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Romania has been inhabited by humans since thepaleolithic. During antiquity, the main population that lived in the area corresponding to modern-day Romania were theDacians. Dacian civilisation prospered from the second century BC to the second century AD, resulting in the establishment of aDacian kingdom as aregional power. Following several wars with theRoman Empire, Dacia was conquered in 106 AD, and the kingdom'score was turned into aRoman province. The province was abandoned by 276 AD following several invasions from variousbarbarian peoples. Many Romanian historians believe that theorigin of the Romanians can be traced back to the Dacians and Romans intermixing, which in turn formed the basis of the Romanian ethnicity.
During theearly Middle Ages, numerousmigratory peoples moved across and settled the territory of Romania. A prominentTurkic population also settled Romanian territory, particularly theCumans. EarlyRomanian culture was heavily influenced by these peoples,Vlachs – Romance-language speakers in theBalkans – were first clearly attested in the 10th century, inhabiting areas on both sides of theDanube. By the 13th century, numerous small Vlachpolitical entities abounded in areas such asMuntenia,Oltenia andTransylvania. These political entities gradually unified, and by the mid-14th century, the two major historicalRomanian principalities had emerged,Wallachia andMoldavia.
The principalities partook in many conflicts against their often stronger neighbours, such as theOttoman Empire. Eventually, they becamevassal states to the Ottomans, however they always managed to preserve theirautonomy as well as slowly progress a Romanian national identity. In 1600,Michael the Brave managed to unite all the Romanian-inhabited states, includingTransylvania for the first time, however the union was short-lived and folded under pressure from theHabsburgs,Hungarians andPoles. Nevertheless, the Romanian identity continued to cultivate, culminating in movements such as theTransylvanian School and blossoming in the 19th century through the 1848 revolutions in bothWallachia andMoldavia. The modern Romanian state was established in 1859 through apersonal union of theDanubian Principalities. The new state, which fought for and gained itsindependence in 1877, consolidated itself as akingdom in 1881.
DuringWorld War I, after declaring itsneutrality in 1914, Romaniafought together with theAllied Powers from 1916. In the aftermath of the war,Bukovina,Bessarabia andTransylvania, as well as parts of theBanat,Crișana, andMaramureșunited with Romania, resulting in the establishment ofGreater Romania. In the summer of 1940, as a consequence of theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact andSecond Vienna Award, Romania was compelled to cede Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to theSoviet Union andNorthern Transylvania to Hungary. In November 1940, Romania signed theTripartite Pact and, consequently, in June 1941 enteredWorld War II on theAxis side,fighting against the Soviet Union until August 1944, when itjoined theAllies and recovered Northern Transylvania. Following the war and occupation by theRed Army, Romania became asocialist republic and a member of theWarsaw Pact. After the1989 Revolution, Romaniabegan a transition towardsdemocracy and amarket economy.
Remains of 34,950-year-oldmodern humans were discovered in present-day Romania when thePeștera cu Oase ("Cave with Bones") was uncovered in 2002.[1] The Romanian fossils are among the oldest remains ofHomo sapiens in Europe.[2]
The Neolithic-AgeCucuteni area in northeastern Romania was the western region of one of the earliest European civilizations, known as theCucuteni–Trypillia culture.[3] The earliest-known salt works is atPoiana Slatinei near the village ofLunca; it was first used in the early Neolithic around 6050 BC by theStarčevo culture and later by the Cucuteni-Trypillia culture in the pre-Cucuteni period.[4]
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TheDacians, who are widely accepted to be the same people as theGetae, were a branch ofThracians who inhabitedDacia, which corresponds with modern Romania,Moldova, northern Bulgaria, south-western Ukraine, Hungary east of theDanube river and West Banat inSerbia.[5]
The earliest written evidence of people living in the territory of present-day Romania comes fromHerodotus in Book IV of hisHistories, written inc. 440 BC; He writes that the tribal union/confederation of theGetae were defeated by thePersian EmperorDarius the Great during his campaign against theScythians.[6] One of the most important artifacts from around this period was theHelmet of Coțofenești, which wasstolen in 2025.
The Dacians are the most law-abiding and the bravest of the Thracians. They believe they are immortal, forever living in the following sense: they think they do not die and that the one who dies joinsZalmoxis, a divine being.
— Herodotus
Strabo's account of the lands inhabited by theGetae:
As for the southern part of Germany beyond theAlbis, the portion which is just contiguous to that river is occupied by theSuevi; then immediately adjoining this is the land of theGetae, which, though narrow at first, stretching as it does along theIster on its southern side and on the opposite side along the mountain-side of theHercynian Forest (for the land of theGetae also embraces a part of the mountains), afterwards broadens out towards the north as far as theTyregetae; but I cannot tell the precise boundaries.[7]
The Dacians spoke a dialect of the Thracian language but were influenced culturally by the neighboring Scythians in the east and by the Celtic invaders ofTransylvania in the 4th century.
Due to the fluctuating nature of the Dacian states, especially before the time of Burebista and before the 1st century AD, the Dacians would often be split into different kingdoms. Known rulers of the Dacians includeCharnabon in the 5th century BC,Cothelas in the 4th century BC,[8] Rex Histrianorum mentioned in 339 BC, Dual in the 3rd century BC,Moskon in the 3rd century BC,[9]Dromichaetes in the 3rd century BC,[10]Zalmodegicus around 200 BC,[11][12]Rhemaxos also around 200 BC,[13][14]Rubobostes before 168 BC,[15]Zoltes after 168 BC,[16]Oroles in the 2nd century BC,[17]Dicomes in the 1st century BC,[18]Rholes in the 1st century BC,[19]Dapyx in the 1st century BC,[20]Zyraxes in the 1st century BC,[21]Burebista between 82 and 44 BC,[22]Deceneus between 44 BC and around 27 BC,[23] Thiamarkos between 1st century BC and 1st century AD,[24]Cotiso between c. 40 BC and c.9 BC,[25]Comosicus between 9 BC and 30 AD,[26]Scorilo between c. 30 AD and 70 AD[26]Coson in the 1st century AD,[27]Duras between c. 69 AD to 87 AD,[27] andDecebalus between 87 AD to 106 AD.[28] Dacia became a province of theRoman Empire in 106 AD, conquered by EmperorTrajan. However the Free Dacians outside of the Roman Empire remain independent underPieporus, king of DacianCostoboci in the 2nd century AD,[29][30] and possibly Tarbus in the 2nd century AD.[31][32]
The Dacia of KingBurebista (82–44 BC) stretched from theBlack Sea to the source of the river Tisa and from theBalkan Mountains toBohemia.[33] During that period, the Geto-Dacians conquered a wider territory and Dacia extended from the Middle Danube to the Black Sea littoral (between Apollonia and Olbia) and from present-day Slovakia's mountains to the Balkan mountains.[34] In 53 BC,Julius Caesar stated that the lands of the Dacians started on the eastern edge of the Hercynian Forest (Black Forest).[35]
Geto-Dacians inhabited both sides of the Tisa river prior to the rise of the CelticBoii and again after the latter were defeated by the Dacians under the king Burebista.[36] It seems likely that the Dacian state arose as a tribal confederacy, which was united only by charismatic leadership.[36] Before 168 BC,[37] under the rule of kingRubobostes in present-dayTransylvania, the Dacians' power in theCarpathian basin increased after they defeated theCelts, who held power in the region since the Celtic invasion of Transylvania in the 4th century BC.
A kingdom of Dacia also existed as early as the first half of the 2nd century BC under KingOroles. Conflicts with theBastarnae and the Romans (112–109 BC, 74 BC), against whom they had assisted theScordisci andDardani, greatly weakened the resources of the Dacians. TheRoman historianTrogus Pompeius wrote about king Oroles punishing his soldiers into sleeping at their wives' feet and doing the household chores, because of their initial failure in defeating the invaders. Subsequently, the now "highly motivated" Dacian army defeated theBastarnae.[38]
Burebista (Boerebista), a contemporary ofJulius Caesar, ruled Geto-Dacian tribes between 82 BC and 44 BC. He reorganized the army and attempted to raise the moral standard and obedience of the people by persuading them to give up wine.[39] During his reign, the limits of the Dacian Kingdom were extended to their maximum. TheBastarnae andBoii were conquered, and even the Greek towns ofOlbia andApollonia on theBlack Sea (Pontus Euxinus) recognizedBurebista's authority. In 53 BC, Caesar stated that the Dacian territory was on the eastern border of theHercynian Forest.[35]
Burebista suppressed the indigenous minting of coinages by four major tribal groups, adopting imported or copied Roman denarii as a monetary standard.[36] During his reign, Burebista transferred the Geto-Dacian capital fromArgedava toSarmizegetusa Regia.[40][41] For at least one and a half centuries, Sarmizegetusa served as the Dacians’ capital and reached its zenith under KingDecebalus. The Dacians appeared so formidable that Caesar contemplated launching an expedition against them, which was prevented by his death in 44 BC. That same year, Burebista was assassinated, and the kingdom was subsequently divided into four—later five—parts under separate rulers.
The Dacians are often mentioned during the reign of Augustus, who claimed they were compelled to recognize Roman supremacy. However, they were by no means subdued, and in later times, to maintain their independence, they seized every opportunity to cross the frozen Danube during the winter, ravaging Roman cities in the province ofMoesia.
Although the Getae and Daci once attained to very great power, so that they actually could send forth an expedition of two hundred thousand men, they now find themselves reduced to as few as forty thousand, and they have come close to the point of yielding obedience to the Romans, though as yet they are not absolutely submissive, because of the hopes which they base on the Germans, who are enemies to the Romans.
