From around the 7th century BC the Greeks established trading colonies along the Black Sea at Callatis (Mangalia), Tomis (Constanţa) and Histria. In the 1st century BC, a strong state was formed by indigenous Dacian tribes, led by King Burebista, to counter the growing might in the area of the Roman Empire. The last Dacian king, Decebal (r AD 87–106), consolidated this state but was unable to stave off attacks led by the Roman emperor Trajan between AD 101 and 102, and Dacia became a Roman province.
The slave-owning Romans mixed with the conquered tribes to form a Daco-Roman people who spoke Latin. The reflected glory of Rome was short lived when, after increasing Goth attacks in AD 271, Emperor Aurelian (r 270–75) decided to withdraw the Roman legions to south of the Danube River, meaning Rome governed here for fewer than 175 years. Romanised peasants remained in Dacia and mixed with the locals; hence the Roman heritage of contemporary Romanians.
The name ‘Romania’ supposedly comes from Romanus (Latin for ‘Roman’) but others say it could also be from rumân (dependent peasant).
Medieval Principalities
Waves of migrating peoples, including the Goths, Huns, Avars, Slavs, Bulgars and Magyars, swept across the territory from the 4th to the 10th centuries, each one leaving its mark on the local culture, language and gene pool. By the 10th century a fragmented feudal system ruled by a military class appeared. Around this point, the Magyars (Hungarians) expanded into Transylvania, and by the 13th century the area had become an autonomous principality under the Hungarian crown. Following devastating Tatar raids on Transylvania in 1241 and 1242, King Bela IV of Hungary persuaded German Saxons to settle in Transylvania with free land and tax incentives. He also granted the Székelys – a Hungarian ethnic group who had earlier migrated to the region with the Magyars – autonomy in return for their military support.
In the 14th century, Prince Basarab I (r 1310–52) united various political formations in the region south of the Carpathians to create the first Romanian principality – Wallachia, dubbed Ţara Românească (Romanian Land). Its indigenous peasantry became known as Vlachs. Around this period, a similar process of state formation was underway along the eastern and northern sides of the Carpathians that would eventually form a second Romanian principality: Moldavia. In the early days, these two principalities served mainly to buffer the Hungarian Kingdom from the growing Ottoman Empire, but the two would eventually form the nucleus of a future Romanian state. They were both ruled by a prince who was also the military leader. Most noblemen at this time were Hungarian; the peasants were Romanians.
Lucian Boia’s Romania (2004) is a rare account of the country written by a local; the philosophical, even playful, overview covers various viewpoints about the sometimes debated truths behind the origin of Romania.
In 1462 Vlad the Impaler lived up to his name, skewering 20,000 Turkish soldiers outside the city walls of Târgovişte.
WALLACHIA UNDER VLAD'S RULE
If you were a Boyar (nobleman), Saxon merchant, unchaste woman or Turk during the time of Vlad Ţepeş (r 1448, 1456–62, 1476), your life hung in the balance. Throughout his reign, Vlad finessed his torture methods – which included flaying, strangulation, burning, blinding and amputation – to a frightening degree. Legend has it that as a test of respect to him, a gold cup could be placed in any town square, and while anyone could drink freely of its contents, the cup had to remain. Not surprisingly, it never strayed.
In 1462 the famous 'Forest of the Impaled' incident occurred, which immortalised Vlad's infamy in history books. In a daring bid to drive out Turkish invaders from the Danube River valley, Vlad burnt the crops and poisoned the wells, while his soldiers, disguised as Turks, snuck into the Turkish camp to surprise them. To add gore to injury, when the Turkish sultan marched on Ţepeş' city, Târgovişte, he discovered 20,000 of his men impaled outside the city walls in a forest of flesh. The wooden stakes were driven through the victims' anuses, emerging from the body just below the shoulder, in such a way as not to pierce any vital organs. This ensured at least 48 hours of unimaginable suffering before death.
Tellingly, it transpires that many of Vlad's youthful years were spent in a Turkish prison, where he was allegedly raped by members of the Turkish court. Revenge? For an individual soaked in others' blood, it seems fitting he himself was beheaded in 1476, his head preserved in honey and taken to the sultan in Constantinople.
