Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border are the Carpathian Mountains and to the west the Apuseni Mountains. Broader definitions of Transylvania also include the western and northwestern Romanian regions of Crișana and Maramureș, and occasionally Banat. Historical Transylvania also includes small parts of neighbouring Western Moldavia and even a small part of south-western neighbouring Bukovina to its north east.
Transylvania is known for the scenery of its Carpathian landscape and its rich history, coupled with its multi-cultural character. It also contains Romania's second-largest city, Cluj-Napoca, and other very well preserved medieval iconic cities and towns such as Brașov, Sibiu, Târgu Mureș, Bistrița, Alba Iulia, Mediaș, and Sighișoara. It is also the home of some of Romania's UNESCO World Heritage Sites such as the Villages with fortified churches, the Historic Centre of Sighișoara, the Dacian Fortresses of the Orăștie Mountains and the Roșia Montană Mining Cultural Landscape.
It was under the rule of the Agathyrsi, part of the Dacian Kingdom, Roman Dacia, the Goths, the Hunnic Empire, the Kingdom of the Gepids, the Avar Khaganate, the Slavs, and the 9th century First Bulgarian Empire. During the late 9th century, Transylvania was reached and conquered by the Hungarian tribes, and Gyula's family from the seven chieftains of the Hungarians ruled it in the 10th century. King Stephen I of Hungary asserted his claim to rule all lands dominated by Hungarian lords. He personally led his army against his maternal uncle Gyula III and Transylvania became part of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1002.
After the Battle of Mohács in 1526 it belonged to the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom, from which the Principality of Transylvania emerged in 1570 by the Treaty of Speyer. During most of the 16th and 17th centuries, the principality was a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire; however, the principality had dual suzerainty.
In 1690, the Habsburg monarchy gained possession of Transylvania through the Hungarian crown. After the failure of Rákóczi's War of Independence in 1711, Habsburg control of Transylvania was consolidated, and Hungarian Transylvanian princes were replaced with Habsburg imperial governors. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1848, the Hungarian government proclaimed union with Transylvania in the April Laws of 1848. After the failure of the revolution, the March Constitution of Austria decreed that the Principality of Transylvania be a separate crown land entirely independent of Hungary. The separate status of Transylvania ended with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, and it was reincorporated into the Kingdom of Hungary as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It was also during this period that Romanians experienced the awakening of self-consciousness as a nation, manifested in cultural and ideological movements such as Transylvanian School, and drafted political petitions such as
Supplex Libellus Valachorum. After World War I, the National Assembly of Romanians from Transylvania proclaimed the Union of Transylvania with Romania on 1 December 1918, and Transylvania became part of the Kingdom of Romania by the Treaty of Trianon in 1920. In 1940, Northern Transylvania reverted to Hungary as a result of the Second Vienna Award, but it was returned to Romania after the end of World War II.
In popular culture, Transylvania is commonly associated with vampires because of the influence of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula and the many subsequent books and films that the story has inspired. Many Transylvanian Saxons were furious with Vlad the Impaler for strengthening the borders of Wallachia, which interfered with their control of trade routes, and his extreme sadism and barbarity, which by a collection of credible historical accounts of diverse origins, most of which were non-Saxon, dealt with his enemies by impaling. The victims were often arranged in grotesque displays intended to terrorize various groups, including the Saxons. In retaliation, the Saxons distributed poems of cruelty and other propaganda characterising the sadistic Vlad III Dracula as a drinker of blood.
Etymology
The earliest known reference to Transylvania appears in a Medieval Latin document of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1078 as ultra silvam, meaning "beyond the forest". Transylvania, with an alternative Latin prepositional prefix, means "on the other side of the woods". The Medieval Latin form Ultrasylvania, later Transylvania, was a direct translation from the Hungarian form Erdő-elve, later Erdély, which has been adopted phonetically into Romanian as Ardeal. That also was used as an alternative name in German überwald and Ukrainian Залісся.Historical names of Transylvania are:
- , Трансилвания Transilvanija
- , Erdelj, Transilvanija
- , Transsilvanien
- , Transsilvania
- , Transylwania
- , Transilvania
- , Седмиградье
- ,
- Transylvanian Saxon: Siweberjen
- , Залісся Zalissiya, Трансильванія Transyl'vaniya
- , זימבערגן Zimbergn, טראַנסילוואַניע Transilvanye
- The German name Siebenbürgen means "seven castles", after the seven Transylvanian Saxons' cities in the region. This is also the origin of the region's name in many other languages, such as the Croatian Sedmogradska, the Bulgarian Седмиградско, Polish Siedmiogród, Yiddish זיבנבערגן, and Ukrainian Семигород.
