Romania

Romania (Romanian: România ) is a country in Southeastern Europe. Romania borders Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and Moldova to the northeast, and Bulgaria to the south. The country's most significant rivers are the Danube, which marks part of the border between Romania and Bulgaria, the Siret, running vertically through Moldavia, the Olt, running from the oriental Carpathian Mountains to Oltenia, the Tisa, marking a part of the border between Romania and Hungary, and the Someş. Romania has a stretch of sea coast along the Black Sea, and the eastern and southern Carpathian mountains run through its center.
Historic Bucharest (Romanian: BucureÅŸti ), a major tourist attraction, is the country's capital and largest city. Romania has been an active member of NATO since 2004, and is also an acceding country to the European Union. The EU Accession Treaty was signed in early 2005, and Romania is due to join the European Union on January 1, 2007. Starting on January 1, 2007, Romania will have the seventh largest population and the ninth largest territory in the EU. The accession of Romania and Bulgaria, as expected in 2007, will complete the fifth enlargement of the EU that had started in May 2004. Romania's fauna and flora are varied. It is one of the few European countries to have Brown Bears within its territory. Chamois are known to live in the Carpathian mountains.

Name

Main article: Etymology of Romania

The name of Romania (România) comes from Român (Romanian) which is a derivative of the word Romanus ("Roman") from Latin.The fact of Romanians calling themselves with a derivative of Romanus (Rom.: Român/Rumân) is scholarly mentioned as late as the 16th century by many authors among whom Italian Humanists travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia and Walachia.The oldest surviving document written in the Romanian language is a 1521 letter (known as "Neacsu's Letter from Câmpulung") which notifies the mayor of Braşov about the imminent attack of the Ottoman Turks. This document is also notable for having the first occurrence of "Rumanian" in a Romanian written text, Wallachia being here named The Rumanian Land - Ţeara Rumânească (Ţeara < Latin Terra = land). In the following centuries, Romanian documents use interchangeably two spelling forms: Român and Rumân. Socio-linguistic evolutions in the late 17th century lead to a process of semantic differentiation: the form "rumân", presumably usual among lower classes, got the meaning of "bondsman", while the form "român" kept an ethno-linguistic meaning. After the abolition of the serfage in 1746, the form "rumân" gradually disappears and the spelling definitively stabilises to the form "român", "românesc". The name "România" as common homeland of all Romanians is documented in the early 19th century.Many Romanians take pride in being the most eastern Romance people, completely surrounded by non-Latin peoples ("a Latin island in a Slavic sea").

History

Main article: History of Romania

Dacia

In 513 BC, south of the Danube, the tribal confederation of the Getae were defeated by the Persian emperor Darius the Great during his campaign against the Scythians (Herodotus IV.93). Over half a millennium later, the Getae (also named Daci by Romans) were defeated by the Roman Empire under Emperor Trajan in two campaigns stretching from 101 to 106, and the core of their kingdom was turned into the Roman province of Dacia. The Gothic and Carpic campaigns in the Balkans during 238â€"269 (from the beginning of the military anarchy period to the battle of Naissus) forced the Roman Empire to reorganize a new Roman province of Dacia south of Danube, inside former Moesia Superior.

Romania in the Dark Ages

The medieval city of Sibiu

In 271 or 275 the Roman army and administration left Dacia, which was invaded by the Goths, who lived with the local people until the fourth century, when another nomadic people arrived, the Huns. The Gepids and the Avars ruled Transylvania until the 8th century, after which the Bulgars included the southern part of Romania in their Empire until 1018. Transylvania was under control of the Kingdom of Hungary from the 10-11th century until the 16th century when the independent Principality of Transylvania was formed. But from the destructions and the financial burdens, the local people were not influenced by the migrators in their culture and way of life. The Pechenegs, the Cumans and Uzes were also mentioned by historic chronicles on the territory of Romania, until the founding of the Romanian principalities of Wallachia by Basarab I, and Moldavia by Dragoş during the 13th and 14th centuries respectively. In the Middle Ages, Romanians lived in two distinct independent Romanian principalities: Wallachia (Rom.Ţara Românească - Romanian Land), Moldavia (Rom.: Moldova) as well as in the Hungarian-ruled principality of Transylvania.

Romania in the Middle Ages

SighiÅŸoara, a medieval town with its inhabited citadel

In 1475, Stephen the Great of Moldavia scored a decisive victory over the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vaslui. Wallachia and Moldavia would later come gradually under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire during the 15th and 16th centuries (1476 for Wallachia, 1514 for Moldavia), as vassal tributary states with complete internal autonomy and an external independence which was finally lost in the 18th century. In 1812 the Russian Empire annexed the eastern half side Bessarabia of Moldavia (though partially regained it with the Treaty of Paris in 1856), the Habsburg Monarchy annexed in 1775 its northern part Bukovina and the Ottoman Empire its south-eastern part Budjak .

