The Tsardom of Bulgaria was a state and local power in the Balkans. It gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1855, after the Danubian War. After the Danubian War, it gained a huge amount of territory from the Treaty of San Stefano, and the Russian Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich became Tsar as Michael IV. In 1884, tired of Russian domination, and believing that the comet of 1884 was a divine signal,Stefan Stambolov and the Internal Bulgarian Revolutionary Organization (IBRO) led a revolt against Tsar Michael IV, hoping to place his more liberal son, Nicholas, on the throne. Nicholas, however, refused, and the revolt soon fell to the power of the Tsarist army, while Stambolov fled to Britain. Russian forces soon directly occupied Bulgaria, and the nation was stripped of Macedonia. It participated in World War One, first fighting with Austria and Russia, but Tsar Michael fled after the Russian withdrawal to the Carpathians, resulting in Stabvolov's return, and Bulgaria siding with the Allies. Prince Arthur of Britain became the new monarch after the war. During the Fourth Balkan War, the IBRO and its cousin, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, (IMARO), fought to overthrow British and French domination of the Balkans, but Stambvolov chose to side with Britain, hoping to regain Bulgaria's lost lands, a goal in which he partially succeeded.
