Romania

• 1. Introduction

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  Romania sits at a crossroads that ancient peoples recognized long before modern borders were drawn. Fossils found in a cave called Peștera cu Oase, which translates to "Cave with Bones", have been radiocarbon dated to around 40,000 years ago. They are the oldest known remains of Homo sapiens in all of Europe. A country that begins there has a lot of story to tell. Romania spans the lower course of the Danube, the northwestern shore of the Black Sea, and the arc of the Carpathian Mountains. It covers 238,397 square kilometres, making it the twelfth-largest country in Europe. With 19 million inhabitants, it is the sixth-most populous member of the European Union. Its capital, Bucharest, is both its largest city and its economic centre. The questions this story asks are not small ones. How did a land settled in the Stone Age become a modern republic? How did a Latin language survive centuries of invasion, occupation, and empire? How did a people who lost and regained their territory more than once hold together a national identity? Those answers run from prehistoric salt mines to a revolution broadcast live on television.

• 2. The Latin Root

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  The oldest known surviving document written in Romanian that can be precisely dated is a letter from 1521, referred to as the "Letter of Neacșu from Câmpulung". It is notable for containing the first documented occurrence of the word for Romania in a country name, when it refers to Wallachia as Țara Rumânească. The name Romania derives from the local word for Romanians, which in turn descends from the Latin romanus, meaning "Roman" or "of Rome". Italian humanists travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia, and Wallachia first recorded this ethnonym in the sixteenth century. The connection to Rome is not merely linguistic nostalgia. Roman Dacia, carved out of what is now Romania by Emperor Trajan after defeating the Dacian king Decebalus in 106 AD, transformed Banat, Oltenia, and much of Transylvania into a province of the empire. The Romans brought settlers, administered colonisation, and the provincials enjoyed what scholars describe as a long period of peace and prosperity in the second century. When Emperor Aurelian ordered the evacuation of the province in the 270s, the army and civil administration withdrew. Scholars who accept the Daco-Roman continuity theory argue that most Latin-speaking commoners stayed behind. Dobruja, known in Roman times as Scythia Minor, remained part of the Roman Empire until the early seventh century, leaving Romania the only country whose language carries the name of Rome in its very identity.

• 3. Kingdoms and Principalities

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  Salt drew people to this land long before any kingdom existed. Excavations at Poiana Slatinei, near a salt spring next to Lunca in Neamț county, produced the earliest evidence of salt exploitation in Europe, with production beginning between the fifth and fourth millennium BC. The first fortified settlements appeared around 1800 BC. Burebista, the first Dacian ruler to unite the local tribes, also conquered the Greek colonies in Dobruja and neighbouring peoples between roughly 55 and 44 BC, when he was murdered and his kingdom collapsed. Centuries of migrations followed Dacian rule: the Goths, the Huns, the Gepids, the Avars, and the Bulgars each held power in turn. Basarab I of Wallachia united the Romanian polities between the southern Carpathians and the Lower Danube in the 1310s, then defeated the Hungarian royal army at the Battle of Posada and secured Wallachia's independence in 1330. The second Romanian principality, Moldavia, achieved full autonomy during the reign of Bogdan I around 1360. The Wallachian prince Michael the Brave united all three principalities under his rule in May 1600, a feat that lasted only until September of the same year when neighbouring powers forced his abdication. His brief union made him a symbol of Romanian national identity for centuries after.

