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{{histromania}} {{histromania}}
== Context ==
The ] in Romania ended around the ], following the period in wich the Romanian lands had been part of the ] (802-1018) and the settling of the ] tribes into Europe (896) who led by Arpad, settled in Pannonia. Stopped in their progress towards the west by emperor ] (995), the Magyars settled down and turned to the south-east and east.


(See ])


Already in the 10th century, in an effort to break away from ] influence, ] (863–927) replaced the Greek language with ] in administration, literature and liturgy, and the ] with ]. Slavonic literature became the third major literature in the Christian world while Slavonic liturgy spread throughout most of Eastern Europe. By the 10th century the Wallachs both north and south of the Danube, after having long remained faithful to the Greek ritual, had adopted the ] liturgy.
In 1054, ongoing dissension between the ], led by the ], and the ], led by the ], comes to a head in a mutual excommunication by the two leaders. ] marks one of the most significant breaks between Eastern and Western Christianity, and these two events will have concequences wich will mark the history of the Romanian people in the centuries to come.
The 11th century saw the arrival of yet another nomad tribe from Central Asia to the north of the Black Sea, the ] to wich the Romanians will have relatively good relations and associations.
== First Statal Entities ==
The common interests for defending and benefiting from agricultural lands (for crops and livestock) served as a base for the development of unions of multiple different rural comunities. These unions called “ţări” (meaning “countries” or "realms", from latin terra=land) were ruled by a ], ] or a ]. Historians have counted so far 20 such “ţări” on the modern territories of Romania and Rep. of Moldova. In his Descriptio Moldaviae, ] (1673-1723) will later name some of these pre-statal enities: Tigheci, ] and ], wich will have survived and maintaned theyr specific throughout the Middle Ages to Cantemir`s times.
Archeological studied show concentrations of populations around these different teritorial units, defended by earth, stone and wood and by thick forests (“codri”) wich provided refuge and were a refuge in case of invasions or wars (], ], Codrii Lăpusnei, Codrii Crasnei, Codrii Caprianei, ], etc.). The agriculture and the economic life flourished. In 1261 the Byzantine Empire grants ] full rights for commerce in the Black Sea area. Danube and Dniester ports such as ] and ] show intense commercial activity, as noted by the genovese chronicler Antonio de Podenzolo.
Beginning with the 10th century, Byzantine, Slavic and Hungarian sources, and later on the western and even oriental sources mention the existence of Romanian statehood entities under the name of ] (Wallachians, Wlachs, Wallachs, Olahs, Ulahs, Blahs, Blachs, etc). Most of these states were small kingdoms that usually were disbanded after their leaders' deaths.
== Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldavia ==
] (1593-1601)'']]
In the middle of the 13th century, the Romanian lands south and east of the ] fell under the dependency of the Mogols (See: ]. Only in the ], the larger principalities of ] and ] established Diplomatic Relations with ] and the ]. ] was, at that time, part of the ].
A specific trait of the Romanian's history from the Middle Ages until the modern times is that they lived in three Principalities that were neighbours, but autonomous: ], ] and ].
This phenomenon, by no means unique in Mediaeval Europe, is extremely complex. The underlying causes pertain to the essence of the ], but also specific factors: the existance of powerful neighbouring empires (the Ottoman Empire, the Hungarian Kingdom, the Habsburg Empire) which opposed the unification of the Romanian state entities and even occupied, for shorter or longer periods of time Romanian territories.
=== Transylvania ===


Main article: ].
== Arrival of the Magyars ==

In ] the ] settled in the ]. According to ], a chronicle from ], the local states of ], ] and ] of Biharia in ] were defeated by the Magyars during the ].


Anonymous`s chronicle (]) mentiones ], ] and ], some rulers of some local statal enities in Transylvania and ]. The ''Vita Sancti Gerardi'' mentioned ], descendant of Glad.
In ], King ] led an army into ] and the local ] Geula or Gyyla submitted to him (see: ]). The authority of the ] over Transylvania was consolidated in the ] and ] centuries. The administration of Transylvania was in the hands of a ], who by the mid-13th century controlled the whole region. As early as ] Transylvania's noblemen convoked their own assembly, or ].
By 1003, King ] led an army into ] and the local ] Gelou ("''Gelou Dux Blaccorum''") submitted to him. The authority of the ] slowly expanded from the eastern marches of Hungary between the Tisa and the Danube to Transylvania in the ] and ] centuries. By mid 13th century, Transylvania was part of the Kingdom of Hungary. However, certain aspects of pre-magyar elements had been preserved. Thus, the administration was in the hands of a ]. As early as 1288 Transylvania's noblemen convoked their own assembly, or ].

By the 12th century, according to chronicles and traditions ] (the three ] tribes wich joined the seven ] tribes into Europe) where established in easter Transylvania as border guards.
== Medieval states ==
In the 13th century, Saxons (see ]) were colonised in Transylvania to develop the commerce and the urban centers.

In 1291, Andrew III called up the general assembly of the Tranylvanian Diet at ] where the noblility of the Saxons, Szeklers and Romanians as ethnical and/or social groups, were granted the right to theyr own form of administration and military organisation: “''Universis nobilibus, Saxonibus, Syculis et Olachis''”. Romanians countinued to live organised into voivodships and czenates (] - “]”) and some maintaned an even greater degree of autonomy in the ]: ], ], ], the land of Oasa (Tara Oasului), the land of the Motzi (Ţara Moţilor), etc. The “Painted Chronicle” mentions Toma and Dionisie, voivodes from Transylvania, as having urged ] to war against ], and it was a Romanian voievod, Nicholas, who saved the kings life at the ]. In 1343, Bogdan “''Vajvoda Valahorum de Maramorosio''” had revolted against the King and established the independent principality of Moldavia.
Early Romanian states, such as the ], were formed in the ] and ] appearing in historical sources under the name of Blachi or Vallachi (]). Most of these states were small kingdoms that usually were disbanded after their leaders' deaths.
In 1364, Hungarian attempts to stabilize the Kingdom failes. Louis I of Anjou, taking Bogdan`s infidelity as example, starts a policy of reprisals. In an attempt to convert the Romanians to Catholicism, he conditiones the noble quality with the appartenence to the Catholic faith. These policies will lead to numerous Romanian noble families being magyarised in later centuries, ], Kokenyesi, Nemes, Banfy, Kendeffy (former Candea), the Dragfy (former Dragos), Karacsony (former Craciun), Szaplonczay (former 'Nobiles wolahay de Soponcza'), Szarvaszarai (former 'Nobiles Wolahay de Zarwazo'), etc. (see ]).

