Romania

Before Rome, the lands of the Carpathians and the lower Danube were held by the Dacians, a Thracian people who under King Burebista and later King Decebalus built a formidable kingdom centred on a cluster of mountain fortresses in the Orastie Mountains, its capital at Sarmizegetusa Regia. Rich in gold and silver and dangerously close to the Roman frontier, the Dacian kingdom drew the attention of the empire. The fortresses, an unusual fusion of military and religious architecture blending classical and late Iron Age techniques, formed the nucleus of the kingdom and are today inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The emperor Trajan resolved to destroy Dacian power in two great wars. In the first campaign of 101–102 CE he forced Decebalus to terms and installed a Roman garrison in the capital; when the king broke the peace, Trajan returned, and by 106 CE the whole country was subdued and Decebalus took his own life to avoid capture. Trajan made Dacia a Roman province north of the Danube, commemorating the victory on the great spiral column that still stands in Rome and exploiting the province's mines and its enormous booty.

For roughly 170 years Dacia was Roman. Colonists drawn 'from all over the Roman world' settled the province, and Latin became the language of administration, law and daily life. Although the emperor Aurelian withdrew the Roman army and administration from Dacia between 271 and 275 CE under pressure on the frontiers, the Romanised population and its Latin speech persisted; that language is the direct ancestor of modern Romanian, the basis of the Daco-Roman account of the Romanian people's origins and of Romania's identity as a Latin nation in eastern Europe.

Turning points

1. 1st century BCEFormation

   The Dacian kingdom

   The Dacians built a powerful kingdom in the Carpathian arc, fortified by stone strongholds in the Orastie Mountains with their capital at Sarmizegetusa Regia, the nucleus of Dacian power.

   [1] [13]

2. 101–102 CEWar & Rupture

   Trajan's first Dacian war

   The emperor Trajan invaded Dacia and forced King Decebalus to terms, installing a Roman garrison in the Dacian capital at Sarmizegetusa.

   ↗See the data

   [3] [2]

3. 106 CEWar & Rupture

   Conquest of Dacia and the Roman province

   In a second war Trajan subdued the whole country; Decebalus killed himself, and Dacia became a Roman province whose colonists made Latin its language, the root of Romanian.

   ↗See the data

   [2] [4] [7]

4. 113 CECulture & Ideas

   Trajan's Column commemorates the conquest

   The Dacian wars were commemorated in Rome on Trajan's Column, a 38-metre marble monument whose spiral frieze of more than 2,600 figures narrates the two campaigns against the Dacians.

   [5]

5. 271–275 CEPeoples & Migration

   Aurelian abandons Dacia

   Under mounting frontier pressure the emperor Aurelian withdrew the Roman army and administration from Dacia, yet a Latin-speaking population persisted, carrying forward the Daco-Roman heritage.

   ↗See the data

   [4] [1]

Figures of the era

In the early fourteenth century the Romanian-speaking lands south and east of the Carpathians coalesced into two principalities. In Wallachia the voivode Basarab I threw off Hungarian overlordship, winning recognition of his realm's autonomy after his victory over King Charles I of Hungary at Posada in 1330. To the east, the Vlach voivode Bogdan I crossed the Carpathians from Maramures around 1359 and wrested Moldavia from Hungarian vassalage, founding a second principality. These were the two states whose union would, five centuries later, form Romania.

Both principalities produced rulers celebrated for their defiance of greater powers. In Wallachia, Vlad III, called the Impaler (Vlad Tepes), waged a brutal resistance to the Ottomans in the 1450s and 1460s, his fearsome reputation later feeding the legend of Dracula. In Moldavia, Stephen the Great (Stefan cel Mare), prince from 1457 to 1504, won fame across Christian Europe for his long resistance to the Turks, crushing a far larger Ottoman army at Vaslui in 1475 and endowing a string of monasteries; the painted churches of northern Moldavia, their outer walls covered in Byzantine-inspired frescoes, are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Resistance could not, in the end, prevent submission. Over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries Wallachia and Moldavia became tributary states under Ottoman suzerainty, retaining their own princes and institutions but bound to the Sublime Porte. From 1711 the Ottomans appointed their princes from among the Phanariots, wealthy Greek families of Constantinople, who governed both lands until 1821. The Phanariot period, marked by short tenures, heavy tribute and crushing taxation, became a byword for misrule, ending only with the upheavals of 1821.

