Romania - national flag
The flag was introduced in its current form in 1989. The colors are heraldic
and correspond to the base colors of the arms of Wallachia (blue), Transylvania
(yellow) and Moldova (red). In 1848, a tricolor in the above colors was adopted,
which only became official in 1859, when the country was in fact united. The
stripes were originally placed horizontally, in 1867 changed to vertical.
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Romania - prehistory
The oldest finds from Romania are pebble tools and hand wedges from older
Paleolithic times. The Middle Paleolithic moustérien cultureis well
represented. In younger Paleolithic times, the aurignacia was followed on a
local basis in the moustérien tradition by gravetti. Recently, Paleolithic-style
paintings have been found in the Cuciulat Cave, including a horse. Settlements
from the Mesolithic have been found along the rivers. After 6500 BC. the
sparsely populated areas were settled from the south by the oldest peasants,
whose settlements, eg Gura Baciului in Transylvania, with painted pottery
is associated with the Greek proto-Sesklo culture. From approximately 6000 BC known
rich Neolithic cultures. In the Cucuteni culture, the pottery reaches a climax,
painted with spiral patterns. Characteristic are clay statues, most
famously two seated figures from Cernavoda, and temple models in
clay. approximately 4000 BC began the exploitation of copper and gold, and especially
from this time are known urban mounds with mighty cultural layers.
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such as ROM which represents the official name of Romania.
The Bronze Age began approximately 2300 BC The treasure find from Apa includes
swords and decorated charcoal axes in bronze, and the treasure from Persinari
includes a gold sword, 12 gold daggers and three silver axes; both finds are
dated to approximately 1600 BC Iron began to appear approximately 1000 BC; at this time
Romania was under the influence of the urnmark culture with the special
religious symbolism encompassing sun images and swimming birds, as seen on a
boiler wagon from Bujoru. After the founding of Greek colonies on the Black Sea
approximately 600 BC a rich Thracian culture emerged in Romania and Bulgaria,
culminating in 300 BC. Magnificent gold and silver works are known, for example
from princely tombs at Peretu and Aghigiol. approximately 300 BC Celts migrated from
Hungary into Transylvania, and several Celtic burial sites are known,
including at Ciumeşti, where a tomb of a prince with a helmet has been
found, crowned with a large falcon figure. In Moldova, finds from the
Poineşti-Lukasevka culture testify to Germanic settlement in the 2nd and 1st
centuries BC.

Romania - history
According to a2zgov, the Romanians consider themselves descendants of the Dacian people who lived
in Transylvania and in the plains north of the Danube during the Roman Empire.
The oldest story
In 106, the Roman emperor Trajan established the province of Dacia north of
the Danube and in the Carpathians, and the local population was subjected to a
systematic Romanization. The Latin language quickly gained prominence, and by
271 Christianity had come to the area. Under pressure from the advancing Goths,
Emperor Aurelian had toabandon the province, and 271-275 the Roman legions and
officials were evacuated to the provinces south of the Danube along with the
upper class of cities. Archaeological research, however, suggests that the
majority of the Dacian-Roman population settled, and Christianity seems to have
survived. North of the Danube operated in the 300-t. the mission priests Sava
and Wulfila, who preached in Latin. After the Goths, the Dacian territory
was dominated by the Huns (from 376), the Gepids (from 454) and the Avars (from
558). Under the changing lords, the Dacian-Roman population of mountain
shepherds and peasants maintained close contacts with the Byzantine Empire,
especially with the province of Scythia (see Dobrogea), and the Romanization
process was only interrupted when the Danube border in 602 fell for the massive
immigration of Slavic tribes. Balkan.