- The Hungarian form Erdély was first mentioned in the 12th-century Gesta Hungarorum as Erdeuleu or Erdő-elve. The word erdő means forest in Hungarian, and the word elve denotes a region in connection with this, similarly to the Hungarian name for Muntenia. Erdel, Erdil, Erdelistan are derived from Hungarian Erdély.
- An occurrence of the form Ardeliu in a Church Slavonic document written by a Romanian chancellery is attested in 1432. The Romanian Ardeal is derived from the Hungarian Erdély.
History
The Roman Empire made heavy efforts to seize the territory from King Decebalus, resulting in the formation of Roman Dacia in 106, after Trajan's costly and bloody wars. During Roman rule, the territory, depleted of its indigenous population, was repopulated with Latin colonists and its rich resource stock was systematically exploited. However, the growing threat of East Germanic and Carpic invasions made Emperor Aurelian withdraw his legions and evacuate the citizens south of the Lower Danube in 275, when the province became occupied by the Goths. In 376, a powerful nomadic people, the Huns, defeated and shattered the Goths, and settled in the area. After the death of Hun King Attila, their empire disintegrated and the Gepids conquered the region in 455, under King Ardaric. For two centuries, the Gepids controlled Transylvania. The Ostrogoths systematically pushed the Gepids out of Pannonia. King Elemund, on the other hand, successfully fought battles against the Eastern Roman Empire. They were defeated by the Lombards and Avars in 567. In the following years, the Avars took full control over Transylvania, heavily settling the area with Slavic tribes who accepted their suzerainty. The expansion of the Frankish Empire, however, imposed a growing threat on them and their khaganate was crushed in the Avar Wars. The Avars and Slavs, although substantially depleted in number, continued to inhabit the Carpathian Basin. The First Bulgarian Empire expanded into Southern Transylvania in the 9th century. Smaller Slavic polities were also present, nevertheless they could hardly keep their independence.
In the late 9th century, Transylvania was reached and conquered by the Hungarian conquerors. There is an ongoing scholarly debate over the demographics in Transylvania at the time. According to the theory of Daco-Roman continuity, Romanians continuously lived on the territory. Opponents of that hypothesis point to the lack of written, archaeological and linguistic evidence to support it. Hungarian medieval chronicles claimed that the Székely people descended from the Huns, who remained in Transylvania, and later, in combination with the returning Hungarians, conquered the Carpathian Basin. According to the Gesta Hungarorum, the Vlach leader Gelou ruled part of Transylvania before the Hungarians arrived. Historians debate whether he was a historical person or an imaginary figure. The gyulas from the seven chieftains of the Hungarians governed Transylvania in the 10th century. King Stephen I of Hungary asserted his claim to rule all lands dominated by Hungarian lords. He personally led his army against his maternal uncle Gyula III and Transylvania became part of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1002. Place names derived from the Hungarian tribes evidence that major Hungarian groups settled in Transylvania from the 950s. In the 12th and 13th centuries, Southeast and Northeast Transylvania was settled by Saxon colonists. In Romanian historiography, Romanians constituted an important part of Transylvania's population even on the eve of the Mongol Invasions. Hungarian historiography claims that the Vlach population entered Transylvania from the Balkans only in the 12th century, and the devastating invasion of Mongols had also as consequence the large-scale immigration by Romanians, however the immigration of Romanians did not happen all at once, the process of settlement stretched over several centuries. After the Battle of Kosovo and Ottoman arrival at the Hungarian border, thousands of Vlach and Serbian refugees came to Transylvania.
File:Europe_mediterranean_1190_cropped.jpg|thumb|Kingdom of Hungary in 1190, during the rule of Béla IIIBetween 1002 and 1526, Transylvania was part of the Kingdom of Hungary, led by a voivode appointed by the King of Hungary. After the Battle of Mohács in 1526, Transylvania became part of the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom. Later, in 1570, the kingdom became the Principality of Transylvania by the Treaty of Speyer, which was ruled primarily by Calvinist Hungarian princes. The Eastern Hungarian king became the first prince of Transylvania, according to the treaty. The Principality of Transylvania continued to be part of the Kingdom of Hungary in the sense of public law, which stressed in a highly significant way that John Sigismund's possessions belonged to the Holy Crown of Hungary and he was not permitted to alienate them.