One of the greatest Hungarian kings, Matthias Corvinus (known in Romanian as Matei Corvin - with romanian origin, ruled 1458–1490)— was born in Transylvania, and is claimed by the Romanians because of his Romanian father, Iancu de Hunedoara (Hunyadi János in Hungarian), and by the Hungarians because of his Hungarian mother, (ruled 1458–1490) — was born in Transylvania. Later, in 1541, Transylvania became a multi-ethnic principality under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire following the Battle of Mohács.

Early Modern Romania

Michael the Brave (Romanian: Mihai Viteazul) (1558-9 August 1601) was the Prince of Wallachia (1593-1601), of Transylvania (1599-1600), and of Moldavia (1600). During his reign the three principalities largely inhabited by Romanians were for the first time united under a single rule. He is regarded as one of Romania's greatest national heroes.

PeleÅŸ Castle, retreat of Romanian monarchs

At the end of the 18th century, the Habsburg Monarchy incorporated Transylvania into what successively became the Austrian Empire. During the time of the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary (1867-1918), Romanians in Transylvania experienced one of the worst oppression in the form of the Magyarization policies of the Hungarian government.

Kingdom of Romania

The modern state of Romania was formed by the merging of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1859 under the Moldavian domnitor Alexandru Ioan Cuza. He was replaced by Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen in 1866. During the Russo-Turkish War, Romania fought on the Russian side; in the Treaty of Berlin in 1878 Romania was recognized as an independent state by the Great Powers. In return for ceding to Russia the three southern districts of Bessarabia which had been regained by Moldavia after the Crimean War in 1852, the Kingdom of Romania acquired Dobruja. In 1881 the principality was raised to a kingdom and Prince Carol I became King Carol I.

Bucharest, Piaţa Universitǎţii

IaÅŸi, the Palace of Culture

Cluj-Napoca

Constanţa

TimiÅŸoara

BraÅŸov

Romania entered World War I on the side of the Triple Entente. The Romanian military campaign ended in disaster for Romania as the Central Powers conquered most of the country and captured or killed the majority of its army within four months. By war's end Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire had collapsed, allowing Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transylvania to unite with the Kingdom of Romania in 1918. Restored Hungary renounced in favour of Romania to any claims over the rights and titles of Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in the Treaty of Trianon in 1920.

Romania during World War II

In 1940 during World War II, Northern Bukovina and Bessarabia, Northern Transylvania, and southern Dobrudja were occupied by the Soviet Union, Hungary and Bulgaria respectively (see Romania during World War II). The authoritarian King Carol II abdicated in 1940 and the subsequent year Romania entered the war joining Nazi Germany, Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria. After the invasion of the Soviet Union, Romania recovered Bessarabia and northern Bukovina from the Soviet Russia, under the leadership of general Ion Antonescu. It was awarded the teritory Transnistria by Germany. During the Second World War, the Antonescu regime, allied with Nazi Germany, played a role in the Holocaust, following its policy of oppression and massacre of the Jews, and, to a lesser extent, Rromas. According to a quite controversial report released in 2004 by a commission appointed by former Romanian president Ion Iliescu and chaired by Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, the Romanian authorities were the main perpetrators in the planning and implementation of the killing of between 280,000 to 380,000 Jews, primarily in the Eastern territories Romania recovered or occupied from the Soviet Union and in Moldavia, though some estimates are even higher.

In August 1944 the Antonescu regime was toppled, and Romania joined the Red Army against Nazi Germany, but its role in the defeat of Germany was not recognized by the Paris Peace Conference of 1947.

Communist Romania

With the Red Army forces still stationed in the country and exerting defacto control, communists and their allied parties claimed 80% of the vote in the 1946 Romanian elections, through a combination of vote manipulation, elimination and forced mergers of competing parties, establishing themselves as the dominant force; Western democracies left Romania in the hands of the Soviet Union. In 1947, King Michael I was forced by the communists to abdicate and leave the country.

Romania was proclaimed a communist state, under direct military and economic control of the USSR until 1958. During this period, Romania's scarce resources left after WWII were drained by the "SovRom" agreements: mixed Soviet-Romanian companies established in the aftermath of World War II to mask the looting of Romania by the Soviet Union, in addition to excessive war reparations paid to the USSR. During this period, up to two million people were arbitrarily imprisoned for political, economical or unknown reasons. There were hundreds of thousands of abuses, deaths and incidents of torture against a large range of people, from political opponents to ordinary citizens, bringing gloom over Romania. At least 200,000 people lost their lives as a result of communist influences in Romania between 1948 and 1964.

