How Did Romania Become a Country?

Organizing historical events into distinct periods is a significant part of studying history. But this is often the focus of debates and controversies between professional historians and the public. As historians Tim Blanning and Richard J. Evans point out, every history must start at some arbitrary date, and some dates are more arbitrary than others. Thus, chronology can be a tricky guide to use when exploring historical events.

Romania’s emergence as an independent state offers a great example of how the question of a country’s origins can be so open-ended. This article explores different moments that could all lay claim to answering how Romania became a country.

Present-day Romania largely corresponds to three historical regions of Southeastern Europe: Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transylvania. Thus, to understand how Romania became a country, it is important to learn about each region. Moldavia and Wallachia were under Ottoman rule between the 15th and 19th centuries. Collectively, the two were known as the Danubian Principalities.

Moldavia refers to a region that today is in Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine. It became an independent principality in the 14th century.

Wallachia constitutes much of the southern portion of present-day Romania. Like Moldavia, Wallachia became a principality in the early 14th century following a period of Hungarian rule.

However, Vlad III (1431-1476), known as Vlad the Impaler or Dracula, would likely be Wallachia’s most famous prince. Vlad was a living legend in his time for his brutal treatment of enemies. Moreover, historians Raymond McNally and Radu Florescu discovered that spooky stories about Vlad’s exploits circulated during his lifetime. For example, a poem read to Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III in 1463 stated that Vlad dipped his bread in the blood of his victims.

Transylvania

The region of Transylvania has a rich history well beyond the familiar Dracula legend. While Moldavia and Wallachia came under Ottoman control, the Habsburgs ruled Transylvania. In fact, the only time before 1918 that all three regions were united was in 1600. A prince known as Michael the Brave (Mihai Viteazul) united the three areas for a few months. According to Robert Kaplan, Michael could be the best example of Machiavelli’s ideal Renaissance prince.

During the centuries of Habsburg rule, Transylvania was controlled by a Hungarian administration. In fact, Transylvania had been in Hungarian hands since the 11th century. But in 1690, this formally passed to the Habsburgs along with the throne of Hungary. Throughout this period, Transylvania became a contested frontier between the Habsburg and Ottoman empires.

Although Transylvania long had a diverse population, Romanians made up a clear majority. However, historian L.S. Stavrianos points out that most Romanians in Transylvania did not oppose Habsburg rule as late as the eve of World War I.

Romanians in the region tended to be more anti-Hungarian than anti-Habsburg. In fact, they had hoped that Archduke Franz Ferdinand would change the empire’s administrative structure to weaken Hungarian control of Transylvania once he assumed the Habsburg throne.

Instead, Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s July 1914 assassination sparked the outbreak of World War I. As we will see below, the war did bring change to Transylvania.

Between 1711-1714 and 1821, Moldavia and Wallachia were ruled by Ottoman Greek princes. The princes came from a wealthy and influential segment of Ottoman society known as the Phanariotes. Most were unpopular and viewed as corrupt and greedy administrators. For example, historian Vlad Georgescu points out that the Greek word meaning “to govern” came to signify getting rich in Romanian.

However, 1821 brought a strange and definitive end to this story. A Wallachian minor noble and former soldier, Tudor Vladimirescu, led a revolt against his prince. But Vladimirescu’s revolt was also meant to support a brewing Greek revolution. In fact, a Greek rebel army in February 1821 crossed into Moldavia from Russia to launch a revolt against Ottoman rule. So, while Vladimirescu wanted to end Greek rule in Wallachia, he also helped launch Greece’s war for independence against the Ottoman Empire.

Vladimirescu failed on both fronts. For starters, his army did not help Greek rebels, who were crushed by Ottoman troops. Nevertheless, revolutionary activity spread to mainland Greece despite the Greek defeat in the Danubian Principalities. As for Vladimirescu, he soon lost popular support, and his rebellion was defeated by Ottoman forces.

An oligarchy of Romanian nobles now governed the principalities on behalf of the Ottoman Sultan. Romanian nobility, known as boyars, traditionally maintained extensive landholdings that operated on serfdom. But Phanariot rule, the 1821 revolt, and the influence of the French Revolution provoked a change in the boyars.

Russian Protectorate

Indeed, Phanariot rule witnessed a growth in the number of people holding noble titles. There was now a class of urban boyars who stood out from the traditional landowning nobles. Moreover, many urban boyars had been educated in Paris and imported French revolutionary ideas into Wallachia and Moldavia. French revolutionary and Enlightenment thought sparked a movement among many urban boyars of a unified Romanian nation.

By the late 1820s, these boyars had a new dominant force to contend with: the Russian Empire. The 1829 Treaty of Adrianople, which ended yet another Russo-Turkish conflict, established a Russian protectorate over the Danubian Principalities.

Tsar Nicholas I sent Count Pavel Kiselyov (or Kiseleff) to be the Russian administrator in the principalities. Lucian Boia claims that Kiselyov became the only popular Russian figure in Romania’s history. In fact, one of Bucharest’s main avenues is named in the Russian official’s honor. The Russian governor indeed did much during his brief tenure.

For example, Keith Hitchens points out the principalities received their first constitutions, known as the Statutes, during Kiselyov’s administration. He also helped initiate important economic reforms. But in 1834, Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II appointed two Romanian princes to govern the principalities.

However, the revolutionary fervor that swept across much of Europe in 1848 also came to Romanian lands. This pitted Romanian nationalists against the Russians, who were determined to stamp out revolutions throughout Europe. Russian troops helped crush revolts across Central and Eastern Europe in 1848-49.