• 4. Unification and the Modern State

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  Alexandru Ioan Cuza was elected ruler of both Moldavia and Wallachia simultaneously in 1859, a political manoeuvre that created the modern Romanian state. The Great Powers had accepted a federative structure through the Paris Convention of 1858, but the simultaneous election of a single man to both thrones forced the union into reality. Cuza carried out numerous reforms laying the foundations for a modernised state before a coalition so broad it was nicknamed the "Monstrous coalition" forced him to abdicate in 1866. His successor, Carol I, accepted the constitution and took the oath on the 10th of May 1866. Eleven years later, on the 10th of May 1877, Romania proclaimed independence. In 1881, on the same day of the year, Carol was crowned king. Independence from the Ottoman Empire was formalised by the Treaty of Berlin. After World War I, the National Assembly in Transylvania and the Sfatul Țării in Bessarabia and Bukovina proclaimed their union with Romania. King Ferdinand I and Queen Maria were crowned sovereigns of all Romanians in Alba Iulia on the 15th of October 1922. The Treaty of Trianon in 1920 ratified the annexation of Crișana, Transylvania, and parts of Banat and Maramureș from the Kingdom of Hungary, defining the new border and creating Greater Romania at its largest territorial extent.

• 5. War, Occupation, Revolution

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  On the 23rd of August 1944, King Mihai I forcibly removed Marshal Ion Antonescu from power after Antonescu refused to sign an armistice with the Allies. Romania switched sides, and after World War II it regained Northern Transylvania through the Paris Peace Treaties. The switch came after Romania had lost Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina, and the Hertsa region to the Soviet Union following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, then ceded Northern Transylvania to Hungary in 1940 under pressure that included Antonescu's predecessor Ion Gigurtu declaring on radio that Romania must make territorial sacrifices to justify full adherence to the Berlin-Rome Axis. Less than three years after Soviet occupation, in 1947, King Michael I was forced to abdicate and the People's Republic of Romania was proclaimed. Nicolae Ceaușescu emerged as head of the communist party in 1965, became President of the State Council in 1967, and President of the Socialist Republic in 1974. His rule grew increasingly authoritarian during the 1980s. In December 1989, a protest in Timișoara in support of Reformed pastor László Tőkés quickly escalated into a national uprising. The revolution ended with the execution of Ceaușescu and his wife Elena on the 25th of December 1989. In May 1990, the first free elections since 1937 were held, with Ion Iliescu of the National Salvation Front winning the presidency with 85% of the vote. Romania joined NATO on the 29th of March 2004 and the EU on the 1st of January 2007.

• 6. Land, Forest, and Delta

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  Moldoveanu Peak rises to 2,544 metres, the highest point in the Carpathian ranges that dominate Romania's centre. The terrain divides roughly equally between mountains, hills, and plains. Romania holds one of the largest areas of undisturbed forest in Europe, covering nearly 27% of its territory. Around 3,700 plant species have been identified in the country, of which 74 have been declared extinct and 39 endangered. The Danube Delta, where the river meets the Black Sea, is the second-largest and best-preserved river delta in Europe. At 5,800 square kilometres, it is the largest continuous marshland on the continent and supports 1,688 different plant species alone. It holds biosphere reserve and biodiversity World Heritage Site status. Romania is also home to roughly 50% of Europe's brown bears, excluding Russia, and about 20% of its wolves. Natural and semi-natural ecosystems cover about 47% of the country's land area, with almost 10,000 square kilometres designated as protected areas across 13 national parks and three biosphere reserves.

• 7. Culture, Sport, and Innovation

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  Constantin Brâncuși's sculpture Bird in Space was auctioned in 2005 for $27.5 million. His sculptural ensemble also stands in Târgu Jiu. Romanian-born Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, while Herta Müller, a Banat Swabian writer, received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2009. Cristian Mungiu's film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007. In sport, Steaua București became the first Eastern European team to win the UEFA Champions League in 1986. Romania's national football team was ranked third in the world by FIFA in 1997 after finishing sixth at the 1994 World Cup. In gymnastics and athletics, Romania has accumulated 306 all-time Summer Olympics medals, a total that would rank twelfth among all countries. At the 1984 Summer Olympics, Romania placed second in the medal rankings behind only the host United States, winning 53 medals total. In mathematics, Romania ranks fifth in the all-time medal count at the International Mathematical Olympiad with 316 total medals. Ciprian Manolescu wrote a perfect paper for a gold medal three times in the competition, in 1995, 1996, and 1997, more than anyone else in the history of the event. On the technology side, Romania has been ranked first in Europe for internet speeds, with Timișoara among the highest-ranked cities in the world.