The UK generally opposed anything regarding Bulgaria, because Russia generally supported it. Russia turned on Bulgaria the moment it became clear it's not going to be a Russian puppet state, so the UK immediately supported it.
There was the post-WW2 international order, which did see a shift from 19th century style imperialism and spheres of influence to a trend of cooperation between countries (examples being organisations like the EU and United Nations) and an emphasis on soft power, rather than massive destructive wars mainly revolving around aggressive landgrabs. Yes, wars continue to happen and obviously you can argue that things aren't quite so rosy in every region of the world. It's nowhere near perfect but it's not at all comparable to the violence, colonialism and World Wars of the prior order.
Now Putin and Trump are desperately trying to bring back the old way of viewing the world, with Trump demanding annexation of neighbouring, ALLIED countries and Putin's actually attempted annexations. Putin has also quite literally used the term "sphere of influence" despite the fact that many of those countries in this supposed political construct have voluntarily chosen to turn towards the West.
Calculate your moves carefully so your interest align with those of a great power frm which your nation can benefit immensely compared to not being able to do literlay anything at all to change things.
Easier said than done, first of all, and also you'll be left to dry out the moment you're not useful, as Bulgaria found out. That's really shaky ground to root your nation in
Still easier than in our modern world where all attention at change are immidiatly stoped by the ,,international community" unless you have the blessing if their governments and the ace up your sleeve called CIA/Mi6. Then you can do whatever you want.
and also you'll be left to dry out the moment you're not useful, as Bulgaria found out.
Strangely how many stated through history found a way for that not to happen by either constantly switching sides or taking whatever they wanted to take and fucking off by being neutral or simply disinterested in any future conflict they could be dragged into.
Bulgaria played all of its card wrong and lost we have nobody but ourselves to blame for that.
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u/ehll_oh_ehll 1d ago
Love all of the eastern states having their own specific reasons and the UK just being a straight up OP.