Across the Carpathians, Transylvania followed a separate path under the Hungarian crown and later the Habsburgs, home to a mixed population of Romanians, Hungarians and German-speaking 'Saxon' settlers. The Saxons built fortified towns such as Sighisoara, whose well-preserved medieval citadel — a UNESCO World Heritage Site — testifies to a Transylvanian Saxon culture established from the twelfth century, even as the Romanian-speaking majority of the principalities remained outside this German and Magyar urban world.

Turning points

1. 1330Formation

   Basarab I founds Wallachia

   The voivode Basarab I defeated King Charles I of Hungary at Posada, winning recognition of Wallachia's autonomy and establishing the first Romanian principality.

   [14]

2. c. 1359Formation

   Bogdan I founds Moldavia

   The Vlach voivode Bogdan I crossed the Carpathians from Maramures and wrenched Moldavia from Hungarian vassalage, founding the second Romanian principality.

   [14]

3. c. 1456–1462War & Rupture

   Vlad III the Impaler resists the Ottomans

   Vlad III of Wallachia, remembered for impaling his enemies, fought a savage campaign against Ottoman power; his reputation later inspired the literary figure of Dracula.

   ↗See the data

   [16]

4. 10 Jan 1475War & Rupture

   Stephen the Great's victory at Vaslui

   Stephen the Great of Moldavia crushed a much larger Ottoman army at Vaslui, one of his celebrated victories in a long resistance to the Turks that won him renown across Christian Europe.

   ↗See the data

   [15] [17]

5. 1690Culture & Ideas

   Horezu Monastery and Brancovan art

   Prince Constantin Brancoveanu founded the monastery of Horezu in Wallachia, a masterpiece of the 'Brancovan' style whose school of mural and icon painting influenced religious art across the Balkans.

   [11]

6. 1711–1821Politics & Power

   The Phanariot regime

   Under Ottoman suzerainty the Porte appointed the princes of Wallachia and Moldavia from among the Greek Phanariot families of Constantinople, a period of heavy tribute and misrule that lasted until 1821.

   [14] [7]

Figures of the era

The decisive step toward a Romanian state came in 1859. On 5 January the elective assembly of Moldavia chose Alexandru Ioan Cuza as its prince, and on 24 January the assembly of Wallachia elected the same man, uniting the two principalities in a single ruler. Cuza launched an ambitious modernisation: he reformed the justice and tax systems, carried through an agrarian reform that distributed land to some 400,000 peasant families, introduced the metric system and adopted a civil code modelled on the French. The united state increasingly called itself Romania, and in 1862 its assemblies and government merged in Bucharest.

Cuza's reforms made enemies, and in 1866 he was forced to abdicate. The throne passed to a German prince of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen house, who reigned as Carol I. During the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 Romania declared its independence and fought alongside Russia south of the Danube. The independence of the country was recognised by the great powers at the Congress of Berlin in July 1878, though Romania was obliged to cede southern Bessarabia to Russia and received the Dobruja in compensation.

Recognition as a sovereign state was crowned by elevation to a kingdom: in 1881 Romania was proclaimed a kingdom and Carol I became its first king. Under his long reign the country built railways, modernised its army and economy and took its place among the lesser powers of Europe, even as the position of its large peasant majority and the question of the millions of Romanians still living under Austro-Hungarian rule in Transylvania remained unresolved.

Turning points

1. Jan 1859Formation

   Union of the Principalities

   Moldavia (5 January) and Wallachia (24 January) elected Alexandru Ioan Cuza as their common prince, uniting the two principalities and founding the modern Romanian state.

   [18]

2. 1864Politics & Power

   Cuza's reforms

   Prince Cuza carried through agrarian reform giving land to some 400,000 peasant families, reformed law and taxation, introduced the metric system and a French-modelled civil code.

   [18]

3. 1878Independence

   Independence recognised at the Congress of Berlin

   After fighting in the Russo-Turkish War, Romania's full independence was recognised by the great powers at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, though it ceded southern Bessarabia to Russia.