— Strabo
During theWar of Actium, KingCotiso found himself courted by the two Roman antagonists, Octavian and Mark Antony. Cotiso was in a strong position to dictate the terms of any alliance.Octavian (later)Augustus worried about the frontier and possible alliance betweenMark Antony and the Dacians, and he plotted an expedition against Dacia around 35 BC. Despite several small conflicts, no serious campaigns were mounted. King Cotiso chose to ally himself with Mark Antony. According to Alban Dewes Winspear and Lenore Kramp Geweke he "proposed that the war should be fought in Macedonia rather than Epirus. Had his proposal been accepted, the subjection of Antonius might have been less easily accomplished."[42]
According toAppian, Mark Antony is responsible for the statement that Augustus sought to secure the goodwill of Cotiso by giving him his daughter, and he himself marrying a daughter of Cotiso.[43] According toSuetonius, Cotiso refused the alliance and joined the party of Mark Antony.[44]Suetonius (LXIII,Life of Augustus) says Mark Antony wrote that Augustusbetrothed his daughterJulia to marry Cotiso to create an alliance between the two men. This failed when Cotiso betrayed Augustus. According toCassius Dio, the story about the proposed marriages is hardly credible and may have been invented by Mark Antony as propaganda to offset his own alliance with Cleopatra.[44]
After Augustus's victory in the civil wars, theRomans punished the Dacian ruler, who was apparently defeated in battle around 25 BC.[45] In his account of his achievements as emperor, theRes Gestae, Augustus claimed that the Dacians had been subdued. This was not entirely true, because Dacian troops frequently crossed the Danube to ravage parts of Pannonia and Moesia.[46] He may have survived until the campaign ofMarcus Vinicius in the Dacian area c.9 BC. Vinicius was the first Roman commander to cross the Danube and invade Dacia itself. Ioana A. Oltean argues that Cotiso probably died at some point during this campaign.[47] According toJordanes Cotiso was succeeded byComosicus, about whom nothing is known beyond the name.[47]KingScorilo wasComosicus' successor and may have been the father of Decebalus. The Roman historianJordanes lists a series of Dacian kings before Decebalus, placing a ruler called "Coryllus" betweenComosicus and the independently attestedDuras, who preceded Decebalus as king. Coryllus is supposed to have presided over a long peaceful 40-year rule, however, the name Coryllus is not mentioned by any other historian, and it has been argued that it "is a misspelling of Scorilo, a relatively common Dacian name".[48] On this basis, Coryllus has been equated with the Scorilo named on an ancient Dacian pot bearing the words “Decebalus per Scorilo”. Though far from certain, this has also been translated as "Decebalus son of Scorilo". If so, this might mean that Decebalus was the son of Scorilo, with Duras possibly being either an older son or a brother of Scorilo.[49] A Dacian king (dux Dacorum) called Scorilo is also mentioned byFrontinus, who says he was in power during a period of turmoil in Rome.[50] From this evidence and references to Dacian kings elsewhere, it is suggested that Scorilo probably ruled from the 30s or 40s AD through to 69–70.[50]
The Dacians regularly raided into Roman territory inMoesia. The emperorsTiberius andCaligula solved this problem by paying protection money to the Dacians in the form of annual subsidies. This policy appears to have coincided with the reign of King Scorilo. Scorilo's brother was apparently held captive for a period in Rome, but was released in exchange for a promise that the Dacians would not intervene in Rome's volatile power-politics.[51] During the reign of EmperorNero, troops were withdrawn from the Dacian border. When Nero was overthrown in 69, the empire was plunged into turmoil in theYear of Four Emperors. The Dacians appear to have tried to take advantage of the situation to launch an invasion of Moesia in alliance with the SarmatianRoxolani. The invasion was ill-timed.Licinius Mucianus, a supporter ofVespasian, was advancing with an army through Moesia towards Rome to overthrowVitellius. The Dacians unexpectedly encountered his forces and suffered a major defeat. Scorilo appears to have died around this time.[52]
KingDuras ruled between the years AD 69 and 87, during the time thatDomitian ruled theRoman Empire. He was one of a series of rulers following the Great KingBurebista. Duras' immediate successor wasDecebalus. Duras may be identical to the "Diurpaneus" (or "Dorpaneus") identified in Roman sources as the Dacian leader who, in the winter of 85, ravaged the southern banks of theDanube, which the Romans defended for many years. Many authors refer to him as "Duras-Diurpaneus".[53][54][55] Other scholars argue that Duras and Diurpaneus are different individuals, or that Diurpaneus is identical to Decebalus.[56]
The Roman governor of Moesia,Oppius Sabinus, raised an army and went to war with the Dacians following the Dacian (Getae) raids into Roman territory.[57] Diurpaneus and his people defeated and decapitated Oppius Sabinus. When news of the defeat reached Rome, the citizens became fearful that the conquering enemy would invade and spread destruction further into the Empire. Because of this fear, Domitian was obliged to move with his entire army intoIllyria andMoesia, the latter of which was now split into Upper and Lower regions. He ordered his commanderCornelius Fuscus to cross the Danube.[57] The Dacians were pushed back across the Danube, but Fuscus suffered a crushing defeat when ambushed by "Diurpaneus". At this point, the probably elderly Duras seems to have peacefully ceded power to Decebalus.
KingDecebalus ruled the Dacians between AD 87 and 106. The frontiers of Decebal's Dacia were marked by the Tisa River to the west, by the trans-Carpathians to the north and by the Dniester River to the east.[58]
From AD 85 to 89, the Dacians underDecebalus were engaged in two wars with the Romans. In AD 85, the Dacians had swarmed over the Danube and pillaged Moesia.[60][61] In AD 87, the Roman troops sent by the Emperor Domitian against them underCornelius Fuscus, were defeated and Cornelius Fuscus was killed by the Dacians by authority of their ruler, Diurpaneus.[62] After this victory, Diurpaneus took the name ofDecebalus, but the Romans were victorious in theBattle of Tapae in AD 88 and a truce was drawn up .[63] The next year, AD 88, new Roman troops underTettius Julianus, gained a significant advantage, but were obligated to make a humiliating peace following the defeat ofDomitian by theMarcomanni, leaving the Dacians effectively independent. Decebalus was given the status of "king client to Rome", receiving military instructors, craftsmen and money from Rome.
To increase the glory of his reign, restore the finances of Rome, and end a treaty perceived as humiliating, Trajan resolved on the conquest of Dacia, the capture of the famous Treasure of Decebalus, and control over the Dacian gold mines ofTransylvania. The result of his first campaign (101–102) was the siege of the Dacian capital Sarmizegethusa and the occupation of part of the country. Emperor Trajan recommenced hostilities against Dacia and, following an uncertain number of battles,[64] and with Trajan's troops pressing towards the Dacian capitalSarmizegethusa, Decebalus once more sought terms.[65]
Decebalus rebuilt his power over the following years and attacked Roman garrisons again in AD 105. In response Trajan again marched into Dacia,[66] attacking the Dacian capital in thesiege of Sarmizegethusa, and razing it to the ground,[67] the defeated Dacian kingDecebalus committed suicide.[68] In the following years, a new city was built on the ruins of the Dacian capital namedUlpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa. With part of Dacia quelled as theRoman provinceDacia Traiana.[69] Trajan subsequentlyinvaded the Parthian empire to the east. Rome's borders in the east were governed indirectly in this period, through a system ofclient states, which led to less direct campaigning than in the west.[70]
The weapon most associated with the Dacian forces that fought against Trajan's army during his invasions of Dacia was thefalx, a single-edged scythe-like weapon. The falx was able to inflict horrible wounds on opponents, easily disabling or killing the heavily armored Roman legionaries.[71] Trajan erected theColumn of Trajan inRome to commemorate his victory.[72]
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Roman Dacia, also known as Dacia Felix, was organized as animperial province. It is estimated that the population of Roman Dacia ranging from 650,000 to 1,200,000. The area was the focus of a massive Roman colonization. New mines were opened and ore extraction intensified, while agriculture, stock breeding, and commerce flourished. Roman Dacia was of great importance to the military stationed throughout theBalkans and became an urban province, with about ten cities known and all of them originating from oldmilitary camps. Eight of these held the highest rank ofcolonia.Ulpia Traiana Sarmizegetusa was the financial, religious, and legislative center and where theimperialprocurator (finance officer) had his seat, whileApulum was Roman Dacia's military center. The region was soon settled by the retired veterans who had served in the Dacian Wars, principally theFifth (Macedonia),Ninth (Claudia), andFourteenth (Gemina) legions.[73]
While it is certain that colonists in large numbers were imported from all over the empire to settle in Roman Dacia,[74] this appears to be true for the newly created Roman towns only. The lack of epigraphic evidence for native Dacian names in the towns suggests an urban–rural split between Roman multi-ethnic urban centers and the native Dacian rural population.[74] On at least two occasions the Dacians rebelled against Roman authority: first in 117 AD, which caused the return of Trajan from the east,[75] and in 158 AD when they were put down byMarcus Statius Priscus.[76]
Some scholars have used the lack ofcivitates peregrinae in Roman Dacia, where indigenous peoples were organized into native townships, as evidence for the Roman depopulation of Dacia.[77] Prior to its incorporation into the empire, Dacia was a kingdom ruled by one king, and did not possess a regional tribal structure that could easily be turned into the Romancivitas system as used successfully in other provinces of the empire.[78]
As per usual Roman practice, Dacian males were recruited into auxiliary units[79] and dispatched across the empire.[80] TheVexillation Dacorum Parthica accompanied the emperor Septimius Severus during hisParthian expedition,[81] while thecohort I Ulpia Dacorum was posted toCappadocia.[82] Others included theII Aurelia Dacorum inPannonia Superior, thecohort I Aelia Dacorum in Roman Britain, and theII Augusta Dacorum milliaria in Moesia Inferior.[82] There are a number of preserved relics originating fromcohort I Aelia Dacorum, with one inscription describing thesica, a distinctive Dacian weapon.[83] NumerousRoman military diplomas issued for Dacian soldiers discovered after 1990 indicate that veterans preferred to return to their place of origin;[84] per usual Roman practice, these veterans were given Roman citizenship upon their discharge.[85]
In an attempt to fill the cities, cultivate the fields, and mine the ore, a large-scale attempt at colonization took place with colonists coming in "from all over the Roman world".[86] The colonists were a heterogeneous mix:[87] of the some 3,000 names preserved in inscriptions found by the 1990s, 74% (c. 2,200) were Latin, 14% (c. 420) were Greek, 4% (c. 120) wereIllyrian, 2.3% (c. 70) wereCeltic, 2% (c. 60) wereThraco-Dacian, and another 2% (c. 60) wereSemites from Syria.[88] Regardless of their place of origin, the settlers and colonists were a physical manifestation of Roman civilization and imperial culture, bringing with them the most effective Romanizing mechanism: the use ofLatin as the newlingua franca.[87]
The first settlement at Sarmizegetusa was made up of Roman citizens who had retired from their legions.[89] Based upon the location of names scattered throughout the province, it has been argued that a large percentage of colonists originated from Noricum and western Pannonia.[90] Specialist miners (thePirusti tribesmen)[91] were brought in from Dalmatia.[92]
Although the Romans conquered and destroyed the ancient Kingdom of Dacia, much of the land remained outside of Roman Imperial authority. The conquest changed the balance of power in the region and was the catalyst for a renewed alliance of Germanic and Celtic tribes and kingdoms against the Roman Empire. However, the material advantages of the Roman Imperial system was attractive to the surviving aristocracy. Afterwards, many of the Dacians became Romanized (see alsoOrigin of Romanians). In AD 183, war broke out in Dacia: few details are available, but it appears two future contenders for the throne of emperorCommodus,Clodius Albinus andPescennius Niger, both distinguished themselves in the campaign.
