Romania is an independent nation in Eastern Europe. With the capital city of Bucharest, Romania 2020 population is estimated at 19,237,702 according to countryaah. Romania has had historical conflicts with Hungary about Transylvania in the west and with Russia about Bessarabia in the east. Modern Romania was founded since the Principality of Moldova and Valakia merged in 1859. During World War I, Romania won Transylvania and Bessarabia and Bukovina in the north, but after World War II Romania lost the oil-rich Bessarabia and northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union.
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Romania has been inhabited by Indo-European peoples since the Stone Age. The first known residents were the Thracians, who lived by agriculture and livestock. The Thracians sought to expand their kingdom to the south and then came into conflict with the Romans who called them thugs. For Romania political system, please check computerminus.
In 106 AD, the roofs were defeated by the Roman emperor Trajan, who established a Roman province, Dacien (Dacia), in the area. The Romans exploited Dacien’s gold, copper and salt mines. A stream of Roman colonists moved there, giving rise to a Dako-Roman population. Under pressure from Germanic people who attacked the area from the north, the Romans were forced to evacuate Dacien in 271.
Over the next 1,000 years, the area was flooded by a variety of peoples. First came Goths followed by the Huns and the Germanic cheetahs. In the 500s and 600s, Avars, Serbs and Croats migrated in and somewhat later the Bulgarians arrived. During the 900s and 1000s, the nomad people spread their pet hunts in the area. They came from the east, as did the Kumanas in the 12th century and the Mongols in the 13th century. From the west, the Magyars (the Hungarians) migrated in the 900s. By the 11th century, they had taken control of Transylvania.
Under Ottoman and Russian rule
From the case of Dacien until the 13th century, there is little information about the Dakian-Roman population. Some scholars claim that they left Romania during the early Middle Ages and only returned in the 13th century. This direction is supported by Hungary, who has claimed that Transylvania was unpopulated when the Hungarians got there. The dominant view among historians, however, is the so-called continuity theory, which assumes that today’s Romanians are descendants of the Dako-Roman population and slaves from Transylvania, and that they remained in the area that today constitutes Romania for all the time it was crossed. by other people.
In the 13th and 13th centuries, the Romanians founded two principalities in the plains east and south of the Carpathians, Moldova and Valakiet. When the Ottoman Empire, which had its base in Turkey, spread throughout southeastern Europe during the 1400s and 1500s, Moldova and Valakia also came under Turkish rule. The rulers were never ruled directly by the rulers of Constantinople, but by local leaders who must, however, be approved by the Turkish sultan. The Romanians were forced to pay an annual tribute to the Sultan.
In the 17th century, Greeks were allowed by the Sultan to take over large land properties, and in the 18th century both princes were governed by Greeks, so-called fanariats. In the 18th century, expanding Russia also began to show increased interest in the areas. From 1711 to 1854, Russian troops occupied Romania eight times in their fight against the Ottoman Empire. In 1812, Russia occupied the eastern part of Moldova, Bessarabia, the central part of which forms most of present-day Moldova.
After an unsuccessful fanatic revolt against the Sultan in 1821, the Greeks were driven out of the Principality. This worried Russia, who feared that the Turks would thereby strengthen their position there. After the Russian-Turkish war of 1826-1828, Moldova and Valakia were ruled by a Russian governor for six years, but still remained part of the Ottoman Empire.
Modern Romania is founded
The Russian governor of Bucharest, Pavel Kiseleff, carried out a series of reforms and wrote the country’s first laws which gave the nobility the right to retain their privileges. The power of the landowners was strengthened and Romania became a major exporter of agricultural products, while the conditions of the farmers deteriorated.
In 1834, the Russian forces were withdrawn and, for the sake of Valakiet and Moldova, a period of self-government began. However, the Russian influence consisted, as did the Turkish supremacy.
In the 1830s, nationalist sentiments began to grow among Romanian students in Paris. When revolutionary currents spread across Europe in 1848, it led to nationalist uprisings in the two principalities. The uprising was crushed by Turkey and Russia together.
After the Crimean War (1853-1856), the great powers decided that the two principalities would be merged into one unit. In 1859, Alexandru Ioan Cuza was elected new joint prince.
In seven years, Cuza laid the foundation for modern Romania. He established Bucharest as the capital and gave the country the name Romania. Two universities were founded and four years of free and compulsory schooling were introduced. Cuza abolished the livelihood and many farm workers were allowed to buy the land they used.