   ↗See the data

   [19] [18]

4. 1881Politics & Power

   Kingdom of Romania proclaimed

   Romania was proclaimed a kingdom and Carol I, prince since 1866, became its first king, completing the country's emergence as a sovereign European state.

   [19]

Figures of the era

Romania entered the First World War in 1916 on the side of the Allies, hoping to win the Romanian-inhabited lands of Austria-Hungary, above all Transylvania. The war went badly at first — much of the country was occupied — but the collapse of the Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires by 1918 transformed Romania's prospects. As the old order dissolved, the Romanian-majority provinces moved to join the kingdom.

The defining moment came on 1 December 1918, when a great national assembly of Romanians met at Alba Iulia in Transylvania and proclaimed the union of Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania. The assembly drew delegates from across the Romanian-inhabited lands and was attended by a vast crowd. Together with the union of Bessarabia and Bukovina the same year, it created 'Greater Romania' (Romania Mare), nearly doubling the country's territory and population and bringing large Hungarian and German minorities within its borders.

These gains were enshrined in the post-war settlement. The Treaty of Trianon, signed on 4 June 1920, formally transferred Transylvania and part of the Banat from Hungary to Romania. The treaty shore Hungary of roughly two-thirds of its pre-war territory and population, leaving a lasting grievance in Budapest and a Hungarian minority in Romania, and it made the union of Transylvania the central, contested fact of twentieth-century Romanian–Hungarian relations. The interwar Kingdom of Romania was the largest the country has ever been.

Turning points

1. 1916War & Rupture

   Romania enters the First World War

   Romania joined the Allies in 1916 seeking the Romanian lands of Austria-Hungary, especially Transylvania; despite early defeats, the collapse of the empires opened the way to union.

   ↗See the data

   [20]

2. 1 Dec 1918Formation

   Union of Transylvania with Romania

   A great national assembly of Romanians at Alba Iulia proclaimed the union of Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania, the central act in the creation of Greater Romania.

   [20]

3. 1918Politics & Power

   Greater Romania

   With Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania joined to the kingdom, Romania nearly doubled in size, gaining large Hungarian and German minorities within its enlarged borders.

   [20] [21]

4. 4 Jun 1920Politics & Power

   Treaty of Trianon

   The Treaty of Trianon formally transferred Transylvania and part of the Banat from Hungary to Romania, stripping Hungary of about two-thirds of its territory and leaving a lasting dispute.

   [20]

Figures of the era

The fragile order of Greater Romania collapsed in the summer of 1940. On 28 June 1940 the Soviet Union seized Bessarabia and northern Bukovina; on 30 August, under German and Italian arbitration, the Second Vienna Award forced Romania to cede northern Transylvania to Hungary; and in September southern Dobruja was ceded to Bulgaria. In all Romania lost about thirty per cent of its territory and population. The catastrophe brought down King Carol II, and General Ion Antonescu took power, leading Romania into the Axis on 20 November 1940 and into the war against the Soviet Union, during which the regime carried out the deportation and murder of large numbers of Jews and Roma.

As the tide of war turned, the young King Michael I led a coup against Antonescu on 23 August 1944, switching Romania to the Allied side. The peace settlement at the end of the war was mixed: the Paris peace treaty restored northern Transylvania to Romania, but Bessarabia and northern Bukovina remained in the Soviet Union and southern Dobruja in Bulgaria. Bessarabia, with its overwhelmingly Romanian-speaking population, was absorbed into the USSR as the core of the future republic of Moldova, leaving the bond between Romania and Moldova one of shared language and identity rather than a single state.

Liberated by the Red Army, Romania was drawn into the Soviet sphere; a communist regime was installed, the monarchy abolished in 1947, and a People's Republic proclaimed. From 1965 the country was ruled by Nicolae Ceausescu, whose increasingly autocratic regime combined a foreign policy independent of Moscow with a stifling cult of personality, secret-police surveillance and, in the 1980s, severe austerity to repay foreign debt. By the late 1980s Romania was the most rigid and repressive of the Warsaw Pact states.