According toLactantius,[93] the Roman emperorDecius (AD 249–251) had to restore Roman Dacia from theCarpo-Dacians ofZosimus "having undertaken an expedition against the Carpi, who had then possessed themselves of Dacia and Moesia".
Even so, the Germanic and Celtic kingdoms, particularly theGothic tribes, slowly moved toward the Dacian borders, and within a generation were making assaults on the province. Ultimately, theGoths succeeded in dislodging the Romans and restoring the "independence" of Dacia following EmperorAurelian's withdrawal, in 275. At the boundaries ofRoman Dacia,Carpi (Free Dacians) were still strong enough to sustain five battles in eight years against the Romans from AD 301–308. Roman Dacia was left in AD 275 by the Romans, to the Carpi again, and not to the Goths. There were still Dacians in AD 336, against whomConstantine the Great fought.
The province was abandoned by Roman troops, and, according to theBreviarium historiae Romanae byEutropius, Roman citizens "from the towns and lands of Dacia" were resettled to the interior of Moesia.[94] UnderDiocletian, c. AD 296, in order to defend the Roman border, fortifications were erected by the Romans on both banks of theDanube.[95]
In 328 the emperorConstantine the Great inaugurated theConstantine's Bridge (Danube) at Sucidava, (today Corabia in Romania)[96] in hopes of reconqueringDacia, a province that had been abandoned under Aurelian. In the late winter of 332, Constantine campaigned with theSarmatians against theGoths. The weather and lack of food cost the Goths dearly: reportedly, nearly one hundred thousand died before they submitted. In celebration of this victory Constantine took the titleGothicus Maximus and claimed the subjugated territory as the new province of Gothia.[97] In 334, after Sarmatian commoners had overthrown their leaders, Constantine led a campaign against the tribe. He won a victory in the war and extended his control over the region, as remains of camps and fortifications in the region indicate.[98] Constantine resettled some Sarmatian exiles as farmers in Illyrian and Roman districts, and conscripted the rest into the army. The new frontier in Dacia was along theBrazda lui Novac line supported byCastra of Hinova,Rusidava andCastra of Pietroasele.[99] Thelimes passed to the north ofCastra of Tirighina-Bărboși and ended atSasyk Lagoon near theDniester River.[100] Constantine took the titleDacicus maximus in 336.[101] Some Roman territories north of the Danube resisted untilJustinian.
Victohali,Taifals, andThervingians are tribes mentioned inhabiting Dacia in 350, after the Romans left. Archeological evidence suggests thatGepids were disputingTransylvania with Taifals and Tervingians. Taifals, once independent from Gothia, became federati of the Romans, from whom they obtained the right to settleOltenia.
In 376 the region was conquered byHuns, who kept it until the death ofAttila in 453. The Gepid tribe, ruled byArdaric, used it as their base, until in 566 it was destroyed byLombards. Lombards abandoned the country and theAvars (second half of the 6th century) dominated the region for 230 years, until their kingdom was destroyed byCharlemagne in 791. At the same time,Slavic people arrived.
TheHellenic chronicle could possibly qualify to the first testimony of Romanians in Pannonia and Eastern Europe during the time of Attila,[102][103][104] implying that the formation of Proto-Romanian (or Common Romanian) from Vulgar Latin started in the 5th century.[105][106] The words"torna, torna fratre"[107] (return, return brother) recorded in connection with a Roman campaign across the Balkan Mountains byTheophylact Simocatta andTheophanes the Confessor evidence the development of a Romance language in the late 6th century.[108] The words were shouted "in native parlance"[109] by a local soldier in 587 or 588.[108][110] The 11th-century Persian writer,Gardizi, wrote about a Christian people "from the Roman Empire" calledN.n.d.r, inhabiting the lands along the Danube.[111] He describes them as "more numerous than the Hungarians, but weaker".[111] Historian Adolf Armbruster identified this people as the Romanians.[111] Hungarian historiography identifies this people as theBulgarians.[112]
The Dacians were known asGeta (pluralGetae) inAncient Greek writings, and asDacus (pluralDaci) orGetae inRoman documents,[113] but also asDagae andGaete as depicted on the late Roman mapTabula Peutingeriana. It wasHerodotus who first used theethnonymGetae in hisHistories.[114] In Greek and Latin, in the writings ofJulius Caesar,Strabo, andPliny the Elder, the people became known as 'the Dacians'.[115] Getae and Dacians were interchangeable terms, or used with some confusion by the Greeks.[116][117] Latin poets often used the nameGetae.[118] Modern historians prefer to use the nameGeto-Dacians.[115]Strabo describes the Getae and Dacians as distinct but cognate tribes. This distinction refers to the regions they occupied.[119] Strabo and Pliny the Elder also state that Getae and Dacians spoke the same language.[119][120]
By contrast, the name ofDacians, whatever the origin of the name, was used by the more western tribes who adjoined thePannonians and therefore first became known to the Romans.[121] According to Strabo'sGeographica, the original name of the Dacians wasΔάοι "Daoi".[122] The name Daoi (one of the ancient Geto-Dacian tribes) was certainly adopted by foreign observers to designate all the inhabitants of the countries north ofDanube that had not yet been conquered byGreece or Rome.[115]
The ethnographic nameDaci is found under various forms within ancient sources. Greeks used the formsΔάκοι "Dakoi" (Strabo,Dio Cassius, andDioscorides) andΔάοι "Daoi" (singular Daos).[123][122][124][a][125] The formΔάοι "Daoi" was frequently used according toStephan of Byzantium.[126] Latins used the formsDavus,Dacus, and a derived formDacisci (Vopiscus and inscriptions).[127][128][129][130][126]
There are similarities between the ethnonyms of the Dacians and those ofDahae (GreekΔάσαι Δάοι, Δάαι, Δαι, ΔάσαιDáoi,Dáai,Dai,Dasai; LatinDahae,Daci), an Indo-European people located east of theCaspian Sea, until the 1st millennium BC. Scholars have suggested that there were links between the two peoples since ancient times.[131][132][133][126] The historianDavid Gordon White has, moreover, stated that the "Dacians ... appear to be related to the Dahae".[134]
By the end of the first century AD, all the inhabitants of the lands which now form Romania were known to the Romans as Daci, with the exception of someCeltic andGermanic tribes who infiltrated from the west, andSarmatian and related people from the east.[117]
The Carpi were a sizeable group of tribes, who lived beyond the north-eastern boundary of Roman Dacia. The majority view among modern scholars is that the Carpi were a North Thracian tribe and a subgroup of the Dacians.[135] However, some historians classify them as Slavs.[136]According to Heather, the Carpi were Dacians from the eastern foothills of the Carpathian range – modern Moldavia and Wallachia – who had not been brought under direct Roman rule at the time of Trajan's conquest of Transylvania Dacia. After they generated a new degree of political unity among themselves in the course of the third century, these Dacian groups came to be known collectively as the Carpi.[137]
The ancient sources about the Carpi, before 104 AD, located them on a territory situated between the western side of Eastern European Galicia and the mouth of the Danube.[138] The name of the tribe is homonymous with the Carpathian mountains.[139] Carpi and Carpathian are Dacian words derived from the root(s)ker- "cut" cf. Albaniankarp "stone" and Sanskritkar- "cut".[140][141]A quote from the 6th-century Byzantine chroniclerZosimus referring to theCarpo-Dacians (Greek: Καρποδάκαι, Latin:Carpo-Dacae), who attacked the Romans in the late 4th century, is seen as evidence of their Dacian ethnicity. In fact, Carpi/Carpodaces is the term used for Dacians outside of Dacia proper.[142] However, that the Carpi were Dacians is shown not so much by the form Καρποδάκαι inZosimus as by their characteristic place-names in –dava, given by Ptolemy in their country.[143] The origin and ethnic affiliations of the Carpi have been debated over the years; in modern times they are closely associated with the Carpathian Mountains, and a good case has been made for attributing to the Carpi a distinct material culture, "a developed form of the Geto-Dacian La Tene culture", often known as the Poienesti culture, which is characteristic of this area.[144]
The main view is that theCostoboci were ethnically Dacian.[145] Others considered them a Slavic or Sarmatian tribe.[146][147] There was also a Celtic influence, so that some consider them a mixed Celtic and Thracian group that appear, after Trajan's conquest, as a Dacian group within the Celtic superstratum.[148] The Costoboci inhabited the southern slopes of the Carpathians.[149] Ptolemy named the Coestoboci (Costoboci in Roman sources) twice, showing them divided by the Dniester and the Peucinian (Carpathian) Mountains. This suggests that they lived on both sides of the Carpathians, but it is also possible that two accounts about the same people were combined.[149] There was also a group, the Transmontani, that some modern scholars identify as Dacian Transmontani Costoboci of the extreme north.[139][150] The name Transmontani was from the Dacians' Latin,[citation needed] literally "people over the mountains". Mullenhoff identified these with the Transiugitani, another Dacian tribe north of the Carpathian mountains.[151]
Based on the account ofDio Cassius, Heather (2010) considers that Hasding Vandals, around 171 AD, attempted to take control of lands which previously belonged to the free Dacian group called the Costoboci.[152] Hrushevskyi mentions that the earlier widespread view that these Carpathian tribes were Slavic has no basis. This would be contradicted by the Coestobocan names themselves that are known from the inscriptions, written by a Coestobocan and therefore presumably accurately. These names sound quite unlike anything Slavic.[146] Scholars such as Tomaschek, Schütte and Russu consider these Costobocian names to be Thraco-Dacian.[153][154][155]
Body-painting was customary among the Dacians.[specify] It is probable that the tattooing originally had a religious significance.[156] They practiced symbolic-ritual tattooing or body painting for both men and women, with hereditary symbols transmitted up to the fourth generation.[157]
Dacian religion was considered by the classic sources as a key source of authority, suggesting to some that Dacia was a predominantly theocratic state led by priest-kings. However, the layout of the Dacian capital Sarmizegethusa indicates the possibility of co-rulership, with a separate high king and high priest.[36] Ancient sources recorded the names of several Dacian high priests (Deceneus, Comosicus and Vezina) and various orders of priests: "god-worshipers", "smoke-walkers" and "founders".[36] Both Hellenistic and Oriental influences are discernible in the religious background, alongsidechthonic and solar motifs.[36]According to Herodotus' account of the story ofZalmoxis or Zamolxis,[114] the Getae (speaking the same language as the Dacians and the Thracians, according toStrabo) believed in the immortality of the soul, and regarded death as merely a change of country. Their chief priest held a prominent position as the representative of the supreme deity, Zalmoxis, who is called also Gebeleizis by some among them.[114][158] Strabo wrote about the high priest of King BurebistaDeceneus: "a man who not only had wandered throughEgypt, but also had thoroughly learned certain prognostics through which he would pretend to tell the divine will; and within a short time he was set up as god (as I said when relating the story of Zamolxis)".[159]
The GothJordanes in hisGetica (The origin and deeds of the Goths), also gives an account of Deceneus the highest priest, and considered Dacians a nation related to the Goths. Besides Zalmoxis, the Dacians believed in other deities, such as Gebeleizis, the god of storm and lightning, possibly related to the Thracian godZibelthiurdos.[160] Another important deity wasBendis, goddess of the moon and the hunt.[161] By a decree of theoracle of Dodona, which required the Athenians to grant land for a shrine or temple, her cult was introduced intoAttica by immigrant Thracian residents,[b] and, though Thracian and Athenian processions remained separate, both cult and festival became so popular that in Plato's time (c. 429–13 BC) its festivities were naturalized as an official ceremony of the Athenian city-state, called the Bendideia.[c]