In the late ], a part of the territory of ] was incorporated in the ] ruled by the ]. A number of medieval sources, including ], call the first three rulers of the dynasty ]. Their empire was called "The Empire of Bulgars and Vlachs". ], brother of Peter and Asen, and the third ruler of the empire, claimed in his correspondence with Pope ], Roman ancestry. He claimed, however, also to be a descendant of the rulers of the ] and talked about the state created by his brothers as about a continuation of the tsardom of ] and ] (i.e. about resurrection of the ]). The name of the dynasty (Asen), as well as the nickname of the oldest of the brothers (Belgun) suggests a ] origin for the Asen dynasty.

The Romanian lands south and east of the ] fell under the dependency of the Tatars in the middle of the 13th century and it was only in the ] that the larger principalities of ] and ] established Diplomatic Relations with ] and the ]. ] was, at that time, part of the ].
] (]-], including Transylvania between 1600-1601)'']]
=== Wallachia and Moldavia ===

Legend says that in ] ], a leading Romanian nobleman, left ] in southern Transylvania with a group of nobles and founded "Ţara Românească" (which means "Romanian land" in ]) on the lands between the southern Carpathians and the Danube. The same territory was often referred as "]", from the ] word ], which is in turn derived from the ] ], that originally meant "foreigner", a term the Germanics used to designate the ]. (see ])

] of ] accounts the legend of a Romanian voivode named ] who left ], crossed the ] and settled with other Romanians on the plain between the mountains and the ]. They were joined in 1349 by a voivode from ] named ], who revolted against his feudal overlord and settled on the ], from which Moldavia derives its name. A decade later Bogdan declared Moldavia's independence from the ] who rulled the ].
In 1437 Romanian and Hungarian peasants, the petty nobility and burgers from ] ("universitas of Hungarian and Romanian inhabitants"), rebelled against their feudal masters (see: ]). The Transylvanian nobility, the Saxon bürgers, and the Székely formed an alliance of mutual aid against the peasants. By 1438, the rebellion was crushed. Afterwards, these three Estates formed the ], jointly pledging to defend their privileges against any power except that of Hungary's king. The Union ensured that the serfs, whome in theyr majority were Romanians, were continued to be excluded from the political and social life of Transylvania, although they made up the majority of the population. They were only considered a "tolerated" nation.
=== Wallachia ===
Main article: ].
]]] ]]]

Timeline
Wallachia and Moldavia steadily gained strength in the ], a peaceful and prosperous time throughout southeastern Europe. Prince ] of Wallachia (ca. ]-]), despite defeating King ] at the ] in ], acknowledged Kingdom of Hungary's ]. The Eastern Orthodox patriarch in ], however, established an ecclesiastical seat in Wallachia and appointed a metropolitan. The church's recognition confirmed Wallachia's status as a principality, and Wallachia freed itself from Angevin suzerainty in 1380.

*In the late ], a part of the territory of ] was part of the ] ruled by the ]. (see ]).
* 1247 - ] becomes a Voivode on the right bank of the ]; on the left bank, in Wallachia proper, ruled ].
*Legend says that in ] ], a leading Romanian nobleman, left ] in southern Transylvania with a group of nobles and founded "Ţara Românească" (which means "Romanian Realm" in ]) on the lands between the southern Carpathians and the Danube.
Prince ] of Wallachia (ca. ]-]), despite defeating King ] at the ] in ], acknowledged Kingdom of Hungary's ].
=== Moldavia ===
Main article: ].
Timeline
* 1000~1100AD - A runic inscription from the eleventh century, the Sjönhem Stone, found in Sjönhem parish on Gotland, Sweden, recalls the murder of the Scandinavian traveller Rothfos by 'Blakumen' as he was going to the ] and ].
* In the ] (“Song of the Nibelung”) (about 1190/1200) the existance of a Romanian state and people is clearly expressed.
* 1153-1187 Russian and polish chronicles present the Vlachs (see ]) warring with the ] knyaz ].
* In 1164 ] was taken prisoner by Vlachs, on his way the prince of Kiev, Yaroslav (]).
* The 'Blakumannaland' is mentioned in the twelfth century by the Icelandic chronicler ] (1179-1224).
* In 1231, lead by a certain Ştefan, they become allies of ] in his attempt to reconquer ].
* 1223 - the Brodnici took part in the ] (see ]).
* 1241 - The Great Mongol Invasion.
* In 1247, a Franciscan monk, Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, accounts the existance of the Vlach voivode, Olaha.
* 1308 - Ottocar of Styria mentiones a Wallachian state and ruler from over ]. The Polish chronicler ] mentioned these Wallachians, in a joined military expedition with Poland, against the ] in 1342. In a letter of 1340 of some ] monks to ], this state is mentioned as having it`s center at ].
* 1321 - According to the arab chronicler ], today`s southern ] (]) and ] was part of “Al-Ualak” (the Country of the Vlachs) who, helped by ] (1348-1386), have warred with the Genovese over the Danube and Dniester ports.
* 1351 - ] of ] accounts the legend of the Romanian voivode named ] from ] who established a Romanian state in what was to become the Principality of Moldavia.
* 1359 - 1365 – Establishment of Ţara Moldovei (Moldavia): ] enters Moldavia from Maramureş, deposes Dragos`s succesors and rebels against ], the king of ] and ] - Independence of Moldavia.
Wallachia and Moldavia steadily gained strength in the ], a peaceful and prosperous time throughout southeastern Europe. The Eastern Orthodox patriarch in ], however, established an ecclesiastical seat in Wallachia and appointed a metropolitan. The church's recognition confirmed Wallachia's status as a principality, and Wallachia freed itself from Angevin suzerainty in 1380.
The princes of both Wallachia and Moldavia held almost absolute power; only the prince had the power to grant land and confer noble rank. Assemblies of nobles, and higher clergy elected princes for life, and the absence of a succession law created a fertile environment for ]. From the ] to the ], the principalities' histories are replete with overthrows of princes by rival factions often supported by foreigners. The boyars were exempt from taxation except for levies on the main sources of agricultural wealth. Although the peasants had to pay a portion of their output in kind to the local nobles, they were never, despite their inferior position, deprived of the right to own property or resettle. The princes of both Wallachia and Moldavia held almost absolute power; only the prince had the power to grant land and confer noble rank. Assemblies of nobles, and higher clergy elected princes for life, and the absence of a succession law created a fertile environment for ]. From the ] to the ], the principalities' histories are replete with overthrows of princes by rival factions often supported by foreigners. The boyars were exempt from taxation except for levies on the main sources of agricultural wealth. Although the peasants had to pay a portion of their output in kind to the local nobles, they were never, despite their inferior position, deprived of the right to own property or resettle.

