# Who ruled your town 100, 300 or 600 years ago?

One map of the lands that make up today's Romania and the Republic of Moldova, with northern Bukovina, the Budjak and the Cadrilater, from the first traces of people to today. Pick your town: from the 14th century on, each step shows who ruled it and from which capital; for older times, what is known about the places around it.

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### Today: Who ruled your town 100, 300 or 600 years ago?

One map of the lands of Romania and Moldova, from the first traces of people to today. Pick your town and see who ruled it, from 1330 on.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; Ukraine: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă); The Republic of Moldova: the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

## First people, first towns, the Dacians (c. 40,000 BC – AD 106)

For tens of thousands of years before any border, people left their traces here: a cave, farming villages, Greek towns on the coast. The Getic and Dacian kingdoms have no known borders. Rome first takes the Dobruja coast, then, from AD 106, Transylvania, Oltenia and the eastern Banat, which it gives up in 271 or 271–272.

### c. 42,000–37,000 years ago: One of Europe's first modern humans had a recent Neanderthal ancestor

In 2002 a human jaw was found in Peștera cu Oase, near Anina in Caraș-Severin. Direct dating places it about 42,000–37,000 years ago, among the earliest modern humans in Europe. Older remains, about 46,000–44,000 years old, have been found at Bacho Kiro in Bulgaria.

The Oase man's genome, published in 2015, shows that 6–9% of his DNA came from Neanderthals. A Neanderthal ancestor had lived only four to six generations before him. According to the study's authors, his population did not contribute substantially to the ancestry of later Europeans.

More on this site: [Oase 1: a Neanderthal ancestor 4–6 generations back](https://mariuscomper.uk/pestera-cu-oase/en/)

### c. 6200–4600 BC: The first farmers came from the south-east and mixed with the locals

The first farmers of the Romanian space belong to the Starčevo–Criș culture, of the period of about 6200–5500 BC. Ancient mitochondrial DNA from Gura Baciului near Cluj, Cârcea in Dolj and Negrilești in Galați links them to the farmers of Central Europe. In the Lower Danube basin, the incoming farmers mixed with local hunter-gatherers.

Later, the Hamangia culture developed in Dobruja. In 1956, in its cemetery at Cernavodă, on the Danube, two fired-clay figurines were found among the grave goods: the Thinker and the Seated Woman. They are dated to about 5000–4600 BC.

More on this site: [The man who has been thinking for seven thousand years](https://mariuscomper.uk/ganditorul-hamangia/en/) · [The Tărtăria tablets: writing or signs?](https://mariuscomper.uk/tablitele-de-la-tartaria/en/)

### c. 4800–3000 BC: The Cucuteni–Trypillia culture built settlements of up to 320 hectares

The village of Cucuteni, near Târgu Frumos in Iași county, gave its name to a culture that archaeologists call Cucuteni–Trypillia. For its eastern branch, Trypillia, a 2023 study uses the span of about 4800–3000 BC. From about 4150 BC people there gathered in large settlements, and from about 3950 BC in settlements of over 100 hectares.

The largest reached 320 hectares, or 3.2 square kilometres. Estimates of their population vary widely, from a few thousand to over 20,000; the most cited is about 15,000. These sites lie in present-day Ukraine, between the Southern Bug and the Dnieper. The culture takes its name from the village of Cucuteni, near Târgu Frumos.

More on this site: [Cucuteni–Trypillia: Two Millennia Under One Name](https://cucuteni.mariuscomper.uk/en/)

### 7th–6th century BC: The first towns on Romania's territory were Greek colonies

The first towns on Romania's Black Sea coast were founded by Greek settlers. Histria was founded by people from Miletus. There are two dates for its founding: 657/656 BC, from the chronicle of Eusebius as reported by modern authors, and about 630 BC, derived from the Greek geographer known as Pseudo-Scymnus. The oldest pottery found there fits the second date.

Milesians also founded Tomis, today's Constanța, around 600 BC. Callatis, today's Mangalia, was founded by settlers from Heraclea Pontica, prompted by an oracle. Pseudo-Scymnus says only that this happened after Amyntas became king of Macedon, and historians disagree over which Amyntas he means. He also writes that Scythians lived around Tomis.

More on this site: [Who were the Greeks who lived in Romania for a thousand years?](https://mariuscomper.uk/histria/en/) · [The oldest city in Romania: Histria or Constanta?](https://mariuscomper.uk/cel-mai-vechi-oras-din-romania/en/)

### 6th–3rd century BC: Herodotus finds the Getae south of the Danube, in Darius's path

Herodotus relates that the Persian king Darius, marching against the Scythians, subdued the Getae before he reached the Danube, that is, south of the river. He calls them the bravest and most just of the Thracians. Herodotus gives no year; the usual date, 514 or 513 BC, was set by modern historians.

Two centuries later, according to Diodorus of Sicily, the Getic king Dromichaetes took Lysimachus, one of Alexander the Great's successors, prisoner and brought him to a town called Helis. He then released him and got back the lands Lysimachus had taken from him. Modern historians date the capture to about 292 BC. The town of Helis has not been located.

### c. 82–44 BC: Burebista ruled a large kingdom, but its borders are not known

Strabo writes that Burebista united the Getae, subdued most of the neighbouring peoples and raided as far as Macedonia and Illyria. The only contemporary text, a decree of Dionysopolis (today Balchik) of 48–44 BC, says he had recently become 'the first and greatest of the kings in Thrace' and held both banks of the river.

82 BC is inferred from Jordanes, a 6th-century author who makes him a contemporary of Sulla, and 44 BC from Strabo, who says Burebista was overthrown and the kingdom split up. Where he resided is disputed: Vasile Pârvan and Radu Vulpe put it at Argedava (Popești, Giurgiu), the Daicoviciu brothers at Argidava (Vărădia, Caraș-Severin), other historians in the Orăștie Mountains. The decree mentions only a journey to Argedauon, whose location is uncertain.

More on this site: [Six UNESCO Dacian fortresses, one ticket office](https://mariuscomper.uk/cetati-dacice/en/)

### 72 BC – AD 86: Rome reached the Black Sea almost two centuries before Dacia

In 72–71 BC the proconsul of Macedonia, Marcus Lucullus, took the Greek coastal cities, Tomis among them. It was the first Roman army in Dobruja. Around 61 BC the army of Antonius Hybrida was destroyed near Histria, and Rome lost the region for about three decades. After Crassus's campaign of 29–28 BC, Rome took only Histria, Tomis and Callatis under its control. It left the rest of Dobruja to a Thracian client kingdom, that is, a kingdom with its own king, subject to Rome.

In AD 8 Augustus exiled the poet Ovid to Tomis, where he died in 17, according to Jerome's chronicle. In 46 the emperor Claudius abolished the Thracian kingdom, and Dobruja became part of the province of Moesia. From 86 it belonged to Moesia Inferior.

More on this site: [Ovid at Tomis: the poet's exile and the city's memory](https://mariuscomper.uk/ovidiu-la-tomis/en/)

### c. AD 87–101: Decebalus defeated a Roman army and received money from Rome

The war with the emperor Domitian began in 85 under King Duras, when the Dacians killed the governor Oppius Sabinus. Decebalus took over during the war. The Romans then also lost Cornelius Fuscus, the praetorian prefect, with his army. The general Tettius Julianus defeated the Dacians at Tapae: in 88, according to most handbooks, or in 89, according to Breeze, Marcu and Cupcea.

The peace favoured Decebalus. Cassius Dio writes that Domitian gave him money and craftsmen and promised more. Breeze, Marcu and Cupcea say the Dacian kingdom became a client kingdom of Rome; Dio stresses that it was Rome that paid. The kingdom's centre lay in the Orăștie Mountains, where six Dacian fortresses, Sarmizegetusa Regia among them, have been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1999.

More on this site: [What did NOT happen at Sarmizegetusa](https://mariuscomper.uk/sarmizegetusa-mituri/en/)

### AD 101–109: Trajan needed two wars and a bridge over the Danube

Trajan attacked in 101. In 102 Decebalus agreed to hand over his weapons and deserters, pull down his forts and have the same friends and enemies as Rome. Between the wars a bridge was built over the Danube at Drobeta, today Drobeta-Turnu Severin. Cassius Dio writes that it stood on 20 piers of squared stone, and Procopius names Apollodorus of Damascus as its builder.

Decebalus resumed the war in 105. In 106, with his capital and all his land occupied, he killed himself, and his head was taken to Rome. Dacia then became a Roman province. At Adamclisi, in Dobruja, Trajan dedicated a triumphal monument to Mars the Avenger; its inscription, partly restored, dates it to 109.

More on this site: [The war carved in stone: Trajan's Column (113 AD)](https://mariuscomper.uk/columna-lui-traian/en/) · [The bridge Rome demolished: Drobeta, 103–105](https://mariuscomper.uk/podul-lui-traian/en/)

## The province of Dacia (106–275)

For almost 170 years part of what is Romania today was a Roman province: Transylvania, Oltenia and the eastern Banat, guarded by forts on the mountains and along the Olt. Dobruja stays Roman after that. The rest lived outside the Empire.

### AD 106–271/275: Roman Dacia did not cover all of today's Romania

Roman Dacia covered Transylvania without the Ciuc basin, Oltenia and the eastern Banat. Outside it lay Maramureș, most of Crișana, the western Banat and most of Moldavia. Around 118 Hadrian gave up Muntenia and southern Moldavia, occupied during the war. In 118/119 he split the province into Dacia Superior and Dacia Inferior, then created Dacia Porolissensis: between 119 and 123 according to Breeze, Marcu and Cupcea, or before 124 according to E. Tóth.

The first town, Ulpia Traiana, was founded with veterans between 106 and 110, by the governor Scaurianus. Legio XIII Gemina was based at Apulum, today Alba Iulia, and from 167/168 Legio V Macedonica at Potaissa, today Turda. At Alburnus Maior, today Roșia Montană, wax tablets from 131–167 show miners brought mostly from Dalmatia.

More on this site: [Sign like a Roman: the Alburnus Maior wax tablets, 139–167](https://mariuscomper.uk/tablitele-cerate/en/) · [Five words on a Roman roof tile from Apulum](https://mariuscomper.uk/tigla-de-la-apulum/en/)

### 2nd–3rd century AD: For long stretches, Roman Dacia's frontier followed the mountains

For long stretches the province's frontier followed the mountains. In the north-west, on the Meseș Mountains, four forts 10–15 km apart guarded the crossing at Porolissum. There, for a stretch, the earth rampart was replaced by a wall. In the east, forts stood on the inner slopes of the Eastern Carpathians; the one at Brețcu was the easternmost.

East of the Olt, the Limes Transalutanus, a line of forts, linked the Danube to the Rucăr–Bran pass. It is usually dated to about AD 200, but some forts may be older, and some researchers see it as only a guarded road. In Dobruja, part of Moesia Inferior, Legio V Macedonica was based at Troesmis until 167/168 and XI Claudia at Durostorum, today Silistra. The fleet's base was Noviodunum, today Isaccea.

More on this site: [UNESCO counted 277 points along Rome's Dacian frontier](https://mariuscomper.uk/frontiera-dacica/en/) · [The only Roman map of Banat strings eleven stations in a row](https://mariuscomper.uk/peutingeriana-dacia/en/)

### AD 245–275: No ancient source gives the year Aurelian gave up Dacia

In 245–247 Carpi attacks broke through the Limes Transalutanus. Around 260 inscriptions in Dacia almost stop, and Eutropius writes that under the emperor Gallienus Dacia 'was lost'. Eutropius and the Historia Augusta then say that Aurelian gave up the province. He moved south of the Danube, to a new Dacia between the two Moesias, 'soldiers and provincials', according to the Historia Augusta, or 'the Romans from the towns and fields of Dacia', according to Eutropius.