Between 271 and 275, the Roman army and administration left Dacia, which was invaded later by theGoths.[162] The Goths mixed with the local people until the 4th century, when theHuns, a nomadic people, arrived.[163] TheGepids,[164][165] theAvars, theBulgars and their Slavic subjects[166] ruledTransylvania until the 8th century. The territories ofWallachia andMoldavia were under the control of theFirst Bulgarian Empire from its establishment in 681 until around the time of theHungarian conquest of Transylvania at the end of the 10th century.[164]
After the disintegration ofGreat Bulgaria following KhanKubrat's death in 665, a large group ofBulgars followedAsparukh, the third son of the great Khan, who headed westwards. In the 670's they settled in the area known as theOngal to the north of theDanube delta.[167][168][169] From there, Asparukh's cavalry in alliance with localSlavs annually attacked theByzantine territories in the south. In 680, the Byzantine EmperorConstantine IV led a large army to fight the Bulgars but was defeated in thebattle of Ongal and the Byzantines were forced to acknowledge the formation of a new country, theFirst Bulgarian Empire. The northern border of the country followed the southern slopes of theCarpathian mountains from theIron Gates and reached theDneper river or possibly just theDniester river to the east.[citation needed]
The Bulgarians' main rivals in the area were theAvars to the west and theKhazars to the east. The Khazars were a serious threat; they marched westwards after they crushed the resistance of Kubrat's eldest sonBayan and waged a war against Asparukh, who was killed, although not necessarily by a Khazar. To protect their northern borders, the Bulgarians built several enormous ditches that ran the whole length of the border from theTimok river to theBlack Sea.[170]
In 803,Krum of Bulgaria became Khan. The new, energetic ruler focused on the north-west where Bulgaria's old enemies theAvars experienced difficulties and setbacks against theFranks underCharlemagne.[citation needed] Between 804 and 806, the Bulgarian armies annihilated the Avars and destroyed their state. Krum took the eastern parts of the former Avar Khaganate and took over rule of the local Slavic tribes. Bulgaria's territory extended twice from the middleDanube to the north of present-dayBudapest to theDnester, though its possession ofTransylvania is debatable.[citation needed] In 813 Khan Krum seizedOdrin and plundered the whole ofEastern Thrace. He took 50,000 captives who were settled inBulgaria across the Danube.[citation needed]
During theMiddle Ages theBulgarian Empire controlled vast areas to the north of the riverDanube (with interruptions) from its establishment in 681 to its fragmentation in 1371–1422. These lands were called by contemporaryByzantine historiansBulgaria across the Danube, or Transdanubian Bulgaria.[171] Original information for the centuries-old Bulgarian rule there is scarce as the archives of the Bulgarian rulers were destroyed and little is mentioned for this area in Byzantine or Hungarian manuscripts. During the First Bulgarian Empire, theDridu culture developed in the beginning of the 8th century and flourished until the 11th century.[172][173] It represents anearly medievalarchaeological culture which emerged in the region of theLower Danube.[172][173] In Bulgaria it is usually referred to asPliska-Preslav culture.[174]
ThePechenegs,[175] theCumans[176] andUzes are also mentioned by historic chronicles on the territory of Romania until the founding of the Romanian principalities ofWallachia in the south byBasarab I around 1310 in theHigh Middle Ages,[177] andMoldavia in the east, byDragoș around 1352.[178]
ThePechenegs, a semi-nomadicTurkic people of theCentral Asian steppes, occupied the steppes north of theBlack Sea from the 8th to the 11th centuries, and by the 10th century they were in control of all of the territory between theDon and the lowerDanube rivers.[179] During the 11th and 12th centuries, the nomadic confederacy of theCumans andEastern Kipchaks dominated the territories between present-day Kazakhstan, southern Russia, Ukraine, southern Moldavia and westernWallachia.[180][181][182]
It is debated whether elements of the mixed Daco–Roman population survived in Transylvania through theDark Ages to become the ancestors of modernRomanians or whether the firstVlachs and Romanians appeared in the area in the 13th century after a northward migration from theBalkan Peninsula.[183][184] There is also debate over the ethnicity of Transylvania's population before the Hungarian conquest.[185]
SeveralKings of Hungary invited settlers from Central and Western Europe, such as theSaxons, to occupy Transylvania. TheSzékelys were brought to southeastern Transylvania as border guards. Romanians are mentioned by the Hungarian documents of a township calledOlahteluk in 1283 inBihar County.[186][187] The "land of Romanians" (Terram Blacorum, Blacs are not equal to romanians.)[188][189][190][187] appeared inFăgăraș and this area was mentioned under the name "Olachi" in 1285.[187]
KingLouis I of Hungary dispatchedAndrew Lackfi,Count of the Székelys to invade the lands of theGolden Horde in retaliation for theTatars's earlier plundering raids againstTransylvania.Lackfi and his army of mainlySzékely warriors inflicted a defeat on a largeTatar army on 2 February 1345.[191][192] The campaign had finally expelled theTatars and ended the devastations of the Mongols inTransylvania.[193] TheGolden Horde was pushed back behind theDniester River, thereafter theGolden Horde's control of the lands between theEastern Carpathians and theBlack Sea weakened.[191][194]Moldavia was founded in 1346.
Independent Wallachia had been near the border of the Ottoman Empire since the 14th century until it had gradually succumbed to the Ottomans' influence during the next centuries with brief periods of independence.Vlad III the Impaler was aPrince of Wallachia in 1448, 1456–62, and 1476.[195][196] Vlad III is remembered for his raids against the Ottoman Empire and his initial success of keeping his small country free for a short time. In theWestern world, Vlad is best known for being the inspiration for themain character inBram Stoker's 1897 novelDracula. TheRomanian historiography [ro] evaluates him as a ferocious but just ruler,[197] and the defender of the Wallachian independence and of the EuropeanChristianity against Ottoman expansionism.
Stephen the Great (Romanian:Ștefan cel Mare) is thought to be the bestvoivode ofMoldavia.[198][better source needed] Stephen ruled for 47 years, an unusually long period for that time. He was a successful military leader and statesman, losing only two out of fifty battles;[citation needed] he built a shrine to commemorate each victory, founding 48 churches and monasteries,[199] many of which have aunique architectural style and are listed inUNESCO's list ofWorld Heritage Sites. Stefan's most prestigious victory was over the Ottoman Empire in 1475 at theBattle of Vaslui, for which he raised theVoroneț Monastery. For this victory, PopeSixtus IV nominated him asverus christianae fidei athleta (a true Champion of the Christian Faith). After Stephen's death, Moldavia also came under the suzerainty of theOttoman Empire during the 16th century.[citation needed]
Although the core religious vocabulary of the Romanian language originated from Latin,[200] many terms were adopted from the SlavicOrthodoxy,[201] showing a significant influence dating from theBulgarian Empire (681–1396).[202]
After theBattle of Mohács in 1526,Transylvania belonged to theEastern Hungarian Kingdom, from which thePrincipality of Transylvania emerged in 1570 by theTreaty of Speyer.[203]
By 1541, the entireBalkan peninsula andthe southern and central parts of Hungary became Ottoman provinces. Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transylvania came under Ottoman suzerainty but remained fully autonomous and until the 18th century, had some internal independence.[citation needed] However, regions ofBanat,Dobrogea andCrișana alongside cities ofGiurgiu,Turnu andBraila were completely under Ottoman control. Unlike the autonomous Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania, many Muslims settled in those areas. During this period, the Romanian lands experienced a slow disappearance of thefeudalism and the distinguishing of some rulers likeVasile Lupu andDimitrie Cantemir in Moldavia,Matei Basarab andConstantin Brâncoveanu in Wallachia. At that time, theRussian Empire appeared to become the political and military power the threatened the Romanian principalities.[citation needed]
John II, the non-Habsburg King of Hungary, moved his royal court toAlba Iulia in Transylvania and after his abdication from the Hungarian throne, he became the firstPrince of Transylvania.[204] His 1568 Edict ofTurda was the first decree ofreligious freedom in the modern European history.[citation needed] In the aftermath, Transylvania was ruled by mostlyCalvinist Hungarian princes until the end of the 17th century, andProtestantism flourished in the region.[205]
Michael the Brave was thePrince of Wallachia from 1593 to 1601, of Transylvania from 1599 to 1600, and of Moldavia in 1600. For a short time during his reign, Transylvania was ruled together with Moldavia and Wallachia in apersonal union.[206] After his death the union dissolved and as vassal tributary states, Moldavia and Wallachia still had internal autonomy and some external independence, which was finally lost in the 18th century.[citation needed]
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ThePrincipality of Transylvania reached its golden age under theabsolutist rule ofGábor Bethlen from 1613 to 1629. In 1690, theHabsburg monarchy gained possession ofTransylvania through theHungarian crown.[207][208][209] After the failureRákóczi's War of Independence in 1711[210] Habsburg control ofTransylvania was consolidated, and HungarianTransylvanian princes were replaced with Habsburg imperial governors.[211][212] In 1699, Transylvania became a part of theHabsburg monarchy following the Austrian victory over the Turks.[213] The Habsburgs rapidly expanded their empire; in 1718Oltenia, a major part of Wallachia, was annexed to the Habsburg monarchy and was only returned in 1739. In 1775, the Habsburgs later occupied the north-western part of Moldavia, which was later calledBukovina and was incorporated to theAustrian Empire in 1804. The eastern half of the principality, which was calledBessarabia, was occupied in 1812 by Russia.[citation needed][214]
During the Austro-Hungarian rule of Transylvania, Romanians formed the majority of the population.[215][216]
After their defeat to the Russians, the Ottoman Empire restored the Danube ports ofTurnu,Giurgiu andBraila to Wallachia, and agreed to give up their commercial monopoly and recognize freedom of navigation on the Danube as specified in theTreaty of Adrianople, which was signed in 1829.[citation needed] The political autonomy of the Romanian principalities grew as their rulers were elected for life by a Community Assembly consisting ofboyars, a method used to reduce political instability and Ottoman interventions.[citation needed] Following the war, Romanian lands came under Russian occupation under the governance of GeneralPavel Kiselyov until 1844. During his rule, the local boyars enacted the firstRomanian constitution.[citation needed]
In 1848, there was arevolution in Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania perpetrated byTudor Vladimirescu and hisPandurs in theWallachian uprising of 1821.[217]: 93 The goals of the revolutionaries were full independence for Moldavia and Wallachia, and national emancipation in Transylvania; these were not fulfilled but were the basis of the subsequent revolutions.[218] The revolution in 1848 already carried the seeds of the national dream of a unified and united Romania,[219] though the "idea of unification" had been known from earlier works of Naum Ramniceanu (1802) andIon Budai-Deleanu (1804).[220]
After the unsuccessful 1848 revolution, theGreat Powers rejected the Romanians' desire to officially unite in a single state, forcing the Romanians to proceed alone in their struggle against the Turks.[221]
The aftermath of theRussian Empire's defeat in theCrimean War brought the 1856Treaty of Paris, which started a period of common tutelage for the Ottomans and a Congress ofGreat Powers—theUnited Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, theSecond French Empire, theKingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, theAustrian Empire,Prussia, and, though never again fully, Russia. While the Moldavia-Wallachiaunionist campaign, which had come to dominate political demands, was accepted with sympathy by the French, Russians, Prussians, and Sardinians, it was rejected by the Austrian Empire, and looked upon with suspicion by Great Britain and the Ottomans.