Ottoman Expansion
Throughout the 14th and 15th centuries Wallachia and Moldavia offered strong resistance against the Ottoman’s northward expansion. Mircea cel Bătrân (Mircea the Old; r 1386–1418), Vlad Ţepeş (‘The Impaler’; r 1448, 1456–62, 1476) and Ştefan cel Mare (Stephen the Great; r 1457–1504) were legendary figures in this struggle. When the Turks conquered Hungary in the 16th century, Transylvania became a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, retaining its autonomy by paying tribute to the sultan, as did Wallachia and Moldavia. In 1600 these three principalities were briefly united at Alba Iulia under the leadership of Mihai Viteazul (Michael the Brave; r 1593–1601), who shortly after was defeated by a joint Habsburg-Transylvanian noble army and beheaded.
Following the defeat of the Turks in the 1687 Battle of Mohács in Hungary, the area of Transylvania came under Habsburg rule. Large pieces of Wallachia and Moldavia, however, remained under Ottoman control, though both areas retained some autonomy.
The 18th century marked the start of the Transylvanian Romanians’ fight for political emancipation. Romanian peasants constituted around 60% of the population, yet continued to be mostly excluded from political life. In 1784, three serfs named Horea, Cloşca and Crişan led a major uprising against Hungarian rule. The uprising was quashed and two of the instigators were executed; nevertheless the revolt was not without some success. In 1785, Habsburg Emperor Joseph II abolished serfdom in the then-Hungarian province of Transylvania.
The 17th century in Wallachia, under the reign of Constantin Brâncoveanu (r 1688–1714), brought a period of prosperity characterised by a cultural and artistic renaissance. In 1775 part of Moldavia’s northern territory – Bucovina – was annexed by Austria-Hungary. This was followed in 1812 by the loss of its eastern territory – Bessarabia (most of which is in present-day Moldova) – to Russia. After the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–29, Wallachia and Moldavia became Russian protectorates while remaining nominally in the Ottoman Empire.
Romanians are proud the Turks never completely conquered their land, but in quiet tones some admit that Bucharest wasn’t even on the way between Constantinople and the Ottomans' main goal, Vienna.
Best Places to Catch the Ghost of Vlad Ţepeş
Ţepeş' birthplace in Sighişoara
Bran Castle, where he was allegedly interned
Poienari Citadel, his high-altitude stronghold
Târgovişte, where he had 20,000 Turks impaled
Snagov Monastery, his reputed burial site
ŞTEFAN CEL MARE
It’s a rare day when you don't hear the name ‘Ştefan cel Mare’ (Stephen the Great; r 1457–1504) somewhere: Moldavia's greatest prince adorns squares, boulevards, streets, statues and landmarks nationwide. During his reign, Ştefan beat back Polish, Hungarian and Ottoman forces, his resistance to the Ottomans winning him widespread admirers, including Pope Sixtus IV, who declared Ştefan an Athleta Christi (Champion of Christ). Despite allegedly fathering over 20 illegitimate children, Ştefan's heroic deeds and church building won him canonisation by the Romanian Orthodox Church, as ‘The Right-Believing Voivod Stephen the Great and the Saint’.
Although Ştefan is often overshadowed by his infamous cousin, Wallachian prince Vlad Ţepeş (Vlad the Impaler), his battle record (34–2) speaks for itself, and he did erect 44 churches and monasteries – several now Unesco World Heritage sites. Both in battle and in church building, the prince kept up Romanian spirits and traditions, preventing the Ottomans from disrupting traditional cultures as they did almost everywhere else in the Balkans. Without Ştefan, Europe might well have turned out differently.
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In the 19th century, the Austrian-led Habsburg Empire came under threat from within by the growing might of individual nations within the empire – above all from nationalist Hungarians agitating for their own state. To quell the rebellion, the Habsburgs struck a deal with Transylvania’s Romanians, promising them national recognition in return for joining forces with them against the Hungarian revolutionaries. Thus Transylvanian Romanians fought against and enacted revenge upon the Hungarians in the province for what was seen as centuries of mistreatment. Russian intervention finally settled the issue in favour of the Habsburgs and ended a revolution that had shocked all sides in its viciousness.