====Architecture====
]

=== Transylvania ===

In Transylvania economic life rebounded quickly after the Mongol invasion. New farming methods boosted crop yields. Craftsmen formed guilds as artisanry flourished; gold, silver, and salt mining expanded; and money-based transactions replaced barter.

Though townspeople were exempt from feudal obligations, feudalism expanded and the nobles stiffened the serfs' obligations. The serfs resented the higher payments; some fled the country, while others became outlaws.

In ] Romanian and Hungarian peasants rebelled against their feudal masters ]. The uprising gathered momentum before the three ] of Transylvania - the nobililty, the burghers, and the Szeklers - united forces and quelled the revolt. Afterwards, the Estates formed the ], jointly pledging to defend their privileges against any power except that of Hungary's king.

The nobles gradually imposed even tougher terms on their serfs. In ], for example, each serf had to work for his lord one day per year at harvest time without compensation; by ] serfs had to work for their lord one day per week using their own animals and tools.


== Ottoman Age == == Ottoman Age ==
Line 53: Line 88:


Moldavia and its prince, ] (Stephen the Great) (]-]), were the principalities' last hope of repelling the Ottoman threat. Stephen drew on Moldavia's peasantry to raise a 40,000-man army and repelled the invading forces of Hungary's King ], at the ], in a daring night attack. Stephen's army invaded Wallachia in ] and defeated the Turks when they retaliated in ] and ]. In January 1475, the Ottoman Empire suffered their worst defeat to that day at ], where Stephen inflicted a decisive victory, leaving 45,000 Ottoman casualties. After these victories, Stephen implored ] to forge a Christian alliance against the Turks. The Pope replied with a letter awarding Stephen ], but he did not heed Stephen's calls for Christian unity. During the last decades of Stephen's reign, the Turks increased the pressure on Moldavia. They captured key Black Sea ports in ] and burned Moldavia's capital, ], in ]. Stephen rebounded with a victory in ] but thereafter confined his efforts to secure Moldavia's independence to the diplomatic arena. Frustrated by vain attempts to unite the West against the Turks, Stephen, on his deathbed, reportedly told his son to submit to the Turks if they offered an honorable suzerainty. Succession struggles weakened Moldavia after his death. Moldavia and its prince, ] (Stephen the Great) (]-]), were the principalities' last hope of repelling the Ottoman threat. Stephen drew on Moldavia's peasantry to raise a 40,000-man army and repelled the invading forces of Hungary's King ], at the ], in a daring night attack. Stephen's army invaded Wallachia in ] and defeated the Turks when they retaliated in ] and ]. In January 1475, the Ottoman Empire suffered their worst defeat to that day at ], where Stephen inflicted a decisive victory, leaving 45,000 Ottoman casualties. After these victories, Stephen implored ] to forge a Christian alliance against the Turks. The Pope replied with a letter awarding Stephen ], but he did not heed Stephen's calls for Christian unity. During the last decades of Stephen's reign, the Turks increased the pressure on Moldavia. They captured key Black Sea ports in ] and burned Moldavia's capital, ], in ]. Stephen rebounded with a victory in ] but thereafter confined his efforts to secure Moldavia's independence to the diplomatic arena. Frustrated by vain attempts to unite the West against the Turks, Stephen, on his deathbed, reportedly told his son to submit to the Turks if they offered an honorable suzerainty. Succession struggles weakened Moldavia after his death.
] ]] ] in 1531 ]].

In ], greedy nobles and an ill-planned crusade sparked a widespread peasant revolt in Hungary and Transylvania. Well-armed peasants under ] sacked estates across the country. Despite strength of numbers, however, the peasants were disorganized and suffered a decisive defeat at ]. Dozsa and the other rebel leaders were tortured and executed. After the revolt, the Hungarian nobles enacted laws that condemned the serfs to eternal bondage and increased their work obligations. With the serfs and nobles deeply alienated from each other and jealous magnates challenging the king's power, Hungary was vulnerable to outside aggression. The Ottomans stormed Belgrade in ], routed a feeble Hungarian army at the ] in ], and conquered ] in ]. They installed a pasha to rule over central Hungary; Transylvania became an autonomous principality under Ottoman suzerainty; and the Habsburgs assumed control over fragments of northern and western Hungary.
The event wich would put a total end to the privileges of the Romanians of Transylvania and to their organization into knezates and voivodates, was the peasants' revolt lead by the Szeckler ], against the Hungarian landlords. In ], greedy nobles and an ill-planned crusade sparked a widespread peasant revolt in Hungary and Transylvania. Well-armed peasants under ] sacked estates across the country. Despite strength of numbers, however, the peasants were disorganized and suffered a decisive defeat at ]. The repression by ] was terrible (] by ]), and the small Romanian voivodates and their privileges were suppressed by the Diet of the same year, because Romanians had, on the whole, supported the revolt against Magyar nobility, especially in Maramures. Dozsa and the other rebel leaders were tortured and executed. After the revolt, the Hungarian nobles enacted laws that condemned the serfs to eternal bondage and increased their work obligations. With the serfs and nobles deeply alienated from each other and jealous magnates challenging the king's power, Hungary was vulnerable to outside aggression. The Ottomans stormed Belgrade in ], routed a feeble Hungarian army at the ] in ], and conquered ] in ]. They installed a pasha to rule over central Hungary; Transylvania became an autonomous principality under Ottoman suzerainty; and the Habsburgs assumed control over fragments of northern and western Hungary.


