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The History of Romania

The Three Dacias, c. 200AD Showing regions of Roman control. With the Governor in Sarmezegetusa, the administrative seats in the provinces of Porolissum, Apulum and Sucideva managed defense and taxation for their regions.

Image: © REST ROMÂNIA

EARLY ROMANIAN HISTORY, 500BC - 1000AD:

was settled from the 5th Century BC by the Agathyrsi, with the Dacians ruling until Roman occupation for about 150 years until about 270AD.  Goths ran rampant in the early middle ages until the Huns moved in around 400 and soon yielded to the Germanic Gepids, who ruled for a few hundred years.

The Avars removed the Gepids completely from the Carpathian basin and ruled for 250 years, allowing Slavic settlement of Transilvania.   After a fierce civil war at the turn of the 9th century, Transilvania began it's long period of subjugation under the First Bulgarian Empire. 

Hungarians first entered Transilvania en masse as mercenary troops to throw off the Bulgar rule in the principality of Great Moravia 862. 

This was one of the key turning points in the history of Romania.  Hungarian Magyar influence increased dramatically over the next 100 years, so that by 1000, all of Transilvania was a truly Hungarian province, replete with it's mostly Slavic system of princes.

Transilvania's King Stephen the I of Hungary enforced the Catholic version of Christianity throughout his dominions, with diocese mapped out under Rome's supervision by 1009. 

Read More about Early Romanian History Here

600 Years of Dacians, 150 Years of Romans

In 513 BC, south of the Danube, the tribal confederation of the Getae were defeated by Darius during his campaign against the Scythians (Herodotus IV.93).

 Over half a millennium later, the Getae (also named Daci by Romans) were defeated by the Roman Empire under Emperor Trajan in two campaigns stretching from 101 to 106, and the core of their kingdom was turned into the Roman province of Dacia. The Gothic and Carpic campaigns in the Balkans during 238–256 forced the Roman Empire to reorganize a new Roman province of Dacia south of Danube, inside former Moesia Superior.

1000 Years of Goths, Huns and Bulgars

In 271 or 275 the Roman army and administration left Dacia, which was invaded by the Goths, who lived with the local people until the fourth century, when another nomadic people arrived, the Huns.

 The Gepids and the Avars ruled Transylvania until the 8th century, after which the Bulgars included the southern part of Romania in their Empire until 1018.

But from the destructions and the financial burdens, the local people were not influenced by the migrators in their culture and way of life. The Pechenegs, the Cumans and Uzes were also mentioned by historic chronicles on the territory of Romania, until the founding of the Vlachian principalities of Wallachia by Basarab I, and Moldavia by Dragoş during the 13th and 14th centuries respectively. In the Middle Ages, Romanians lived in two distinct independent Romanian principalities: Wallachia (Rom.:Ţara Românească - Romanian Land), Moldavia (Rom.: Moldova) as well as in the Hungarian-ruled pricipality of Transylvania.  Our Early Romanian History section goes into more detail on the period before 1500AD. 

Under Ottoman and Hapsburg Empires

In 1475, Stephen the Great of Moldavia scored a decisive victory over the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vaslui.

Wallachia and Moldavia would later come gradually under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire during the 15th and 16th centuries (1476 for Wallachia, 1514 for Moldavia), as vassal tributary states with complete internal autonomy and an external independence which was finally lost in the 18th century.

1812 the Russian Empire annexed the eastern half side Bessarabia of Moldova (though partially regained it with the Treaty of Paris in 1856), the Habsburg Monarchy annexed in 1775 its northern part Bukovina and the Ottoman Empire its south-eastern part Budjak .

Transylvania came under control of the Kingdom of Hungary by the end of 13th century (from 1301, Hungary became possessions of the Houses of Anjou and Habsburg).

One of the greatest Hungarian kings, Matthias Corvinus ruled 1458–1490)— was born in Transylvania. Later, in 1541, Transylvania became a multi-ethnic principality under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire following the Battle of Mohács.

At the end of the 18th century, the Habsburg Monarchy incorporated Transylvania into what successively became the Austrian Empire. During the time of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary (1867-1918), Romanians in Transylvania experienced one of the worst oppression in the form of the Magyarization policies of the Hungarian government.