The land reform became the fall of Cuza. He was overthrown in 1866 in a coup staged by the large landowners. As the successor of Cuza, a German prince, Karl von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was elected. Prince Karl drafted a constitution that guaranteed two-chamber kingdom day, but the political power remained limited to the great landowners.
The Kingdom of Romania is proclaimed
Turkey’s supremacy still existed formally but became increasingly weakened. Following the defeat of the Turks in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, Romania gained full independence. In 1881 the Kingdom of Romania was proclaimed and Prince Karl was crowned under the name Carol I.
The population grew and poverty increased. Time and again, the peasants revolted in protest against their miserable conditions. A major uprising in 1907 was fought with 10,000 to 11,000 casualties as a result.
Until the First World War, Transylvania was separated from Romania. Hungarian control had gradually diminished as a result of the spread of the Ottoman Empire. In 1526, Transylvania became a semi-independent principality ruled by Hungarian princes under Turkish supremacy. At the end of the 17th century, Transylvania was incorporated into the Habsburg Empire, which had its center in Vienna and which also included Hungary. When Hungary’s position was strengthened within the Habsburg Empire through the formation of the Austria-Hungary double monarchy in 1867, Transylvania ended up under Hungary.
Romania attacked Bulgaria in the short-lived Second Balkan War of 1913 to conquer Dobrudzja, a high plateau by the sea in the southeast. Part of the area went to Romania in the peace treaty that year. At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Romania was neutral. However, due to contradictions with Hungary regarding its policy towards the Romanians in Transylvania, Romania soon joined the entente powers (Britain, France and Russia) against Germany and Austria-Hungary.
Great war successes
King Carol I died in 1914 and was succeeded by his nephew Ferdinand who in 1916 declared war on Austria-Hungary. After initial adversity, Romania occupied Transylvania, Bessarabia and Bukovina at the end of the war. As a result, Romania’s area and population doubled. The new frontiers were established by the peace in Trianon in 1920.
During the First World War, universal suffrage for men had been introduced, which diminished the influence of conservative groups. During the interwar period, political life was dominated by the National Liberal Party (NLP; founded in 1876). A social democratic party had also been formed in the late 1800s. Its left wing broke out after the Russian Revolution and founded a Communist Party in 1921, but it was banned three years later.
In the agricultural country of Romania, the socialist movement remained weak. Instead, NLP’s main opponent was the National Peasant Party, which represented, among other things, the interests of small farmers and workers. The growing anti-Semitic and fascist sentiments during the interwar period also gave rise to the founding of right-wing extremist organizations.
Since King Ferdinand’s death in 1927, his grandson Mihai (Michael) became regent. Ferdinand’s own son Carol had been forced to resign the throne and flee the country after causing scandal by abandoning his wife to another woman. In 1930, however, Carol returned to Romania, taking under the name Carol II the royal power of Mihai, which was still in disarray.
The iron yard is formed
In 1930 the Järngardet anti-Semitic, fascist and nationalist movement was founded. The movement, led by Captain Corneliu Codreanu, conducted anti-Semitic campaigns, including in Bessarabia. At first Carol II cooperated with Järngardet but gradually the king himself began to feel threatened by the growing influence of the movement and in 1938 he let Codreanu die. The same year, the king introduced dictatorship and banned all political parties.
At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Romania declared itself neutral, but was forced by the Soviet Union and Germany into extensive land disasters. Bessarabia and northern Bukovina were transferred to the Soviet Union, much of northern Transylvania went to Hungary and Bulgaria regained southern Dobrudzja. This caused the Romanians to turn against Carol II, who was trying to get new support by appointing Conservative General Ion Antonescu as head of government in 1940.
However, the king was forced to abdicate. He was succeeded by Mihai, but the real power lay with Antonescu who ruled the country with dictatorial powers. Antonescu first allied himself with the Iron Guard, but the movement was soon forced to leave the government since Iron Guard staged violent persecution in the fall of 1940 by royalists and Jews across the country in an effort to seize power. At the same time, German troops invaded Romania, joining the Axis powers (Germany and Italy). German and Romanian soldiers finally crushed the undisciplined iron guardians in early 1941.
Major Romanian army forces participated actively in the summer 1941 attack on the Soviet Union. Romanian troops interned or killed over 200,000 Jews in the conquered areas. Most Jews in Transylvania were killed or deported while the majority of Jews in Romania survived the war. After the war, Romania regained Transylvania and Dobrudzja, but lost the oil-rich Bessarabia and northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union, which also required a large war damages.