Negotiations amounted to an agreement on a minimal formal union, to be known as the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia but with separate institutions and thrones and with each principality electing its own prince. However, the Moldavian and Wallachian elections for thead-hoc divans in 1859 profited from an ambiguity in the text of the final agreement, which, while specifying two separate thrones, did not prevent the same person from occupying both thrones simultaneously and ultimately ushered in the ruling ofAlexandru Ioan Cuza asDomnitor (Ruling Prince) over both Moldavia and Wallachia from 1859 onwards,uniting both principalities.[222]
Alexander Ioan Cuza carried out reforms including abolishing serfdom and started to unite the institutions one by one in spite of the convention from Paris. With help from unionists, he unified the government and parliament, effectively merging Wallachia and Moldavia into one country and in 1862 the country's name was changed to United Principalities of Romania.
Romania was created as a personal union that did not include Transylvania, where the upper class and the aristocracy remained mainly Hungarian, although Romanian nationalism clashed with Hungarian nationalism at the end of the 19th century.[citation needed][223] Austria-Hungary, especially under theDual Monarchy of 1867, kept the territory firmly in control even in parts of Transylvania where Romanians constituted a vast majority.[citation needed]
In an 1866coup d'état,Cuza was exiled and replaced with Prince Karl ofHohenzollern-Sigmaringen. He was appointedDomnitor, Ruling Prince of the United Principality of Romania, asPrince Carol of Romania. Romania declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire after theRusso-Turkish War (1877–1878), in which the Ottomans fought against the Russian empire.[224]In the 1878Treaty of Berlin,[225] Romania was officially recognized as an independent state by theGreat Powers.[226] In return, Romania ceded the districtBessarabia to Russia in exchange for access to the Black Sea ports and acquiredDobruja.[227] In 1881, Romania'sprincipality status was raised to that of akingdom and on 26 March that year, Prince Carol became KingCarol I of Romania.[228][citation needed]
The period between 1878 and 1914 was one of stability and progress for Romania. During theSecond Balkan War, Romania joined Greece,Serbia andMontenegro against Bulgaria.[citation needed] In theTreaty of Bucharest of 1913, Romania gainedSouthern Dobruja and established theDurostor andCaliacra counties.[229]
The governments of Britain and theUnited States repeatedly protested the brutal treatment of Romanian Jews, who were regarded asaliens who had no civil or political rights. Romania engaged in arbitrary expulsions of Jews as vagabonds and tolerated violentpogroms against Jews, many of whom fled to the United States.[230][231]
Due to Romania's unfavorable location between theRussian Empire andKingdom of Bulgaria as well asKing Carol I of Romania's German heritage, Romania had a secret treaty of alliance withGermany andAustria-Hungary since 1883. When the war began in 1914, King Carol I summoned an emergency midnight council where he revealed the secret treaty of alliance. While the king favored Germany, the nation's political elite favored the Entente. As such, the crown council took the decision to remain neutral.[232][233] When the Austro-Hungarian Empire invoked acasus foederis on Romania and Italy linked to the secret treaty of alliance since 1883, both Italy and Romania refused to honor the treaty on the grounds that the attacks on Austria were not"unprovoked", as stipulated in the treaty of alliance.[234][235]
King Carol I died on 10 October 1914, and his successor,King Ferdinand I of Romania was much more favorable towards the Entente. In August 1916, Romania received an ultimatum to decide whether to join theEntente. The Romanian government agreed to enter the war on the side of the Entente, although the situation on the battle fronts was not favorable. For Romania, the highest priority was takingTransylvania fromHungary, with around 2,800,000 Romanians out of around 5,000,000 people.The Allies wanted Romania to join their side in order to cut rail communications between Germany andTurkey, and to cut off Germany's oil supplies.Britain made loans,France sent amilitary training mission, and Russia promised modern munitions. The Allies promised at least 200,000 soldiers to defend Romania against Bulgaria to the south, and help it invade Austria-Hungary.[236]
On 4 August 1916, Romania and the Entente signed the Political Treaty and Military Convention, which established the parameters of Romania's participation in the war. The Allies promised to Romania the Austro-Hungarian regions ofBukovina,Transylvania up toTisza river and all ofBanat. Joining the Entente had large popular support.[237] The Romanian campaign plan (Hypothesis Z) consisted in attacking Austria-Hungary in Transylvania, while defending Southern Dobruja andGiurgiu from Bulgaria in the south.[238]
The German high command was seriously worried about the prospect of Romania entering the war,Paul von Hindenburg writing:
It is certain that so relatively small a state as Rumania had never before been given a role so important, and, indeed, so decisive for the history of the world at so favorable a moment. Never before had two great Powers like Germany and Austria found themselves so much at the mercy of the military resources of a country which had scarcely one twentieth of the population of the two great states. Judging by the military situation, it was to be expected that Rumania had only to advance where she wished to decide the world war in favor of those Powers which had been hurling themselves at us in vain for years. Thus everything seemed to depend on whether Rumania was ready to make any sort of use of her momentary advantage.[239]
On 27 August 1916, the Romanian Armylaunched an attack against Austria-Hungary, with limited Russian support. The Romanian offensive was initially successful and Romania managed to occupy 1/3rd of Transylvania, but when the German army arrived in Transylvania the Romanians began to be pushed back.[240] Meanwhile on the southern front, a combined German-Bulgarian-Turkish offensive gradually occupied all ofDobruja and captured Giurgiu. The bulk of the Romanian army managed to escape encirclement from Giurgiu and retreated toBucharest. As a result of theBattle of Bucharest, the Central Powers occupied the city on 6 December 1916.[241]
In the summer of 1917, one of the largest concentrations of forces in World War I was present in Romania: 9 armies, 80 infantry divisions and 19 cavalry divisions, totaling 974 battalions, 550 squadrons and 923 artillery batteries. 800,000 combatants and 1,000,000 reservists were present.[242]
In 1917, a newCentral Powers offensive began, leading to the battles ofMărăști,Mărășești, andOituz, where the Romanian army managed to defeat theCentral Powers offensives and take back some territory in a counter-offensive.[243][244] Romania lost over 27,000 men while Germany and Austria-Hungary lost over 60,000. Notably, the Romanian heroineEcaterina Teodoroiu and German GeneralKarl von Wenninger were killed at the end of theBattle of Mărășești.[245] However, shortly after the military victories, theOctober Revolution threw theRussian Empire out of the war leaving Romania alone on the Eastern Front, completely surrounded by the Central Powers. This forced Romania to drop out of the war, and it signed theTreaty of Bucharest with the Central Powers in May 1918.[246]
In 1939, General August von Mackensen would describe the Central Powers offensive from 1917 as following:
After fighting with the Rumanians in 1916, I thought the Rumanian army had disappeared, that it did not exist in 1917 when I had to make a new effort to conquer the rest of Rumania. But when the battles started in Mărășești, Mărăști, Oituz, I was told that in front of me was the Rumanian army that I was convinced had disappeared. But the Rumanian army has risen from its ashes like the Phoenix bird. The attacks on the bayonet scared everyone, and they were running, the Germans, who didn't usually run, this time they were running.[247]
Under the terms of theTreaty of Bucharest, Romania would lose all of Dobruja to Bulgaria and a joint central power occupation, all the Carpathian mountain passes to Austria-Hungary, and would lease all of its oil reserves to Germany for 99 years.[248][249] However, theCentral Powers recognized Romania's union withBessarabia who had recently declared independence from the Russian Empire following the October Revolution and voted for union with Romania in April 1918.[250] The parliament signed the treaty, howeverKing Ferdinand refused to sign it, hoping for an Allied victory on the western front.[246] In October 1918, Romania renounced the treaty and on 10 November 1918, one day before theGerman armistice, Romania reentered the war after the successful Allied advances on theMacedonian front and advanced in Transylvania. The next day, the Treaty of Bucharest was nullified by the terms of the Armistice ofCompiègne.[251][252] Total Romanian deaths from 1914 to 1918, military and civilian, within contemporary borders, were estimated at 748,000.[253]
In Austria-Hungary, ethnic Romanians entered the war from the very beginning, with hundreds of thousands of Transylvanian and Bukovinian Romanians being mobilized throughout the war. Although most Transylvanian Romanians were loyal to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, over time, reactionary sentiments emerged, especially after Romania joined the war in 1916. Many of the previously loyal soldiers decided that it was much better to risk their lives through desertion, rather than shoot their ethnic conationals.[254] According to studies made by the army of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the dedication of the Romanian military to the interest of Austria-Hungary was reduced, only ethnic Italians of the same empire can compete with them for the last place in a ranking according to devotion to the state per 100 soldiers, out of about 300,000 Austro-Hungarian deserters, 150,000 were ethnic Romanians.[255]
The Austro-Hungarian Romanian prisoners of war in the Russian Empire would eventually form theRomanian Volunteer Corps in Russia who would eventually be repatriated to Romania in 1917 and take part in the battles of Mărăști, Mărășești and Oituz[256][257] and the Romanian Legion in Siberia who resisted theBolsheviks in cooperation with theCzechoslovak Legion and theWhite movement during theRussian Civil War, these units were ultimately repatriated to Greater Romania in 1920.[258][259] While the Austro-Hungarian Romanian prisoners of war in Italy would form the Romanian Volunteer Legion from Italy, which joined the fighting during the last battles on theItalian front and later, after the end of the war, participated in theHungarian-Romanian War. Out of a total of 60,000 prisoners of war of Romanian origin, 37,000 Romanians requested to join the Romanian Legion in Italy.[255] The ranks of the Austro-Hungarian soldiers enlisted in the Romanian Legion were equivalated to those corresponding of the Italian Royal Army.[260] The sedentary part of the Romanian Legion, under the command of Colonel Camillo Ferraioli, was established atAlbano Laziale, and the base camp in theAvezzano camp.[261]
It is estimated that in the period 1914–1918 between 400,000 and 600,000 soldiers of Romanian origin fought on different fronts of Austria-Hungary, which represented a significant percentage of the Romanian ethnics who lived in those times in the Empire. In total, up to 150,000 Romanians were killed in action while fighting as part of the Austro-Hungarian Army.[254]
Before World War I, the union ofMichael the Brave, who ruled over the three principalities with Romanian population for 5 years (Wallachia,Transylvania andMoldavia),[220] was viewed in later periods as the precursor of a modernRomania, a thesis which was argued with noted intensity byNicolae Bălcescu. This theory became a point of reference fornationalists, as well as a catalyst for various Romanian forces to achieve a single Romanian state.[262] World War I played a crucial part in the development of Romanian national consciousness.