Historical overview |
ca. 6500 BC |
oldest arable crops |
approx. 2300-600 BC |
Bronze Age |
approx. 600-300 BC |
Thracian cultures on the Black Sea |
approx. 300 BC |
Celtic immigration from Hungary |
106 AD |
Emperor Trajan establishes the province of Dacia north of the Danube |
approx. 270 |
Christianity comes to the area |
271-75 |
the Goths displace the Romans |
300 t.-500-t. |
females, geese and avaras dominate the area |
500-600-t. |
slaves settle on the Romanian Plain |
approx. 680 |
Bulgaria conquers the Romanian Plain |
approx. 900 |
the Magyars conquer Transylvania |
1100-1200-t. |
German and Hungarian immigrants colonize Transylvania |
approx. 1300-1350 |
Moldova and Wallachia become the first Romanian states |
1500-t. |
the principalities of Moldova and Wallachia become sound states
during the Ottoman Empire |
1829 |
Moldova and Wallachia become Russian protectorates |
1856 |
after the Crimean War, the Russian protectorate is abolished and the
principalities come back under the Ottomans |
1862 |
Alexandru Ioan Cuza unites the principalities under the name of
Romania |
1878 |
The Berlin Congress recognizes Romania's independence |
1913 |
2nd Balkan War, Romania conquers the southern parts of Dobrogea from
Bulgaria |
1919-20 |
At the conclusion of the peace after the First World War, the
territory of Romania is expanded by e.g. Transylvania and Bessarabia,
thus more than doubling the area of the country |
1923 |
Romania gets new constitution |
1938 |
Carol II introduces royal dictatorship |
1940 |
Carol 2. abdicates in favor of her son Mihai 1.; Ion Antonescu
becomes the real ruler. Romania is forced to cede Bessarabia and
northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union, central Transylvania to Hungary
and southern Dobrogea to Bulgaria. |
1941 |
Romania enters World War II on the side of the Axis Powers |
1945 |
Romania gets Transylvania back |
1947 |
Romania becomes a communist people's republic |
1965 |
Ceausescu comes to power |
1989 |
the fall of communism; Ceausescu and his wife are executed |
1990 |
Ion Iliescu wins the first free election |
2004 |
Romania becomes a member of NATO |
2005 |
Negotiations with the EU result in Romanian membership of the Union
from 2007 |
The slaves also settled in Transylvania and on the Romanian plain, where, as
the upper class of the agrarian society, they came to greatly influence the
Neolithic population. Since the area in the second half of 800-t. was conquered
by neo-Christian Bulgaria, became Church Slavonic liturgical language, and
Cyrillic the alphabet used. Around the year 900, Transylvania was conquered by
the Magyars. The plains were conquered by the Petjenegers and then (from the
1100's) by the Kumans. However, these events had little impact on Romanian
ethnogenesis, which is characterized by the gradual merging of the Slavic
element with the neo - Latin majority.
The Principalities
Until the peace treaties after World War I, the Romanians
in Transylvania (German: Transylvania) were a social underclass that was
politically disenfranchised by the leading Hungarian nobility and by German
colonists who immigrated in the High Middle Ages. In contrast, the Romanians on
the plain south and east of the Carpathian Arch in the 1300's. form their own
states. The Mongol storm of 1240-42 had driven out the Kumans and inflicted
heavy blows on both Hungary and Bulgaria, and as the Mongols themselves were
gradually weakened by strife, a number of Wallachian nobles took advantage of
the resulting power vacuum to form the principality of Wallachia., which came to
cover the entire area between the Danube and the Transylvania Alps. This first
Romanian state formation was completed by Prince Basarab I, who in 1330 added a
scorching defeat to the Hungarian king. The next Romanian state was Moldova,
which was established east of the Carpathians 1352-53 as a Hungarian border with
the Mongols. In 1359, Army Commander Bogdan I declared the country independent
of Hungary, and Moldova was finally consolidated as a state under Roman I
(reigned 1391-95), who expelled the Mongols and extended his principality to the
Dniester and the Black Sea.
Both Wallachia and Moldova benefited from the lively transit trade between
Central Europe and the Black Sea. Sometimes they chose to recognize resp. the
Hungarian and the Polish king as lords, but culturally they oriented themselves
towards the Orthodox world in the Balkans, especially Bulgaria, which is clearly
evident from the architecture, church ornamentation and the literary genres. In
1359, the Patriarch of Constantinople gave his blessing to the creation of the
first Romanian metropolitan seat in Wallachia's capital, Curtea de Argeş, and in
1401, Moldova gained its own metropolitan city of Suceava. Among the many new
monasteries were the main centers of learning Vodiţa and Tismana in Wallachia
and Moldoviţa and Bistriţa in Moldova. The Church Slavonic language and the
Cyrillic alphabet were also used in secular administration.
