref><ref name=yordanov1>{{cite book |title=Патриотични уроци|trans-title=Lessons on Patriotism |language=bg |author1=[[Alexander Yordanov]] |publisher=Век 21 – прес|location=София |year=2019|isbn=9786199100516}}</ref><ref name="Doychev">{{cite web|url=https://blog.veni.com/?p=5856|title=Измамата трети март – кой изтри от историческата памет 13 юли 1878|trans-title=The San Stefano Charade – Who Erased 13 July 1878 from Historical Memory|author=Momchil Doychev|date=2020 |language=bg}}</ref><ref>''Санстефанският договор е обикновен предварителен (прелиминарен) протокол за прекратяване на войната между две воюващи страни. В него понятие „освобождение на България” няма. И това е логично, защото цел на руската политика не е освобождението на България. Завладяването, т.е. окупацията на част от територията на Османската империя, е само средство за постигане на цел. Целта е Русия да има безпрепятствен достъп до Проливите. Това означава, че руската имперска завоевателна доктрина не предвижда по пътя към „топлите морета” да има независими, провеждащи своя национална политика, държави. Нейна цел е да има контролирани и зависими  от политиката на императора „автономни” области. Това е целта. Пропагандата е нещо друго. Тя може да облече целта в привлекателна дреха.  За българите тази дреха се нарича „освобождение”. Впрочем самите руски историци признават това, когато записват в „Болшая советская енциклопедия” следното: ”Царското правителство на Русия преследваше във войната с Турция завоевателни цели, но използваше лозунга на една освободителна война”.  С други думи понятието „освободителна война” е лозунг и нищо повече. Той е за „народните маси”. Елитът – императорският двор, военоначалниците са абсолютно наясно с целта. И я преследват и до Санстефанския „договор”, и след него. Доколкото под Санстефанския протокол  стои подписът на руския посланик в Цариград граф Николай П.Игнатиев, то е добре да се цитират неговите „записки”, издадени през 1914 г. в Санкт Петербург. В тях четем: „На Русия ѝ е тясно в Черно море и тя трябва да владее изхода му, т.е. Проливите, пряко и косвено, и то не само заради осигуряването на безопасността и благосъстоянието на своя Юг, колкото поради политически и икономически съображения.” И по-нататък: „За да бъде властта ни здрава и да не изисква постоянно извънредно напрежение от наша страна, е необходимо да държим в нравстено подчинение съседните области и да превърнем българското и гръцкото население, от една страна, и арменското, от друга, в послушно оръдие на руската политика и в постоянни съюзници, като унищожим всякаква възможност за преминаването им във враждебен лагер.”'' For more, see: [[Alexander Yordanov]] (2018) Санстефанският договор - „ловушка”, капан, илюзия, инструмент за столетно манипулиране на българския народ [The San Stefano Treaty – A Snare, Trap, Illusion and an Instrument for Manipulating Bulgarians for More Than a Century], https://faktor.bg/bg/articles/mneniya/lacheni-tsarvuli/-sanstefanskiyat-dogovor-blagodarnostta-dalgat-i-praznikat</ref><!-- These two paragraphs are utterly confusing. How did the Russian Empire stop the ottomans from agreeing exactly? This is not explained. It seems as though the Russians accepted the British requirements but instead the ottomans rejected the proposals anyway (This is not without precedent, see the Greek War of Independence (1821-1832) where autonomy was rejected initially before Western intervention.). -->

Whatever the truth, the Ottoman Empire's rejection of the autonomy proposal gave the Russians the much-desired excuse to declare war on the Ottoman Empire, while preventing the United Kingdom from interfering because of public opinion. Less than two years after the uprising, Bulgaria, or at least a part of it, would be free again.

==See also==
*[[Ottoman Bulgaria]]
*[[Razlovtsi insurrection]]
*[[Liberation of Bulgaria]]
*[[Kresna–Razlog uprising]]
*[[Bulgarian unification]]
*[[Edwin Pears]]
*[[Boyadzhik massacre]]