After Buda's fall, Transylvania, though a ] state of the "Sublime Porte" (the ]), entered a period of broad autonomy. As a vassal, Transylvania paid the Porte an annual tribute and provided military assistance; in return, the Ottomans pledged to protect Transylvania from external threat. Native princes governed Transylvania from ] to ]. Transylvania's powerful, mostly Hungarian, ruling families, whose position ironically strengthened with Hungary's fall, normally chose the prince, subject to the Porte's confirmation; in some cases, however, the Turks appointed the prince outright. The Transylvanian Diet became a parliament, and the Transylvanian ] revived the ], which still excluded the serfs (and the vast majority of Romanians) from political power. Princes took pains to separate Transylvanian Romanians from those in Wallachia and Moldavia and forbade Eastern Orthodox priests to enter Transylvania from Wallachia. After Buda's fall, Transylvania, though a ] state of the "Sublime Porte" (the ]), entered a period of broad autonomy. As a vassal, Transylvania paid the Porte an annual tribute and provided military assistance; in return, the Ottomans pledged to protect Transylvania from external threat. Native princes governed Transylvania from ] to ]. Transylvania's powerful, mostly Hungarian, ruling families, whose position ironically strengthened with Hungary's fall, normally chose the prince, subject to the Porte's confirmation; in some cases, however, the Turks appointed the prince outright. The Transylvanian Diet became a parliament, and the Transylvanian ] revived the ], which still excluded the serfs and non-catholics from political power. Princes took pains to separate Transylvanian Romanians from those in Wallachia and Moldavia and forbade Eastern Orthodox priests to enter Transylvania from Wallachia.


The ] spread rapidly in Transylvania after Hungary's collapse, and the region became one of Europe's Protestant strongholds. Transylvania's Germans adopted ], and many Hungarians converted to ]. However, the Protestants, who printed and distributed catechisms in the Romanian language, failed to convert Romanians from Orthodoxy. In ] the Transylvanian Diet approved a law guaranteeing freedom of worship and equal rights for Transylvania's four "received" religions: Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, and Unitarian. The law was one of the first of its kind in Europe, but the religious equality it proclaimed was limited. Orthodox Romanians, for example, were free to worship, but their church was not recognized as a received religion. The ] spread rapidly in Transylvania after Hungary's collapse, and the region became one of Europe's Protestant strongholds. Transylvania's Germans adopted ], and many Hungarians converted to ]. However, the Protestants, who printed and distributed catechisms in the Romanian language, failed to convert Romanians from Orthodoxy. In ] the Transylvanian Diet approved a law guaranteeing freedom of worship and equal rights for Transylvania's four "received" religions: Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, and Unitarian. The law was one of the first of its kind in Europe, but the religious equality it proclaimed was limited. Orthodox Romanians, for example, were free to worship, but their church was not recognized as a received religion.

Revision as of 18:05, 5 March 2006

Template:Histromania

Context

The Dark Ages in Romania ended around the 11th century, following the period in wich the Romanian lands had been part of the First Bulgarian Empire (802-1018) and the settling of the Magyar tribes into Europe (896) who led by Arpad, settled in Pannonia. Stopped in their progress towards the west by emperor Otto I (995), the Magyars settled down and turned to the south-east and east.

(See Romania in the Dark Ages)

Already in the 10th century, in an effort to break away from Byzantine influence, Tsar Simeon I (863–927) replaced the Greek language with Church Slavonic in administration, literature and liturgy, and the Greek Alphabet with Cyrilic. Slavonic literature became the third major literature in the Christian world while Slavonic liturgy spread throughout most of Eastern Europe. By the 10th century the Wallachs both north and south of the Danube, after having long remained faithful to the Greek ritual, had adopted the Slavonic liturgy. In 1054, ongoing dissension between the Orthodox Church of Byzantium, led by the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the Roman Church, led by the Pope, comes to a head in a mutual excommunication by the two leaders. The Great Schism marks one of the most significant breaks between Eastern and Western Christianity, and these two events will have concequences wich will mark the history of the Romanian people in the centuries to come. The 11th century saw the arrival of yet another nomad tribe from Central Asia to the north of the Black Sea, the Cumans to wich the Romanians will have relatively good relations and associations.

First Statal Entities

The common interests for defending and benefiting from agricultural lands (for crops and livestock) served as a base for the development of unions of multiple different rural comunities. These unions called “ţări” (meaning “countries” or "realms", from latin terra=land) were ruled by a voievod, cneaz or a jude. Historians have counted so far 20 such “ţări” on the modern territories of Romania and Rep. of Moldova. In his Descriptio Moldaviae, Dimitrie Cantemir (1673-1723) will later name some of these pre-statal enities: Tigheci, Campulung and Vrancea, wich will have survived and maintaned theyr specific throughout the Middle Ages to Cantemir`s times. Archeological studied show concentrations of populations around these different teritorial units, defended by earth, stone and wood and by thick forests (“codri”) wich provided refuge and were a refuge in case of invasions or wars (Codrii Cosminului, Codrii Orheiului, Codrii Lăpusnei, Codrii Crasnei, Codrii Caprianei, Codrii Vlăsiei, etc.). The agriculture and the economic life flourished. In 1261 the Byzantine Empire grants Genova full rights for commerce in the Black Sea area. Danube and Dniester ports such as Chilia and Cetatea Alba show intense commercial activity, as noted by the genovese chronicler Antonio de Podenzolo.

Beginning with the 10th century, Byzantine, Slavic and Hungarian sources, and later on the western and even oriental sources mention the existence of Romanian statehood entities under the name of Vlachs (Wallachians, Wlachs, Wallachs, Olahs, Ulahs, Blahs, Blachs, etc). Most of these states were small kingdoms that usually were disbanded after their leaders' deaths.

Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldavia

Transylvania, Wallachia and Moldova, during the rule of Mihai Viteazul (1593-1601)

In the middle of the 13th century, the Romanian lands south and east of the Carpathian mountains fell under the dependency of the Mogols (See: Mongol invasion of Europe. Only in the 13th century, the larger principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia established Diplomatic Relations with Byzantium and the Papacy. Transylvania was, at that time, part of the Kingdom of Hungary.

A specific trait of the Romanian's history from the Middle Ages until the modern times is that they lived in three Principalities that were neighbours, but autonomous: Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania. This phenomenon, by no means unique in Mediaeval Europe, is extremely complex. The underlying causes pertain to the essence of the Feudal society, but also specific factors: the existance of powerful neighbouring empires (the Ottoman Empire, the Hungarian Kingdom, the Habsburg Empire) which opposed the unification of the Romanian state entities and even occupied, for shorter or longer periods of time Romanian territories.

Transylvania

Main article: History of Transylvania.

