ranch of Thracians that inhabited Dacia (corresponding to modern Romania, Moldova and northern Bulgaria). The Dacian kingdom reached its maximum expansion during King Burebista, between 82BC - 44BC, and soon came under the scrutiny of the neighboring Roman Empire. After the assasination of Burebista, Dacia split into 4 or 5 smaller kingdoms, the Romans conquering Moesia by 29BC. The Dacian Wars, between 87AD - 106AD ended with the victory of the Romans, and the transforming of the core of the kingdom into the province of Roman Dacia.[19] Dacia was famed for its rich ore deposits, and especially gold and silver were plentiful.[20] Rome colonized Dacia Felix with colonists from allover the empire ("ex toto orbe Romano infinitas") .[21] This brought Vulgar Latin and started a period of intense romanization, that would give birth to proto-Romanian language.[22][23] Nevertheless, the attacks on the province by the Goths and the free dacian tribes of Carpi between 240AD - 256AD, at which date "Dacia was lost", Rome withdrew its administration from Dacia around 271 AD, thus making it the first province to be abandoned.[24][25] Several competing theories have been generated to explain the origin of modern Romanians. Linguistic and geo-historical analysis tend to indicate that Romanians have coalesced as a major ethnic group both South and North of the Danube.[26] For further discussion, see Origin of Romanians. Middle Ages Main articles: Romania in the Early Middle Ages and Romania in the Middle Ages Bran Castle was built in 1212, and became commonly known as Dracula's Castle after the myths that it was the home of Vlad III the Impaler After the Roman army and administration left Dacia, the territory was held by the Goths,[27] then, in the 4th century by Huns.[28] They were followed by the Gepids,[29][30] Avars,[31] Bulgars,[29] Pechenegs,[32] and Cumans.[33] The Slavs also settled this land during this period. In the Middle Ages, Romanians (Vlachs) lived in three principalities: Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania. Since the 11th century, Transylvania had been part of the Kingdom of Hungary with a largely autonomous status[34]; the decline in socio-economic status of the orthodox Romanians living in Transylvania as Universitas Valachorum, begun with the Decree of Turda - which allowed access to nobility only to catholics, and condemned Romanians as malefactors - issued by Louis I Anjou of Hungary in 1366, a few years after the Battle of Posada in which the Romanians from Wallachia defeated Charles I Anjou of Hungary. From 1438 Transylvania was governed by the Union of Three Nations formed by the Hungarian nobility, the ethnically Hungarian Székely and Germans. In 1526 the Ottoman Empire conquered southern and central Hungary, and Transylvania became part of the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom ruled by the Habsburgs. In 1571 the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom ceased to exist, and a semi-independent Principality of Transylvania came under Ottoman suzerainty [35]. From 1661 onwards Transylvania came under the rule of the Habsburg Empire.[36] Small Voivodeships with varying degrees of independence developed from the beginning of the 13th century, but only in the 14th century did the larger principalities of Wallachia (1310) and Moldavia (around 1352) consolidated enough to oppose the neighbouring Kingdom of Hungary, Polish kingdom, and the Ottoman Empire.[37][38] Basarab I, Mircea the Elder, Vlad III the Impaler in Wallachia, Alexander the Good, Stephen the Great in Moldavia, developed the romanian countries, and fought to maintain independence at a crossroad of empires. By 1541, the entire Balkan peninsula and the central part of Hungary became Ottoman provinces. In contrast, Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania, came under Ottoman suzerainty, but conserved a great degree of internal autonomy and, until the 18th century, some external independence. During this period these countries witnessed the slow disappearance of the feudal system; the distinguishment of rulers like Vasile Lupu and Dimitrie Cantemir in Moldavia, Matei Basarab and Constantin Brâncoveanu in Wallachia, John Hunyadi(Iancu de Hunedoara) and Gabriel Bethlen in Transylvania; the Phanariot Epoch; and the appearance of the Russian Empire as a political and military influence.[39] Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania united under the rule of Michael the Brave. In 1600, the principalities of Wallachia, Moldova and Transylvania were simultaneously headed by the prince of Wallachia Michael the Brave, Ban of Oltenia, but the unity dissolved after Mihai was killed, only one year later, by the soldiers of Habsburg army general Giorgio Basta. The rule of Mihai Viteazul is regarded in Romanian historiography as the first attempt to unite the three principalities and to lay down foundations of a single state in a territory comparable to today's Romania.