Transilvania, 1606 After the Peace of Zitava and Peace of Vienna accords

While surrounded by the Ottoman Empire and Austria, Transilvania's Geography served to buffer the trans-Carpathian basin heartland

Moldova 1750 Prior to ceding Eastern Moldova or Bessarabia to the Russian Empire

Romanian Moldova in 1941-1944 The Nazi-Soviet pact ceded a swath of Transilvania to the Hungarians and of Soviet Odessa Oblast to Romania.

(Northern Transilvania returned 1947 to Romania)

Antonescu and Hitler, 1943 Meeting the master of the Moldovan Holocaust

Ceauşescu Grins over Iaşi, 1986 Yet more of the dictator's ludicrous propaganda in a street poster

Gorbachev and Ceauşescu

Read More About Medieval Romanian History Here
 

Moldova and Wallachia United, 1859

The modern state of Romania was formed by the merging of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1859 under the Moldavian domnitor Alexandru Ioan Cuza. He was replaced by Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen in 1866.

 During the Russo-Turkish War, Romania fought on the Russian side; in the Treaty of Berlin in 1878 Romania was recognized as an independent state by the Great Powers. In return for ceding to Russia the three southern districts of Bessarabia which had been regained by Moldavia after the Crimean War in 1852, the Kingdom of Romania acquired Dobruja. In 1881 the principality was raised to a kingdom and Prince Carol I became King Carol I.

In spite of its previous alliance with Imperial Germany and Austria-Hungary, Romania entered World War I on the side of the Triple Entente in a move aimed at acquiring Transylvania.

The war was a disaster for Romania as the Central Powers conquered most of the country and captured or killed the majority of its army within four months. By war's end Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire had collapsed, allowing Bessarabia and Bukovina to unite with the Kingdom of Romania in 1918. Transylvania was annexed to Romania by force in the Treaty of Trianon in 1920.

The Early History of Romania  Transilvania 1000 - 1900  Transilvania's Early History  The History of Moldova  The History of Romanian Culture

World War II

In 1940 during World War II, Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia, Northern Transylvania, and southern Dobrudja were occupied by the Soviet Union, Hungary and Bulgaria respectively (see Romania during World War II).

The authoritarian King Carol II abdicated in 1940 and the subsequent year Romania entered the war joining Nazi Germany, Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria. Because Romania participated in the invasion of the Soviet Union, the country recovered Bessarabia and northern Bukovina under the leadership of general Ion Antonescu.

During the Second World War, the Antonescu regime, allied with Nazi Germany, played a role in the Holocaust, following its policy of oppression and massacre of the Jews, and, to a lesser extent, Roma.

According to a quite controversial report released in 2004 by a commission appointed by former Romanian president Ion Iliescu and chaired by Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, the Romanian authorities were the main perpetrators in the planning and implementation of the killing of between 280,000 to 380,000 Jews, primarily in the Eastern territories Romania recovered or occupied from the Soviet Union and in Moldavia (historical region), though some estimates are even higher.

The Red Army Arrives

In August 1944 the Antonescu regime was toppled, and Romania joined the Red Army against Nazi Germany, but its role in the defeat of Germany was not recognized by the Paris Peace Conference of 1947.

With the Red Army forces still stationed in the country and exerting defacto control, communists and their allied parties claimed 80% of the vote in the 1946 Romanian elections, through a combination of vote manipulation, elimination and forced mergers of competing parties, establishing themselves as the dominant force; Western democracies left Romania in the hands of the Soviet Union. In 1947, King Michael I was forced by the communists to abdicate and leave the country.

Romania was proclaimed a communist state, under direct military and economic control of the USSR until 1958. During this period, Romania's scarce resources left after WWII were drained by the "SovRom" agreements: mixed Soviet-Romanian companies established in the aftermath of World War II to mask the looting of Romania by the Soviet Union, in addition to excessive war reparations paid to the USSR.

During this dark period, up to two millions persons were arbitrarily imprisoned for political, economical or for no reasons, there were hundreds thousands of abuses, deaths and incidents of torture against a large range of persons, from political opponents to ordinary citizens, bringing gloom over Romania. The estimated least figure of human life losses due to the communist terror in Romania between 1948 and 1964 is 200,000. (see the six volumes: CICERONE IONIŢOIU et al., Victimele terorii comuniste. Arestaţi, torturaţi, întemniţaţi, ucişi. Dicţionar. Editura Maşina de scris, Bucureşti, 2000)

The Decline of the Communists

A short-lived period of relative economic well-being and openness followed in late 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, still regarded by some as a "red era".

