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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 from Dacia, abandoning the last of their positions north of the Danube during the reign of Aurelian (270-275). Multiple waves of invasion followed, such as the Slavs in the 7th century, most of whom were settlers who colonized the lowlands of Romania. They came into contact with, and were assimilated by, the Romanian population living mostly in highlands. Also many warrior tribes passed through the Romanian territory, like the Huns, the Magyars in the 9th century, and the Tatars in the 13th century.

Some historians claim that the Romanians were not in fact the descendants of the Romanized Dacians and that they came from South of Danube and settled in current territory of Romania. For details about this debate, see Origin of Romanians.

Early Romanian states were formed in the 11th century, including the Romanian-Bulgarian kingdom (which comprised today's teritories of Romania and Bulgaria), ruled by the Romanian Asen dinasty, and several other small kingdoms that usually were disbanded after their leaders' deaths.

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 that 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, known in English as Michael the Brave. The union did not last: Mihai was killed only one year later by the soldiers of an Austrian army officer.

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:

• List of Wallachian rulers (up to 1859)
• List of Moldavian rulers (up to 1859)
• List of Transylvanian rulers (up to 1918)