Neither source gives a year. D. Magie, the translator of the Historia Augusta, proposes 271, and the historian E. Tóth 271–272. The year 275, when Aurelian died, is the latest limit. How many inhabitants left and how many stayed is the question from which the debate on Daco-Roman continuity starts.

## A thousand years without secure borders (275–1300)

Between the Roman withdrawal from Dacia in 275 and Basarab's victory in 1330, Goths, Huns, Gepids, Avars, Slavs, Bulgars, Magyars, Pechenegs and Cumans pass north of the Danube. From these centuries come princely graves, forts, royal charters and the routes of invasions.

### 275–c. 600: After 275, Rome stays south of the Danube, keeping Dobruja

After leaving Dacia, the Roman Empire kept Dobruja. Between 286 and 293 Diocletian made it the province of Scythia Minor, with its capital at Tomis, today Constanța. In 328 a bridge on stone piers over the Danube, built by Constantine the Great, was opened between Sucidava (Celei) and Oescus. On the left bank Rome held only bridgeheads and isolated forts.

North of the Danube, in these centuries, no one left borders that can be traced. The Huns destroyed the forts at Sucidava and Hinova around 410–411, according to the archaeologist István Bóna, and sacked Sucidava again under Attila in 443–447. Roman control of Dobruja largely collapsed in the early 7th century, and in 681 Constantine IV recognised the Bulgar settlement.

### 4th century: Goths north of the Danube: gold, graves and a Latin offering

In the 4th century the Tervingi Goths dominated the land north of the Danube, ruling over a mixed population. The cemetery at Sântana de Mureș, near Târgu Mureș, gives its name to an archaeological culture that reached into Ukraine. Most scholars see it as Goth-dominated but multi-ethnic. Bishop Wulfila preached to the Goths from about 341, and pagan chiefs persecuted Christians in 347–348 and in 369–372.

The Pietroasele hoard, found in 1837, is a Gothic treasure dated to the late 4th or early 5th century; of about 22 pieces, 12 survive. The Biertan donarium bears the Latin inscription 'EGO ZENOVIVS VOTVM POSVI'. Some historians read it as a trace of Latin-speaking Christians who stayed, others as an object brought from the Empire.

More on this site: [What happened to the golden hen with her chickens? 1837–1956](https://mariuscomper.uk/pietroasa/en/)

### c. 410–630: Huns, Gepids and Avars: kings buried near Cluj

After 410–411 the Huns controlled the plain between the Danube and the Carpathians. After the battle of Nedao (454), Transylvania belonged to the Gepids, according to the archaeologist István Bóna. At Apahida, near Cluj, at least two Gepid princely graves of 470–500 have been found, two of them in 1889 and 1968. A gold ring bears the name OMHARIVS, a king no written source mentions.

In 567–568 the Avars destroyed the Gepid kingdom. According to Bóna, at least 25 of the 30 known Gepid cemeteries went out of use then, among them Morești, on the Mureș. He also dates the first Slavs in Transylvanian finds to around 600–630. Almost all these dates come from archaeology, and assigning a grave to a particular people remains an interpretation.

### 681–c. 900: How far north of the Danube did the Bulgars rule?

In 681 Constantine IV recognised the settlement of Asparukh's Bulgars south of the Danube, and Dobruja became part of their state. What they held north of the river is disputed. The Royal Frankish Annals record a Bulgar expedition up the Drava into Pannonia in 827, and the Annals of Fulda say that in 892 King Arnulf asked the Bulgars to stop selling salt to the Moravians. No text mentions Transylvania.

István Bóna links the salt passage to the cemetery with Bulgar-type pottery at Blandiana and argues for Bulgar rule over the salt district of southern Transylvania from about 827 to 895. Victor Spinei sees in the same pottery only cultural influence. Bulgarian historical atlases draw a much larger state.

### 971–1185: Byzantium returns to the Danube in 971

In 971 the Emperor John Tzimiskes defeated the Rus' prince Sviatoslav on the Danube and took Dobruja. The Byzantines rebuilt the old Roman forts at Dristra (Silistra), Isaccea, Dinogetia and Capidava, with the command at Dristra. Historians disagree on when the region became the province of Paristrion: right after 971, around 1018–1020 or in the mid-11th century. Who held Dristra between 986 and 1000 is also uncertain.

From the late 1020s the Pechenegs, a nomadic people, raided the province and then settled in it as allies. The Uzes plundered it in 1064–1065, the Cumans from the 1080s. Most scholars take the fortress on the island of Păcuiul lui Soare to be Byzantine; the Bulgarian archaeologist Atanasov holds it is Bulgarian and older. Dobruja stayed Byzantine until the revolt of 1185–1186.

### 1003–1263: How Transylvania became part of the Kingdom of Hungary

No document records the conquest. The Annals of Hildesheim note that in 1003 King Stephen of Hungary captured his uncle, 'King Iulus', with his wife and two sons. Historians identify Iulus with the gyula, the title of Transylvania's ruler. Ajtony, lord of Cenad, was defeated at a disputed date: 1002, 1008 or 1027–1030.

The charters then show gradual expansion: Turda castle appears in a charter dated 1075, and Mercurius, 'prince beyond the forests', in 1111. The title voivode, the king's governor in Transylvania, appears only towards the end of the 12th century. From 1263 the voivode was also count of Solnoc, and his authority covered all the counties of Transylvania. The Saxon and Székely lands stayed outside it. Țara Bârsei and Făgăraș enter the records in the 13th century.

### c. 900, written c. 1200: Gelou, Menumorut and Glad: one chronicle, two readings

The Gesta Hungarorum, written by an anonymous notary around 1200, tells of the Hungarians' arrival, around 900. It says Transylvania was ruled by Gelou, 'a certain Vlach', with Vlach and Slav subjects, who was killed by the Căpuș river. Bihor belonged to Menumorut, and the Banat to Glad, who came from the castle of Vidin. No other source mentions them.

The Romanian historians Vlad Georgescu, Ioan-Aurel Pop and Alexandru Madgearu hold that the Gesta, with other sources, shows Romanian polities in the 9th century; Madgearu calls Gelou a real person. Martyn Rady, its English translator, calls it a 'toponymic romance' that moves conditions of c. 1200 into the past. The Hungarian Academy's history reads it the same way. The excavations at Dăbâca do not settle the dispute.

### a debate from the 18th century to today: Where did the Romanians take shape? Two theses, no verdict

The thesis that the Romanians took shape south of the Danube, put forward by F. J. Sulzer in 1781 and systematised by Robert Roesler in 1871, rests on Eutropius's report that Aurelian moved Dacia's Romans across the river, on words shared with Albanian and the lack of inherited Latin place names north of the Danube. The Hungarian Academy's history finds no trace of Romanians in Transylvania before the early 13th century.

Romanian historians such as Ioan-Aurel Pop argue for continuity north of the Danube, noting that the sources mention only the army and administration leaving. The Byzantine Kekaumenos links the Vlachs of Thessaly to the Dacians and Bessi, with an old homeland 'near the Danube and the Sava', south of the river. But Byzantines often gave contemporary peoples ancient names.

More on this site: [The Latin Island: the Romanian language, from Dacia to Weigand](https://mariuscomper.uk/limba-romana/en/)

### 1141–1225: Saxons, Teutonic Knights, Székelys and a 'land of the Vlachs'

Géza II (1141–1162) called German settlers to southern Transylvania. In 1211 Andrew II gave Țara Bârsei, 'deserted and uninhabited', says the charter, to the Teutonic Knights, a military order, to defend against the Cumans. The order placed itself under the Pope in 1224, and the king expelled it in 1225.

A privilege dated 1222 mentions 'the land of the Székelys' and 'the land of the Vlachs', placed by historians around Făgăraș. The Hungarian historian László Makkai considers it a forgery of 1231 but trusts what it says of the Vlachs' land. A charter of 1223 mentions land 'taken out from the Vlachs' for Cârța abbey. The Andreanum of 1224 unites the Saxons, from Orăștie to Baraolt, under the count of Sibiu and mentions 'the forest of the Vlachs and Pechenegs'.

More on this site: [Everyone goes to Viscri and Biertan](https://mariuscomper.uk/biserici-fortificate/en/)

### 1185–1238: The Cumans, the Asen brothers and the first ban of Severin

In autumn 1185 the brothers Asen and Theodore-Peter led the Byzantine province on the Danube in revolt. The Byzantine sources, above all Niketas Choniates, call them Vlachs, and their state presented itself as the revival of the Bulgarian tsardom. Romanian historians stress the state's Vlach character, Bulgarian historians its Bulgarian continuity; the historian Dall'Aglio calls the dispute 'fierce, and ultimately pointless'.

North of the Danube, the Kingdom of Hungary tried to convert the Cumans, a nomadic people. In 1227 the Cuman chief Bars was baptised and submitted to the king, and from 1228 there was a Catholic bishopric of the Cumans on the Milcov, whose seat has not been found. In 1233 the first ban of Severin, the royal governor of a frontier region, appears in the records.

### 1241: 1241: two Mongol armies cross the Carpathians

In spring 1241 the Mongols attacked Hungary from several directions. According to most reconstructions, an army under Kadan crossed the Rodna pass, besieged Rodna, laid waste Bistrița and Cluj, then left through the Meseș Gate towards the Tisza plain. Another, under Bogutai, came through the Oituz pass, killed Pósa, the voivode of Transylvania, and took Cetatea de Baltă, Sibiu and Alba Iulia in turn.

A detachment crossed the Siret and laid Cumania waste, together with its bishopric on the Milcov. Canon Rogerius, who escaped captivity, found Alba Iulia in ruins on his way back. The sources name only a few places along the way; the armies' exact tracks are unknown.

More on this site: [Carpini and Rubruck](https://mariuscomper.uk/calugari-la-hanul-mongol/en/)

### 1247–1330: From Litovoi's land to Basarab's victory in 1330

On 2 June 1247 King Béla IV granted Severin and Cumania to the Hospitaller knights. He excepted the lands of the voivodes Litovoi and Seneslau, which he left to the Vlachs 'as they have held them until now'. Litovoi refused tribute and was killed, around 1272 according to László Makkai, in 1277–1280 according to Ioan-Aurel Pop and Vlad Georgescu. In 1324 a royal charter calls Basarab 'our Transalpine voivode'; from 1325 the charters treat him as disloyal to the crown.

In September 1330 Charles Robert took Severin and refused the 7,000 marks of silver Basarab offered. Between 9 and 12 November the retreating royal army was trapped between cliffs and destroyed. The site is disputed: Loviștea, the Câmpulung–Bran road, Mehadia, the Prahova valley or the border of Oltenia and Severin.

## Wallachia, Moldavia, Transylvania (1300–1600)

Between 1330 and 1601 Wallachia and Moldavia appear on the map, two countries with their own princes. From the 15th century they pay tribute to the sultan, and the forts on the Danube and the sea pass into direct Ottoman rule. Transylvania, a province of the Kingdom of Hungary, becomes a separate state after 1541, tributary to the Porte.

### 1330: A king of Hungary loses his army in Wallachia

In November 1330 King Charles Robert of Hungary marches into the land of the voivode Basarab, the ruler south of the Carpathians, to bring him to heel. On the way back Basarab's men ambush the royal army and almost destroy it. The king barely escapes. The site of the battle, called Posada, is unknown: some historians look for it in Loviștea, on the Olt, others, such as Neagu Djuvara, towards Severin.

Romanian historians see this as the beginning of Wallachia as a separate state, with its seat at Curtea de Argeș. The History of Transylvania published by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences is more cautious. In its reading, Hungary's kings had from then on to settle for oaths of fealty that left the voivodes wide freedom.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia; The Kingdom of Hungary: Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands.

