Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to the east, and the Black Sea to the southeast. It has a mainly continental climate, and an area of with a population of 19 million people. Romania is the twelfth-largest country in Europe and the sixth-most populous member state of the European Union. Europe's second-longest river, the Danube, empties into the Danube Delta in the southeast of the country. The Carpathian Mountains cross Romania from the north to the southwest and include Moldoveanu Peak, at an altitude of. Bucharest is the country's capital, largest urban area, and financial centre. Other major urban areas include Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Iași, Constanța and Brașov.
Settlement in the territory of modern Romania began in the Lower Paleolithic, later becoming the Dacian Kingdom before Roman conquest and Romanisation. The modern Romanian state was formed in 1859 with the unification of Moldavia and Wallachia under Alexandru Ioan Cuza, becoming the Kingdom of Romania in 1881 under Carol I of Romania. Romania gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877, formalised by the Treaty of Berlin. After World War I, Transylvania, Banat, Bukovina, and Bessarabia joined the Old Kingdom, forming Greater Romania, which reached its largest territorial extent. In 1940, under Axis pressure, Romania lost territories to Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union. Following the 1944 Romanian coup d'état, Romania switched sides to join the Allies. After World War II, it regained Northern Transylvania through the Paris Peace Treaties. Under Soviet occupation, King Michael I was forced to abdicate, and Romania became a socialist republic and Warsaw Pact member. After the uniquely violent Romanian revolution in December 1989, Romania began a transition to liberal democracy and a market economy.
Romania is a developing country with a high-income economy. It is a unitary republic with a multi-party system and a semi-presidential representative democracy. It is home to 11 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Romania is a net exporter of automotive and vehicle parts worldwide and has established a growing reputation as a technology centre, with some of the fastest internet speeds globally. Romania is a member of several international organisations, including the European Union, NATO, and the BSEC.
Etymology
Romania derives from the local name for Romanian, which in turn derives from Latin romanus, meaning "Roman" or "of Rome". This ethnonym for Romanians is first attested in the sixteenth century by Italian humanists travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia, and Wallachia. The oldest known surviving document written in Romanian that can be precisely dated, a 1521 letter known as the "Letter of Neacșu from Câmpulung", is notable for including the first documented occurrence of Romanian in a country name: Wallachia is mentioned as Țara Rumânească.History
Dacia and the Roman Empire
It is believed that the tribes responsible for creating the Bronze Age culture on the territory of modern Romania belonged to the Indo-European group of Thracians. Strabo, in Geographica, notes that the Getae spoke the same language as the Thracians, and the Dacians the same language as the Getae. However, the earliest account of the Getae is attributed to Herodotus. The Roman Empire's conquest of Dacia led to the fusion of two cultures—the Daco-Romans became the ancestors of the Romanian people. After Dacia became a province of the Roman Empire, elements of Roman culture and civilisation—most notably Vulgar Latin, which laid the foundation for the development of the Romanian language—were introduced.Based on information from the inscription at Dionysupolis and the account of Jordanes, it is known that under the rule of Burebista, assisted by the great priest Deceneus, the first Geto-Dacian state was formed. In 44 BC, Burebista was assassinated by one of his servants. After his death, the Geto-Dacian state fragmented into four, and later five, kingdoms. The core of the state remained in the area of the Șureanu Mountains, where successive rulers such as Deceneu, Comosicus, and Coryllus held power. The centralised Dacian state reached the peak of its development under Decebalus. During this period, a series of conflicts with the Roman Empire continued, with part of the Dacian state being conquered in 106 AD by the Roman emperor Trajan. Dacia was evacuated by the Romans between 271 and 275 AD, under Emperor Aurelian.
Period of the Principalities
In the first millennium, waves of nomads swept across the territory of Romania: the Goths during the 3rd–4th centuries, the Huns in the 4th century, the Gepids in the 5th century, the Avars in the 6th century, the Slavs in the 7th century, the Magyars in the 9th century, the Pechenegs, the Cumans, the Uzes and the Alans during the 10th–12th centuries, and the Tatars in the 13th century. In 1054, a series of ecclesiastical differences and theological disputes between the Greek East and Latin West caused the Great Schism, eventually resulting in Romania adopting Orthodoxy.In the 13th century, the first bearers of the Slavic noble title Knyaz south of the Carpathian Mountains are attested. Later, in the context of the crystallisation of feudal relations, as a result of the creation of favourable internal and external conditions, autonomous feudal states emerged south and east of the Carpathians – Wallachia in 1310, under Basarab I of Wallachia, and Moldova in 1359, under Bogdan the Founder. Among the Romanian rulers who played a more important role can be mentioned: Alexander the Good, Stephen the Great, Petru Rareș, and Dimitrie Cantemir in Moldova; Mircea the Elder, Vlad the Impaler, Michael the Brave, and Constantin Brâncoveanu in Wallachia; and John Hunyadi in Transylvania.