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==Further reading==
* Çiçek, Nazan. "The Turkish response to Bulgarian horrors: A study in English Turcophobia." ''Middle Eastern Studies'' 42.1 (2006): 87–102.
* Cicek, Nazan. "'Bulgarian Horrors' Revisited: The Many-Layered Manifestations of the Orientalist Discourse in Victorian Political Construction of the External, Intimate and Internal Other." ''Belleten'' 81.291 (2017): 525–568. [https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/ttkbelleten/issue/52444/687921 online]
* Crampton, Richard. ''A Concise History of Bulgaria''. (2005). {{ISBN|0-521-56183-3}}
* Jelavich, Charles  and Barbara Jelavich. ''The Establishment of the Balkan National States, 1804–1920'' (U of Washington Press, 1977).
* Ković, Miloš. ''Disraeli and the Eastern Question'' (Oxford University Press, 2010)
* Millman, Richard. "The Bulgarian massacres reconsidered." ''Slavonic and East European Review'' 58.2 (1980): 218–231. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/4208028 online]
* Prévost, Stéphanie. "WT Stead and the Eastern Question (1875–1911); or, How to Rouse England and Why?." ''19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century'' (2013). [https://19.bbk.ac.uk/article/id/1618/ online] doi: 10.16995/ntn.654
* Saab,  Ann P. ''Reluctant Icon: Gladstone, Bulgaria and the Working Classes, 1856–1878'' (Harvard University Press, 1991)
* Schuyler, Eugene, Mr. Schuyler's Preliminary Report on the Moslem Atrocities (1876) [https://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Stout33-t2-body-d3.html online]
* Seton-Watson, R.W. ''Disraeli, Gladstone, and the Eastern question: a study in diplomacy and party politics'' (1935) pp 51–101.
* Shannon, Richard, and G.S.R. Kitson Clark. ''Gladstone and the Bulgarian agitation 1876'' (Nelson, 1963).
* Stavrianos, L.S. "Balkan Crisis and the Treaty of Berlin: 1878" from ''The Balkans Since 1453'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20060422201607/http://www.suc.org/culture/history/berlin78/ online]
* {{cite book |last=Stoyanov |first= Zahary |title=Записки по българските въстания| trans-title= Pages from the Autobiography of a Bulgarian Insurgent|volume=3|chapter=VII|place= Plovdiv|year=1892|url= https://chitanka.info/text/3748-zapiski-po-bylgarskite-vystanija/30#textstart|language=bg}}
* Whitehead,  Cameron. "Reading Beside the Lines: Marginalia, W.E. Gladstone, and the International History of the Bulgarian Horrors." ''International History Review'' 37.4 (2015): 864–886.
* Whitehead, Cameron Ean Alfred. "The Bulgarian Horrors: culture and the international history of the Great Eastern Crisis, 1876–1878" (PhD Diss. University of British Columbia, 2014) [https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/24/24/items/1.0167317 online].

===Primary sources===
* Gladstone, William Ewart. ''Bulgarian Horrors and the Question of the East'' (J. Murray, 1876) [https://archive.org/details/bulgarianhorror01gladgoog online].
* {{cite book |last=Stoyanoff |first= Zahary |author-link= Zahari Stoyanov |title= Pages from the Autobiography of a Bulgarian Insurgent |translator= Potter, M.W. |publisher=Edward Arnold |place= London |year=1913 |url= https://archive.org/stream/zacharystoyanoff00stoirich/|access-date=15 July 2018 |via= Internet Archive}}
* {{cite book|last=MacGahan|first= Januarius A.|title= Turkish Atrocities in Bulgaria, Letters of the Special Commissioner of the "Daily News," J.A. MacGahan, Esq. |publisher=Bradbury Agnew and Co.  |location= London |year= 1876|url=https://archive.org/details/MacGahanTurkishAtrocitiesInBulgaria/mode/2up?view=theater}}

==External links==
* Walter Short, [https://web.archive.org/web/20101121065738/http://debate.org.uk/topics/history/xstnc-6.html The Massacres of the Khilafah].
* [https://www.novinite.com/articles/111458/'The+Bulgarian+Horrors':+Gladstone's+Bulgar  "'The Bulgarian Horrors': Gladstone's Bulgarian Legacy" December 29, 2009],  interview with Professor Michael Meltev 
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyYAQ2VZU70  "Mr Gladstone and the Horrors" documentary by Michael Meltev 2009]

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{{Rebellions in the Ottoman Empire}}
{{Great Eastern Crisis}}
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[[Category:April Uprising of 1876| ]]
[[Category:1876 in Bulgaria]]
[[Category:19th-century rebellions]]
[[Category:Persecution of Christians in the Ottoman Empire]]
[[Category:April 1876]]
[[Category:May 1876]]