1. Perhistory
1.1. Hamangia culture (5250/5200 BC - 4550/4500 BC)
1.1.1. Late Neolithic archaeological culture of Dobruja (Romania and Bulgaria) between the Danube and the Black Sea and Muntenia in the south.
1.1.2. map
1.2. 34,950 year old modern human remains with a possible Neaderthalian trait
1.2.1. Where: Peștera cu Oase
1.2.2. When: 2002
1.2.3. among the oldest remains of Homo sapiens
1.2.4. may be representative of the first such people to have entered the continent
2. Dacia (440 BC - 106 AD)
2.1. 440 BC - Earliest written evidence of people living in the territory of present-day Romania
2.1.1. The Getae (Geți), comes from Herodotus, in his Histories book IV
2.2. Territories located north of the Danube were inhabited by Dacians
2.2.1. Considered to have belonged to the Getae tribes, mentioned by Herodotus, that were a branch of Thracian people.
2.3. Dacian Kingdom
2.3.1. Maximum expansion during King Burebista, between 82 BCE - 44 BCE
2.3.2. Dacia became a powerful state which threatened the regional interests of the Romans
2.3.3. Julius Caesar intended to start a campaign against the Dacians, due to the support that Burebista gave to Pompey, but was assassinated in 44 BC
2.3.4. Burebista shared the same fate, assassinated by his own noblemen
2.4. The Dacians were eventually defeated by Emperor Trajan in two campaigns stretching from 101 AD to 106 AD,[12] and the core of their kingdom was turned into the province of Roman Dacia.
2.5. map
3. Roman Dacia (106-275 AD)
3.1. The Romans heavily colonized the province, and thus started a period of intense romanization, the Vulgar Latin giving birth to the Proto-Romanian language.
3.2. Continuity of the latinophones in the northern Danubian region
3.3. Map
4. Early Middle Ages
4.1. Between 271 and 275
4.1.1. Roman army and administration left Dacia
4.1.2. Invaded afterwards by the Goths
4.2. The Goths mixed with the local people until the 4th century, when a nomadic people, the Huns, arrived.
4.3. Several migrating peoples lived alongside the local populations, such as the Gothic Empire (Oium) (from 271 until 378), the Hunnish Empire (until 435), the Avar Empire and the Slavs (during the 6th century).
4.3.1. Goths
4.3.2. Huns
4.3.3. Slavs
4.3.4. Pannonian Avars
4.3.5. Gepids
4.4. The Gepids, the Avars and their Slavic subjects ruled Transylvania until the 8th century.
5. Middle Ages
5.1. In the Middle Ages, Romanians were divided among three distinct principalities: Wallachia (Romanian: Ţara Românească—"Romanian Land"), Moldavia (Romanian: Moldova), and Transylvania.
5.1.1. Wallachia
5.1.2. Moldavia
5.1.3. Transylvania
5.2. The First Bulgarian Empire ruled over most of the territory of present-day Romania from the 7th century to the early 11th century.
5.3. It is a subject of dispute whether elements of the mixed Daco–Roman population survived in Transylvania through the Dark Ages (becoming the ancestors of modern Romanians) or the first Vlachs/Romanians appeared in the area in the 13th century after a northward migration from the Balkan Peninsula.
5.4. There is an ongoing scholarly debate over the ethnicity of Transylvania's population before the Hungarian conquest.
5.4.1. After the Magyar conquest (10-11th century), Transylvania had become an autonomous and multi-ethnic voivodeship led by a voivode appointed by the King of Hungary until the 16th century
5.4.2. Romanians are mentioned by the Hungarian documents in the 13th century (1283) in Bihar County. The "land of Romanians" (Terram Blacorum) appeared in Fogaras, and this area was mentioned under the name "Olachi" in 1285.
5.4.3. After the collapse of the Hungarian Kingdom (following the disastrous Battle of Mohács, 1526) the region became the independent Principality of Transylvania[44] until 1711
6. Early modern period
6.1. 1541
6.1.1. The entire Balkan peninsula and most of Hungary became Ottoman provinces.
6.2. 1568
6.2.1. John II, the non-Habsburg king of Hungary, moved his royal court to Alba Iulia in Transylvania, and after his abdication from the Hungarian throne, he became the first "Prince of Transylvania".
6.3. 1599
6.3.1. Batlle of Selimbar
6.4. 1600
6.4.1. Michael the Brave (Romanian: Mihai Viteazul) was the Prince of Wallachia (1593–1601), of Transylvania (1599–1600), and of Moldavia (1600). For a short time during his reign Transylvania was ruled together with Moldavia and Wallachia in a personal union.[55] After his death the union dissolved and as vassal tributary states Moldavia and Wallachia still had an internal autonomy and some external independence, which was finally lost in the 18th century.