### 1359–1401: Moldavia breaks away from Hungary and reaches the sea

In 1345 the Székelys under their count, Endre Lackfi, defeat the Tatars east of the Carpathians. The Hungarian king holds a march here, a frontier province that by tradition began at Baia under Dragoș, around 1350. In 1359, the usual date, Bogdan of Maramureș crosses the mountains, expels Balc, the king's vassal, and takes over. A royal charter of 2 February 1365 confiscates his estates. Romanian historians call the outcome independence; the Hungarian Academy's history calls it wide autonomy.

The princes first sit at Baia and Siret, then, from the late 14th century, at Suceava. Then Moldavia takes Cetatea Albă (today Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Ukraine), a port at the mouth of the Dniester. In July 1401 the Patriarchate of Constantinople recognises Iosif as Metropolitan of Moldavia.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia; Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova) (under the suzerainty of the king of Poland); The Ottoman Empire: northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); The Kingdom of Hungary: Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands.

More on this site: [How did a country end up named after a man?](https://mariuscomper.uk/moldova-bogdan/en/)

### 1385 and 1428: The first Roma slaves appear in princes' gifts to monasteries

In 1385 Wallachia's prince, Dan I, confirms to Tismana Monastery 40 'sălașe' of 'ațigani', that is Roma. A sălaș was a household of one or a few families. These people had earlier been given to Vodița Monastery, so Roma slavery is older than the charter. It is their first mention in Wallachia.

For Moldavia, Nicolae Gheorghe gives 1402 as the first record of Roma. The oldest known grant of slaves there dates from 1428: Alexander the Good gives Bistrița Monastery 31 households of 'Gypsies' and 12 households of Tatars. In Transylvania, where Roma appear in records from 1417, they were free people, according to the same Gheorghe.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova) (under the suzerainty of the king of Poland); The Ottoman Empire: northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); The Kingdom of Hungary: Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands.

### 1388–1419: Mircea the Elder wins and loses Dobruja

In 1388 Mircea the Elder briefly takes part of Dobruja. That same winter the Ottomans capture Silistra, on the Danube. Sultan Bayezid I then meets Mircea at Rovine, a site never identified. The date is disputed: most Romanian historians give 17 May 1395; Onciul and Giurescu give 10 October 1394. Romanian historiography counts it a victory for Mircea, Halil İnalcık an Ottoman one, Lucian Boia a draw. The Ottomans do not conquer the country. In 1396 King Sigismund of Hungary's crusade is crushed at Nicopolis.

After Timur defeats Bayezid at Ankara in 1402, Mircea retakes Silistra and Dobruja by 1404 and holds them until his death in 1418. Sultan Mehmed I reconquers them in spring 1419 according to Machiel Kiel, in 1420 according to Mihai Maxim.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova) (under the suzerainty of the king of Poland); The Ottoman Empire: northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); The Kingdom of Hungary: Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands.

### 1417–1420: Wallachia pays tribute, and the Danube gets Ottoman forts

After Sultan Mehmed I's campaign of 1417, Wallachia agrees to pay the Porte, the Ottoman government, an annual tribute and to send it noble hostages. Some works give 1415. The country keeps its own princes but accepts the sultan's suzerainty, an authority standing above the prince.

The Ottomans take the Wallachian Danube forts of Giurgiu and Turnu: in 1420 according to Mihai Maxim, in 1417 according to older works. Giurgiu is Wallachian again in 1427, Ottoman around 1431 and Wallachian under Vlad Dracul in 1445; it is Ottoman again from 1449, and some sources date permanent Ottoman rule only to 1545. It becomes the seat of an Ottoman district of 25 villages. Turnu stays Ottoman until 1829. Such territories, ruled directly by the Ottomans, are called raias.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova) (under the suzerainty of the king of Poland); The Ottoman Empire: northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); The Kingdom of Hungary: Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands.

### 1437–1438: Peasants rise, and the nobles, Székelys and Saxons unite

In spring 1437 Hungarian and Romanian peasants in Transylvania rise against the tithes demanded by the bishop and camp on Bobâlna hill. In September 1437 the nobles, the Székely leaders and the Saxon patricians swear mutual help. The revolt is crushed in January 1438, and on 2 February the three renew their union at Turda.

In the Hungarian Academy's History of Transylvania, László Makkai writes that the 'nations' were estates, meaning groups with political rights. He also finds little sign of active participation by Romanian serfs in the revolt. Romanian historiography gives Romanians a larger part in the revolt and reads the union as the exclusion of Romanians, as a people, from Transylvania's political life.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova) (under the suzerainty of the king of Poland); The Ottoman Empire: northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); The Kingdom of Hungary: Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands.

### 1441–1458: A noble from Hunedoara rules Hungary, and his son becomes king

The Hunyadi family, according to László Makkai probably boyars from Wallachia, receive the Hunedoara estate in 1409. In 1441 John Hunyadi becomes voivode of Transylvania, the head of this province of the Kingdom of Hungary, and later governor of the whole kingdom.

In July 1456 Hunyadi breaks the siege of Belgrade led by Sultan Mehmed II. He dies of plague the same year and is buried at Alba Iulia. His son Matthias, born in Cluj in 1443, is elected King of Hungary in 1458 and reigns until 1490. Both Romanians and Hungarians claim the family's memory.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova) (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Ottoman Empire: northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); The Kingdom of Hungary: Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands.

### 1459–1462: Bucharest first appears in a charter of Vlad the Impaler

On 20 September 1459 a charter written in Slavonic ends with the words 'written in the fortress of Bucharest'. In it Vlad the Impaler confirms land to one Andrei and his sons. It is the city's first mention. The 'fortress' was then one of the prince's residences, and Târgoviște remained the country's main seat.

Vlad stops paying the tribute, and in 1462 Sultan Mehmed II marches against him. On the night of 17 June Vlad attacks the Ottoman camp without stopping the sultan. The campaign ends with Vlad's brother, Radu the Handsome, on the throne and the boyars paying homage to the Porte again.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova) (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Ottoman Empire: northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); The Kingdom of Hungary: Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands.

More on this site: [How Vlad Țepeș became Europe's first print villain: 1462–1897](https://mariuscomper.uk/vlad-tepes/en/)

### 1475–1484: Stephen the Great wins at Vaslui but loses the sea ports

Since 1456 Moldavia had paid the Porte an annual tribute; Prince Petru Aron had agreed to 2,000 ducats. Stephen the Great stops paying it. On 10 January 1475, at Vaslui, he defeats the Ottoman army sent to punish him. In July 1476 Sultan Mehmed II beats him at Războieni but does not conquer the country, and the two sides open talks.

In 1484 Sultan Bayezid II takes Chilia (today Kiliia, Ukraine) on 14 or 15 July and Cetatea Albă between 3 and 5 August, with Crimean Tatar help. Moldavia loses both ports and its outlet to the sea. Stephen renews the tribute in 1486. Around Cetatea Albă the Ottomans settle Tatars exempt from taxes.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul) (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Ottoman Empire: southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); The Kingdom of Hungary: Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands.

More on this site: [The saint who lost his greatest battle](https://mariuscomper.uk/stefan-cel-mare/en/) · [Who paid for medieval Moldavia? The Genoese road (1261–1484)](https://mariuscomper.uk/drumul-genovez/en/)

### 1521: The oldest Romanian letter dated almost to the day is from Câmpulung

At the end of June 1521, probably on the 29th or 30th, Neacșu, a merchant of Câmpulung, writes to the judge, or mayor, of Brașov, Johannes Benkner, about a movement of Ottoman troops. The letter crosses the mountains: Câmpulung is in Wallachia, Brașov in Transylvania. Kept today in the National Archives at Brașov, it is the oldest text in Romanian that can be dated almost to the day.

The Hurmuzaki Psalter, a Romanian translation of the Psalms, is older. The watermarks in its paper place it between roughly 1491 and 1504, and the text is a copy of an even older translation. No exact day or year can be given for it.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul) (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Ottoman Empire: southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); The Kingdom of Hungary: Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands.

More on this site: [The first Romanian sentence was a spy alert](https://mariuscomper.uk/scrisoarea-lui-neacsu/en/)

### 1514–1541: Hungary splits in three, and its east pays tribute to the sultan

In 1514 a crusade against the Turks turns into a great peasant war led by the Székely György Dózsa. Dózsa is defeated at Timișoara, and the laws passed that year tie the peasants to the land. On 29 August 1526 Hungary's army is destroyed by the Ottomans at Mohács, and King Louis II dies. Two rival kings contest the country: John Szapolyai and Ferdinand of Habsburg.

In August 1541 Sultan Suleiman occupies Buda. Hungary splits in three: a Habsburg part, an Ottoman part, and a kingdom in the east with its seat at Alba Iulia, tributary to the Porte. The tribute, 10,000 florins, is paid every year from 1543. According to the Hungarian Academy's history, the eastern state had no name, and its ruler still styled himself King of Hungary.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul) (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Ottoman Empire: southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); The Eastern Hungarian Kingdom: Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands (under Ottoman suzerainty).

### 1538–1552: The Ottomans take Tighina, Brăila and Timișoara under direct rule

In 1538 Sultan Suleiman marches into Moldavia against Petru Rareș. Suceava, the capital, capitulates in September, and the sultan appoints another prince. Tighina becomes the Ottoman fortress of Bender, and the south between the Prut and the Dniester becomes the Budjak, increasingly settled by Tatars under the Crimean khan. Hotin, on the Dniester, stays Moldavian. Then the Ottomans take Brăila with a few villages. Mihai Maxim says the year is unknown but certainly between 1538 and 1540.

In 1552 Timișoara and the forts on the Mureș fall, among them Lipova, with the whole of Arad county. The Banat plain becomes the Eyalet of Timișoara, an Ottoman province ruled directly by a pasha. Lugoj and Caransebeș, also taken in 1552, are handed back to Transylvania in 1554.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul) (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Ottoman Empire: southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja), Crișana (south), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Habsburg Monarchy: Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana and Maramureș (north).

### 1551–1571: Iași becomes Moldavia's capital, and Transylvania a principality

From 1551 to 1556 the state around Transylvania passes to King Ferdinand of Habsburg, after Queen Isabella cedes her son's realm to Ferdinand in exchange for duchies in Silesia. In 1556 the diet, the assembly of the nobles, Székelys and Saxons, recalls Isabella and her son, John Sigismund. Around 1564 Prince Alexandru Lăpușneanu moves Moldavia's seat from Suceava to Iași.

In the secret Treaty of Speyer of 1570 John Sigismund gives up the title of king and becomes 'prince'. The treaty is ratified on 10 March 1571. The principality also receives the counties of Maramureș (Máramaros), Crasna (Kraszna), Middle Szolnok (Közép-Szolnok) and Bihor (Bihar), known as the Partium, without Satu Mare, which stays Habsburg. The princes are elected by the diet, and the Porte takes tribute from them.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul) (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Ottoman Empire: southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja), Crișana (south), the Banat plain; The Principality of Transylvania: Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat highlands (under Ottoman suzerainty).

### 1595–1601: Michael the Brave rules three countries at once for a few months

Michael the Brave, Prince of Wallachia, rises against the Porte and in August 1595 halts Sinan Pasha's army at Călugăreni. In October 1599 he defeats Transylvania's prince, Andrew Báthory, at Șelimbăr, and the diet makes him Emperor Rudolf II's governor. In May 1600 he takes Moldavia. For about four months one ruler holds all three. On 18 September 1600 he loses Transylvania at Mirăslău, and in August 1601 he is killed near Turda.