Anonymous`s chronicle (Gesta Hungarorum) mentiones Menumorut, Gelou and Glad, some rulers of some local statal enities in Transylvania and Banat. The Vita Sancti Gerardi mentioned Ahtum, descendant of Glad. By 1003, King Stephen I of Hungary led an army into Transylvania and the local dux Gelou ("Gelou Dux Blaccorum") submitted to him. The authority of the Kingdom of Hungary slowly expanded from the eastern marches of Hungary between the Tisa and the Danube to Transylvania in the 11th and 12th centuries. By mid 13th century, Transylvania was part of the Kingdom of Hungary. However, certain aspects of pre-magyar elements had been preserved. Thus, the administration was in the hands of a voivod. As early as 1288 Transylvania's noblemen convoked their own assembly, or Diet. By the 12th century, according to chronicles and traditions Székely (the three Kabar tribes wich joined the seven Magyar tribes into Europe) where established in easter Transylvania as border guards. In the 13th century, Saxons (see Transylvanian Saxons) were colonised in Transylvania to develop the commerce and the urban centers. In 1291, Andrew III called up the general assembly of the Tranylvanian Diet at Alba Iulia where the noblility of the Saxons, Szeklers and Romanians as ethnical and/or social groups, were granted the right to theyr own form of administration and military organisation: “Universis nobilibus, Saxonibus, Syculis et Olachis”. Romanians countinued to live organised into voivodships and czenates (Rogerius - “Carmen Miserabile”) and some maintaned an even greater degree of autonomy in the Kingdom of Hungary: Maramureş, Haţeg, Făgăraş, the land of Oasa (Tara Oasului), the land of the Motzi (Ţara Moţilor), etc. The “Painted Chronicle” mentions Toma and Dionisie, voivodes from Transylvania, as having urged Charles I Robert to war against Basarab, and it was a Romanian voievod, Nicholas, who saved the kings life at the Battle of Posada. In 1343, Bogdan “Vajvoda Valahorum de Maramorosio” had revolted against the King and established the independent principality of Moldavia. In 1364, Hungarian attempts to stabilize the Kingdom failes. Louis I of Anjou, taking Bogdan`s infidelity as example, starts a policy of reprisals. In an attempt to convert the Romanians to Catholicism, he conditiones the noble quality with the appartenence to the Catholic faith. These policies will lead to numerous Romanian noble families being magyarised in later centuries, Hunyady, Kokenyesi, Nemes, Banfy, Kendeffy (former Candea), the Dragfy (former Dragos), Karacsony (former Craciun), Szaplonczay (former 'Nobiles wolahay de Soponcza'), Szarvaszarai (former 'Nobiles Wolahay de Zarwazo'), etc. (see Magyarisation).

In 1437 Romanian and Hungarian peasants, the petty nobility and burgers from Cluj Napoca ("universitas of Hungarian and Romanian inhabitants"), rebelled against their feudal masters (see: Bobâlna revolt). The Transylvanian nobility, the Saxon bürgers, and the Székely formed an alliance of mutual aid against the peasants. By 1438, the rebellion was crushed. Afterwards, these three Estates formed the Unio Trium Natiorum, jointly pledging to defend their privileges against any power except that of Hungary's king. The Union ensured that the serfs, whome in theyr majority were Romanians, were continued to be excluded from the political and social life of Transylvania, although they made up the majority of the population. They were only considered a "tolerated" nation.

Wallachia

Main article: History of Walachia.

A medieval representation of the Battle of Posada

Timeline

Prince Basarab I of Wallachia (ca. 1330-53), despite defeating King Charles Robert at the Battle of Posada in 1330, acknowledged Kingdom of Hungary's suzerainty.

Moldavia

Main article: History of Moldavia.

Timeline

  • 1000~1100AD - A runic inscription from the eleventh century, the Sjönhem Stone, found in Sjönhem parish on Gotland, Sweden, recalls the murder of the Scandinavian traveller Rothfos by 'Blakumen' as he was going to the Black Sea and Constantinople.
  • In the Nibelungenlied (“Song of the Nibelung”) (about 1190/1200) the existance of a Romanian state and people is clearly expressed.
  • 1153-1187 Russian and polish chronicles present the Vlachs (see Bolohoveni) warring with the Galician knyaz Yaroslav Osmomysl.
  • In 1164 Andronicus I Comnenus was taken prisoner by Vlachs, on his way the prince of Kiev, Yaroslav (Nicetas Choniates).
  • The 'Blakumannaland' is mentioned in the twelfth century by the Icelandic chronicler Snorri Sturlson (1179-1224).
  • In 1231, lead by a certain Ştefan, they become allies of Andrew II of Hungary in his attempt to reconquer Galicia.
  • 1223 - the Brodnici took part in the Battle of Kalka (see Brodnici).
  • 1241 - The Great Mongol Invasion.
  • In 1247, a Franciscan monk, Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, accounts the existance of the Vlach voivode, Olaha.
  • 1308 - Ottocar of Styria mentiones a Wallachian state and ruler from over the Carpathians. The Polish chronicler Jan Długosz mentioned these Wallachians, in a joined military expedition with Poland, against the Mark of Brandenburg in 1342. In a letter of 1340 of some Minorite monks to Pope Benedict XII, this state is mentioned as having it`s center at Siret.
  • 1321 - According to the arab chronicler Abulfeda, today`s southern Ukraine (Budjak) and Bessarabia was part of “Al-Ualak” (the Country of the Vlachs) who, helped by Dobrotitsa (1348-1386), have warred with the Genovese over the Danube and Dniester ports.
  • 1351 - Descriptio Moldaviae of Dimitrie Cantemir accounts the legend of the Romanian voivode named Dragoş from Maramureş who established a Romanian state in what was to become the Principality of Moldavia.
  • 1359 - 1365 – Establishment of Ţara Moldovei (Moldavia): Bogdan I enters Moldavia from Maramureş, deposes Dragos`s succesors and rebels against Louis the Great, the king of Hungary and Poland - Independence of Moldavia.


Wallachia and Moldavia steadily gained strength in the 14th century, a peaceful and prosperous time throughout southeastern Europe. The Eastern Orthodox patriarch in Constantinople, however, established an ecclesiastical seat in Wallachia and appointed a metropolitan. The church's recognition confirmed Wallachia's status as a principality, and Wallachia freed itself from Angevin suzerainty in 1380.