This period gradually ended, first politically, and then economically. Some party leaders (such as Ion Iliescu, Corneliu Manescu, or Gheorghe Apostol) who questioned the achievements of the regime during the latter portion of this era, were sent to lower positions. From an economic point of view, Romania's foreign debt sharply increased between 1977 and 1981 (from 3 to 10 billion US dollars).

Thus, the influence of international financial organisms such as the IMF or the World Bank grew, conflicting with Ceauşescu's autarchic policies. Ceauşescu eventually initiated a project of total reimbursement of the foreign debt (completed in 1989, shortly before his overthrow). To achieve this goal, he imposed policies that impoverished Romanians and exhausted the Romanian economy. He profoundly deepened Romania's police state (see Securitate) and imposed a cult of personality.

One positive achievement of the Communist period was the spread of near-universal literacy and the development of a very efficient education system.

However, this educational transformation was not coupled with appropriate industrial development and urbanization policies, so that almost half of Romania's population is still rural (47.3%; see Demography of Romania). Another achievement is the negotiated retreat of Soviet troops from Romania, in 1958.

This allowed the country to pursue independent policies, most notably Romania's condemnation by the Communist Party of Romania of the Soviet-led 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia (Romania was the only country of the Warsaw pact not to take part into the invasion). Close ties between Romania and both Israel and the Arab countries (and the PLO) allowed Romania to play an essential role in the Israel-Egypt and Israel-PLO peace processes.

The Revolution of 1989

The Communist dictatorship ended 22 December 1989. During the 1989 revolution, power was taken by a group called the National Salvation Front (FSN), which grouped a number of dissidents with other personalities and (then-unknown) persons that participated in the uprising.

The FSN assumed the missions of restoring civil order, taking immediate democratic measures, and organizing elections for a new legislative body.

Given the slow pace of reconstruction of the social and democratic system after 45 years of Communism (as emphasized by events such as the Ethnic clashes of Târgu Mureş in March 1990), the largest part of the FSN also constituted itself as a political party that participated in (and won by a large majority) the elections of summer 1990. The move was highly contested by the other emerging political parties, because the FSN controlled most media and therefore the election process was biased.

The subsequent disintegration of the FSN, which did not have a clear political platform, produced several political parties including the Democratic Party (PD), which for a time retained the FSN name), the Social Democratic Party (PSD, formerly known as the Romanian Party for Social Democracy (PDSR) or the Democratic National Salvation Front-FDSN), and the Alliance for Romania (APR). Throughout several elections, coalitions, and governments, parties that emerged from the FSN governed or participated in the government of Romania from 1990 until today.

In 1996, the CDR entered power on a "Contract with Romania" platform which would have required the CDR to resign en masse after 200 days from a mixed coalition government.

Some members had signed on to the contract programme, while others had not; once in power, the "Contract" was repudiated. The major CDR parties were electorally eviscerated in 2000, and the Social Democrats returned to power, with Ion Iliescu once again president of Romania and Adrian Năstase, the president of the Social-Democratic Party (PSD), as prime minister.

Romania Today in the European Union

On December 12, 2004, Traian Băsescu was elected president of Romania. He was supported during elections by a coalition, called Justice and Truth Alliance (DA), formed of his Democratic Party and of the National-Liberal Party.  

 Romanian politics has largely stabilised now, with a healthy opposition and a rather normally beleaguered government.  The government was formed by a larger coalition which also included the Romanian Humanist Party (now called Conservative Party) and the ethnic Hungarian party UDMR.

Following the end of the Cold War in 1989, Romania developed closer ties with Western Europe, the country quickly applied for membership in the EU in June 1993, becoming in 1995 Associated State of EU, joined NATO in 2004 and finally joined the EU in January 2007.

The Early History of Romania  Transilvania 1000 - 1900  Transilvania's Early History  The History of Moldova  The History of Romanian Culture

Hungarian minority in Romania

The Romans in Dacia

An Interview with King Michael, 1990

Early Romanian History

Transilvania:  500BC - 1000AD