Nicolae Bălcescu gave his deeds a national meaning in the 19th century; schools call it the first union. Lucian Boia quotes others: for A. D. Xenopol, Michael never even thought of an administrative union; for Dimitrie Onciul, the union was held only by the conqueror's sword. The Hungarian Academy's history speaks of a rule resting on force.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Habsburg suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul) (under the suzerainty of the king of Poland); The Ottoman Empire: southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja), Crișana (south), the Banat plain; The Principality of Transylvania: Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat highlands (under Habsburg suzerainty).

More on this site: [Three crowns, one year: Michael the Brave 1593–1601](https://mariuscomper.uk/mihai-viteazul/en/)

## Between Ottomans, Habsburgs and Russians (1600–1858)

Between 1613 and 1858 borders moved over people who stayed where they were. Transylvania passed from the sultan to the Habsburgs (1688–1699), the Banat became Austrian, and Oltenia was Austrian from 1718 to 1739. Moldavia lost Bukovina (1775) and the land east of the Prut (1812), and in 1858 the two principalities received a common name.

### 1613–1629: Transylvania elected its prince, but the sultan decided

In the 17th century Transylvania was a principality with its own diet, laws and prince. But it paid tribute to the sultan and recognised his suzerainty: the country governed itself, yet the Porte, the Ottoman government, could impose its ruler. In March 1613 the Ottoman Divan ruled that Gabriel Bethlen should become prince. On 23 October 1613 the estates elected him at Cluj, with an Ottoman army present; a contemporary noted wryly that 'out of fear, they freely elected him'. Bethlen ruled from Alba Iulia until his death on 15 November 1629. Elected king of Hungary in 1620, he was never crowned. By the Peace of Nikolsburg (1621–1622) he kept seven counties of Upper Hungary for life; they returned to the king after his death.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul) (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Ottoman Empire: southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja), Crișana (south), the Banat plain; The Principality of Transylvania: Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat highlands (under Ottoman suzerainty).

### 1658–1664: How Oradea became an Ottoman city

In 1658 the grand vizier's army reached western Transylvania. On 2 September the commander of Ineu fortress surrendered it, and Ákos Barcsai, to become prince, ceded Lugoj and Caransebeș to the Porte. In 1660, after a 44-day siege, Oradea capitulated in August. Sources differ on the day: 17 August in the History of Transylvania published by the Hungarian Academy under Béla Köpeczi, 27 August in most other accounts. Oradea became the seat of the Eyalet of Varat, a province under direct Ottoman rule. The Transylvanians had asked that Turkish rule go no further than the fortress's domains; in practice it did. The Peace of Vasvár (1664) recognised these losses. The Ottoman garrison surrendered only in June 1692, after nearly a year of imperial siege.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul) (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Ottoman Empire: southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja), Crișana (south), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Principality of Transylvania: Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana and Maramureș (north) (under Ottoman suzerainty).

### 1683–1699: Transylvania passes from sultan to emperor in 16 years

In 1683 Prince Mihály Apafi joined the Ottoman camp at Vienna, on the sultan's order. The Ottoman defeat on 12 September 1683 opened the war that brought Transylvania under the Habsburgs. In autumn 1687, with some 40,000 imperial soldiers in the country, the principality signed an agreement with Charles of Lorraine at Blaj: winter quarters for the troops and the handover of Sibiu. On 9 May 1688, by the Declaration of Făgăraș, Transylvania gave up the Porte's suzerainty for that of Leopold I, emperor and king of Hungary. The Diploma Leopoldinum (1690–1691), the act that set the country's status, kept its internal autonomy. The Peace of Karlowitz (26 January 1699) recognised Transylvania as a Habsburg possession but left the Banat Ottoman, with the border on the Mureș.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul) (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Ottoman Empire: southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Habsburg Monarchy: Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north).

### 1697–1744: A new church and a claim to rights for the Romanians

Under the Habsburgs, three 'nations' held political rights in Transylvania: the Hungarian nobility, the Saxons and the Székelys. The Romanians were not among them. Between 1697 and 1701 Bishops Teofil and Atanasie Anghel accepted the union of part of the Orthodox clergy with the Church of Rome, in exchange for the rights enjoyed by the Catholic clergy. An imperial decree of 1701 set the status of the new Greek Catholic Church. How many priests and faithful joined the union at the time is disputed. The Greek Catholic bishop Inochentie Micu-Klein used those promises to claim political rights for all Romanians. In 1744 he called a synod of Romanian priests, nobles and peasants at Blaj, the Romanians' first gathering of its kind. Summoned to Vienna, he went into exile in Rome.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul) (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Ottoman Empire: the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); The Habsburg Monarchy: Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands.

### 1716–1739: Oltenia was Austrian for 21 years

In 1716 Prince Eugene of Savoy's army besieged Timișoara for 43 days. On 13 October the Ottoman garrison surrendered; the city had been Ottoman since 1552. By the Peace of Passarowitz (21 July 1718) the Porte ceded to the emperor the Banat and the part of Wallachia west of the Olt, that is, Oltenia. The Olt became the border. Oltenia was run from Craiova by a ban, a governor appointed by the emperor. The Banat became a crown province governed directly from Vienna. A new war, lost by Austria in 1737–1739, undid part of the gain. By the Peace of Belgrade (18 September 1739) Oltenia returned to Wallachia, while the Banat stayed Austrian.

On the map: The Habsburg Monarchy: Oltenia, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; Wallachia: Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul) (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Ottoman Empire: the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

### 1751–1779: Settlers in the Banat, regiments on the border

Settlers from south-western Germany came to the Banat in large waves: from the conquest to 1726, then in 1763–1772 and 1782–1788. From 1751 the southern Banat became a military frontier, a district under military command whose peasants were also soldiers. From 1762 Transylvania had one too. The Romanian peasants of the Năsăud district and around Orlat became free border guards, on condition of military service and joining the Greek Catholic Church; the Székelys also formed regiments. At Siculeni, on 7 January 1764, imperial troops attacked the camp of Székelys who refused enrolment and killed between 200 and 400 people, by various accounts. In 1778 the Banat province passed to the Kingdom of Hungary, where from 1779 it formed three counties. The military frontier in the south stayed separate until 1872.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, the Herța region, Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul) (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Habsburg Monarchy: southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Ottoman Empire: the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

### 1784–1791: Horea's revolt and the Romanians' claim to be a fourth nation

On 31 October 1784 Romanian peasants gathered at Mesteacăn, near Brad, clashed with county officials. The revolt led by Horea, Cloșca and Crișan spread through Zarand and the Apuseni Mountains. The rebels killed nobles and officials, and at Deva nobles summarily executed 56 prisoners. The army crushed it on 7 December. Horea and Cloșca were broken on the wheel at Alba Iulia in February 1785: on the 18th in the History of Transylvania edited by Béla Köpeczi, the 28th in Romanian historians' accounts.

In March 1791 the Supplex Libellus Valachorum asked for the Romanians to be recognised as a fourth 'nation'. The diet at Cluj rejected it. The Romanian historian D. Prodan called it the most important political document of Transylvania's Romanians; Köpeczi's history rejects its argument, Daco-Roman continuity.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, the Herța region, Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul) (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Habsburg Monarchy: southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Ottoman Empire: the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

More on this site: [Horea 1784: revolt, wheel, patent](https://mariuscomper.uk/horea-1784/en/)

### 1812: The Prut becomes a border and Russia takes Bessarabia

On 16/28 May 1812 (by the Julian calendar, then in use in Moldavia, and by the Gregorian), the Peace of Bucharest ended a Russo-Turkish war. Article 4 fixed the border on the Prut down to its mouth on the Danube, then along the Kilia arm to the sea. Russia received everything east of the Prut. Not all of it had been Moldavian. According to the historian A. Lavric, the Porte gave up the raias of Hotin (Khotyn), Tighina (Bender), Cetatea Albă (today Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Ukraine), Kilia, Izmail and Reni, and the Budjak, ruled directly by the Ottomans, some since 1484. Moldavia lost the districts of Soroca, Orhei, Lăpușna, Hotărniceni, Codrul Tigheciului, Greceni and part of Iași. The whole territory was named Bessarabia. The Encyclopedia of Ukraine estimates about 340,000 inhabitants.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, the Herța region (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Habsburg Monarchy: southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Russian Empire: the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); The Ottoman Empire: northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

### 1843–1856: Roma slavery ended over 13 years, one law at a time

The Roma of Wallachia and Moldavia were slaves of the state, the monasteries or private owners. They were freed category by category. Wallachia freed state slaves in March 1843 and those of the monasteries and the Church in February 1847, without compensation. Moldavia freed the slaves of both categories in January–February 1844. Privately owned slaves were freed last, with compensation for their owners: in Moldavia on 10/22 December 1855, in Wallachia on 8/20 February 1856. The historian Viorel Achim estimates that the laws of 1843–1856 freed about 250,000 people in all. The revolutionaries of 1848 had decreed emancipation, but the decree was annulled the same year. Since 2011 Romania has marked 20 February as the day of Roma emancipation.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, the Herța region, southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad) (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Habsburg Monarchy: southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Russian Empire: the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); The Ottoman Empire: northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

More on this site: [The children put up for auction in 1851 had names](https://mariuscomper.uk/dezrobirea-1856/en/)

### 1639–1711: How Bucharest became Wallachia's capital

In the 17th century Wallachia and Moldavia were principalities with their own princes, under Ottoman suzerainty. Matei Basarab, prince of Wallachia, and Vasile Lupu, prince of Moldavia, fought each other at Ojogeni in 1639 and at Finta in 1653. Both had princely printing presses. Metropolitan Varlaam's Cazania, a book of sermons, was printed at Iași in 1643, and the law code 'Îndreptarea legii' at Târgoviște in 1652. In 1659, on the Porte's order, Prince Gheorghe Ghica demolished the court at Târgoviște, and Bucharest became Wallachia's capital. In 1711 Moldavia's prince, Dimitrie Cantemir, allied with Tsar Peter the Great against the Porte. In July 1711 the Ottomans surrounded the Russian and Moldavian army at Stănilești on the Prut, and Cantemir went into exile in Russia.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul) (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Ottoman Empire: southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Habsburg Monarchy: Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north).

More on this site: [Dimitrie Cantemir](https://mariuscomper.uk/cantemir/en/) · [Evliya Çelebi in Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania (1659–1661)](https://mariuscomper.uk/evliya-celebi/en/)

### 1711–1775: Princes named in Constantinople; Moldavia loses Khotyn and Bukovina

After 1711 in Moldavia and after 1716 in Wallachia, the Porte stopped choosing princes from local boyars. It appointed them from families linked to the Phanar, a district of Constantinople, hence the name Phanariot princes. Constantin Mavrocordat abolished the peasants' personal bondage to a lord: rumânie in Wallachia (1746) and vecinie in Moldavia (1749). Peasants still owed labour and dues to the estate owner. In 1713 the Ottomans took the fortress of Hotin (Khotyn), and in 1715 the district became a raia: removed from the prince's authority and put under direct Ottoman rule. Russia occupied the principalities from 1769 and returned them to the Porte by the Peace of Küçük Kaynarca (1774). Also in 1774 Austria occupied northern Moldavia, ceded by the Porte on 7 May 1775 and named Bukovina.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, the Herța region, Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul) (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Habsburg Monarchy: southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Ottoman Empire: the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

### 1821–1832: Tudor's revolt and the end of the Phanariot princes

In January 1821, at Padeș in Gorj, Tudor Vladimirescu called people to rise against the boyars and the Phanariot princes. He entered Bucharest in March and was killed in May by the Eterists, fighters of the Greek movement led by Alexander Ypsilantis. In 1822 the Porte again appointed native princes, drawn from the country's boyars. The Peace of Adrianople (2/14 September 1829) fixed the border on the Danube's main channel and returned to Wallachia the Turkish towns on the left bank: Brăila, Giurgiu and Turnu. The principalities gained princes for life and free trade. Under the Russian occupation led by General Pavel Kiselyov, the Organic Regulations, nearly identical laws organising the state in both countries, came into force in Wallachia in 1831 and in Moldavia in 1832.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, the Herța region (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Habsburg Monarchy: southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Russian Empire: the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); The Ottoman Empire: northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

More on this site: [Whose revolution was 1821? Tudor against the Eteria](https://mariuscomper.uk/tudor-1821/en/)

### 1848–1849: 1848 in the three lands, and a civil war in Transylvania

In March 1848, at Iași, boyars and intellectuals asked Prince Mihail Sturdza for reforms. At Blaj, on 3/15 May, between 30,000 and 40,000 Romanians, by observers' estimates, demanded the end of serfdom and recognition as a nation. At Islaz, on 9/21 June, Wallachian revolutionaries proclaimed their programme; their government fell in September, when Ottoman and Russian troops moved in.