The princes of both Wallachia and Moldavia held almost absolute power; only the prince had the power to grant land and confer noble rank. Assemblies of nobles, and higher clergy elected princes for life, and the absence of a succession law created a fertile environment for intrigue. From the 14th century to the 17th century, the principalities' histories are replete with overthrows of princes by rival factions often supported by foreigners. The boyars were exempt from taxation except for levies on the main sources of agricultural wealth. Although the peasants had to pay a portion of their output in kind to the local nobles, they were never, despite their inferior position, deprived of the right to own property or resettle.

Ottoman Age

In the 14th century, the Ottoman Turks expanded their empire from Anatolia to the Balkans. They crossed the Bosporus in 1352 and defeated the Serbs at Kosovo Polje, in the modern-day Kosovo, in 1389. Tradition holds that Wallachia's Prince Mircea cel Batran (1386-1418) sent his forces to Kosovo to fight beside the Serbs; soon after the battle Sultan Bayezid I marched on Wallachia and imprisoned Mircea until he pledged to pay tribute.

After a failed attempt to break the sultan's grip, Mircea fled to Transylvania and enlisted his forces in a crusade called by King Sigismund of Hungary. The campaign ended miserably: the Turks routed Sigismund's forces in 1396 at Nicopolis in present-day Bulgaria, and Mircea and his men were lucky to escape across the Danube. In 1402 Wallachia gained a respite from Ottoman pressure as the Mongol leader Tamerlane attacked the Ottomans from the east, killed the sultan, and sparked a civil war. When peace returned, the Ottomans renewed their assault on the Balkans. In 1417 Mircea capitulated to Sultan Mehmed I and agreed to pay an annual tribute and surrender territory; in return the sultan allowed Wallachia to remain a principality and to retain the Eastern Orthodox faith.

After Mircea's death in 1418, Wallachia and Moldavia slid into decline. Succession struggles, Polish and Hungarian intrigues, and corruption produced a parade of eleven princes in twenty-five years and weakened the principalities as the Ottoman threat waxed. In 1444 the Ottomans routed European forces at Varna in contemporary Bulgaria. When Constantinople succumbed in 1453, the Ottomans cut off Genoese and Venetian galleys from Black Sea ports, trade ceased, and the Romanian principalities' isolation deepened, although unlike the Balkan territories to their south they escaped direct Ottoman rule at this time. At this time of near desperation John Hunyadi, a Transylvanian of Romanian origin, became regent of Hungary. Hunyadi, a hero of the Ottoman wars, mobilized Hungary against the Turks, equipping a mercenary army funded by the first tax ever levied on Hungary's nobles. He scored a resounding victory over the Turks before Belgrade in 1456, but died of plague soon after the battle.

In one of his final acts, Hunyadi installed Vlad Tepes (1456-1462) on Wallachia's throne. Vlad took abnormal pleasure in inflicting torture and watching his victims writhe in agony. He also hated the Turks and defied the sultan by refusing to pay tribute. In 1461 Hamsa Pasha tried to lure Vlad into a trap, but the Wallachian prince discovered the deception, captured Hamsa and his men, impaled them on wooden stakes, and abandoned them. Sultan Mohammed later invaded Wallachia and drove Vlad into exile in Hungary. Although Vlad eventually returned to Wallachia, he died shortly thereafter, and Wallachia's resistance to the Ottomans softened.

Moldavia and its prince, Ştefan cel Mare (Stephen the Great) (1457-1504), were the principalities' last hope of repelling the Ottoman threat. Stephen drew on Moldavia's peasantry to raise a 40,000-man army and repelled the invading forces of Hungary's King Mátyás Corvinus, at the Battle of Baia, in a daring night attack. Stephen's army invaded Wallachia in 1471 and defeated the Turks when they retaliated in 1473 and 1474. In January 1475, the Ottoman Empire suffered their worst defeat to that day at Battle of Vaslui, where Stephen inflicted a decisive victory, leaving 45,000 Ottoman casualties. After these victories, Stephen implored Pope Sixtus IV to forge a Christian alliance against the Turks. The Pope replied with a letter awarding Stephen Athleta Christi, but he did not heed Stephen's calls for Christian unity. During the last decades of Stephen's reign, the Turks increased the pressure on Moldavia. They captured key Black Sea ports in 1484 and burned Moldavia's capital, Suceava, in 1485. Stephen rebounded with a victory in 1486 but thereafter confined his efforts to secure Moldavia's independence to the diplomatic arena. Frustrated by vain attempts to unite the West against the Turks, Stephen, on his deathbed, reportedly told his son to submit to the Turks if they offered an honorable suzerainty. Succession struggles weakened Moldavia after his death.

The Moldavian army at the Battle of Obertyn in 1531

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The event wich would put a total end to the privileges of the Romanians of Transylvania and to their organization into knezates and voivodates, was the peasants' revolt lead by the Szeckler Gheorge Doja, against the Hungarian landlords. In 1514, greedy nobles and an ill-planned crusade sparked a widespread peasant revolt in Hungary and Transylvania. Well-armed peasants under George Dozsa sacked estates across the country. Despite strength of numbers, however, the peasants were disorganized and suffered a decisive defeat at Timisoara. The repression by John Zapolya was terrible (Stavromachia by Stephanus Taurinus of Olmutz), and the small Romanian voivodates and their privileges were suppressed by the Diet of the same year, because Romanians had, on the whole, supported the revolt against Magyar nobility, especially in Maramures. Dozsa and the other rebel leaders were tortured and executed. After the revolt, the Hungarian nobles enacted laws that condemned the serfs to eternal bondage and increased their work obligations. With the serfs and nobles deeply alienated from each other and jealous magnates challenging the king's power, Hungary was vulnerable to outside aggression. The Ottomans stormed Belgrade in 1521, routed a feeble Hungarian army at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, and conquered Buda in 1541. They installed a pasha to rule over central Hungary; Transylvania became an autonomous principality under Ottoman suzerainty; and the Habsburgs assumed control over fragments of northern and western Hungary.

After Buda's fall, Transylvania, though a vassal state of the "Sublime Porte" (the Ottoman Empire), entered a period of broad autonomy. As a vassal, Transylvania paid the Porte an annual tribute and provided military assistance; in return, the Ottomans pledged to protect Transylvania from external threat. Native princes governed Transylvania from 1540 to 1690. Transylvania's powerful, mostly Hungarian, ruling families, whose position ironically strengthened with Hungary's fall, normally chose the prince, subject to the Porte's confirmation; in some cases, however, the Turks appointed the prince outright. The Transylvanian Diet became a parliament, and the Transylvanian Estates revived the Union of Three Nations, which still excluded the serfs and non-catholics from political power. Princes took pains to separate Transylvanian Romanians from those in Wallachia and Moldavia and forbade Eastern Orthodox priests to enter Transylvania from Wallachia.