Moreover, Russian troops further angered Romanian nationalists when they reoccupied Moldavia and Wallachia in 1853. This action helped spark the Crimean War.

Russia’s defeat in the Crimean War (1854-56) offered Romanian nationalists the chance to realize the dream of creating a unified Danubian Principalities. In fact, the principalities became a significant part of diplomatic negotiations ending the war.

No European power was comfortable with the existence of a country named Romania for fear it would damage imperial interests and upset the balance of power. For example, Austria wanted to avoid seeing a Romanian state created because of the challenges it could present to controlling a large Romanian population in Transylvania.

However, the Romanians had a powerful friend in France’s emperor, Napoleon III. With his dreams to renew French power in Europe, Napoleon saw potential in cultivating a friendship with Romanian nationalists.

Moreover, Romanian nationalists turned the tables on European powers who wanted to maintain separate principalities. The treaty required each principality to elect a prince. However, it did not say that one person could not be elected prince in both principalities!

And so, in early 1859, Alexandru Ioan Cuza was elected as prince of both Moldavia and Wallachia. While each principality still had a separate capital city, Cuza moved the combined government to Bucharest.

While the treaty specifically forbade the use of the name “Romania,” the two Danubian Principalities were now the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, led by Prince Cuza. In 1862, the state became known as the Romanian United Principalities.

Romania Goes Royal

Many Romanians believed Cuza’s reign would not lead to permanent stability and union. They feared internal economic issues and external territorial ambitions threatened this fledgling state’s existence.

Misha Glenny points out that Romanians looked at the nearby examples of Greece and Serbia. Although far from a prosperous state, Greek independence appeared secure thanks to the country’s invitation to a foreign prince to become king. On the other hand, Serbia in the 1860s was not yet fully independent of Ottoman rule. Moreover, Serbia had two native competing dynasties that vied for power. Thus, to many Romanians, inviting a European royal to establish a monarchy was the best solution.

A coup drove Cuza out of power and into exile in 1866. This paved the way for the choice of a future monarch. However, historians are still unsure how exactly Romanians determined their selection process. But they settled on a German prince named Charles (Carol) of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. He was a member of a Catholic sub-branch of the Prussian/Imperial German royal family.

Carol came to Romania in 1866 as a prince. He led Romanian troops alongside Russia in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878. The war brought recognition of Romania’s independence from Ottoman rule. In 1881, Prince Carol became King Carol I.

The Romanian state approved a new constitution inspired by Belgium, which was seen as a successful example of a constitutional monarchy. However, Tom Gallagher points out that Romania’s version included provisions designed to strengthen the authority of powerful institutions like the monarch and landholding elites, which did not appear in the Belgian example.

Moreover, Lucian Boia points out the constitution initially denied rights to non-Christians, which marginalized Romania’s Jewish community. Even after international pressure produced constitutional changes, there remained a lack of protection for minority rights in Romania.

Romania expanded its territory thanks to joining the victorious coalition against Bulgaria in the Second Balkan War of 1913. The fertile region south of the Danube Delta called Dobrogea (Dobrudja) was Romania’s great territorial prize. But this only fueled further ambitions to create a Greater Romania. While supporters wanted several areas to be incorporated into Romania, they especially sought control of Transylvania.

The outbreak of World War I in August 1914 provided Romanian nationalists the opportunity to create Greater Romania. The main question for Romania was now to decide which side to support. Born a German prince, King Carol wanted to join Germany and its allies in the Central Powers. However, becoming a German ally would mean giving up on seizing Transylvania, which still belonged to Germany’s partner Austria-Hungary.

On the other hand, while many Romanians felt close to France, they did not look favorably upon its ally Russia. Moreover, Russia controlled Bessarabia, once part of the medieval kingdom of Moldavia. Either way, it seemed Romania would have to sacrifice an area with significant ties to the country by joining a rival alliance.

King Carol’s death in October 1914 brought his nephew Ferdinand to the Romanian throne. Ferdinand’s wife, Queen Marie, was a member of the British royal family and popular in Romania. Marie’s influence by late 1916 helped push Romania into the Entente camp with France, Britain, and Russia. Soon, Romanian troops entered Transylvania.

The Fall of Greater Romania

However, German, Bulgarian, and Austro-Hungarian troops quickly overran and occupied much of Romania. Despite this, the Romanian government did not surrender until 1918. Nevertheless, Romanian troops re-entered the war during its final days in November 1918.

1918 marked the beginning of a brief period prior to WWII when Romania reached its greatest territorial extent. This came about because of territory acquired from defeated powers like the collapsing Austro-Hungarian Empire.

In December 1918, Romanians celebrated this so-called Great Union. Many Romanians point to 1918 as the true birth of the modern country. In fact, that was the precise message of many events during the centennial commemorated in 2018.

Romania’s war, however, continued into 1919-1920. The new Hungarian state refused to recognize the loss of territory like Transylvania to Romania. As a result, Romanian troops pushed deep into Hungary, even briefly occupying Budapest in August 1919. Romania’s invasion led to the collapse of the short-lived Hungarian Soviet Republic led by Béla Kun.

Romania’s fateful entry into World War II as an ally of Nazi Germany as well as the Soviet conquest in 1944 destroyed Greater Romania. For example, between German and Soviet pressure, Romania lost portions of Transylvania, Dobrogea, and several other regions. After the war, the Soviets helped install a brutal communist dictatorship which lasted until 1989. Alongside neighboring Bulgaria, Romania entered the European Union in 2007.