In Transylvania the Hungarian revolution and Avram Iancu's Romanians fought a civil war. In January 1849 Romanian insurgents burned Aiud and killed Hungarian townspeople. In 1849, at Abrud, the Hungarian commander Imre Hatvani's men killed two Romanian leaders who had stayed for talks. The Hungarian historian Ákos Egyed estimates 14,000–15,000 civilians killed: 7,500–8,500 Hungarians, 4,400–6,000 Romanians and about 500 Saxons, Jews and Armenians. Romanian historians put Romanian losses far higher.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, the Herța region (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Habsburg Monarchy: southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Russian Empire: the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); The Ottoman Empire: northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

More on this site: [The year 1848: three countries, one summer — Iași, Blaj, Islaz](https://mariuscomper.uk/anul-1848/en/) · [How did our anthem wait 142 years? 1848–1990](https://mariuscomper.uk/imnul-1848/en/)

### 1856–1858: After the Crimean War, Moldavia gains southern Bessarabia

The Treaty of Paris (30 March 1856), which ended the Crimean War, made Russia cede southern Bessarabia, with Cahul, Bolgrad and Izmail, to Moldavia. Before 1812 only the Cahul area had been Moldavian; Izmail had been Ottoman. The handover took place in March 1857. The Danube delta islands went back to the Ottoman Empire. A European Commission of the Danube, based at Galați, took charge of the river's mouths. In 1857 the ad hoc assemblies, elected at the Great Powers' request, voted for union under a foreign prince: the one at Iași by 81 votes to 2, the one at Bucharest unanimously. The Paris Convention (7/19 August 1858) created the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, under Ottoman suzerainty, with two princes, two assemblies and a Central Commission at Focșani.

On the map: Wallachia: Oltenia, Muntenia (under Ottoman suzerainty); Moldavia: Moldavia west of the Prut, the Herța region, southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad) (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Habsburg Monarchy: southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Russian Empire: the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); The Ottoman Empire: northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

More on this site: [Was Romania invented in Paris? The treaty of 1856](https://mariuscomper.uk/paris-1856/en/)

## From the Union to Greater Romania (1859–1918)

In 1859 Moldavia and Wallachia elected the same prince. Over the next 60 years the state born of their union changed its borders several times: it lost southern Bessarabia and gained Dobruja in 1878, gained Southern Dobruja in 1913, went through the war of 1916–1918 and reached the unions of 1918. Double dates such as 5/17 January are Old and New Style.

### 1859: Two countries chose the same prince

The Paris Convention of 7/19 August 1858 had decided that Moldavia and Wallachia would stay two principalities, each with its own prince and assembly, under Ottoman suzerainty: they governed themselves, but the Sultan remained their formal overlord. On 5/17 January 1859 the assembly at Iași unanimously elected Colonel Alexandru Ioan Cuza as prince. On 24 January/5 February the assembly at Bucharest elected the same man.

The Porte and Austria treated the double election as a breach of the convention. The Powers accepted it all the same in 1859, and in October the Sultan sent Cuza the firman of investiture, the decree that recognised him. For now the union existed only in the prince: two governments, two assemblies and a joint commission at Focșani, on the border between the principalities.

On the map: The United Principalities: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, the Herța region, southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad) (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Habsburg Monarchy: southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Russian Empire: the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); The Ottoman Empire: northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

More on this site: [The 1859 union — How Moldavia and Wallachia united](https://mariuscomper.uk/mica-unire-1859/en/)

### 1862–1864: One state, with Bucharest as its capital

A firman from the Sultan in December 1861 recognised the union for Cuza's lifetime only. On 22 January/3 February 1862 a single government was formed, and on 24 January/5 February a single assembly met at Bucharest. The Focșani commission was abolished, and Iași was no longer a capital. The state was still under Ottoman suzerainty.

In December 1863 the assembly transferred the monastic estates to the state; estimates of their extent range from over a quarter to nearly a third of the country. In May 1864 Cuza dissolved the assembly. The rural law of 14/26 August 1864 abolished the clacă, the unpaid labour peasants owed the landowner, and gave peasant families land in ownership, sized by the number of draught animals they had.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, the Herța region, southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad) (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Habsburg Monarchy: southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Russian Empire: the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); The Ottoman Empire: northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

### 1866: The name Romania enters the constitution

On the night of 11/23 February 1866 conspiring officers forced Cuza to sign his abdication, and power passed to a princely lieutenancy. Carol of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, chosen by plebiscite with 685,969 votes to 224, entered the country by the Danube at Turnu Severin on 8/20 May. He took the oath at Bucharest two days later.

The constitution adopted on 29 June/11 July and promulgated on 1/13 July 1866 says in its first article that the United Principalities form a single indivisible state named Romania. Article 7 allowed only Christians to become citizens by naturalisation. In October the Sultan, still suzerain, granted Carol the firman of investiture and accepted hereditary succession. At first the Powers did not recognise the name Romania diplomatically.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, the Herța region, southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad) (under Ottoman suzerainty); The Habsburg Monarchy: southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Russian Empire: the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); The Ottoman Empire: northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

More on this site: [The king who arrived incognito: Carol I, May 1866](https://mariuscomper.uk/carol-i-1866/en/) · [The night Cuza left: 11 February 1866](https://mariuscomper.uk/noaptea-lui-cuza/en/)

### 1867–1868: Transylvania loses its separate status

The Compromise of 1867 turned the Habsburg Empire into Austria-Hungary, a dual monarchy. On 20 June 1867 the Transylvanian diet, the province's assembly, which met at Cluj, was dissolved by royal decree. Act XLIII of 1868 regulated Transylvania's union with Hungary. Romanian historiography calls the step an annexation made without consulting the Romanian majority. From then on Transylvania, the Banat and Crișana were governed from Budapest, while Bukovina stayed in the Austrian half.

Also in 1868 the Budapest parliament passed the nationalities law. The History of Transylvania published by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences calls it essentially liberal. The Romanians' Memorandum of 1892 replied that only its title respected the principle of equal rights.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, the Herța region, southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad) (under Ottoman suzerainty); Austria-Hungary: southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Russian Empire: the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); The Ottoman Empire: northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

### 1877: Independence, proclaimed in Bucharest and defended at Plevna

Under a convention of 4/16 April 1877, Romania let Russian troops enter its territory for Russia's war with the Ottoman Empire. On 9/21 May 1877 parliament in Bucharest proclaimed independence, and the next day Carol sanctioned it.

The Romanian army crossed the Danube and fought beside the Russian army at the siege of Plevna, today Pleven in Bulgaria. On 30 August/11 September it took the Grivița redoubt. On 28 November/10 December Osman Pasha surrendered Plevna to the Romanian colonel Mihail Cerchez and the Russian general Ganetsky. The independence it had proclaimed still had to be recognised by the Powers, and they set conditions.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, the Herța region, southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad) (under Ottoman suzerainty); Austria-Hungary: southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Russian Empire: the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); The Ottoman Empire: northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

More on this site: [What did Plevna actually win? 1877–1878](https://mariuscomper.uk/plevna-1877/en/)

### 1878–1881: Romania loses southern Bessarabia and gains Dobruja

The Treaty of Berlin, signed on 13 July 1878, recognised Romania's independence on two conditions. The first was equal rights regardless of religion, so Article 7 of the constitution was revised in 1879. The second was the cession to Russia of southern Bessarabia, with Cahul, Bolgrad and Izmail, which Moldavia had received in 1856.

The same treaty added the Danube Delta, Snake Island and the sanjak of Tulcea (Northern Dobruja) to Romania, down to a line from east of Silistra to south of Mangalia. Romanian historiography speaks of the “return” of Dobruja; the treaty says the lands are “added to Roumania”. The Romanian army entered Dobruja on 14/26 November 1878. Silistra and Southern Dobruja stayed in the new Principality of Bulgaria. On 14/26 March 1881 Romania became a kingdom.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, the Herța region, northern Dobruja; Austria-Hungary: southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Russian Empire: the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja) (under Ottoman suzerainty).

More on this site: [The bridge that taught a country engineering: Cernavodă 1895](https://mariuscomper.uk/cernavoda-1895/en/)

### 1892–1894: A petition sent back unopened

In May 1892 a delegation of Transylvania's Romanian National Party took a petition, known as the Memorandum, to Emperor Franz Joseph in Vienna. The history published by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences counts 237 delegates; Romanian sources say about 300. The petition was forwarded unopened to Budapest, and the prime minister's office sent it back still unopened.

The authors were tried at Cluj from 7 to 25 May 1894. Fourteen defendants were convicted of incitement through the press. Sentences ranged from two months to five years; Vasile Lucaciu got the heaviest, five years. Four defendants were acquitted. Those convicted were pardoned in September 1895.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, the Herța region, northern Dobruja; Austria-Hungary: southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Russian Empire: the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja) (under Ottoman suzerainty).

More on this site: [The trial that convicted an empire: the 1892 Memorandum](https://mariuscomper.uk/memorandul-1892/en/)

### 1907: How many peasants died in 1907?

On 8/21 February 1907 the peasants of Flămânzi, in Botoșani county, rose against the leaseholders of the Fischer trust, who had leased the estates from their owners. In northern Moldavia many leaseholders were Jewish, and the revolt first turned against them. By March it had reached Oltenia and Muntenia, and the government used 140,000 soldiers.

The death toll is disputed. The Sturdza government reported 419 or 421 dead, for 28 March–5 April only. A 1910 report by Major Gheorghe Dabija counted 1,786 peasants shot. Austrian diplomats estimated 3,000–5,000 dead, French diplomats 10,000–20,000. Constantin Mille's newspaper launched the number 11,000, later adopted by communist historiography and still cited by many historians. Historian Ion Bulei estimates 2,000–3,000 dead.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, the Herța region, northern Dobruja; Austria-Hungary: southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Russian Empire: the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja) (under Ottoman suzerainty).

More on this site: [The 1907 revolt: how many died — and who counted?](https://mariuscomper.uk/rascoala-1907/en/)

### 1913: In 1913 Romania took Southern Dobruja from Bulgaria

After the Second Balkan War, by the Treaty of Bucharest of 28 July/10 August 1913, Bulgaria ceded Southern Dobruja to Romania. On the map, the new border starts on the Danube above Tutrakan and reaches the Black Sea south of Ekrene. The treaty also obliged Bulgaria to dismantle the fortifications at Ruse and Shumen and those within 20 kilometres of Balchik.

Romanians called the region the Cadrilater, and the state divided it into the counties of Durostor and Caliacra. According to the 1910 Bulgarian census, its people were 47.6% Bulgarians, 37.8% Turks and 2.4% Romanians.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, the Herța region, northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); Austria-Hungary: southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Russian Empire: the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova).

### 1916: Less than four months into the war, Bucharest was occupied

On 14/27 August 1916 Romania declared war on Austria-Hungary. Its treaty with the Entente promised it Transylvania, the Banat, part of Bukovina and land up to the Tisza. Romanian troops crossed the Carpathians and on 16/29 August entered a deserted Brașov; more than 200,000 people fled the war zone south of the Mureș.