In the aftermath, the region fell under the direct rule of Austria-Hungary from Budapest. Ruthless ‘Magyarisation’ followed: Hungarian was established as the official language and any Romanian who dared oppose the regime was severely punished. Austria-Hungary would rule the region uncontested until WWI.
By contrast, Wallachia and Moldavia prospered. In 1859, with French support, Alexandru Ioan Cuza was elected to the thrones of Moldavia and Wallachia, which created a national state known as the United Romanian Principalities on 11 December 1861. This was renamed Romania in 1862. The reform-minded Cuza was forced to abdicate in 1866 by mutinous army officers, and his place was taken by the Prussian prince Carol I. With Russian assistance, Romania declared independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877. In 1881 it was declared a kingdom and on 22 May 1881 Carol I was crowned the first king of Romania.
WWI & Greater Romania
Through shrewd political manoeuvring, Romania greatly benefited from WWI. Despite having formed a secret alliance with Austria-Hungary in 1883, it began WWI as a neutral state. In 1916 the government, under pressure from the Western allies, declared war on Austria-Hungary, with the ultimate prize being to annex Transylvania.
The defeat of Austria-Hungary in 1918 paved the way for the formation of modern Romania. Through settlements and treaties after the war, the country gained Bessarabia, the area east of the Prut River that had been part of Moldavia until 1812, part of Bucovina that had been in Austro-Hungarian hands since 1775, part of the Banat, and eventually Transylvania. By the end of WWI, Romania had more than doubled its territory (from 120,000 to 295,000 sq km) and population (from 7.5 to 16 million). The acquisition of the new lands was ratified in 1920 under the Treaty of Trianon – a settlement that has never rested easily with Hungary.
The US Holocaust Memorial Museum paints a harrowing portrait of anti-Semitic horror in Romania during WWII, chronicling how the state used various brutal methods – aside from organised murder – to rid itself of Roma and Jews.
Carol II & the Iron Guard
In the years leading up to WWII, Romania sought an alliance with France and Britain, and joined Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia in the Little Entente. Romania also signed a Balkan Pact with Yugoslavia, Turkey and Greece, and later established diplomatic relations with the USSR. These efforts were weakened by the Western powers’ appeasement of Hitler and by Romania’s own King Carol II, who succeeded his father Ferdinand I to the throne. Extreme right-wing parties opposed to a democratic regime emerged, notably the anti-Semitic League of the National Christian Defence, which consequently gave birth to the Legion of the Archangel Michael in 1927. This notorious breakaway faction, better known as the fascist Iron Guard, was led by Corneliu Codreanu, and by 1935 it dominated the political scene.
Finding himself unable to manipulate the political parties, Carol II declared a royal dictatorship in February 1938. All political parties were dissolved and laws were passed to halve the size of the electorate. Between 1939 and 1940 alone, Romania had no fewer than nine different governments. In 1939 Carol II clamped down on the Iron Guard, which he had supported until 1937. Codreanu and 13 other legionaries were arrested, sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment and then assassinated. In revenge for their leader’s death, Iron Guard members murdered Carol II’s prime minister, Armand Călinescu, leading to the butchering of 252 Iron Guard members by Carol II’s forces. In accordance with the king’s wishes, the corpses were strung up in public squares. Only with the collapse of the Axis powers at the end of WWII did the Iron Guard disintegrate.
Romania, formally allied to the West, was isolated after the fall of France in May 1940, and in June 1940 Greater Romania collapsed in accordance with the Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact of 1939. The Soviet Union re-occupied Bessarabia. On 30 August 1940, Romania was forced to cede northern Transylvania to Nazi-ally Hungary by order of Germany and fascist Italy. In September 1940 Southern Dobrogea was given to Bulgaria. Not surprisingly, the loss of territories sparked widespread popular demonstrations. Even Carol II realised he could not quash the increasing mass hysteria and on the advice of one of his councillors, the king called in General Marshall Ion Antonescu. To defend the interests of the ruling classes, Antonescu forced King Carol II to abdicate in favour of the king’s 19-year-old son Michael. Antonescu then imposed a fascist dictatorship, with himself as conducător (supreme leader).
On Clowns (1993) is a cutting rant on Romanian dictatorship by Jewish author Norman Manea (b 1936), who was deported to the Transdniestr concentration camp as a child in 1941.
