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 Romania during World War II

 Communist Romania

 Romania since 1989

Faced by successive invasions of germanic tribes, the Roman administration withdrew two centuries later. Multiple waves of invasion followed: such as the the slavs in the 7th century, most of which were settlers and colonized the lowlands of Romania and came in contact and were assimilated by the Romanian population living mostly in highlands. Also many warrior tribes passed through the Romanian teritory, like the Huns, the Magyars in the 9th century, and the tatars in the 13th century.

Early Romanian states were formed in the 11th century, including the Romanian-Bulgarian kingdom, ruled by a Romanian dinasty and several other small kingdoms that usually were disbanded after their leaders' death.

It was only in the 14th century that the larger principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia emerged. Transylvania was, at that time, a largely autonomous part of the Hungarian kingdom, a result of the conquest in the 11th to 13th century of the pre-existent smaller political formations.

The end of the same 14th century also brought the Ottoman Turks to the Danube. Their territory expanded rapidly. In 1453 Constantinople fell and in 1541 all the Balkans and most of Hungary became provinces of the Ottoman Empire. At the same time, Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transylvania remained autonomous, under Ottoman suzerainty.

The year 1600 brought the first unification of the three principalties by Wallachian prince Mihai Viteazul (Michael the Brave for the english-speakers). The union did not last, since Mihai was killed only one year later by the soldiers of an Austrian army officer.

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

The eastern province of Moldavia has not had a simpler destiny. 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.