Turning points

1. 28 Jun 1940War & Rupture

   Soviet seizure of Bessarabia and northern Bukovina

   The Soviet Union demanded and took Bessarabia and northern Bukovina from Romania, the first of the 1940 territorial losses; Bessarabia, largely Romanian-speaking, became the core of the later Republic of Moldova.

   ↗See the data

   [21] [10]

2. 30 Aug 1940Politics & Power

   Second Vienna Award and Southern Dobruja

   Under German and Italian arbitration Romania ceded northern Transylvania to Hungary; in September southern Dobruja was ceded to Bulgaria, costing Romania about 30% of its territory and people.

   [21]

3. 20 Nov 1940War & Rupture

   Romania joins the Axis

   After the loss of King Carol II's throne, General Ion Antonescu took power and brought Romania into the Axis, later joining the war against the Soviet Union and presiding over the murder of hundreds of thousands of Jews and Roma.

   ↗See the data

   [21] [8]

4. 1947Politics & Power

   Communist takeover and the People's Republic

   After the war Romania was drawn into the Soviet bloc; the Paris treaty restored northern Transylvania, but Bessarabia stayed Soviet, the monarchy was abolished and a communist People's Republic proclaimed.

   [21] [22]

5. 1965–1989Politics & Power

   The Ceausescu dictatorship

   Nicolae Ceausescu ruled Romania from 1965, pursuing a foreign policy independent of Moscow while imposing a personality cult, pervasive secret-police control and harsh 1980s austerity.

   [22]

Figures of the era

The end of communist Romania came suddenly and violently. In mid-December 1989 protests erupted in Timisoara, sparked by the regime's attempt to remove a dissident pastor, and spread to Bucharest. On 22 December, as the army went over to the demonstrators, Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu fled the capital by helicopter; captured within days, they were tried by a hastily convened military court and executed on 25 December 1989. More than a thousand people died in the upheaval, the only one of the 1989 revolutions in the Soviet bloc to end in such bloodshed and in the execution of its leader.

The new Romania rebuilt itself as a democracy and a market economy and turned decisively toward the West. It joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on 29 March 2004, when it and six other states deposited their instruments of accession, and it became a member of the European Union on 1 January 2007, alongside Bulgaria, raising the EU to twenty-seven members. The bond with the Republic of Moldova — independent since 1991 but sharing the Romanian language and a common history through Bessarabia — remained close, while the wartime losses to the east were not reversed.

One legacy of the redrawn borders was settled in The Hague. Romania and Ukraine disputed the maritime boundary in the north-western Black Sea, including the weight to be given to Ukraine's tiny Serpents' (Snake) Island in dividing the continental shelf and exclusive economic zones. In its judgment of 3 February 2009 in Maritime Delimitation in the Black Sea (Romania v. Ukraine), the International Court of Justice fixed a single maritime boundary and ruled that Serpents' Island should have no effect on the delimitation beyond the twelve-nautical-mile arc of its own territorial sea — a binding decision that resolved the dispute and clarified the law on small islands.

Turning points

1. Dec 1989Politics & Power

   The Romanian Revolution

   Protests beginning in Timisoara spread to Bucharest; the army turned against the regime, the Ceausescus fled on 22 December and were executed on 25 December 1989, ending communist rule.

   [22]

2. 27 Aug 1991Independence

   Moldova's independence and the Romanian bond

   As the Soviet Union dissolved, the former Bessarabia declared independence as the Republic of Moldova, immediately recognised by Romania, with which it shares the Romanian language and a common history.

   ↗See the data

   [9] [10]

3. 29 Mar 2004Politics & Power

   Romania joins NATO

   Romania formally joined NATO on 29 March 2004, depositing its instrument of accession in Washington alongside six other new members in the alliance's largest round of enlargement.

   [23]

4. 1 Jan 2007Politics & Power

   Accession to the European Union

   On 1 January 2007 Romania, with Bulgaria, joined the European Union, raising it to twenty-seven member states and completing Romania's integration into the West.

   [24]

5. 3 Feb 2009Politics & Power

   ICJ Black Sea boundary with Ukraine

   The International Court of Justice fixed the Romania–Ukraine maritime boundary in the Black Sea, ruling that Ukraine's Serpents' Island would have no effect beyond its 12-mile territorial sea.

   [25]

Figures of the era