Fifty years after his death in 1953, Carol II’s remains were transferred back to Romania from Portugal, where he had died. He was interred in Curtea de Argeş.
Romanian–Nazi Alliance
German troops were allowed to enter Romania in October 1940, and in June 1941 Antonescu joined Hitler’s anti-Soviet war. The results of this Romanian–Nazi alliance were gruesome, with over 200,000 Romanian Jews – mainly from newly regained Bessarabia – and 40,000 Roma deported to transit camps in Transdniestr and later murdered. After the war, Antonescu was turned over to the Soviet authorities who condemned him to death in a show trial.
As the war went badly and the Soviet army approached Romania’s borders, on 23 August 1944 an opportunistic Romania suddenly changed sides again, joining the Soviet and Western alliance, by capturing the 53,159 German soldiers stationed in Romania and declaring war on Nazi Germany. By this dramatic act, Romania salvaged its independence and shortened the war. By 25 October the combined Romanian and Soviet armies had driven the Hungarian and German forces out of Transylvania, replacing the valued territory back under Romanian control. And the cost? About 500,000 Romanian soldiers died fighting for the Axis powers, and another 170,000 died after Romania joined the Allies.
Bucharest's Athénée Palace is a spectacular hotel, but this beautiful building was a warren of spies and informers during WWII. To get a first-person look, read the excellent Athene Palace by RG Waldeck, an American journalist who was there.
Romanian People's Republic
Of all the countries that burst forward into the mass-industrialised, communist experiment in the 20th century, Romania and Russia were the least prepared, both being overwhelmingly rural, agricultural countries. Prior to 1945 Romania’s Communist Party had no more than 1000 members. Its postwar ascendancy, which saw membership soar to 710,000 by 1947, was a consequence of backing from Moscow. The Soviet-engineered return of Transylvania greatly enhanced the prestige of the left-wing parties, which won the parliamentary elections in November 1946. A year later Prime Minister Petru Groza forced King Michael to abdicate (allegedly by holding the queen mother at gunpoint), the monarchy was abolished and a Romanian People’s Republic was proclaimed. The year 1948 saw a shift to collectivisation – the process by which industry was redesigned as a state farm, and villagers were ripped from their ancestral land and forced to live in dehumanising city high-rises.
A period of terror ensued in which all the prewar leaders, prominent intellectuals and suspected dissidents were imprisoned or interned in hard-labour camps. The most notorious prisons were in Piteşti, Gherla, Sighetu Marmaţiei and Aiud. Factories and businesses were nationalised, and in 1953 a new Slavicised orthography was introduced to obliterate all Latin roots of the Romanian language, while street and town names wer
e changed to honour Soviet figures. Braşov was renamed Oraşul Stalin. Romania’s loyalty to Moscow continued until Soviet troops withdrew in 1958, and after 1960 the country adopted an independent foreign policy under two ‘national’ communist leaders, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (leader from 1952 to 1965) and his protégé Nicolae Ceauşescu (leader from 1965 to 1989). By 1962 the communist state controlled 77% of Romania's land.
Ceauşescu famously refused to assist the Soviets in their 1968 armed ‘intervention’ in Czechoslovakia, his public condemnation earning him 'maverick' status in the West and more than US$1 billion in US-backed credits in the decade that followed. And when Romania condemned the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and participated in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games despite a Soviet-bloc boycott, Ceauşescu was officially decorated by Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II.
Ceauşescu & the Grand Delusion
It's all but impossible to fully appreciate how hard life became under the megalomaniacal 25-year dictatorship of Nicolae Ceauşescu and his wife Elena. Political freedom was verboten, as was freedom of the media (ownership of a typewriter could be punishable by death). TV and radio programs entirely revolved around the personality cult of their venerable leader; the brainwashing of the population even stretched its tentacles into schools. In the 1980s, in his attempts to eliminate a $10 billion foreign debt and impress the world, Ceauşescu exported Romania’s food while his own people were forced to ration even staple goods. Unless you were a high-ranking member of the Communist Party you had to queue for two hours for basics such as milk and potatoes, returning to a house where electricity was turned off to save energy.
Lonely Planet Romania & Bulgaria Page 43