[40] After his death, as vassal tributary states of the Ottoman Empire, Moldova and Wallachia had complete internal autonomy and external independence, which was finally lost in the 18th century. In 1699, Transylvania became a territory of the Habsburg Monarchy, following the Austrian victory over the Ottomans in the Great Turkish War. The Austrians, in their turn, rapidly expanded their empire: incorporating Oltenia (western part of Wallachia) in 1718, to return it in 1739, and occupying Bukovina (north-western part of Moldavia) in 1775. The Russian Empire occupying Bessarabia (eastern half of Moldavia) was occupied in 1812 by Russia. Independence and monarchy Main articles: Early Modern Romania, National awakening of Romania, Romanian Principalities, Romanian War of Independence, and Kingdom of Romania Territories inhabited by Romanians before WWI During the period of Austro-Hungarian rule in Transylvania, and Ottoman suzerainty over Wallachia and Moldavia, most Romanians were in the situation of being second-class citizens (or even non-citizens)[41] in a territory where they formed the majority of the population.[42][43] In some Transylvanian cities, such as Brasov (at that time the Transylvanian Saxon citadel of Kronstadt), Romanians were not even allowed to reside within the city walls.[44] After the failed 1848 Revolution, the Great Powers did not support the Romanians' expressed desire to officially unite in a single state, which forced Romania to proceed alone against the Ottomans. The electors in both Moldavia and Wallachia chose in 1859 the same person –Alexandru Ioan Cuza– as prince (Domnitor in Romanian).[45] Thus, Romania was created as a personal union, albeit a Romania that did not include Transylvania. There, the upper class and the aristocracy remained mainly Hungarian, and Romanian nationalism inevitably ran up against Hungarian in the late 19th century. As in the previous 900 years, Austria-Hungary, especially under the Dual Monarchy of 1867, kept the Hungarians firmly in control even in the parts of Transylvania where Romanians constituted a local majority. In a 1866 coup d'état, Cuza was exiled and replaced by Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, who became known as Prince Carol of Romania. During the Russo-Turkish War Romania fought on the Russian side,[46] in and in the 1878 Treaty of Berlin, Romania was recognized as an independent state by the Great Powers.[47][48] In return, Romania ceded three southern districts of Bessarabia to Russia and acquired Dobruja. In 1881, the principality was raised to a kingdom and Prince Carol became King Carol I. The 1878–1914 period was one of stability and progress for Romania. During the Second Balkan War, Romania joined Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Turkey against Bulgaria, and in the peace Treaty of Bucharest (1913) Romania gained Southern Dobrudja.[49] World Wars and Greater Romania (1916–1945) Main articles: Romanian Campaign (World War I), Greater Romania, and Romania during World War II Territorial changes of Romania since 1859 until present The Alba Iulia National Assembly, December 1, 1918 The first two years of the World War I saw a neutral Romania, as its nominal alliance with the Central Powers stated Romania was to oblige only in the event Austro-Hungarian Empire was attacked; while Romania's demands of recognition of its right to annex territories of Austria-Hungary with a Romanian populace were accepted by the Entente only in 1916 in the Treaty of Bucharest. The Romanian military campaign launched in august 1916 ended in defeat, with Central Powers capturing Bucharest and occupying Wallachia and Dobrudja, the Romanian Army and the Russian Imperial Army defending in Moldova until december 1917. The colapse of the Russian Empire during 1917 and the disbandment of its army left Romania isolated and surrounded on the eastern front, an armistice with the Central Powers being signed in december 1917. The National Council of the Moldavian Democratic Republic proclaimed union with Romania on april 1918. Between may and july 1918, The Treaty of Bucharest was underway between German Empire and Romania with harsh conditions for Romania, the Romanian king Ferdinand of Romania refusing to ratify it. The Hundred Days Offensive during the summer of 1918, meant the defeat of Germany and Austria-Hungary on the western and the Italian fronts, allowing Romania to renounce the treaty in October 1918. Romania re-entered the war on November 10, 1918. The next day, the Treaty of Bucharest was nullified by the terms of the Armistice of Compičgne. On November 15, 1918 Bukovina proclaimed union with Romania. The National Assembly of the Romanians of Transylvania proclaimed union with Romania on December 1, 1918. The ensuing Hungarian–Romanian War of 1919 led to the destruction of the Hungarian Soviet Republic. The Treaty of Trianon ratified in 1920, established Transylvania under sovereignty of Kingdom of Romania. The union of Bukovina with Romania was ratified in 1919 in the Treaty of Saint Germain [50], and the union of Bessarabia with Romania in 1920 by the Treaty of Paris.