ROMANIA
Location:
South-East Europe, if one doesn't take into consideration the European part of the Russian Federation. However, if this is taken into account, one can easily notice that Romania is located in Central-South Europe, as there are approximately as many kilometers to the eastern border of the continent as there are to its western edge. (Map of Europe)
Neighbors:
Bulgaria - to the south
Serbia - to the south west
Hungary - to the north west
Ukraine - to the north and a bit of the eastern border
Republic of Moldova - to the north east and east
Black Sea - to the east
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Area:
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Boundaries:
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Climate:
Temperate; combination of excessive-continental and subtropical Mediterranean climate
People:
Population: 22,355,551
Nationality: Romanians
Ethnic groups: Romanian 89.5%, Hungarian 6.6%, Roma 2.5%, Ukrainian 0.3%, German 0.3%, Russian 0.2%, Turkish 0.2%, other 0.4%
Language: Romanian - one of the remaining Latin languages of the world. Very similar to Italian. Similar to French.
Literacy: 98.4%
Government: Republic
Capital city: Bucharest
Short history:
Even though there are those who contest the Latin background of Romanians, by large, Romanian people are descendants of the Roman colonists in the province of Dacia, which had been conquered and annexed to the Roman Empire by the Emperor Trajan in the first century AD, and of the semi-barbarian Geto-Dacians, which had inhabited the land prior to Trajanian invasion. The genesis of the Romanian people is closely interlinked with its Christianity. The spreading of Christianity in the Roman province was simultaneous with the achievement of its Latinization.
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Geto-Dacian King Decebal |
Roman Emperor Trajan |
Romanians maintained their Latin and Christian identity, in spite of successive barbarian invasions of Europe. Some of these people who have settled among Romanians, have been assimilated and latinized.
Romanians have fought many wars with the Ottoman Empire, throughout the Middle Ages. Despite successive Ottoman attempts to convert Romanians to Islam, their struggle has been unsuccessful. Romanian kings and princes of various provinces (voievodate) would rather die than convert to the religion of their oppressors.
Contrary to what one might expect, Romanians have retained a state of semi-independence from the Ottoman Empire. While surrounding nations had to bow down to Ottoman pressure, Romanians succeeded into maintaining local kings and princes, as opposed to rulers appointed by the empire. It is true that many times, Romanian Principalities of Wallachia (south) and Moldova (north-east) would pay tribute to the Sultan, but it is equally valid that they would also fight the empire, whenever they felt the conditions were right.
Meanwhile, the third Romanian principality, Transylvania had a slightly different course. It struggled against Ottoman pressure; nonetheless it had to fight against western empires and kingdoms as well. Eventually, it had become a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Romanian Principalities under Turkish suzerainty had achieved complete autonomy in 1856 and united in 1859 under the name of Romania. The country gained full independence in 1878.
During the First World War, Romanian kingdom joined the Allied Powers. Answering the call of their brethren in Transylvania, who had been oppressed for centuries by the tyrannical Austro-Hungarian Empire, Romanian armies crossed the Carpathians into the province. At the end of the Great War, Transylvanian people had voted and decided to join the Kingdom.
During the Second World War, Romania fought together with Germany against Russia. However, following an internal coup d'état Romanian armies joint the Allies against Nazi Germany.
At the end of WWII, Soviet armies helped unpopular local communists to consolidate their power and achieve complete control of the nation.
In 1989, following the bloody Romanian Revolution, the country finally turned back on its path towards democracy.
[Roman Empire on modern map] [Roman Empire in AD 116] [Roman Empire - province of Dacia] [Barbarian Invasions] [Ottoman Empire - 1683] [Historic Provinces of Romania] [South-Eastern Europe - 1700] [WWI - 1914] [Europe 1919] [WWII - 1939-1942] [WWII - 1942-1945]