On 24 August/6 September Bulgarian and German troops took Tutrakan, in the south. By October Romanian troops had pulled out of Brașov and the Székely land. On 23 November/6 December 1916 Bucharest was occupied, and the king, government and parliament moved to Iași. According to the Hungarian Academy's history, Romania suffered more than 100,000 casualties and lost 150,000 prisoners in 1916, and the Central Powers held about two thirds of the country.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, the Herța region, northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); Austria-Hungary: southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Russian Empire: the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova).

More on this site: [The whole country moved to Iași](https://mariuscomper.uk/refugiul-de-la-iasi/en/) · [Where is Romania's gold? The Moscow treasure, 1916–2024](https://mariuscomper.uk/tezaurul-de-la-moscova/en/)

### 1917: In the summer of 1917 the Moldavian front held

The Romanian army had withdrawn into Moldavia, the unoccupied part of the country. On 11/24 July 1917 General Alexandru Averescu's 2nd Army attacked at Mărăști together with Russian troops and pushed the front back. On 24 July/6 August the Central Powers' offensive under Mackensen began. It was stopped at Mărășești after almost a month of fighting, and at Oituz Romanian troops held the pass towards the Trotuș valley.

At Mărășești Romanian losses were 27,410 men, including 5,125 killed; the Russians lost 25,650 men. Over the whole 1917 campaign the Central Powers gained about 200 square kilometres. The Moldavian front was not broken again before the end of the war.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, the Herța region, northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); Austria-Hungary: southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Moldavian Democratic Republic: the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova).

More on this site: [“Pe aici nu se trece”: Mărășești, 1917](https://mariuscomper.uk/marasesti-1917/en/)

### 1918: The peace of 1918 never took effect

Once Russia left the war, Romania was alone on the Moldavian front. On 20 February/5 March 1918 at Buftea it accepted the Central Powers' preliminary terms. The Marghiloman government signed the peace treaty on 24 April/7 May. Romania lost Dobruja and the Carpathian crests: Hungary received a strip 2–10 kilometres wide with 23,000 inhabitants, according to the Hungarian Academy's history.

The parliament elected under the Marghiloman government ratified the treaty in June–July 1918. King Ferdinand never promulgated it, that is, he never signed it into law. When Romania re-entered the war on 10 November 1918, the treaty became void.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); Austria-Hungary: southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands.

### 1918: How Bessarabia voted for union in 1918

The Sfatul Țării, the province's council in Chișinău, had proclaimed the Moldavian Democratic Republic in December 1917. In January 1918, at the request of part of the council, the Romanian army crossed the Prut and drove out Bolshevik units. On 27 March/9 April 1918, of 138 deputies, 86 voted for union, conditional on autonomy, 3 against, 36 abstained and 13 were absent.

Unionist accounts describe a free vote. The historian Dorin Dobrincu notes that the deputies chose an open vote by 82 to 27, that Romanian troops were in the city and that Prime Minister Marghiloman practically opened and closed the sitting. Soviet and some Russian historians call it annexation. On 27 November/10 December the council dropped the conditions and dissolved itself; critics note that only 44 members attended.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); Austria-Hungary: southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands.

### 1918–1919: The union voted in 1918 was completed on the ground in 1919

As Austria-Hungary broke apart, a Ukrainian committee held Cernăuți (today Chernivtsi, Ukraine) on 6–10 November 1918, then a Romanian division entered the city. On 15/28 November the 100 delegates present at the General Congress of Bukovina voted unanimously for union with Romania; the Ukrainian and Jewish National Councils refused to take part. On 18 November/1 December at Alba Iulia, 1,228 Romanian delegates from Transylvania, the Banat, Crișana and Maramureș voted for union and promised “full national freedom” to the other peoples.

At Cluj about 40,000 people demanded on 22 December to stay in Hungary. The Romanian army entered the city on 23 or 24 December. Crișana and the Banat came under Romanian administration in 1919; the Romanian army entered Timișoara, occupied by the Serbian army, on 3 August.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja), Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands.

More on this site: [How 1,228 delegates united a country in one day](https://mariuscomper.uk/alba-iulia-1918/en/)

## Greater Romania, 1940 and the war (1919–1947)

Between 1919 and 1947 Romania's borders moved several times. The peace treaties draw Greater Romania; in the summer of 1940 it loses Bessarabia, northern Bukovina, Northern Transylvania and the Cadrilater, and then the front crosses it twice. In these years Jews and Roma were killed and deported from the towns and villages in the chapters that follow.

### 1919: In the spring of 1919, Oradea was still governed from Budapest

The Alba Iulia Assembly voted for the union of Transylvania with Romania on 1 December 1918. In January 1919, however, the Romanian army halted on the Sighet–Baia Mare–Zalău–Ciucea line. On the map, west of that line, Satu Mare, Carei and Oradea stayed under Hungarian administration. Arad was held by French troops, with the Hungarian civil administration still in place.

The Romanian army entered Carei on 19 April and Oradea on 20 April 1919, and Arad only on 17 May. In the Banat, Serbian troops left Timișoara on 27 July, and the Romanian army entered the city on 3 August. On the evening of the same day Romanian cavalry rode into Budapest. The army held the Hungarian capital until 14 November 1919.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja), Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north); Hungary: Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands.

### 1919–1920: Four acts fixed Greater Romania’s borders; one never came into force

At Saint-Germain, on 10 September 1919, Austria renounced Bukovina in favour of Romania. At Neuilly, on 27 November 1919, the peace treaty with Bulgaria left the Cadrilater to Romania. At Trianon, on 4 June 1920, the border with Hungary was fixed; the treaty came into force on 26 July 1921.

Hungarian historians stress that Romania received about 103,000 km², where nearly 2.5 million people were not Romanians, according to the 1910 census. Romanian historians see the treaty as confirming the union voted at Alba Iulia. For Bessarabia, France, Britain, Italy and Japan signed the Paris Protocol on 28 October 1920. Japan never ratified it, so the protocol never came into force. Soviet Russia, and later the USSR, did not recognise the union of Bessarabia.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja), Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands.

More on this site: [How was the border with Hungary negotiated?](https://mariuscomper.uk/trianon-1920/en/)

### 1920–1930: How many people lived in Greater Romania?

The census of 29 December 1930 counted 18,057,028 inhabitants. The number of Jews depends on the criterion: 756,930 by religion and 728,115 by ethnicity. The same census recorded 262,501 people of Roma descent.

The land reform was voted province by province: for Bessarabia on 13 March 1920, for the Old Kingdom on 17 July 1921, and for Transylvania and for Bukovina on 30 July 1921. The Constitution of 29 March 1923 defined Romania as a unitary national state and gave the vote to adult male citizens. Religion, ethnic origin and language could no longer bar anyone from civil and political rights. Women’s political rights were left to special laws.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja), Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands.

More on this site: [Your village has been on four different maps](https://mariuscomper.uk/harta-judetelor-de-la-1930-la-azi/en/)

### 1933–1939: The Iron Guard killed two prime ministers, and the king made himself dictator

Corneliu Zelea Codreanu’s Legionary movement, also called the Iron Guard, killed two prime ministers: Ion G. Duca in 1933 and Armand Călinescu in September 1939. In the December 1937 election it came third, with 15.58% of the vote and 66 seats, according to the Wiesel Commission.

In February 1938 King Carol II dismissed the Goga government, set aside the 1923 Constitution and promulgated a new one that strengthened his power; on 30 March 1938 he dissolved the parties. In August 1938 the 71 counties were grouped into ten ținuturi (regions) run by royal residents. Codreanu was killed by gendarmes in November 1938, while being moved between prisons.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja), Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands.

### June–July 1940: In four days Romania lost Bessarabia and northern Bukovina

On 26 June 1940 the Soviet Union demanded Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. Bucharest accepted on 28 June, and the Red Army reached the Prut on 30 June. Romania lost 50,762 km² and 3,776,309 inhabitants, 53.49% of them Romanians. The text of the note did not mention the Herța district. The attached map included it, and the Romanian envoy refused to take the map. The Red Army took it anyway.

In Galați, during the retreat, Romanian soldiers fired on a crowd of refugees on 30 June and killed roughly 300 people, mostly Jews, according to the Wiesel Commission. In Dorohoi, on 1 July, Romanian soldiers killed Jews: 53 by the official count, between 165 and 200 according to the town’s Jewish community. On 2 August Moscow created the Moldavian SSR.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja), Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Soviet Union: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova).

### 30 August 1940: Germany and Italy gave Hungary Northern Transylvania, Cluj included

On 30 August 1940, by the German–Italian award at Vienna, Hungary received Northern Transylvania: 43,591 km² and about 2.5 million inhabitants, according to Randolph Braham. The takeover ended by 13 September. The Hungarian census of 1910, the Romanian one of 1930 and the Hungarian one of 1941 give different numbers of Romanians and Hungarians, and Braham writes that both sides adjusted the figures.

At Treznea, on 9 September, Hungarian troops killed 93 people, 87 Romanians and 6 Jews, a figure given both by Romanian sources and by the Hungarian historian Balázs Ablonczy. At Ip, on the night of 13/14 September, Hungarian soldiers killed between 152 and 158 Romanians. Some Hungarian accounts cite shots fired at the troops in both cases; many witnesses deny this for Treznea.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja), Transylvania (south), Crișana (south), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Soviet Union: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Hungary: Transylvania (north), Crișana and Maramureș (north).

### 7 September 1940: The Cadrilater went to Bulgaria, and people were moved across the new border

By the Treaty of Craiova of 7 September 1940, Romania ceded the Cadrilater, the counties of Durostor and Caliacra, to Bulgaria. The 1930 census had counted 378,344 inhabitants there. Bulgarian troops crossed the border on 21 September and reached Silistra on 1 October.

The treaty provided for a compulsory exchange of population: about 84,000 Romanians from the south and about 68,000 Bulgarians from Northern Dobruja. According to the historian Dennis Deletant, 103,711 Romanians were in fact moved from the Cadrilater to Romania, and 62,278 Bulgarians from Northern Dobruja to Bulgaria. The 1947 peace treaty left the Cadrilater to Bulgaria.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Crișana (south), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Soviet Union: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); Hungary: Transylvania (north), Crișana and Maramureș (north).

### September 1940 – January 1941: The Iron Guard governed for four months and ended with a pogrom in Bucharest

Carol II abdicated on 6 September 1940. General Ion Antonescu governed together with the Iron Guard, which had 15 ministers in the government formed on 14 September. On the night of 26 to 27 November, legionnaires killed 64 politicians and defenders of the interwar order in Jilava prison, among them a former prime minister. Hours later, also on 27 November, legionnaires killed Nicolae Iorga and Virgil Madgearu.

In January 1941 the Guard rose against Antonescu. In the rebellion of 21 to 23 January, legionnaires killed 121 or 125 Jews in Bucharest (the Wiesel Commission's report gives both numbers) and set synagogues on fire. The army put down the rebellion on 23 January.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Crișana (south), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Soviet Union: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); Hungary: Transylvania (north), Crișana and Maramureș (north).

### June–July 1941: In the second week of the war, more than 13,000 Jews were killed in Iași

Romania went to war alongside Germany on 22 June 1941. At the time 45,000 Jews lived in Iași. From the night of 28 to 29 June until 1 July, Romanian police, gendarmes and soldiers, together with German soldiers and local civilians, killed Jews in the streets and at police headquarters. The pogrom was carried out on Ion Antonescu's express orders and prepared by the Special Intelligence Service and the army, the Wiesel Commission writes. Thousands more died in two death trains.