The Habsburgs acquired the territory shortly after the Battle of Vienna in 1683. In 1687, the rulers of Transylvania recognized the suzerainty of the Habsburg emperor Leopold I, and the region was officially attached to the Habsburg Empire. The Habsburgs acknowledged the Principality of Transylvania as one of the Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen, but the territory of the principality was administratively separated from Habsburg Hungary, and subjected to the direct rule of the emperor's governors. In 1699 the Ottomans legally acknowledged their loss of Transylvania in the Treaty of Karlowitz; however, some anti-Habsburg elements within the principality submitted to the emperor only in the 1711 Peace of Szatmár, when Habsburg control over Principality of Transylvania was consolidated. The Grand Principality of Transylvania was reintroduced 54 years later in 1765.
The Hungarian revolution against the Habsburgs started in 1848, and grew into a war for the total independence of the Kingdom of Hungary from the Habsburg dynasty. Julius Jacob von Haynau, the leader of the Austrian army, was appointed plenipotentiary to restore order in Hungary after the conflict. He ordered the execution of The 13 Hungarian Martyrs of Arad, and Prime Minister Batthyány was executed the same day in Pest. After a series of serious Austrian defeats in 1849, the empire came close to the brink of collapse. Thus, the new young emperor Franz Joseph I had to call for Russian help under the Holy Alliance. Czar Nicholas I answered, and sent an army of 200,000 men with 80,000 auxiliary forces. Finally, the joint army of Russian and Austrian forces defeated the Hungarian forces. After the restoration of Habsburg power, Hungary was placed under martial law. Following the Hungarian Army's surrender at Világos in 1849, their revolutionary banners were taken to Russia by the Tsarist troops and were kept there both under the Tsarist and Communist systems.
After the Ausgleich of 1867, the Principality of Transylvania was once again abolished. The territory then became part of Transleithania, an addition to the newly established Austro-Hungarian Empire. Romanian intellectuals issued the Blaj Pronouncement in protest.
The region was the site of an important battle during World War I, which caused the replacement of the German Chief of Staff, temporarily ceased German offensives on all the other fronts and created a unified Central Powers command under the German Kaiser. Following defeat in World War I, Austria-Hungary disintegrated. Elected representatives of the ethnic Romanians from Transylvania, Banat, Crișana and Maramureș backed by the mobilization of Romanian troops, proclaimed Union with Romania on 1 December 1918. The Proclamation of Union of Alba Iulia was adopted by the Deputies of the Romanians from Transylvania and supported one month later by the vote of the Deputies of the Saxons from Transylvania.
File:PérdidasTerritorialesRumanas1940.svg|thumb|Romania's territorial losses in 1940, showing Northern Transylvania being ceded to Hungary. The region was returned to Romania after World War II.
The national holiday of Romania, the Great Union Day occurring on December 1, celebrates this event. The holiday was established after the Romanian Revolution, and marks the unification not only of Transylvania but also of the provinces of Banat, Bessarabia and Bukovina with the Romanian Kingdom. These other provinces had all joined with the Kingdom of Romania a few months earlier. In 1920, the Treaty of Trianon established new borders and much of the proclaimed territories became part of Romania. Hungary protested against the new state borders, as they did not follow the real ethnic boundaries, for over 1.3 or 1.6 million Hungarian people, representing 25.5 or 31.6% of the Transylvanian population, were living on the Romanian side of the border, mainly in the Székely Land of Eastern Transylvania, and along the newly created border.
In August 1940, with the arbitration of Germany and Italy under the Second Vienna Award, Hungary gained Northern Transylvania, and over 40% of the territory lost in 1920. This award did not solve the nationality problem, as over 1.15–1.3 million Romanians remained in Northern Transylvania while 0.36–0.8 million Hungarians continued to reside in Southern Transylvania. Following the Nazi invasion of Hungary in March 1944, Northern Transylvania came under German control. Over the next 3 months, the region's Jewish population was systematically concentrated in ghettos before being deported to the Auschwitz death camp, where the vast majority were murdered. The Second Vienna Award was voided on 12 September 1944 by the Allied Commission through the Armistice Agreement with Romania, and the 1947 Treaty of Paris reaffirmed the borders between Romania and Hungary as originally defined in the Treaty of Trianon, 27 years earlier, thus confirming the return of Northern Transylvania to Romania.
From 1947 to 1989, Transylvania, along with the rest of Romania, was under a communist regime. The ethnic clashes of Târgu Mureș between ethnic Romanians and Hungarians in March 1990 took place after the fall of the communist regime and became the most notable inter-ethnic incident in the post-communist era, followed by the 2019 ethnic disputes over the military cemetery of Valea Uzului.