Beginning in the late 15th century, the two principalities gradually came under the influence of the Ottoman Empire. Transylvania, which throughout the Middle Ages was part of the Kingdom of Hungary, governed by voivodes, became part of the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom from 1526 and later a self-governing Principality of Transylvania and a vassal of the Ottoman Empire from 1570. For a very brief period at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, Michael the Brave ruled over a large part of present-day Romania's territory.
Early modern times and national awakening
The Kingdom of Hungary collapsed, and the Ottomans occupied parts of Banat and Crișana in 1541. Transylvania and Maramureș, along with the rest of Banat and Crișana, developed into a new state under Ottoman suzerainty, the Principality of Transylvania. The Reformation, initiated in Germany by Martin Luther in 1517, encouraged the rise of Protestantism, and four denominations—Calvinism, Lutheranism, Unitarianism, and Roman Catholicism—were officially acknowledged in 1568. The Romanians' Orthodox faith remained only tolerated, although they made up more than one-third of the population, according to 17th-century estimates.The princes of Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia joined the Holy League against the Ottoman Empire in 1594. The Wallachian prince, Michael the Brave, united the three principalities under his rule in May 1600. The neighbouring powers forced him to abdicate in September, but he became a symbol of the unification of the Romanian lands in the 19th century. Although the rulers of the three principalities continued to pay tribute to the Ottomans, the most talented princes—Gabriel Bethlen of Transylvania, Matei Basarab of Wallachia, and Vasile Lupu of Moldavia—strengthened their autonomy.
The united armies of the Holy League expelled the Ottoman troops from Central Europe between 1684 and 1699, and the Principality of Transylvania was integrated into the Habsburg monarchy. The Habsburgs supported the Catholic clergy and persuaded the Orthodox Romanian prelates to accept the union with the Roman Catholic Church in 1699. In the 18th century, Moldavia and Wallachia maintained their internal autonomy, but in 1711 and 1716, respectively, the period of the Phanariots began, with rulers appointed directly by the Porte from among the noble families of Greek origin in Constantinople. With the signing of the Ausgleich in 1867, Transylvania quickly lost its remaining political autonomy, being politically and administratively incorporated into the Kingdom of Hungary. The Church Union strengthened the Romanian intellectuals' devotion to their Roman heritage. The Orthodox Church was restored in Transylvania only after Orthodox monks stirred up revolts in 1744 and 1759. The organisation of the Transylvanian Military Frontier caused further disturbances, especially among the Székelys in 1764.
Princes Dimitrie Cantemir of Moldavia and Constantin Brâncoveanu of Wallachia concluded alliances with the Habsburg Monarchy and Russia against the Ottomans, but they were dethroned in 1711 and 1714, respectively. The sultans lost confidence in the native princes and appointed Orthodox merchants from the Phanar district of Istanbul to rule Moldova and Wallachia. The Phanariot princes pursued oppressive fiscal policies and dissolved the army. The neighbouring powers took advantage of the situation: the Habsburg Monarchy annexed the northwestern part of Moldavia, or Bukovina, in 1775, and the Russian Empire seized the eastern half of Moldavia, or Bessarabia, in 1812.
A census revealed that the Romanians were more numerous than any other ethnic group in Transylvania in 1733, but legislation continued to use contemptuous adjectives when referring to them. The Uniate bishop, Inocențiu Micu-Klein, who demanded recognition of the Romanians as the fourth privileged nation, was forced into exile. Uniate and Orthodox clerics and laymen jointly signed a plea for the Transylvanian Romanians' emancipation in 1791, but the monarch and the local authorities refused to grant their requests.
File:RomaniaBorderHistoryAnnimation 1859-2010.gif|thumb|right|Animated map depicting the territorial changes of Romania from 1859 to 2010
The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca authorised the Russian ambassador in Istanbul to defend the autonomy of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1774. Taking advantage of the Greek War of Independence, a Wallachian lesser nobleman, Tudor Vladimirescu, stirred up a revolt against the Ottomans in January 1821, but he was murdered in June by Phanariot Greeks. After a new Russo-Turkish War, the Treaty of Adrianople strengthened the autonomy of the Danubian Principalities in 1829, although it also acknowledged the sultan's right to confirm the election of the princes.
Mihail Kogălniceanu, Nicolae Bălcescu and other leaders of the 1848 revolutions in Moldavia and Wallachia demanded the emancipation of the peasants and the union of the two principalities, but Russian and Ottoman troops crushed their revolt. The Wallachian revolutionists were the first to adopt the blue, yellow and red tricolour as the national flag. In Transylvania, most Romanians supported the imperial government against the Hungarian revolutionaries after the Diet passed a law concerning the union of Transylvania and Hungary. Bishop Andrei Șaguna proposed the unification of the Romanians of the Habsburg Monarchy in a separate duchy, but the central government refused to change the internal borders.