In 1918, the union of Romania withBukovina was ratified in 1919 in theTreaty of Saint Germain,[263] and some of the Allies recognized the union withBessarabia in 1920 through the never ratifiedTreaty of Paris.[264] On 1 December, the Deputies of the Romanians from Transylvania voted to unite Transylvania, Banat, Crișana and Maramureș with Romania by theProclamation of Union ofAlba Iulia. Romanians today celebrate this as theGreat Union Day, that is a national holiday.
The Romanian expressionRomânia Mare (Great or Greater Romania) refers to the Romanian state in theinterwar period and to the territory Romania covered at the time. At that time, Romania achieved its greatest territorial extent, almost 300,000 km2 or 120,000 sq mi[265]), including all of the historic Romanian lands.[266]
Most of the claimed territories were granted to theOld Kingdom of Romania, which was ratified in 1920 by theTreaty of Trianon that defined the new border between Hungary and Romania.[267] The union ofBucovina and Bessarabia with Romania was ratified in 1920 by theTreaty of Versailles. Romania also acquiredSouthern Dobruja territory called "The Quadrilateral" from Bulgaria as a result of its participation in theSecond Balkan War in 1913.
As a result of thepeace treaties, most regions with clear Romanian majorities were merged into a single state. It also led to the inclusion of sizable minorities. National minorities were recognized by the1923 Constitution of Romania; they were represented inParliament and several of them created political parties, although a unique standing of minorities with autonomy on a wide basis, provided for at theGreat National Assembly of Alba Iulia on 1 December 1918, was not fulfilled. According to the1930 Romanian Census, Romania had a population of 18,057,028.Romanians made up 71.9% of the population and 28.1% of the population wereethnic minorities. This occasionally led to violent conflict, as exemplified by theHungarian–Romanian War and theTatarbunary Uprising. To contain Hungarian irredentism, Romania,Yugoslavia andCzechoslovakia established theLittle Entente in 1921. That same year Romania and Poland concluded adefensive alliance against the emergent Soviet Union, and in 1934 the Balkan Entente was formed with Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey, which were suspicious of Bulgaria.[268]Until 1938, Romania's governments maintained the form, if not always the substance, of a liberal constitutional monarchy. TheNational Liberal Party, dominant in the years immediately after World War I, became increasinglyclientelist andnationalist, and in 1927 was supplanted in power by theNational Peasants' Party. Between 1930 and 1940 there were over 25 separate governments; on several occasions in the last few years before World War II, the rivalry between the fascistIron Guard and other political groupings approached the level of a civil war.[citation needed]
Upon the death of KingFerdinand in 1927, his son,Prince Carol, was prevented from succeeding him because of previous marital scandals that had resulted in his renunciation of rights to the throne. After living three years in exile, with his brother Nicolae serving as regent and his young sonMichael as king, Carol changed his mind and with the support of the ruling National Peasants' Party he returned and proclaimed himself king.
Iuliu Maniu, leader of the National Peasants' Party, engineered Carol's return on the basis of a promise that he would forsake his mistressMagda Lupescu, and Lupescu herself had agreed to the arrangement. However, it became clear upon Carol's first re-encounter with his former wife,Elena, that he had no interest in a reconciliation with her, and Carol soon arranged for Magda Lupescu's return to his side. Her unpopularity was to be a millstone around Carol's neck for the rest of his reign. Maniu and his National Peasant Party shared the same general political aims of the Iron Guard: both fought against the corruption and dictatorial policies of King Carol II and the National Liberal Party.[269]
Theworldwide Great Depression that started in 1929 andwas also present in Romania destabilized the country. The early 1930s were marked by social unrest, high unemployment, and strikes. In several instances, the Romanian government violently repressed strikes and riots, notably the 1929 miners' strike inValea Jiului and the strike in theGrivița railroad workshops. In the mid-1930s, the Romanian economy recovered and the industry grew significantly, although about 80% of Romanians were still employed in agriculture. French economic and political influence was predominant in the early 1920s but then Germany became more dominant, especially in the 1930s.[270]
As the 1930s progressed, Romania's already shaky democracy slowly deteriorated towardfascist dictatorship. The constitution of 1923 gave the king free rein to dissolve parliament and call elections at will; as a result, Romania was to experience over 25 governments in a single decade.
Increasingly, these governments were dominated by a number ofantisemitic, ultra-nationalist, and mostly at least quasi-fascist parties. TheNational Liberal Party steadily became more nationalistic than liberal, but nonetheless lost its dominance over Romanian politics. It was eclipsed by parties like the (relatively moderate) National Peasants' Party and its more radicalRomanian Front offshoot, theNational-Christian Defense League (LANC) and theIron Guard. In 1935, LANC merged with theNational Agrarian Party to form theNational Christian Party (NCP). The quasi-mystical fascist Iron Guard was an earlier LANC offshoot that, even more than these other parties, exploited nationalist feelings, fear of communism, and resentment of alleged foreign andJewish domination of the economy.
Already, the Iron Guard had embraced the politics of assassinations, and various governments had reacted more or less in kind. On 10 December 1933, Liberal prime ministerIon Duca "dissolved" the Iron Guard, arresting thousands; consequently, 19 days later he was assassinated by Iron Guard legionnaires.
In December 1937, the king appointed LANC leader, the poetOctavian Goga as prime minister of Romania's firstFascist government. Around this time, Carol met withAdolf Hitler, who expressed his wish to see a Romanian government headed by the pro-Nazi Iron Guard. Instead, on 10 February 1938 King Carol II used the occasion of a public insult by Goga toward Lupescu as a reason to dismiss the government and institute a short-lived royal dictatorship, sanctioned seventeen days later by a new constitution under which the king named personally not only the prime minister but all the ministers. The new regime featuredcorporatist policies that often resembled those of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.[271] In parallel with these internal developments, economic pressures and a weak Franco-British response to Hitler's aggressive foreign policy caused Romania to start drifting away from the Western Allies and closer to the Axis.[268]
In April 1938, King Carol had Iron Guard leaderCorneliu Zelea Codreanu (aka "The Captain") arrested and imprisoned. On the night of 29–30 November 1938, Codreanu and several other legionnaires were killed while purportedly attempting to escape from prison.
The royal dictatorship was brief. On 7 March 1939, a new government was formed withArmand Călinescu as prime minister; on 21 September 1939, three weeks after the start of World War II, Călinescu, in turn, was also assassinated by legionnaires avenging Codreanu's murder.
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On 13 April 1939, France and the United Kingdom had pledged to guarantee the independence of the Kingdom of Romania. Negotiations with theSoviet Union concerning a similar guarantee collapsed when Romania refused to allow theRed Army to cross its frontiers.[272][273] In August 1939, Germany and theSoviet Union signed theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which stipulated, among other things, the Soviet "interest" in Bessarabia. After the 1940 territorial losses and growing increasingly unpopular, Carol was compelled to abdicate and name generalIon Antonescu as the new Prime-Minister with full powers in ruling the state by royal decree.[274]
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Eight days later Nazi Germany invaded theSecond Polish Republic. Expecting military aid from Britain and France, Poland chose not to activate thePolish-Romanian Alliance in order to be able to use theRomanian Bridgehead strategy. A neutral Romania would be used to resupply the Polish troops and could be used as an escape corridor in case of defeat. Following the fall of Poland, the Polish government, the treasury of theNational Bank of Poland and about 120,000 Polish troops withdrew through Romania, the majority of those troops joined the newly formedPolish Armed Forces in the West in France and theUnited Kingdom during 1939 and 1940.[275]
Romania officially remained neutral and, under pressure from the Soviet Union and Germany, interned the fleeing Polish government after its members had crossed the Polish–Romanian border on 17 September, forcing them to relegate their authority to what became thePolish government-in-exile.[276] After the assassination of Prime MinisterArmand Călinescu on 21 September King Carol II tried to maintain neutrality for several months longer, but the surrender of theThird French Republic and the retreat of British forces from continental Europe rendered the assurances that both countries had made to Romania meaningless.[272]
In 1940 Romania's territorial gains made followingWorld War I were largely undone. In July, after a Soviet ultimatum, Romania agreed togive up Bessarabia and northern Bukovina (the Soviets also annexed the city ofHertsa, which was not stated in the ultimatum). Two-thirds of Bessarabia were combined with asmall part of the Soviet Union to form theMoldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. The rest (northern Bukovina, the northern half ofHotin county andBudjak) was apportioned to theUkrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
Shortly thereafter, on 30 August, under theSecond Vienna Award, Germany andItaly mediated a compromise between Romania and theKingdom of Hungary: Hungary received a region referred to as 'Northern Transylvania', while 'Southern Transylvania' remained part of Romania. Hungary had lostTransylvania afterWorld War I in theTreaty of Trianon. On 7 September, under theTreaty of Craiova,Southern Dobruja (which Bulgaria had lost after the Romanian invasion during theSecond Balkan War in 1913), was ceded to Bulgaria under pressure from Germany. Despite the relatively recent acquisition of these territories, they were inhabited by a majority of Romanian speaking people (except Southern Dobruja), so the Romanians had seen them as historically belonging to Romania, and the fact that so much land was lost without a fight shattered the underpinnings of King Carol's power.
On 4 July,Ion Gigurtu formed the first Romanian government to include an Iron Guardist minister,Horia Sima. Sima was a particularly virulentantisemite who had become the nominal leader of the movement after the death ofCorneliu Codreanu. He was one of the few prominent far-right leaders to survive the bloody infighting and government suppression of the preceding years.
