Romania is one of the most fascinating countries of Central and Eastern Europe — a direct heir to Dacian and Roman civilisation, homeland of Stephen the Great, Vlad the Impaler and Michael the Brave, which in just 150 years travelled from principalities occupied by the Turks to a modern NATO and European Union member state.
Dacia — the dawn of history (7th century BCE – 106 CE)
Long before the Romans, the lands of today's Romania were inhabited by the Dacians — a Thraco-Getic tribe organised by King Burebista (82-44 BCE) into a powerful state stretching from Bohemia to the Aegean Sea. Contemporary of Caesar, Burebista was considered by Rome as a real threat.
The peak of Dacia's power was King Decebalus (87-106 CE), a formidable adversary of Rome. After two exhausting wars (101-102 and 105-106), Emperor Trajan conquered Dacia. The final battle at Sarmizegetusa (the Dacian capital in the Orăștie Mountains — today UNESCO) ended with Decebalus' suicide. The conquest was immortalised on Trajan's Column in Rome (113 CE) — 155 scenes carved in marble, the first "comic strip" of antiquity.
Dacia Felix (106-271 CE)
The Roman province Dacia Felix lasted 165 years. Massive colonisation with Roman veterans of diverse origins from across the Empire created the basis of Romanian ethnogenesis: Vulgar Latin became the language of the local population, transforming the Daco-Romans into the direct ancestors of today's Romanians. In 271, Emperor Aurelian withdrew the administration and army south of the Danube, but the population remained — a phenomenon documented by the continuity of the Latin language in the Carpathians.
The birth of the principalities (13th-14th centuries)
After centuries of invasions (Goths, Huns, Avars, Slavs, Hungarians), the Romanian population of the Carpathians and the Danube organised into feudal states. In 1290, voivode Basarab I founded Wallachia. In 1359, Bogdan I founded Moldavia. Transylvania remained under the Hungarian crown until 1918.
Vlad the Impaler — the man behind the Dracula legend (1431-1476)
Vlad III the Impaler, ruler of Wallachia (1448, 1456-1462, 1476), entered universal history through his brutal execution methods (impalement) and heroic defence of Wallachia against the Ottomans. In 1462 he attacked Sultan Mehmed II's camp at night with only 10,000 men against 90,000 Turks — an act of mad courage that brought him glory in Christian Europe. He was born in Sighișoara (today UNESCO). Irish author Bram Stoker was partly inspired by him for the novel "Dracula" (1897), although Count Dracula is a fictional character. Bran Castle (commercially associated with Dracula) was not Vlad's residence — his true fortress was Poenari.
Stephen the Great and Holy (1457-1504)
Stephen the Great, ruler of Moldavia for 47 years, is the most beloved leader in Romanian history. He won 34 of the 36 battles he fought — against Ottomans, Hungarians, Poles, Tatars. After each victory he founded a monastery — building a total of 47 churches and monasteries. Pope Sixtus IV called him "the Athlete of Christ". Canonised by the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1992. The Painted Monasteries of Bucovina — with exterior frescoes unique in the world — are on the UNESCO list since 1993 (Voroneț, Moldovița, Humor, Sucevița, Arbore, Pătrăuți, Probota).
Michael the Brave — the First Union (1600)
Michael the Brave (Mihai Viteazul), ruler of Wallachia, achieved for the first time in history the union of the three Romanian principalities: Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia. Although the union lasted only one year (1600-1601), it became the symbol of the national aspiration for unification. He was assassinated in 1601. His equestrian statue in Alba Iulia commemorates the event.
17th-18th centuries — Ottoman and Phanariot domination
Under Ottoman suzerainty, Wallachia and Moldavia were ruled between 1711-1821 by Phanariot princes (Greeks from Constantinople's Phanar quarter) appointed directly by the Porte. The period was characterised by severe fiscal exploitation but also by the introduction of modern reforms. Constantin Brâncoveanu (1688-1714), martyred by the Ottomans in Constantinople along with his four sons, is canonised as a saint.
1859 — Union of the Principalities. 1877-1881 — Independence and Kingdom
Through the double election of Colonel Alexandru Ioan Cuza as ruler of both Wallachia and Moldavia (5 and 24 January 1859), the two principalities were united under the name of Romania. Cuza carried out radical reforms — secularisation of monastic estates, the land reform of 1864, a modern civil code.
In 1866, Carol I of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, founder of the dynasty, was brought to the throne. The War of Independence 1877-1878 (allied with Russia against Turkey) brought definitive independence. In 1881, Romania became a Kingdom.
1918 — The Great Union
On 1 December 1918, at Alba Iulia, an assembly of 1228 delegates of Romanians from Transylvania voted for union with Romania. Preceded by the unions with Bessarabia (27 March 1918) and Bukovina (28 November 1918), the Great Union created Greater Romania — a state with an area of 295,049 km² and 18 million inhabitants, doubling the pre-war territory. 1 December is today Romania's National Day.
Interwar Romania (1918-1940) — "Little Paris"
In the interwar period, Bucharest was nicknamed "Little Paris" — a cosmopolitan capital with eclectic architecture, elegant cafés, a brilliant intelligentsia (Mircea Eliade, Emil Cioran, Eugène Ionesco, Constantin Brâncuși). It remains the most prosperous epoch of modern Romania, brutally interrupted by war.
World War II and communist dictatorship (1940-1989)
In 1940, Romania lost Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina (USSR), Northern Transylvania (Hungary) and Cadrilaterul (Bulgaria). Ion Antonescu aligned Romania with the Axis Powers. On 23 August 1944, young King Michael I arrested Antonescu and switched sides to the Allies — an act which, according to historians, shortened the war by up to 200 days. Under Soviet pressure, in 1947 Michael was forced to abdicate, and Romania became a People's Republic.
Nicolae Ceaușescu ruled Romania from 1965 to 1989. The personality cult, the destruction of Bucharest's historic centre to build the Palace of the Parliament (the second largest administrative building in the world after the Pentagon), and starvation imposed on the population to repay foreign debts — led to the Revolution of December 1989. Ceaușescu and his wife Elena were executed on 25 December 1989 at Târgoviște.
Transition and European integration (1989-today)
After 1989, Romania went through a difficult transition to democracy and market economy. It joined NATO in 2004 and the European Union in 2007. Today it is a rapidly growing emerging economy, a regional IT hub (Cluj-Napoca, Bucharest, Iași), and one of Europe's most beautiful tourist countries — from the castles of Transylvania (Bran, Peleș, Corvin) to the Danube Delta (UNESCO), the painted monasteries of Bucovina, and the wild Carpathians with the last viable population of brown bears, wolves and lynxes in Europe.