The Romanian principalities took an active part in the struggle against the
advancing Ottomans, but in the long run had to bow to supremacy. From the
1500's. both Wallachia and Moldova were the sultan's tributary sound
states. However, they retained some autonomy during national dynasties and were
not subjected to the same oppression as the Christian peoples south of the
Danube. Michael the Brave of Wallachia (1558-1601, reigned from 1593) succeeded
in creating a short-lived Greater Romania that also included Moldova and
Transylvania. His disobedience caused the sultan to disregard the dynastic
succession and even appointed the princes (see hospodar) among the mutually
rival bojar families (see bojar). In the late 1500-t. most Romanian peasants
became staffed. 1600-t. became a relatively peaceful period, marked by material
progress and cultural flourishing. In the war between Russia and the Ottoman
Empire in Moldova in 1711, the Romanians fought alongside the Russian fellow
believers. As punishment, the Ottomans in 1711-1821 installed Greek fanarites as
rulers of the two principalities. Under foreign rule, the Romanian elite
increasingly linked its hopes to Russia, which gained access to the Black Sea in
1774-92 through repeated victories over the Ottoman Empire. In 1812, Bessarabia
was also incorporated into Russia, and after the peace of Adrianople in 1829
between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, the Romanian principalities became a
Russian protectorate with extensive autonomy based on the Organic Regulations..
At the conclusion of the peace in Paris in 1856 after Russia's defeat in
the Crimean War, the Russian protectorate was abolished, and the autonomy of
the principalities under Ottoman supremacy was instead guaranteed by the seven
signatory powers. In 1859, the Romanian Landtag elected Alexandru Ioan
Cuza as hospodarin both Moldova and Wallachia, which was contrary to the
instructions of the guarantor powers, and after a lengthy diplomatic tug of war,
in January 1862 he was able to unite the "Danube Principalities" under the name
of Romania. The united principality, which had its capital in Bucharest,
oriented itself politically and culturally towards France, and the Cyrillic
alphabet was now replaced by the Latin one. The agrarian reform of 1864 meant
that Alexandru Ioan Cuza got the buoys and the church against him, and in 1866
he was forced to abdicate. A new constitution was now drawn up with a
two-chamber system that gave the large landowners greater power, and the German
prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was elected as the new head of state. In
1881, like Carol I, he was crowned king after the Berlin Congress 1878 had
recognized Romania's full independence from the Ottoman Empire and the
acquisition of northern Dobrogea with the port city of Constanţa.
The Kingdom
The administration and military were now modernized following the German
model. The railway network was expanded and an oil industry was also established
for foreign capital, but Romania remained a distinctly agrarian
society. Political life was marked by corruption and nepotism, and the leading
groups in parliament were partly the liberal officials and businessmen of the
cities, and partly the conservative landowners who sat on a substantial part of
the agricultural land. The first priority was the national issue, the dream of
expanding the kingdom to include the Romanians in Transylvania and
Bessarabia. The social distress of the growing rural population was not
remedied, and in 1907 the result was an extensive peasant uprising that was
brutally crushed. During the Second Balkan War of 1913, Romania conquered
southern Dobrogea from Bulgaria. After 1. Outbreak of World War II In 1914,
Romania was initially neutral. The new king, Ferdinand I, declared war on
Austria-Hungary in August 1916; but after attacks by the Central Powers and
Bulgaria, he was forced out of the war in May 1918.However, the Russian Civil
War and the collapse of Austria-Hungary later that year gave the Romanian
government the opportunity to conquer East, North and West, and by the 1919-20
peace treaties the victorious powers recognized Romania's possession of
Bessarabia, Bukovina, Transylvania and most of Banaten. Thus, the territory of
the country more than doubled.
The new Greater Romania faced significant national, social and political
problems. Of a population of approximately 16 mio. population, Romanians accounted for
72%. The new constitution of 1923, based on the 1866 constitution and leaving
great powers to the monarchy, gave universal suffrage to all men and equal
rights for all ethnic groups. But in reality, national minorities were treated
as foreigners. The main ethnic minority was the Hungarians (8%), who were
considered the biggest threat. But one also looked askance at the Jews and the
Germans, who each amounted to approximately 4% and held many key financial
positions; these groups were otherwise willing to cooperate with the government
in Bucharest and willingly played out against the Hungarians. A nationalist
sting also had the important land reform legislation of 1918-21, which
redistributed 6 million.