6.5. 1699
6.5.1. Transylvania became a part of the Habsburgs' Austrian Empire, following the Austrian victory over the Turks.
6.5.2. During the Austro-Hungarian rule in Transylvania, although Romanians formed the majority of the population, many Romanians were treated as second-class citizens (or even non-citizens) In some Transylvanian cities like Brașov (at that time the Transylvanian Saxon citadel of Kronstadt), Romanians were not even allowed to reside within the city walls.[59]
6.6. 1775
6.6.1. Austrian empire occupied the north-western part of Moldavia.
6.7. 1812
6.7.1. Bessarabia was occupied by Russia
6.8. Revolutions of 1848
6.8.1. As in other European countries, 1848 brought up the revolution upon Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania, through Tudor Vladimirescu and his Pandurs in the Wallachian uprising of 1821.
6.8.2. The goals of the revolutionaries - full independence for Moldavia and Wallachia, and national emancipation in Transylvania - remained unfulfilled, but were the basis of the subsequent revolutions. The uprising helped the population of all three principalities recognise their unity of language and interests; all three Romanian principalities were very close, not only in language, but also geographically.
7. Late Modern Period
7.1. 1859
7.1.1. Moldavia and Wallachia elected the same "Domnitor" (ruling Prince of the Romanians) : Alexandru Ioan Cuza.
7.2. Independence and Kingdom of Romania
7.2.1. 1866
7.2.1.1. Cuza was exiled and replaced by Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, who became known as Prince Carol of Romania.
7.2.1.2. He was appointed Domnitor - Ruling Prince of the United Principality of Romania, as Prince Carol of Romania.
7.2.2. 1877-1878
7.2.2.1. Romania declared its independence from the Ottoman Empire after the Russo-Turkish War, in which it fought on the Russian side.
7.2.2.2. In the 1878 Treaty of Berlin, Romania was finally officially recognized as an independent state by the Great Powers.
7.2.2.3. In return, Romania ceded the district of Bessarabia to Russia "in exchange" for the access to the ports on the Black Sea shore, and acquired Dobruja.
7.2.3. 1881
7.2.3.1. The Romanian principality was raised to a kingdom and on 26 March Prince Carol became King Carol I of Romania.
7.2.4. map
7.2.5. 1878–1914
7.2.5.1. The 1878–1914 period was one of stability and progress for Romania. During the Second Balkan War, Romania joined Greece, Serbia and Montenegro against Bulgaria.
7.2.6. 1913
7.2.6.1. Treaty of Bucharest
7.3. World War I
7.3.1. 1914
7.3.1.1. In August 1914, when World War I broke out, Romania declared neutrality.
7.3.1.2. Map
7.3.2. 1916
7.3.2.1. Two years later, under the pressure of the Allies (especially France desperate to open a new front), on 14/27 August 1916 it joined the Allies, for which Romania was promised support for the accomplishment of national unity, including recognition of Romanian rights over Transylvania (which was at that time part of Austria-Hungary); Romania declared war on Austria-Hungary.
7.3.3. 1918
7.3.3.1. Romania joined the war again and by the end of the war, the Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires had disintegrated. Since by the war's end, Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire had collapsed, Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania were allowed to unite with the Kingdom of Romania in 1918.
7.4. Greater Romania
7.4.1. 1918
7.4.1.1. In 1918, at the end of World War I, Transylvania and Bessarabia united with the Romanian Old Kingdom.
7.4.1.2. The Deputies of the Romanians from Transylvania voted to unite their region by the Proclamation of Union of Alba Iulia. Bessarabia, having declared its independence from Russia in 1917 by the Conference of the Country (Sfatul Țării), called in Romanian troops to protect the province from the Bolsheviks who were spreading the Russian Revolution.
7.4.2. 1920
7.4.2.1. Treaty of Trianon, Hungary renounced in favour of Romania all the claims of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy over Transylvania.The union of Romania with Bukovina was ratified in 1919 in the Treaty of Saint Germain, and with Bessarabia in 1920 by the Treaty of Paris
7.5. Transition to authoritarian rule
7.5.1. 1918 to 1938
7.5.1.1. Romania was a liberal constitutional monarchy, but one facing the rise of the nationalist, anti-semitic parties, particularly Iron Guard, which won about 15% of the votes in the general elections of 1937.