The Protestant Reformation spread rapidly in Transylvania after Hungary's collapse, and the region became one of Europe's Protestant strongholds. Transylvania's Germans adopted Lutheranism, and many Hungarians converted to Calvinism. However, the Protestants, who printed and distributed catechisms in the Romanian language, failed to convert Romanians from Orthodoxy. In 1571 the Transylvanian Diet approved a law guaranteeing freedom of worship and equal rights for Transylvania's four "received" religions: Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, and Unitarian. The law was one of the first of its kind in Europe, but the religious equality it proclaimed was limited. Orthodox Romanians, for example, were free to worship, but their church was not recognized as a received religion.

Once the Ottomans conquered Buda, Wallachia and Moldavia lost all but the veneer of independence and the Porte exacted heavy tribute. The Turks chose Wallachian and Moldavian princes from among the sons of noble hostages or refugees at Constantinople. Few princes died a natural death, but they lived enthroned amid great luxury. Although the Porte forbade Turks to own land or build mosques in the principalities, the princes allowed Greek and Turkish merchants and usurers to exploit the principalities' riches. The Greeks, jealously protecting their privileges, smothered the developing Romanian middle class.

The Romanians' last hero before the Turks and Greeks closed their stranglehold on the principalities was Wallachia's Michael the Brave (Mihai Viteazul) (1593-1601). Michael bribed his way at the Porte to become prince. Once enthroned, however, he rounded up extortionist Turkish lenders, locked them in a building, and burned it to the ground. His forces then overran several key Turkish fortresses. Michael's ultimate goal was complete independence, but in 1598 he pledged fealty to Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. A year later, Michael captured Transylvania, and his victory incited Transylvania's Romanian peasants to rebel. Michael, however, more interested in endearing himself to Transylvania's nobles than in supporting defiant serfs, suppressed the rebels and swore to uphold the Union of Three Nations. Despite the prince's pledge, the nobles still distrusted him. Then in 1600 Michael conquered Moldavia.

For the first time a single Romanian prince ruled over all Romanians, and the Romanian people sensed the first stirring of a national identity. Michael's success startled Rudolf. The emperor incited Transylvania's nobles to revolt against the prince, and Poland simultaneously overran Moldavia. Michael consolidated his forces in Wallachia, apologized to Rudolf, and agreed to join Rudolf's general, Giorgio Basta, in a campaign to regain Transylvania from recalcitrant Hungarian nobles. After their victory, however, Basta executed Michael for alleged treachery. Michael the Brave grew more impressive in legend than in life, and his short-lived unification of the Romanian lands later inspired the Romanians to struggle for cultural and political unity.

In Transylvania, Basta's army persecuted Protestants and illegally expropriated their estates until Stephen Bocskay (1605-1607), a former Habsburg supporter, mustered an army that expelled the imperial forces. In 1606 Bocskay concluded treaties with the Habsburgs and the Turks that secured his position as prince of Transylvania, guaranteed religious freedom, and broadened Transylvania's independence.

After Bocskay's death and the reign of the tyrant Gabriel Báthory (1607-1613), the Porte compelled the Transylvanians to accept Gábor Bethlen (1613-1629) as prince. Transylvania experienced a golden age under Bethlen's enlightened despotism. He promoted agriculture, trade, and industry, sank new mines, sent students abroad to Protestant universities, and prohibited landlords from denying an education to children of serfs.

After Bethlen died, however, the Transylvanian Diet abolished most of his reforms. Soon György Rákóczi I (1630-1640) became prince. Rákóczi, like Bethlen, sent Transylvanian forces to fight with the Protestants in the Thirty Years' War; and Transylvania gained mention as a sovereign state in the Peace of Westphalia. Transylvania's golden age ended after György Rákóczi II (1648-1660) launched an ill-fated attack on Poland without the prior approval of the Porte or Transylvania's Diet.

A Turkish and Tatar army routed Rákóczi's forces and seized Transylvania. For the remainder of its independence, Transylvania suffered a series of feckless and distracted leaders, and throughout the seventeenth century Transylvania's Romanian peasants lingered in poverty and ignorance.

During Michael the Brave's brief tenure and the early years of Turkish suzerainty, the distribution of land in Wallachia and Moldavia changed dramatically. Over the years, Wallachian and Moldavian princes made land grants to loyal boyars in exchange for military service so that by the seventeenth century hardly any land was left. Boyars in search of wealth began encroaching on peasant land and their military allegiance to the prince weakened. As a result, serfdom spread, successful boyars became more courtiers than warriors, and an intermediary class of impoverished lesser nobles developed. Would-be princes were forced to raise enormous sums to bribe their way to power, and peasant life grew more miserable as taxes and exactions increased. Any prince wishing to improve the peasants' lot risked a financial shortfall that could enable rivals to out-bribe him at the Porte and usurp his position.

In 1632 Matei Basarab (1632-1654) became the last of Wallachia's predominant family to take the throne; two years later, Vasile Lupu (1634-1653), a man of Aromanian descent from Albania, was made Prince of Moldavia. The jealousies and ambitions of Matei and Vasile sapped the strength of both principalities at a time when the Porte's power began to wane. Coveting the richer Wallachian throne, Vasile attacked Matei, but the latter's forces routed the Moldavians, and a group of Moldavian boyars ousted Vasile. Both Matei and Vasile were enlightened rulers, who provided liberal endowments to religion and the arts, established printing presses, and published religious books and legal codes.

Transylvania under the Habsburgs

In 1683 Jan Sobieski's Polish army crushed an Ottoman army besieging Vienna, and Christian forces soon began the slow process of driving the Turks from Europe. In 1688 the Transylvanian Diet renounced Ottoman suzerainty and accepted Austrian protection. Eleven years later, the Porte officially recognized Austria's sovereignty over the region. Although an imperial decree reaffirmed the privileges of Transylvania's nobles and the status of its four "recognized" religions, Vienna assumed direct control of the region and the emperor planned annexation.