Despite allegations of electoral fraud, the National Liberal Party remained
in power 1922-28. The 1928 election gave victory to the National Peasants'
Party, which formed government 1928-30 under Iuliu Maniu (1873-1953). Political
life in the 1930's was marked by fascist and anti-Semitic movements, especially
the Iron Garden. In 1938, Carol II introduced a royal dictatorship. In 1940 he
was forced to abdicate in favor of his son Mihai I, and the real ruler was then
General Ion Antonescu. From 1921, Romania's foreign policy was based on the
Little Ententewith Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia and on a bilateral alliance
with Poland; but in the late 1930's the government oriented itself politically
and economically towards Germany. In 1941, Romania joined Germany's in World War
II and attacked the Soviet Union. As the Red Army approached Romania in 1944,
"head of state" Antonescu was arrested by King Mihai, who included Communists in
the government and declared war on Germany. Although Romania formally sided with
the victors at the end of the war, it had to cede southern Dobrogea to Bulgaria
and Bessarabia, as well as northern Bukovina to the Soviet Union.
Romania (Recent History of Romania)
Romania (Recent History of Romania), The Communist Period
After the king overthrew Antonescuand broken with Germany, an intervening
period ensued during which the country was ruled by generals and bourgeois
politicians, while Soviet troops gradually gained control of the entire
country. The king's appeals to the Western powers to intervene in the face of
increasing Soviet infiltration into Romanian politics were fruitless. With the
support of Moscow, the Romanian Communist Party secured control of all key
posts. The most important democratic politician, the leader of the Romanian
Peasant Party, Iuliu Maniu, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1946, and in
December 1947 the king was forced to abdicate and leave the country. Romania
then became a people's republic following the Stalinist pattern and developed
into one of the most brutal regimes in Eastern Europe. Loyalty of the regime to
Moscow and party leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dejs power was strengthened in 1952
when half of the government was replaced at Soviet demand.
Gheorghiu-Dej, who from 1961, in addition to being party leader, was also the
president of Romania, tried to make the country an industrial nation by
promoting heavy industry contrary to Moscow's desire that Romania should be
primarily an agricultural country and import industrial products from the Soviet
Union. After Gheorghiu-Dej's death in 1965, Soviet-critical politics were
sharpened by his successor, Nicolae Ceauşescu., and also came to apply to
defense policy, with Romania withdrawing from the Warsaw Pact's military
cooperation. Pga. its independent line, Romania achieved through the 1970's major
credits in the West for the modernization process. However, it failed, and the
1980's were marked by a harsh and restrictive economic policy, which probably had
the country's foreign debt restructured, but at the same time drastically
reduced the living conditions of the population. At the same time, ambitious
projects continued, including a relocation of the population from villages to
centers with apartment blocks; this policy was particularly destructive for the
national minorities of Transylvania, first and foremost the Hungarians. A harsh
modernization of Bucharest was carried out, with Ceauşescu tearing down historic
buildings and building a swollen splendor palace for himself and his
family. Increasingly, the presidential family behaved like a royal dynasty,
marked by wasteful exercise of power, while a huge security apparatus,
the Securitate, kept the population down.
Romania after Ceauşescu
In December 1989, a popular uprising against the regime, which the army
joined, erupted. Ceauşescu and his wife tried to escape, but were taken
prisoner, convicted by a standard and executed. The Front for the Salvation of
the Nation took power, held the first free elections in 1990, and in 1991
established a democratic republic based on a multi-party system. In practice,
however, it was former members of the Ceauşescu regime, led by Ion Iliescu, who
guided the transition to democracy and a market economy.. The modernization of
the lye-poor and misgoverned country went very slowly and was marked by violent
conflicts, during which Iliescu deployed militant miners from the province
against the popular opposition in the capital. Iliescu also allied with
nationalist parties such as the anti-Semitic Greater Romanian Party, which
discriminated against the minorities at the local level, especially the
Hungarians in Transylvania. Discriminatory laws within the education system
resulted in major demonstrations and Western pressure against the Romanian
government in 1995. Nevertheless, an association agreement with the EU entered
into force in 1995.
In the 1996 presidential election, Iliescu was defeated by Emil
Constantinescu (b. 1939), who was lined up by forces rooted in the pre-war
democratic parties. This brought about a real change of system, which has also
enabled ex-King Mihai to take up residence in the country, and the human rights
situation has been significantly improved. But both the political and economic
transformation of the former party- and plan-led country is still very slow, and
the government is trying to speed up the process by pushing for rapid accession
to NATO and the EU.. Relations with Hungary were significantly improved in 1997
with the conclusion of an agreement on the rights of the Hungarian minority. The
protracted crisis surrounding neighboring Yugoslavia has been an additional
burden for Romania, which has participated in the international blockades of the
country. Romania has been involved in EU deliberations on a comprehensive
recovery plan for south-eastern Europe.