7.5.2. 1938 to 1944
7.5.2.1. Romania was a dictatorship. The first dictator was King Carol II, who abolished the parliamentary regime and ruled with his camarilla.
7.5.3. 1939
7.5.3.1. Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which stipulated, among other things, the Soviet "interest" in Bessarabia. Following the severe territorial losses of 1940 (see next section), Carol was forced to abdicate, replaced as king by his son Mihai, but the power was taken by the military dictator Ion Antonescu (initially in conjunction with the Iron Guard). In August 1944, Antonescu was arrested by Mihai.
7.6. World War II and aftermath (1940–1947)
7.6.1. 1940
7.6.1.1. During the Second World War, Romania tried again to remain neutral, but on 28 June 1940, it received a Soviet ultimatum with an implied threat of invasion in the event of non-compliance.
7.6.1.2. Under pressure from Moscow and Berlin, the Romanian administration and the army were forced to retreat from Bessarabia as well from Northern Bukovina to avoid war.
7.6.2. 1944
7.6.2.1. The Soviet Red Army crossed the border into Romania. On 23 August 1944 Antonescu was toppled and arrested by King Michael I of Romania, who joined the Allies and declared war on Germany.
7.6.2.2. With the Red Army forces still stationed in the country and exerting de facto control, Communists and their allied parties claimed 80% of the vote, through a combination of vote manipulation,[86] elimination, and forced mergers of competing parties, thus establishing themselves as the dominant force.
7.7. Communist period (1947–1989)
7.7.1. 1947
7.7.1.1. King Michael I was forced by the Communists to abdicate and leave the country. Romania was proclaimed a republic and remained under direct military and economic control of the USSR until the late 1950s.
7.7.2. 1948 -1965
7.7.2.1. Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej
7.7.2.2. Sovrom
7.7.3. 1965-1989
7.7.3.1. Nicolae Ceaușescu
7.7.3.1.1. As Romania's foreign debt sharply increased between 1977 and 1981 (from 3 to 10 billion US dollars),[96] the influence of international financial organisations such as the IMF and the World Bank grew, conflicting with Nicolae Ceauşescu's autarchic policies.
7.7.3.1.2. Ceauşescu eventually initiated a project of total reimbursement of the foreign debt (completed in 1989, shortly before his overthrow).
7.7.3.1.3. To achieve this goal, he imposed policies that impoverished Romanians and exhausted the Romanian economy. He greatly extended the authority of the police state and imposed a cult of personality. These led to a dramatic decrease in Ceauşescu's popularity and culminated in his overthrow and execution in the bloody Romanian Revolution of 1989.
7.7.3.2. There were hundreds of thousands of abuses, deaths and incidents of torture against a large range of people, from political opponents to ordinary citizens.
7.7.3.3. Between 60,000 and 80,000 political prisoners were detained as psychiatric patients and treated in some of the most sadistic ways by the Securitate (secret security service) "doctors".
7.7.3.4. It is estimated that, in total, two million people were direct victims of Communist repression in Romania.
7.8. 1989 Revolution
7.8.1. The Romanian Revolution of 1989 resulted in more than 1,000 deaths in Timișoara and Bucharest, and brought about the fall of Ceauşescu and the end of the Communist regime in Romania. After a weeklong state of unrest in Timişoara, a mass rally summoned in Bucharest in support of Ceauşescu on 21 December 1989 turned hostile. The Ceauşescu couple, fleeing Bucharest by helicopter, ended up in the custody of the army.
7.8.2. After being tried and convicted by a kangaroo court for genocide and other crimes, they were executed on 25 December 1989.
7.8.3. Ion Iliescu, a former Communist Party official marginalized by Ceauşescu, attained national recognition as the leader of an impromptu governing coalition, the National Salvation Front (FSN) that proclaimed the restoration of democracy and civil liberties on 22 December 1989.
7.9. Transition to free market (1990–2004)
7.9.1. After the fall of Ceauşescu, the National Salvation Front (FSN), led by Ion Iliescu, took partial multi-party democratic and free market measures.
7.9.2. The protesters accused the FSN of being made up of former Communists and members of the Securitate. The protesters did not recognize the results of the election, which they deemed undemocratic, and were asking for the exclusion from the political life of the former high-ranking Communist Party members.
7.9.3. Mineriad
7.9.4. Golaniad
7.9.5. June 1990 mineriad
7.10. NATO and European Union membership (2004–present)
7.10.1. In April 2008, Bucharest hosted the NATO summit.
7.10.2. Romania joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in 2004, and the European Union, alongside Bulgaria, on 1 January 2007.