[51] Total Romanian World War I casualties from 1914 to 1918, military and civilian, within contemporary borders, were estimated at 748,000.[52] The Romanian expression România Mare (literal translation "Great Romania", but more commonly rendered "Greater Romania") generally refers to the Romanian state in the interwar period, and by extension, to the territory Romania covered at the time (see map). Romania achieved at that time its greatest territorial extent (almost 300,000 km2/120,000 sq mi),[53][53]. Romanian Army tanks entering Chisinau in 1941 Romania remained neutral after the start of the World War II in September 1939. The Battle of France rendered its allies France and Britain unable to help, and on June 28, 1940, following the Soviet ultimatum which implied invasion in the event of non-compliance[54] Romanian administration and the army withdrew from Bessarabia as well from Northern Bukovina and Hertza[55]. Further Axis pressure lead to more territorial losses for Romania, southern Dobrogea to Bulgaria and Northern Transylvania to Hungary through Second Vienna Diktat[56]. The socio-political turmoil resulted in the abdication of Carol II of Romania, succeeded by the National Legionary State, in which power was shared by General Ion Antonescu and the Iron Guard. Within months, Antonescu had crushed the Iron Guard, and established his dictatorship, leading Romania in an alliance with Nazi Germany. In 1941 Romania entered the war against Soviet Russia on the side of the Axis powers. During the war, Romania was the most important source of oil for Germany,[57] which attracted multiple bombing raids by the Allies. By means of the Axis invasion of the Soviet Union, Romania recovered Bessarabia and northern Bukovina from the Soviet Russia. The Antonescu regime played a major role in the Holocaust,[58] following to a lesser extent the Nazi policy of oppression and massacre of the Jews, and Romanies, primarily in the Eastern territories Romania recovered or occupied from the Soviet Union (Transnistria) and in Moldavia.[59] In August 1944, Antonescu was toppled and arrested by King Michael I of Romania. Romania joined the Allies, but its role in the defeat of Nazi Germany was not recognized by the Paris Peace Conference of 1947.[60] By the end of the war, the Romanian army had suffered about 300,000 casualties.[61] The Paris Peace Treaties, 1947 rendered the Vienna Diktat void, and re-established Romania's western borders. Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia remained occupied by the USSR. Jewish Holocaust victims totaled 469,000 within the 1939 borders, including 325,000 in Bessarabia and Bukovina.[62] Communism (1945–1989) Main article: Communist Romania The coat of arms of the Romanian Communist Party During the Soviet occupation of Romania, the Communist-dominated government called new elections, which were won with 80% of the vote through intimidation and likely electoral fraud.[63] They thus rapidly established themselves as the dominant political force. In 1947, the Communists forced King Michael I to abdicate and leave the country, and proclaimed Romania a people's republic.[64][65] Romania remained under the direct military occupation and economic control of the USSR until the late 1950s. During this period, Romania's vast natural resources were continuously drained [66] by mixed Soviet-Romanian companies (SovRoms) set up for exploitative purposes.[67][68] In 1948, the state began to nationalize private firms (see nationalization in Romania), and to collectivize agriculture the following year (see collectivization in Romania).[69] From the late 1940s to the early 1960s, the Communist government established a reign of terror, carried out mainly through the Securitate (the new secret police). During this time they launched several campaigns to eliminate "enemies of the state", in which numerous individuals were killed or imprisoned for arbitrary political or economic reasons.[70] Punishment included deportation, internal exile, and internment in forced labour camps and prisons; dissent was vigorously suppressed. A notorious experiment in this period took place in the Pitesti prison, where a group of political opponents were put into a program of reeducation through torture. Historical records show hundreds of thousands of abuses, deaths and incidents of torture against a wide range of people, from political opponents to ordinary citizens.[71] In 1965, Nicolae Ceausescu came to power and started to pursue independent policies such as being the only Warsaw Pact country to condemn the Soviet-led 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, and to continue diplomatic relations with Israel after the Six-Day War of 1967; establishing economic (1963) and diplomatic (1967) relations with the Federal Republic of Germany.