Between 13,266 Jews (the number the Romanian secret service admitted) and 14,850 (the Jewish community's own count) died. Meanwhile the Romanian and German armies retook northern Bukovina and Bessarabia: Cernăuți on 5 July, Chișinău on 16 July.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Crișana (south), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); Hungary: Transylvania (north), Crișana and Maramureș (north).

### 1941–1942: Transnistria, where most Jews deported from Romania were killed or died

In 1941 Romanian and German troops killed between 45,000 and 60,000 Jews in Bessarabia and Bukovina. Between 154,449 and 170,737 Jews from Romania were deported across the Dniester to the Governorate of Transnistria, run by Romania without annexation. Between 105,000 and 120,000 of them died there.

Between 115,000 and 180,000 local Jews were also killed. After the explosion of 22 October 1941 in Odesa, the Romanian army killed some 22,000 Jews locked in the warehouses at Dalnic. At Bogdanovka, with Antonescu's consent, Ukrainian police assisted by Romanian gendarmes shot about 48,000 Jews in the winter of 1941–1942. In all, the Wiesel Commission estimates that 280,000 to 380,000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews were murdered or died in Romania and the territories it controlled.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Crișana (south), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); Hungary: Transylvania (north), Crișana and Maramureș (north).

### 1942: In 1942 over 25,000 Roma were deported, and nearly half of them died

On 1 June 1942 gendarmes began rounding up nomadic Roma and sending them to Transnistria. By 2 October 11,441 had been deported, 6,714 of them children. Between 12 and 20 September nine trains took another 13,176 settled Roma there, deemed ‘undesirable’. In all, slightly over 25,000 Roma were deported. Approximately 11,000 died, of typhus, hunger and cold. About 14,000 survived; most returned in the spring of 1944.

At the front, the Soviet counter-offensive at Stalingrad struck the Romanian Third Army first, on 19 November 1942, and the Romanian Fourth Army the next day.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Crișana (south), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); Hungary: Transylvania (north), Crișana and Maramureș (north).

### May–June 1944: In six weeks the Jews of Northern Transylvania were sent to Auschwitz

After Germany occupied Hungary on 19 March 1944, the Hungarian gendarmerie and administration, working with the Nazi commando led by Adolf Eichmann, forced the Jews of Northern Transylvania into ghettos from 3 May. Between 16 May, when the first train left Sighet, and 27 June, 45 trains took 131,639 people to Auschwitz, according to the historian Randolph Braham’s count for the Wiesel Commission. The last train left from Oradea.

The number covers Northern Transylvania within the Hungarian borders of the time, which also took in places now in Ukraine. Before the partition about 200,000 Jews lived in Transylvania, 164,052 of them in the part ceded to Hungary. Separately, the Wiesel Commission estimates that 135,000 Romanian Jews under Hungarian control perished in the Holocaust.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova), northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Crișana (south), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Soviet Union: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja); Hungary: Transylvania (north), Crișana and Maramureș (north).

### March – October 1944: Bălți fell to the Soviets five months before Chișinău

The Red Army entered northern Bessarabia and Bukovina in March and April 1944: Soroca on 17 March, Bălți on 26 March, Cernăuți on 29 March. On the map, the front then stood still, across Bessarabia and north of Iași, until 20 August, when the Soviet Iași–Chișinău offensive began. On 23 August King Michael had Marshal Antonescu arrested, and Romania left its alliance with Germany. Chișinău was taken on 24 August.

The armistice signed in Moscow on 12 September declared the Vienna Award void. Soviet and Romanian troops took Cluj on 11 October, Oradea on 12 October and Satu Mare on 25 October 1944.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Soviet Union: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

### 1945: Why did Romanian administration return to Cluj only in March 1945?

After Soviet and Romanian troops took Northern Transylvania, the Soviet command expelled the Romanian administration in November 1944, and the region spent four months under Soviet military administration. On 6 March 1945, under pressure from Moscow, the Petru Groza government was formed, dominated by the Communists. On 9 March Stalin let the Romanian administration return, and the ceremony in Cluj was held on 13 March. The closeness of the dates is usually read as a sign that Stalin’s decision was tied to the new government.

In January 1945 about 75,000 ethnic Germans from Romania, men aged 17 to 45 and women aged 18 to 30, were deported for labour in the USSR. For the Saxons, the historian Hannelore Baier gives 10% dead in the USSR and another 2% during repatriation.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Soviet Union: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

### 1946–1947: The 1947 peace brought back Cluj; Bessarabia and the Cadrilater stayed lost

The electoral law of July 1946 gave the vote to all citizens aged 21 or over, women included. The elections of 19 November 1946 were won by the Communist-led bloc by falsifying the results, the historian Florian Banu writes.

The peace treaty signed in Paris on 10 February 1947 declared the Vienna Award void and restored the border with Hungary of 1 January 1938. Otherwise it kept Romania’s borders of 1 January 1941. Bessarabia and northern Bukovina thus stayed with the USSR, and the Cadrilater with Bulgaria. The treaty came into force on 15 September 1947. On 30 December 1947 King Michael I was forced to abdicate, and Romania was proclaimed a people’s republic.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Soviet Union: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

## Communism, 1989 and today's Romania (1948–2026)

After 1948 Romania's land border did not change again. Then came the prisons and camps, the deportations, the counties abolished and restored, the great building sites and, in December 1989, the cities of the revolt. To the east, the USSR breaks up in 1991: Bessarabia becomes the Republic of Moldova, while northern Bukovina, northern Hotin and the Budjak stay in Ukraine.

### 1948: In 1948 the state took the factories and the USSR took Snake Island

On 30 December 1947 King Michael was forced to abdicate and Romania became a people's republic. A Romanian–Soviet protocol of 4 February 1948 stated that Snake Island "is incorporated into the USSR" and gave the USSR several islets on the Chilia arm, among them Maican. The island was handed over in May 1948. Romania never ratified the protocol, and Romanian historians regard it as abusive; the International Court of Justice nonetheless treated the 1949 delimitation records as binding.

On 11 June 1948 a law nationalised industry, banks, insurers, mines and transport. The 1947 peace treaty had fixed the frontiers of 1 January 1941, except the one with Hungary. On the map, Northern Transylvania is back in Romania, Bessarabia and northern Bukovina remain in the USSR, and the Cadrilater in Bulgaria.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Soviet Union: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

### 1949–1953: Prisons and labour camps: from the Canal to Sighet

From the summer of 1949 the regime sent prisoners to forced labour on the Danube–Black Sea Canal, between Cernavodă and Capul Midia. By minimal estimates cited in the presidential commission's report, 40,000–60,000 prisoners were there at any one time. Work was halted on 18 July 1953. At Pitești prison, from December 1949 to September 1951, student prisoners were forced by torture to torture their fellows. Across the whole "re-education", from Suceava to Pitești and Gherla, the report counts dozens killed and several hundred maimed.

On the night of 5 to 6 May 1950, 90 former dignitaries were brought to Sighet prison. Up to 1955 about 180 prisoners passed through it; 53 died there. Aiud and the Periprava and Salcia camps on the Danube completed the map of detention.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Soviet Union: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

More on this site: [The canal dug twice](https://mariuscomper.uk/canalul-dunare-marea-neagra/en/)

### 1950–1968: Counties vanished in 1950, and in 1952 an "autonomous" region appeared

In September 1950 the 58 counties were replaced by regions, divided into smaller units called raions, on the Soviet model. The Constitution of 27 September 1952 created, under pressure from Soviet advisers, the Hungarian Autonomous Region, centred on Târgu Mureș. It covered almost all of the former Székely seats, the old administrative units of the Székelys. In 1956 it had 13,500 km² and 731,387 inhabitants, 77.3% of them Hungarian.

The autonomy existed mostly on paper: the republic's laws applied there too, and the region's statute was never approved. After the reform of December 1960 the region was renamed Mureș-Hungarian Autonomous Region, and the Hungarian share fell to 61%. It was abolished by the law of 16 February 1968 that brought back the counties; the commission's report says 1967.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Soviet Union: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

### 1951: Pentecost 1951: more than 40,000 people deported to the Bărăgan

At Pentecost in 1951, families living in a 25 km strip along the Yugoslav border, in the Banat and south-western Oltenia, were taken from their homes and moved to the Bărăgan plain. The presidential commission's report places the round-up on the night of 18 to 19 June. The association of former deportees counts 40,320 people; according to the CNSAS files, the number approaches 44,000. An Interior Ministry note of December 1953 gives 43,891 people and 18 new settlements.

The report finds that, overall, the deportation did not target one ethnic group: Romanians, Germans, Serbs, Hungarians and Bulgarians were taken. The exceptions were the Aromanians and the Bessarabians settled in Romania after 1940, who were deported for their origin. Returns began in December 1955, and most people went home in 1956.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Soviet Union: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

### 1949–1962: Peasants lost their land over 13 years of collectivisation

The collectivisation of agriculture began in 1949. Peasant land was to pass into collective farms, farms held in common on the Soviet model. The campaign slowed after 1952 and was resumed in force in 1957. On 27 April 1962 Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej announced that it was complete, at a special session of the Grand National Assembly, the parliament of the time. The session lasted until 30 April, and 11,000 peasants were brought to it. From the first collective farms to Gheorghiu-Dej's announcement, 13 years had passed.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Soviet Union: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

### 1958–1968: Soviet troops left in 1958, and the counties came back in 1968

About 25,000 Soviet soldiers left Romania in June–July 1958, under an agreement approved by the Warsaw Pact states on 24 May 1958. The regime responded with a new wave of arrests. Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej died on 19 March 1965, and a few days later Nicolae Ceaușescu took over the party leadership. The Constitution of August 1965 renamed the state the Socialist Republic of Romania.

Law No. 2 of 16 February 1968 brought back the counties: 39, plus the Municipality of Bucharest. On 21 August 1968, from the Central Committee balcony, Ceaușescu condemned before some 100,000 people the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops, in which Romania took no part. The presidential commission's report calls the gesture a masquerade, one that nonetheless made him popular.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Soviet Union: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

### 1966–1977: A decree banned abortion, and an earthquake killed 1,578 people

Decree 770 of 1 October 1966 banned abortion with few exceptions. Amended in 1974 and 1985 to raise the birth rate, it stayed in force until December 1989. Between 1966 and 1989, 9,452 women were recorded in maternal-mortality statistics; the presidential commission's report says the number is an undercount. In 1989 Romania had 169.9 maternal deaths per 100,000 births, 87% of them caused by abortions.

On 4 March 1977 at 21:21, an earthquake centred in Vrancea, 94 km deep, killed 1,578 people, 1,424 of them in Bucharest. In the capital 32 buildings collapsed. Romania's National Institute for Earth Physics gives its magnitude as 7.4; some publications give 7.2. The regime then used the earthquake to speed up the "systematisation" of Bucharest and of the villages.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Soviet Union: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

More on this site: [The night Bucharest fell down](https://mariuscomper.uk/cutremurul-din-1977/en/)

### 1972–1989: The dam, the canal and the House of the People: Ceaușescu's great works

The Iron Gates I hydropower plant, built jointly with Yugoslavia, was inaugurated on 16 May 1972. The Danube–Black Sea Canal, halted in 1953, was resumed and opened on 26 May 1984, running 64.4 km between Cernavodă and Agigea. Also in 1984, mass demolition began in central Bucharest for the House of the Republic, today the Palace of Parliament. Districts making up a quarter of the historic centre disappeared, and tens of thousands of residents were moved out.