Heads of State |
Princes Sort |
1862-66 |
Alexandru Ioan Cuza |
1866-81 |
Carol 1. |
Kings |
1881-1914 |
Carol 1. |
1914-27 |
Ferdinand 1. |
1927-30 |
Mihai 1. |
1930-40 |
Carol 2. |
1940-47 |
Mihai 1. |
Secretaries General of the Communist Party |
1947-65 |
Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej |
1965-89 |
Nicolae Ceausescu |
Presidents |
1990-96 |
Ion Iliescu |
1996-2000 |
Emil Constantinescu |
2000-04 |
Ion Iliescu |
2004-14 |
Traian Băsescu |
2014- |
Klaus Iohannis |
In 1999, a deep economic and political crisis led President Emil
Constantinescu to dismiss the bourgeois Prime Minister Radu Vasile
(1942-2013). Constantinescu then appointed National Bank Governor Mugur Isarescu
(b. 1949) as Prime Minister until the new parliamentary elections in 2000. The
government's main goal was to qualify Romania for EU membership, by halving
inflation. Persistent social unrest, further fueled by a financial scandal in
the summer of 2000, affected many Romanians. Ion Iliescu recovered s.å. the
presidency; his party, the PDSR, also won a significant victory in the
parliamentary elections, while the Greater Romanian Party with its nationalist
program under Vadim Tudor (b. 1949) won five times the number of votes. The
traditional bourgeois wing appeared divided,
History after 2000
Since the 2000 elections, which gave the Social Democrats victory in both the
presidential and parliamentary elections, the policy has been marked by Western
integration, and the Romanian government in particular, since 2001, has strongly
emphasized its solidarity with the United States and NATO. In 2002, Parliament
decided to join the US-led peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, and in 2003,
Parliament unanimously decided to seek NATO membership, which took place in
2004.
With the EU accession negotiations, which took place in parallel with the
negotiations on Bulgaria's accession to the EU, things went slower. Romania was
the subject of a very critical Commission report in 2003, which was followed by
critical reports from the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee. The
criticism pointed out, among other things, ineffective fight against corruption
and inadequate protection of the country's minority. In September 2003, a
referendum passed far-reaching constitutional amendments that extended the
rights of minorities, guaranteed private property ownership and the right of
foreigners to acquire property, and extended the presidential term from 4 to 5
years. Also with a view to relations with the EU, Romania concluded a special
agreement with Hungary in September 2003 on the improvement of the rights of the
large Hungarian minority. That same month, Prime Minister Adrian Năstase fired
three members of the government for corruption; Thus, the Minister for European
Integration was accused of passing on EU funding to her husband's and son's
firms. In 2004, a new government transformation followed, which
reintroduced the previously defunct Ministry of the Environment, a result
of criticism of recent years' pollution scandals. But the criticism of Romania
did not fall silent. The actions of the police in September 2003 in the unrest
surrounding the Roma minority in Transylvania led in 2005 to a ruling by the
European Court of Human Rights for violating the prohibition of discrimination
and unworthy treatment of people. EU bodies have criticized government
interference in the judiciary, restrictions on freedom of the press and a lack
of protection for the country's many abandoned children,
In 2004, a change of system took place when Traian Băsescu, leader of the
Democratic Party and mayor of Bucharest, defeated Năstase in a second round of
elections in the presidential election. During the formation of the government,
the Humanist Party, which had been part of Nastase's government before the
election, changed sides and joined a majority government led by Călin
Popescu-Tăriceanu (b. 1952) from the National Liberal Party, which together with
the Democratic Party had gone to the polls. as the Democratic Alliance Justice
and Truth. The Hungarian minority party also changed sides. The result was a
center-right government bypassing the votes of the far left and the far right.
The new government launched a lawsuit against outgoing President Ion Iliescu
and former Prime Minister Petre Roman for their role in deploying mining workers
to crack down on government-critical mass demonstrations in Bucharest - as his
last official act in December 2004, Iliescu pardoned the leader of the
operation, Miron Cozma. who had been sentenced to 18 years in prison, but had
had to lift it again after fierce protests from home and abroad.
In April 2005, the new President and Prime Minister signed the Accession
Treaty with the EU, which was unanimously ratified the following month by the
Romanian Parliament. The recording took place on 1.1.2007. However, Romania is
criticized, among other things, by EU bodies for continuing to inadequately
fight corruption in the country, which makes admission uncertain. Romania still
carries a heavy legacy from the time under the communist dictatorship to which
most people in political life since 1990, including the new president, owe the
first part of their careers.
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