[72] Also, close ties with the Arab countries (and the PLO) allowed Romania to play a key role in the Israel–Egypt and Israel–PLO peace processes.[73] But as Romania's foreign debt sharply increased between 1977 and 1981 (from 3 to 10 billion US dollars),[74] the influence of international financial organisations such as the IMF or the World Bank grew, conflicting with Nicolae Ceausescu's autarchic policies. He eventually initiated a project of total reimbursement of the foreign debt by imposing policies that impoverished Romanians and exhausted the Romanian economy, while also greatly extending the authority of the police state, and imposing a cult of personality. These led to a dramatic decrease in Ceausescu's popularity and culminated in his overthrow and execution in the bloody Romanian Revolution of 1989. In 2006, the Presidential Commission for the Study of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania estimated the number of direct victims of communist repression at two million people.[75][76] This number does not include people who died in liberty as a result of their treatment in communist prisons, nor does it include people who died because of the dire economic circumstances in which the country found itself. Present-day democracy Traian Basescu with George W. Bush Main article: History of Romania since 1989 After the revolution, the National Salvation Front, led by Ion Iliescu, took partial multi-party democratic and free market measures.[77][78] Several major political parties of the pre-war era, such as the Christian-Democratic National Peasants' Party, the National Liberal Party and the Romanian Social Democrat Party were resurrected. After several major political rallies, in April 1990, a sit-in protest contesting the results of the recently held parliamentary elections began in University Square, Bucharest accusing the Front of being made up of former Communists and members of the Securitate. The protesters did not recognize the results of the election, deeming them undemocratic, and asked for the exclusion from the political life of the former high-ranking Communist Party members. The protest rapidly grew to become an ongoing mass demonstration (known as the Golaniad). The peaceful demonstrations degenerated into violence, and the violent intervention of coal miners from the Jiu Valley led to what is remembered as the June 1990 Mineriad.[79] The subsequent disintegration of the Front produced several political parties including the Romanian Democrat Social Party (later Social Democratic Party), the Democratic Party and the (Alliance for Romania). The first governed Romania from 1990 until 1996 through several coalitions and governments and with Ion Iliescu as head of state. Since then there have been three democratic changes of government: in 1996, the democratic-liberal opposition and its leader Emil Constantinescu acceded to power; in 2000 the Social Democrats returned to power, with Iliescu once again president; and in 2004 Traian Basescu was elected president, with an electoral coalition called Justice and Truth Alliance. The government was formed by a larger coalition which also includes the Conservative Party and the ethnic Hungarian party. Post-Cold War Romania developed closer ties with Western Europe, eventually joining NATO in 2004, and hosting in Bucharest the 2008 summit.[80] The country applied in June 1993 for membership in the European Union and became an Associated State of the EU in 1995, an Acceding Country in 2004, and a member on January 1, 2007.[81] See also: Accession of Romania to the European Union 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 an increasingly large diaspora, estimated at over 2 million people. The main emigration targets are Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, UK, Canada and the USA.[82] Geography Main article: Geography of Romania Topographic map of Romania With a surface area of 238,391 square kilometres (92,043 sq mi), Romania is the largest country in southeastern Europe and the twelfth-largest in Europe.[83] A large part of Romania's border with Serbia and Bulgaria is formed by the Danube. The Danube is joined by the Prut River, which forms the border with the Republic of Moldova.[83] The Danube flows into the Black Sea within Romania's territory forming the Danube Delta, the second largest and the best preserved delta in Europe, and a biosphere reserve and a biodiversity World Heritage Site.[84] Other important rivers are the Siret, running north-south through Moldavia, the Olt, running from the oriental Carpathian Mountains to Oltenia, and the Mures, running through Transylvania from East to West.[83] Romania's terrain is distributed roughly equally between mountainous, hilly and lowland territories. The Carpathian Mountains dominate the center of Romania, with fourteen of its mountain ranges reaching above the altitude of 2,000 meters.[83] The highest mountain in Romania is Moldoveanu Peak (2,544 m/8,350 ft). In south-central Romania, the Carpathi