The Romanian majority remained segregated from Transylvania's political life and almost totally enserfed; Romanians were forbidden to marry, relocate, or practice a trade without the permission of their landlords. Besides oppressive feudal exactions, the Orthodox Romanians had to pay tithes to the Roman Catholic or Protestant church, depending on their landlords' faith. Barred from collecting tithes, Orthodox priests lived in penury, and many labored as peasants to survive.

Under Habsburg rule, Roman Catholics dominated Transylvania's more numerous Protestants, and Vienna mounted a campaign to convert the region to Catholicism. The imperial army delivered many Protestant churches to Catholic hands, and anyone who broke from the Catholic church was liable to receive a public flogging. The Habsburgs also attempted to persuade Orthodox clergymen to join the Uniate Church, which retained Orthodox rituals and customs but accepted four key points of Catholic doctrine and acknowledged papal authority.

Jesuits dispatched to Transylvania promised Orthodox clergymen heightened social status, exemption from serfdom, and material benefits. In 1699 and 1701, Emperor Leopold I decreed Transylvania's Orthodox Church to be one with the Roman Catholic Church; the Habsburgs, however, never intended to make the Uniate Church a "received" religion and did not enforce portions of Leopold's decrees that gave Uniate clergymen the same rights as Catholic priests. Despite an Orthodox synod's acceptance of union, many Orthodox clergy and faithful rejected it.

In 1711, having suppressed an eight-year rebellion of Hungarian nobles and serfs, the empire consolidated its hold on Transylvania, and within several decades the Uniate Church proved a seminal force in the rise of Romanian nationalism. Uniate clergymen had influence in Vienna; and Uniate priests schooled in Rome and Vienna acquainted the Romanians with Western ideas, wrote histories tracing their Daco-Roman origins, adapted the Latin alphabet to the Romanian language, and published Romanian grammars and prayer books. The Uniate Church's seat at Blaj, in southern Transylvania, became a center of Romanian culture.

The Romanians' struggle for equality in Transylvania found its first formidable advocate in a Uniate bishop, Inocenţiu Micu Klein, who, with imperial backing, became a baron and a member of the Transylvanian Diet. From 1729 to 1744 Klein submitted petitions to Vienna on the Romanians' behalf and stubbornly took the floor of Transylvania's Diet to declare that Romanians were the inferiors of no other Transylvanian people, that they contributed more taxes and soldiers to the state than any of Transylvania's "nations", and that only enmity and outdated privileges caused their political exclusion and economic exploitation. Klein fought to gain Uniate clergymen the same rights as Catholic priests, reduce feudal obligations, restore expropriated land to Romanian peasants, and bar feudal lords from depriving Romanian children of an education. The bishop's words fell on deaf ears in Vienna; and Hungarian, German, and Szekler deputies, jealously clinging to their noble privileges, openly mocked the bishop and snarled that the Romanians were to the Transylvanian body politic what "moths are to clothing". Klein eventually fled to Rome where his appeals to the pope proved fruitless. He died in a Roman monastery in 1768. Klein's struggle, however, stirred both Uniate and Orthodox Romanians to demand equal standing. In 1762 an imperial decree established an organization for Transylvania's Orthodox community, but the empire still denied Orthodoxy equality even with the Uniate Church.

Emperor Joseph II (1780-90), before his accession, witnessed the serfs' wretched existence during three tours of Transylvania. As emperor he launched an energetic reform program. Steeped in the teachings of the French Enlightenment, he practiced "enlightened despotism," or reform from above designed to preempt revolution from below. He brought the empire under strict central control, launched an education program, and instituted religious tolerance, including full civil rights for Orthodox Christians. In 1784 Transylvanian serfs under Horea, Cloşca and Crişan, convinced they had the emperor's support, rebelled against their feudal masters, sacked castles and manor houses, and murdered about 100 nobles. Joseph ordered the revolt repressed but granted amnesty to all participants except their leaders, whom the nobles tortured and put to death before peasants brought to witness the execution. Joseph, aiming to strike at the rebellion's root causes, emancipated the serfs, annulled Transylvania's constitution, dissolved the Union of Three Nations, and decreed German the official language of the empire. Hungary's nobles and Catholic clergy resisted Joseph's reforms, and the peasants soon grew dissatisfied with taxes, conscription, and forced requisition of military supplies. Faced with broad discontent, Joseph rescinded many of his initiatives toward the end of his life.

Joseph II's Germanization decree triggered a chain reaction of national movements throughout the empire. Hungarians appealed for unification of Hungary and Transylvania and Magyarization of minority peoples. Threatened by both Germanization and Magyarization, the Romanians and other minority nations experienced a cultural awakening. In 1791 two Romanian bishops--one Orthodox, the other Uniate--petitioned Emperor Leopold II (1790-92) to grant Romanians political and civil rights, to place Orthodox and Uniate clergy on an equal footing, and to apportion a share of government posts for Romanian appointees; the bishops supported their petition by arguing that Romanians were descendants of the Romans and the aboriginal inhabitants of Transylvania. The emperor restored Transylvania as a territorial entity and ordered the Transylvanian Diet to consider the petition. The Diet, however, decided only to allow Orthodox believers to practice their faith; the deputies denied the Orthodox Church recognition and refused to give Romanians equal political standing beside the other Transylvanian nations.

Leopold's successor, Francis I (1792-1835), whose almost abnormal aversion to change and fear of revolution brought his empire four decades of political stagnation, virtually ignored Transylvania's constitution and refused to convoke the Transylvanian Diet for twenty-three years. When the Diet finally reconvened in 1834, the language issue reemerged as Hungarian deputies proposed making Magyar the official language of Transylvania. In 1843 the Hungarian Diet passed a law making Magyar Hungary's official language, and in 1847 the Transylvanian Diet enacted a law requiring the government to use Magyar. Transylvania's Romanians protested futilely.

At the end of the 17th century, following the defeat of the Turks, Hungary and Transylvania become part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Austrians, in turn, rapidly expanded their empire: In 1718 an important part of Wallachia, called Oltenia, was incorporated into the Austrian Empire and was only returned in 1793.

The eastern province of Moldavia also had a reasonably complex history during this period. In 1775 the Austrian Empire occupied the north-western part of Moldavia, later called Bukovina. In 1812, Russia occupied the eastern half of the principality, calling it Bessarabia.

See also:

European Middle Ages
Early Middle Ages
High Middle Ages
Late Middle Ages
Culture
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