In the immediate wake of the loss of Northern Transylvania, on 4 September the Iron Guard (led by Horia Sima) and General (later Marshal)Ion Antonescu united to form the "National Legionary State", which forced the abdication of Carol II in favor of his 19-year-old sonMichael. Carol and his mistressMagda Lupescu went into exile, and Romania, despite the unfavorable outcome of recent territorial disputes, leaned strongly toward theAxis. As part of the deal, the Iron Guard became the sole legal party in Romania. Antonescu became the Iron Guard's honorary leader, while Sima became deputy premier.
In power, the Iron Guard stiffened the already harsh antisemitic legislation, enacted legislation directed against minority businessmen and wreaked vengeance upon its enemies. On 8 October German troops began crossing into Romania. On 23 November Romania joined the Axis powers. On 27 November, 64 former dignitaries or officials were executed by theIron Guard inJilava prison while awaiting trial (seeJilava Massacre). Later that day, historian and former prime ministerNicolae Iorga and economistVirgil Madgearu, a former government minister, were assassinated.
The cohabitation between the Iron Guard and Antonescu was never an easy one. On 20 January 1941, the Iron Guard attempted acoup, combined with a pogrom against the Jews ofBucharest. Within four days, Antonescu had successfully suppressed the coup. The Iron Guard was forced out of the government. Sima and many other legionnaires took refuge in Germany;[277] others were imprisoned. Antonescu abolished the National Legionary State, in its stead declaring Romania a "National and Social State."
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On 22 June 1941, German armies with Romanian support attacked the Soviet Union. German and Romanian units conquered Bessarabia, Odessa, and Sevastopol, then marched eastward across the Russian steppes toward Stalingrad. Romania welcomed the war because they were allies with Germany. Hitler rewarded Romania's loyalty by returning Bessarabia and northern Bukovina and by allowing Romania to administer Soviet lands immediately between the Dniester and the Bug, including Odessa and Nikolaev.[278] Romanian jingoes in Odessa even distributed a geography showing that the Dacians had inhabited most of southern Russia.[272][279] After recovering Bessarabia and Bukovina (Operation München), Romanian units fought side by side with the Germans onward toOdessa,Sevastopol,Stalingrad and theCaucasus. The total number of troops involved on the Eastern Front with theRomanian Third Army and theRomanian Fourth Army was second only to that of Nazi Germany itself. The Romanian Army had a total of 686,258 men under arms in the summer of 1941 and a total of 1,224,691 men in the summer of 1944.[280] The number of Romanian troops sent to fight in the Soviet Union exceeded that of all of Germany's other allies combined. ACountry Study by the U.S. Federal Research Division of the Library of Congress attributes this to a "morbid competition with Hungary to curry Hitler's favor... [in hope of]... regaining northern Transylvania."[272]
Bessarabia and theNorthern Bukovina were now fully re-incorporated into the Romanian state after they had beenoccupied by the USSR a year earlier. As a substitute for Northern Transylvania, which had been given to Hungary following theSecond Vienna Award, Hitler persuaded Antonescu in August 1941 to also take control of theTransnistria territory between theDniester and theSouthern Bug, which would also includeOdessa after its eventualfall in October 1941. Although the Romanian administration set up a civil government, theTransnistria Governorate, the Romanian state had not yet formally incorporated Transnistria into its administrative framework by the time it was retaken by Soviet troops in early 1944.
Romanian armies advanced far into the Soviet Union during 1941 and 1942 before being involved in the disaster at theBattle of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942–43.Petre Dumitrescu, one of Romania's most important generals, was commander of the Third Army at Stalingrad. In November 1942, theGerman Sixth Army was briefly put at Dumitrescu's disposal during a German attempt to relieve the Third Army following the devastating SovietOperation Uranus. Prior to the Soviet counteroffensive at Stalingrad, the Antonescu government considered a war with Hungary over Transylvania an inevitability after the expected victory over the Soviet Union.[272]
On 23 August 1944, with the Red Army penetrating German defenses during theJassy–Kishinev Offensive, KingMichael I of Romania led a successful coup against the Axis with support from opposition politicians, most of the army andCommunist-led civilians.[281] Michael I, who was initially considered to be not much more than a figurehead, was able to successfully depose the Antonescu dictatorship. The King then offered a non-confrontational retreat to German ambassadorManfred von Killinger. But the Germans considered the coup "reversible" and attempted to turn the situation around by military force. The RomanianFirst,Second (forming), and what little was left of theThird and theFourth Armies (one corps) were under orders from the King to defend Romania against any German attacks. King Michael offered to put the Romanian Army, which at that point had a strength of nearly 1,000,000 men,[282] on the side of theAllies. Stalin immediately recognized the king and the restoration of the conservative Romanian monarchy.[283]
In a radio broadcast to the Romanian nation and army on the night of 23 August King Michael issued a cease-fire,[281] proclaimed Romania's loyalty to the Allies, announced the acceptance of an armistice (to be signed on September 12)[284] offered by Great Britain, the United States, and theUSSR, and declared war on Germany.[285] The coup accelerated theRed Army's advance into Romania, but did not avert a rapid Soviet occupation and capture of about 130,000 Romanian soldiers, who were transported to the Soviet Union, where many perished in prison camps. The armistice was signed three weeks later on 12 September 1944, on terms virtually dictated by the Soviet Union.[281] Under the terms of the armistice, Romania announced its unconditional surrender[286] to the USSR and was placed under occupation of the Allied forces with the Soviet Union as their representative, in control of media, communication, post, and civil administration behind the front.[281] Some attribute the postponement of a formal Allied recognition of thede facto change of orientation until 12 September (the date the armistice was signed in Moscow) to the complexities of the negotiations between the USSR and UK.[287]
During theMoscow Conference in October 1944Winston Churchill,Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, proposed anagreement toSoviet leaderJoseph Stalin on how to split upEastern Europe into spheres of influence after the war. The Soviet Union was offered a 90% share of influence in Romania.[288]
The Armistice Agreement of 12 September stipulated in Article 18 that "An Allied Control Commission will be established which will undertake until the conclusion of peace the regulation of and control over the execution of the present terms under the general direction and orders of the Allied (Soviet) High Command, acting on behalf of the Allied Powers". The Annex to Article 18 made clear that "The Romanian Government and their organs shall fulfil all instructions of the Allied Control Commission arising out of the Armistice Agreement." The Agreement also stipulated that theAllied Control Commission would have its seat inBucharest. In line with Article 14 of the Armistice Agreement, twoRomanian People's Tribunals were set up to try suspected war criminals.[289]
As the country declared war on Germany on the night of 23 August 1944, border clashes between Hungarian and Romanian troops erupted almost immediately. On 24 August, German troops attempted to seize Bucharest and suppress Michael's coup, but were repelled by the city's defenses, which received some support from the United States Air Force. Other Wehrmacht units in the country suffered severe losses: remnants of the Sixth Army retreating west of thePrut River were cut off and destroyed by the Red Army, which was now advancing at an even greater speed, while Romanian units attacked German garrisons at thePloiești oilfields, forcing them to retreat to Hungary. The Romanian Army captured over 50,000 German prisoners around this time, who were later surrendered to the Soviets.[290]
In early September, Soviet and Romanian forces entered Transylvania and captured the towns ofBrașov andSibiu while advancing toward theMureș River. Their main objective wasCluj (Cluj-Napoca), a city regarded as the historical capital of Transylvania. However, theSecond Hungarian Army was present in the region, and together with theEighth German Army engaged the Allied forces on 5 September in what was to become theBattle of Turda, which lasted until 8 October and resulted in heavy casualties for both sides. Also around this time, the Hungarian Army carried out its last independent offensive action of the war, penetratingArad County in western Romania. Despite initial success, a number of ad hoc Romanian cadet battalions managed to stop the Hungarian advance at theBattle of Păuliș, and soon a combined Romanian-Soviet counterattack overwhelmed the Hungarians, who gave ground and evacuatedArad itself on 21 September.
TheRomanian Army ended the war fighting against theWehrmacht alongside the Red Army in Transylvania, Hungary,Yugoslavia, Austria and theProtectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, from August 1944 until theend of the war in Europe. In May 1945, theFirst andFourth armies took part in thePrague Offensive. The Romanian Army incurred heavy casualties fighting Nazi Germany. Of some 538,000 Romanian soldiers who fought against the Axis in 1944–45, some 167,000 were killed, wounded or went missing.[291]
Under the1947 Treaty of Paris,[292] the Allies did not acknowledge Romania as a co-belligerent nation but instead applied the term "ally of Hitlerite Germany" to all recipients of the treaty's stipulations. Like Finland, Romania had to pay $300 million to the Soviet Union as war reparations. However, the treaty specifically acknowledged that Romania switched sides on 24 August 1944, and therefore "acted in the interests of all the United Nations". As a reward, Northern Transylvania was, once again, recognized as an integral part of Romania, but the border with the USSR and Bulgaria was fixed at its state in January 1941, restoring the pre-Barbarossa status quo (withone exception). Following thedissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Eastern territories became part of Ukraine and theRepublic of Moldova.
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In Romania proper,Soviet occupation following World War II facilitated the rise of theCommunist Party as the main political force, leading ultimately to the forced abdication of the King and the establishment of a single-partypeople's republic in 1947.
Romania was proclaimed apeople's republic[293][294] and remained under military and economic control of the Soviet Union until the late 1950s. During this period, Romania's resources were drained by the "SovRom" agreements; mixed Soviet-Romanian companies were established to mask the Soviet Union's looting of Romania.[295][296][297]
Romania's leader from 1948 to his death in 1965 wasGheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, theFirst Secretary of theRomanian Workers' Party. The Communist regime was formalized with theconstitution of 13 April 1948. On 11 June 1948, all banks and large businesses werenationalized. This started the process of theRomanian Communist Party to collectivize the Romania's resources including agriculture.