Systematisation, the forced reorganisation of towns and villages, rested on a law of 29 October 1974. A 1986 Central Committee report proposed removing 3,931 of the country's 13,123 villages; in 1988 Ceaușescu spoke of 7,000–8,000. By December 1989 only a few places near Bucharest had been razed, among them Buda, Dimieni and Vlădiceasca.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Soviet Union: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

More on this site: [The church that walked away on rails](https://mariuscomper.uk/dealul-uranus/en/)

### 1981–1987: Bread rations and pay cuts: the protests in Motru and Brașov

A decree of 9 October 1981 made food "speculation" punishable by prison, and one of 17 October led to the rationing of bread, flour and maize meal. The second decree banned buying food outside the place where a person lived or worked. On 19 October 1981 the Motru miners protested against the bread rations.

On 14 November 1987 workers at the Steagul Roșu truck works in Brașov were told their pay would be cut by 30%. The next day they marched to the County Party Committee headquarters. Participants put the crowd at 6,000–8,000 people, who shouted "Down with Ceaușescu!". Security forces dispersed it within two to four hours. Afterwards 62 workers were "deported", meaning forcibly moved to other towns with an obligatory place of residence.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Soviet Union: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

### December 1989: From Timișoara to Bucharest: how Ceaușescu fell in December 1989

In Timișoara, the protest that began on 15–16 December outside Pastor László Tőkés's parish house became a revolt. According to prosecutors, 66 people were shot dead on the evening and night of 17 to 18 December. By 20 December the protesters held the city.

On 21 December Ceaușescu's rally in Bucharest turned into a protest. That day soldiers fired on demonstrators in Cluj and Sibiu. In Cugir, militiamen barricaded in their headquarters fired warning shots; the crowd set the building on fire and killed two militiamen. On 22 December the crowd took the Central Committee building, and the Ceaușescus fled by helicopter from its roof. They were caught the same day near Târgoviște, tried on 25 December in what the presidential commission and prosecutors call a simulated trial, and executed.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Soviet Union: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

More on this site: [December 1989: Twelve Days, from Timișoara to Târgoviște](https://mariuscomper.uk/decembrie-1989/en/)

### 1989: Most of the dead fell after Ceaușescu fled

There is no single official death toll for December 1989. The 2006 presidential commission report gives 1,104 dead, 162 up to 22 December and 942 between 22 and 27 December, without citing a source. The military prosecutors' 2022 indictment counts 153 dead between 16 December and noon on 22 December, and 857 between 4 pm on 22 December and 30 December.

Prosecutors say that after 22 December people died mostly from "fratricidal fire", deliberately provoked through rumours of "terrorists". The defendants, among them Ion Iliescu, rejected the charges. Revolutionaries' associations and some authors maintain that armed elements loyal to Ceaușescu did fire. The case has no verdict: the High Court sent it back to the prosecutors for good in 2024, and Iliescu died in August 2025.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; The Soviet Union: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

### 1990–1991: After 1989: violence in Târgu Mureș and University Square

On 19–20 March 1990 in Târgu Mureș, clashes between Romanians and Hungarians left five dead and more than 300 injured, according to Helsinki Watch. Accounts differ. Hungarian accounts stress the attack on the UDMR headquarters and the villagers brought in by truck. Romanian accounts stress the violence against Romanians on 20 March. The presidential commission's report speaks of an "ethnic diversion", used as a pretext to set up the Romanian Intelligence Service.

In Bucharest, the protest in University Square lasted 52 days, from 22 April. On 13–15 June 1990 security forces and thousands of miners brought to the capital attacked the demonstrators. Prosecutors record 4 people shot dead and 1,388 injured. The Constitution was adopted on 21 November 1991 and came into force after the referendum of 8 December.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; Ukraine: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă); The Republic of Moldova: the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

### 1989–1992: Since 1991, Bessarabia has been split between Moldova and Ukraine

On 31 August 1989 the Supreme Soviet of the Moldavian SSR made Romanian, then called "Moldovan", the state language and restored the Latin alphabet. Ukraine proclaimed independence on 24 August 1991 and the Republic of Moldova on 27 August. Northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the north of former Hotin county and the Budjak (southern Bessarabia) stayed in Ukraine, and a 1997 Romanian–Ukrainian treaty confirmed the border. The rest of Bessarabia became Moldova.

On the left bank of the Dniester a separatist republic was proclaimed on 2 September 1990. After fighting in 1992, including at Tighina (Bender), a ceasefire was signed in Moscow on 21 July 1992. Chișinău regards it as its own territory under separatist control; Tiraspol claims statehood. No UN member state recognises it, and Russian troops remain there.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; Ukraine: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă); The Republic of Moldova: the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

### 2004–2025: Since 2025 Romania has no checks at its borders with EU neighbours

Romania joined NATO on 29 March 2004 and the European Union on 1 January 2007. On 3 February 2009 the International Court of Justice unanimously drew the maritime boundary with Ukraine. Snake Island was left only its territorial sea, of 12 nautical miles. Romania's foreign ministry says Romania received more than 79% of the 12,200 km² in dispute.

The Schengen area is the European zone without checks at the borders between states. Checks at Romania's air and sea borders with Schengen states were lifted on 31 March 2024, and at land borders on 1 January 2025. The 2021 census counted 19,053,815 residents, 1.1 million fewer than in 2011. The UN estimated in 2024 that about 4.58 million people born in Romania lived in other countries.

On the map: Romania: Oltenia, Muntenia, Moldavia west of the Prut, southern Bukovina, northern Dobruja, Transylvania (south), Transylvania (north), Crișana (south), Crișana and Maramureș (north), the Banat plain, the Banat highlands; Ukraine: northern Bukovina, the Herța region, the Hotin region (north, now in Ukraine), southern Bessarabia (Izmail, Bolhrad), eastern Budjak (Cetatea Albă); The Republic of Moldova: the Hotin region (south, now in Moldova), Bessarabia (centre and north), southern Bessarabia (Cahul), south-eastern Bessarabia (now in Moldova); Bulgaria: the Cadrilater (southern Dobruja).

## Sources and method

**How to read the map.** A region's colour shows who ruled it on the ground: whose prince, king or government appointed its officials and whose laws applied there. Suzerainty, the dependence of one state on another through tribute and foreign policy (Wallachia's and Moldavia's on the Ottoman Empire, for example), is drawn as hatching in the suzerain's colour over the country's own. Wartime military occupations without annexation are mentioned in the text but do not change the colour and are not counted as a change of ruler. A change of ruler is counted when a state takes over the government of a land by treaty, cession or annexation; an army administering land another state claims, pending a peace settlement, is an occupation.

**Three levels of precision.** Until the 14th century the map shows attested places only: sites, fortresses, battles and the Roman province, with no borders drawn, because the sources do not allow it. From then on the outlines are built from the counties of 1930, cut along today's borders of Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and Bulgaria and along the 1940 Vienna line. The 1930 counties broadly follow the historical boundaries (the Carpathian crest, the Milcov, the Prut, the Dniester, the Danube) and, from 1878, the borders set by treaties, without tracing them step by step. Today's borders with Moldova and Ukraine are the line of June 1940, confirmed by the peace treaty of 1947.

**The Vienna line (1940)** is built from today's communes that lie mostly north of it, following an outline from OpenHistoricalMap. The line ran through 65 of today's communes; for the places in them, the note says that the line ran right through there.

**Your town.** The place you choose belongs to one of the atlas's regions, and each region has its own history, row by row, with the dates from which a state's authority applied on the ground. A town's line starts in 1330, the year from which the borders of the states in the Romanian lands can be approximated; for the centuries before, each chapter gives the nearest attested place, or whether the town lay inside a Roman province. For the fortress towns the Ottomans took under direct rule (Brăila, Giurgiu, Turnu, Tighina, Hotin) the dates of their raias are used. The list of places comes from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0) and is not an official register.

**Where the map stops.** The colours cover the lands of this atlas; the Kingdom of Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire stretched far beyond them. Internal provincial boundaries and small border adjustments are left to the text.

**Transnistria.** The left bank of the Dniester and the town of Tighina (Bender) are legally part of the Republic of Moldova but have been controlled since 1992 by the separatist authorities in Tiraspol. The left bank was never part of Bessarabia and is not in the list of places; Tighina is, with its history as an Ottoman raia and a Bessarabian town.

- **Maps and geographic data.** Relief: NOAA NCEI, DEM Global Mosaic (ETOPO 2022 base), 15″. Counties of 1930: geo-spatial.org (CC BY-SA 4.0). Communes of 2026: ANCPI via geo-spatial.org (CC BY-SA 4.0). Historical outlines used for comparison and checks: CShapes 2.0 and CShapes-Europe, ETH Zürich (Schvitz et al. 2022; Cederman et al. 2025; CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), and OpenHistoricalMap (CC0), which also supplied the outline of the Vienna line. The province of Dacia and the limes: Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire (DARE), Johan Åhlfeldt, Lund University (CC BY-SA). Rivers and countries: Natural Earth. Places: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0).
- **Antiquity.** Herodotus, *Histories* IV; Strabo, *Geography* VII; Cassius Dio, *Roman History* 67–68; Eutropius, *Breviarium* IX; *Historia Augusta*, Aurelian; the Dionysopolis decree (IGBulg I² 13); Fu et al., "An early modern human from Romania with a recent Neanderthal ancestor", *Nature* 524 (2015); D. J. Breeze, F. Marcu, O. Cupcea, *The Limes of Dacia* (2022); I. Tóth in B. Köpeczi (ed.), *History of Transylvania*, vol. I (Hungarian Academy of Sciences); the Pleiades gazetteer.
- **The early Middle Ages.** Anonymus, *Gesta Hungarorum* (tr. M. Rady); the *Chronicon Pictum*; Urkundenbuch zur Geschichte der Deutschen in Siebenbürgen (the charters of 1211, 1222, 1224, 1247, 1331–1335); E. R. Roesler, *Romänische Studien* (1871); I.-A. Pop, *Istoria românilor*; A. Madgearu on Byzantine Dobruja and the Asen revolt; Köpeczi (ed.), *History of Transylvania*, vol. I.
- **The principalities, 1330–1601.** V. Panaite, *The Ottoman Law of War and Peace: The Ottoman Empire and Its Tribute-Payers from the North of the Danube*; the entries on Giurgiu, Brăila, Kilia, Silistra, the Budjak and Dobruja in the *TDV İslâm Ansiklopedisi* (M. Maxim, M. Kiel, K. Karpat); Köpeczi (ed.), *History of Transylvania*, vols. I–II; L. Boia, *History and Myth in Romanian Consciousness*.
- **Between empires, 1601–1858.** G. Noradounghian, *Recueil d'actes internationaux de l'Empire ottoman* (the texts of the treaties of Passarowitz, Belgrade, Küçük Kaynarca, Bucharest 1812, Adrianople, Paris 1856); V. Achim, *The Roma in Romanian History* (2004); Köpeczi (ed.), *History of Transylvania*, vols. II–III; *Encyclopaedia Britannica*.
- **The Romanian state, 1859–1918.** The Treaty of Berlin (1878) and the Treaty of Bucharest (1913), in the *American Journal of International Law*, 1914; the 1866 constitution; the minutes of the General Congress of Bukovina (1918); D. Dobrincu on the Sfatul Țării vote; *Encyclopaedia Britannica*, 1911 edition, "Rumania".
- **Wars, 1919–1947.** International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania (Wiesel Commission), *Final Report* (2004); the Treaty of Peace with Romania (Paris, 1947); *Foreign Relations of the United States* (US Department of State); the 1930 general census; *Osvobozhdenie gorodov* (Moscow, 1985).
- **Communism and today, 1948–2026.** Presidential Commission for the Analysis of the Communist Dictatorship in Romania, *Final Report* (2006); IICCMER; the military prosecutors' indictment in the Revolution case (2022) and their 2019 statement; International Court of Justice, *Maritime Delimitation in the Black Sea (Romania v. Ukraine)*, judgment of 3 February 2009; INFP on the 1977 earthquake; National Institute of Statistics, 2021 census; NATO and the Council of the EU on accession and Schengen.