In 1946 and 1947, several high-ranking members in the pro-Axis government were executed as war criminals, primarily for their involvement in the Holocaust and for attacking the Soviet Union. Antonescu himself was executed 1 June 1946. Once the Communist government became more entrenched, the number of arrests increased. All strata of society were involved, but particularly targeted were the prewar elites, such as intellectuals, and anybody who could potentially form the nucleus of anti-Communist resistance. According to figures, in the years between 1945 and 1964, 73,334 people were arrested.[298] Between 60,000[299] and 80,000 political prisoners were detained.[300][301][302][303][304]
Gheorghiu-Dej attained greater independence for Romania from the Soviet Union by persuading Soviet First SecretaryNikita Khrushchev to withdraw troops from Romania in April 1958.[305] After the negotiated withdrawal of Soviet troops, Romania under the new leadership ofNicolae Ceaușescu started to pursue independent policies, including thecondemnation of theSoviet-led 1968 invasion ofCzechoslovakia—Romania being the onlyWarsaw Pact country not to take part in the invasion—the continuation ofdiplomatic relations with Israel after theSix-Day War of 1967 (again, the only Warsaw Pact country to do so), and the establishment of economic (1963) and diplomatic (1967) relations withWest Germany.[306] Romania's close ties withArab countries and thePalestine Liberation Organization (PLO) allowed to play a key role in the Israel-Egypt and Israel-PLO peace processes by intermediating the visit of Egyptian presidentSadat to Israel.[307]
Between 1977 and 1981, Romania'sforeign debt sharply increased from US$3 to US$10 billion[308] and the influence of international financial organizations such as theIMF and theWorld Bank grew, in conflict with Ceaușescu'sautarchic policies.[citation needed] Ceaușescu's independent foreign policy meant leaders of Western nations leaders were slow to criticize Romania's government which, by the late 1970s, had become arbitrary, capricious and harsh.[citation needed] The Romanian economy grew quickly through foreign credit but this was replaced with austerity and political repression, which became more draconian through the 1980s.[citation needed]
Ceaușescu eventually initiated a project of full reimbursement of the foreign debt; to achieve this, he imposedausterity policies that impoverished Romanians and exhausted the nation's economy. The project was completed in 1989, shortly before his overthrow. He greatly extended the authority of theSecuritate (secret police) and imposed acult of personality, leading to a dramatic decrease in Ceaușescu's popularity and culminating in his overthrow and execution in the bloodyRomanian Revolution inDecember 1989.[309]
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TheRomanian Revolution resulted in more than 1,100 deaths inTimișoara andBucharest, and brought the fall of Ceaușescu and the end of the Communist regime in Romania.[310] After a week of unrest in Timișoara, amass rally summoned in Bucharest in support of Ceaușescu on 21 December 1989 turned hostile. The Ceaușescu couple fled Bucharest by helicopter but ended up in the custody of the army.[310]
After beingtried and convicted by akangaroo court forgenocide and other crimes, they were executed on 25 December 1989.[311]
Ion Iliescu, a former Communist Party official marginalized by Ceaușescu, attained national recognition as the leader of an impromptu governing coalition, theNational Salvation Front (FSN) that proclaimed the establishment of democracy and civil liberties on 22 December 1989.[citation needed] The Communist Party was initially outlawed by Iliescu, but he soon revoked that decision; as a consequence, Communism is not outlawed in Romania today. However, Ceaușescu's most controversial measures, such as bans on abortion and contraception, were among the first laws to be changed after the Revolution.[citation needed]
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After the fall of Ceaușescu, theNational Salvation Front (FSN) led by Iliescu introduced partial multi-party democratic and free market measures.[312][313] A university professor with family roots in the Communist Party,Petre Roman, was named prime minister of the new government, which mostly consisted of former communist officials. The government initiated modest free market reforms. Several major political parties of the pre-war era, theNational Christian Democrat Peasant's Party (PNȚ-CD), theNational Liberal Party (PNL), and theRomanian Social Democratic Party (PSDR), were reconstituted.[314]
From April to June 1990, a series of anti-government protests known as theGolaniad took place in Bucharest'sUniversity Square, against the FSN consisting of several former Communists andSecuritate officials.[315] General elections were held on 20 May 1990, the first free ones since1937.[316] Benefitting from the FSN's tight media control, Iliescu won the presidency with 85% of the vote, whilst the FSN secured two-thirds of the seats in Parliament. Although most protesters left University Square after the elections, a minority deemed the results illegitimate and demanded the exclusion from political life of the former high-ranking Communist Party members. The peaceful demonstrations degenerated into violence; some of the protesters attacked the police headquarters, national television station, and the Foreign Ministry. After the police failed to bring the demonstrators to order, Iliescu called on the "men of good will" to defend the state institutions in Bucharest.[317][318]
Various worker groups from Romania's industrial platforms responded, some of them engaged in altercations with the protesters. The coal miners of theJiu Valley, thousands of whom arrived in Bucharest on 14 June, were the most visible and politically influential. According to the miners, most of theviolence was perpetrated by government agents who were agitating the crowds.[315][319] Some of the counter-protesters attacked the headquarters and private residences of opposition leaders. Later parliamentary inquiries showed members of the government intelligence services were involved in the instigation and manipulation of both the protesters and the miners, and in June 1994, a Bucharest court found two former Securitate officers guilty of ransacking and stealing $100,000 from the house of a leading opposition politician.[315][319] Roman's government fell in late September 1991, when the miners returned to Bucharest to demand higher salaries.[citation needed] Atechnocrat,Theodor Stolojan, was appointed to head an interim government until new elections could be held.[citation needed]
In thefirst referendum in post-Decembrist Romania, anew constitution was adopted in 1991,[320] being revised in2003.[321] In2018, 93.4% of the electorate voted in favor of amending the constitution definition of family in order to prohibitsame-sex marriage, although the change was not implemented due to an only 21% voter turnout.[322]
In March 1992, the FSN split into two groups: theDemocratic National Front (FDSN), led by Iliescu and theDemocratic Party (PD), led by Roman. Iliescu won the presidential elections in September 1992 and his FDSN won the general elections held at the same time.With parliamentary support from the nationalistRomanian National Unity Party (PUNR),Greater Romania Party (PRM), and the ex-communist Socialist Workers' Party (PSM), a new government was formed in November 1992 under Prime MinisterNicolae Văcăroiu. The FDSN changed its name toParty of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) in July 1993.[323]
The subsequent disintegration of the National Salvation Front (FSN) produced the Party of Social Democracy in Romania (PDSR) (laterSocial Democratic Party, PSD), theDemocratic Party (PD),[324] and the ApR (Alliance for Romania).[325] The PDSR party governed Romania from 1990 until 1996 through several coalitions and governments with Iliescu as head of state.[citation needed]Emil Constantinescu of theDemocratic Convention (CDR) won the second round of the 1996 presidential election and replaced Iliescu as head of state.[326] The PDSR won the largest number of seats but failed to form a viable coalition. Constituent parties of the CDR joined the Democratic Party (PD) and theDemocratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR/RMDSZ) to form a centrist coalition government, holding 60% of the seats.[327] This coalition implemented several critical reforms. The new coalition government, under prime ministerVictor Ciorbea remained in office until March 1998, whenRadu Vasile (PNȚ-CD) took over as prime minister. The former governor of the National Bank,Mugur Isărescu, eventually replacedRadu Vasile as head of the government.[citation needed]
The2000 election brought Iliescu's PDSR, known asSocial Democratic Party (PSD) after the merger with the PSDR, back to power.[324] Iliescu won a third term as the country's president.Adrian Năstase became the prime minister of the newly formed government.[328]
In 2004,Traian Băsescu was elected president with an electoral coalition calledJustice and Truth Alliance (DA).[329] The government was formed by a larger coalition which also included theConservative Party (PC) and theDemocratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR).[330]
Post–Cold War Romania developed closer ties with Western Europe, eventually joiningNATO in 2004 and theEU in 2007.[331][332]
General elections took place on in2004, with the joint PNL-PD candidateTraian Băsescu winning the second round with 51% of the vote.[329][333][334]
Then-PNL leader,Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu was assigned the task of building a coalition government without the PSD. In December 2004, the new coalition government (PD, PNL, PUR —Romanian Humanist Party—which eventually changed its name toRomanian Conservative Party/PC and UDMR/RMDSZ—was sworn in under Prime Minister Tăriceanu.[335]
Following the free travel agreement and politic of the post–Cold War period, as well as hardship of the life in the post 1990s economic depression, Romania has anincreasingly large diaspora. The main emigration targets have been Italy, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States and Hungary.[336]
In 2009, PresidentTraian Băsescu wasre-elected as the President.[337]
In January 2012, Romania experiencednational protests, which were the first significant popular uprising in the country since 1991. They were triggered by proposed health reforms, and were further motivated by wider disillusionment with austerity and the government.[338][339]
Klaus Iohannis was elected president in2014,[340] being re-elected in2019,[341] and serving until his resignation in 2025 in the aftermath of the annulment of the2024 presidential election in which he did not stand.[342]
The2020 parliamentary election, which took place during theCOVID-19 pandemic, resulted in PNL senatorFlorin Cîțu forminga center-right coalition consisting of two other parties.[343] Following the2021 political crisis, agrant coalition was agreed upon between the PNL and PSD in which they would rule Romania together for or the next seven years. Thus, it was agreed that theprime minister of Romania and several other important ministries would rotate every year and a half.Nicolae Ciucă of PNL consequently succeeded Cîțu in November 2021,[344] himself being succeeded by PSD leaderMarcel Ciolacu in June 2023.[345]
In the2024 presidential election, Independent candidateCălin Georgescu achieved a surprise win in the first round. However, theConstitutional Court annulled the election results, citingalleged Russian meddling. The cancellation led towidespread protests,criticism by the United States, andIlie Bolojan becoming acting president in February 2025 as Iohannis resigned to political pressure.[346]
On 1 January 2025, Romania joined theSchengen Area.[347]
Battle of Sarmizegetusa (Sarmizegetuza), AD 105. During Trajan's reign Rome achieved victory over the Dacians. The first important confrontation between the Romans and the Dacians took place in the year AD 87 and was initiated by Domitian. Thepraetorian prefectCornelius led five or six legions across the Danube on a bridge of ships and advanced towardsBanat (in Romania). The Romans were surprised by a Dacian attack at Tapae (near the village ofBucova, in Romania). Legion V Alaude was crushed and Cornelius Fuscus was killed. The victorious general was originally known asDiurpaneus (see Manea, p.109), but after this victory he was called Decebalus (the brave one).
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link){{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Several migrating peoples lived alongside the local populations, such as the Gothic Empire (Oium) (from 271 until 378), the Hunnish Empire (until 435), the Avar Empire and the Slavs (during the 6th century)
Second, another son, Isperikh (or Asparukh) moved into what is now Bessarabia, and then in the 670s crossed the Danube into Bulgaria. He conquered the Slavic tribes there and eventually established a Bulgarian state.
The Bulgars following Kubrat's third son, Asparukh, migrated to the west, across the Dnieper and Dniester rivers. They settled in an area close to the Danube Delta named Onglos.
...date kuvrat's death between 650 and 665...
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This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.This seven-year period can be characterized as a gradualistic, often ambiguous transition away from communist rule towards democracy.
Responding to an emergency appeal by President Ion Iliescu, thousands of miners from northern Romania descended on the capital city today
The most dramatic example was then President-elect Iliescu's call on 13 June for miners to come to Bucharest to restore order
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