A short-lived period of relative economic well-being and openness followed in late 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, still regarded by some as a "golden era". This period gradually ended, first politically, and then economically. Some party leaders (such as Ion Iliescu, Corneliu Manescu, or Gheorghe Apostol) who questioned the achievements of the regime during the latter portion of this era, were sent to lower positions. From an economic point of view, Romania's foreign debt sharply increased between 1977 and 1981 (from 3 to 10 billion US dollars). Thus, the influence of international financial organisms such as the IMF or the World Bank grew, conflicting with Nicolae CeauÅŸescu's autarchic policies. CeauÅŸescu eventually initiated a project of total reimbursement of the foreign debt (completed in 1989, shortly before his overthrow). To achieve this goal, he imposed policies that impoverished Romanians and exhausted the Romanian economy. He profoundly deepened Romania's police state (see Securitate) and imposed a cult of personality.

One positive achievement during that period was the spread of near-universal literacy and the development of a very efficient education system. However, this educational transformation was not coupled with appropriate industrial development and urbanization policies, so that almost half of Romania's population is still rural (47.3%; see Demography of Romania).Another achievement is the negotiated retreat of Soviet troops from Romania, in 1958. This allowed the country to pursue independent policies, including the condemnation by the Communist Party of Romania of the Soviet-led 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia (Romania was the only country of the Warsaw pact not to take part in the invasion), the continuation of Romanian-Israeli diplomatic relations after the Six-Day War of 1967 (Romania was the only country in the Warsaw pact to do so), the establishment of economic (1963) and diplomatic (1967) relations with the Federal Republic of Germany, and so forth.Close ties between Romania and both Israel and the Arab countries (and the PLO) allowed Romania to play an essential role in the Israel-Egypt and Israel-PLO peace processes.

Unirii Boulevard and the Palatul Parlamentului, Bucharest; legacies of the Communist era

The Communist dictatorship ended 22 December 1989 (see Romanian Revolution of 1989).During the 1989 revolution, power was taken by a group called the National Salvation Front (FSN), which grouped a large number of former members of the communist party and of the Securitate (Romanian equivalent to KGB), the two were then linked but also a small number of dissidents, other personalities and (then-unknown) persons that participated in the uprising which genuinely thought the FSN to be an anti-communist movement. The FSN assumed the missions of restoring civil order (which it did) and immediately took seemingly democratic measures.

Despite the desperate efforts of the Securitate to hide the fact that the FSN was in fact just a new name for the same ex-communists, public opinion regarded it as being the new name of Communist Party. Thus Romanians assisted to the resurrection of the traditional parties which were the main parties in Romania before World War 2 and that had been illegalized. These traditional parties are the National Christian Democrat Peasant's Party (PNTCD), the National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Romanian Social Democrat Party (PSDR), all of whom were led by non communists and former political prisoners. These parties rallied a great amount of public support in a very short time despite the fact that all of the Romanian media was controlled by the FSN and the directed efforts of the Securitate to discredit its leaders. Their rapidly rising popularity raised concern among FSN leaders which feared losing power and thus having to answer for the crimes committed during the Ceausescu regime. This concern is what prompted the president of the FSN, Ion Iliescu, to call on the coal miners of the Jiu Valley to come to Bucharest to "re-establish public order which had been disturbed by vandals". The vandals, who were in fact supporters of the genuine anti-communist parties which had rallied in order not to see the country fall in the hands of those it was trying to flee. The joint anti-communist movement (composed of the three traditional Romanian parties) was halted and so was Romania's path towards true freedom and genuine democracy in the early 1990s.

Through the clever use of the Securiate's notorious disinformation skills, its network of informants and agents among Romanians and the brute force of the coal miners, Romania's ex-communists managed to stay in power after the revolution. They won the undemocratic elections (the opposition's head quarters had been vandalized and its members severely beaten by miners, the entire media was controlled by the FSN, furthermore large denigration campaigns against opposition leaders were being pursued by the Securitate) they had organised. Since then their names have been seen linked to most of the corruption scandals which plagued Romania.

Romania since 1989

Following the end of the Cold War in 1989, Romania developed closer ties with Western Europe, the country quickly applied for membership in the EU in June 1993, becoming in 1995 Associated State of EU, joined NATO in 2004 and became an Acceding Country to the European Union, being at an advanced stage to join on January 1, 2007. The Treaty of Accession of Romania has been signed by EU member states' representatives in Luxembourg, Abbaye de Neumünster, on April 25 2005. Ratification of the Romanian and Bulgarian Accession Treaty is ongoing in the parliaments of all member states.

The subsequent disintegration of the FSN, which did not have a clear political platform (given the fact that the only thing that united them was their greed for power and fear of being prosecuted), produced several political parties including the Democratic Party (PD), which for a time retained the FSN name), the Social Democratic Party (PSD, formerly known as the Romanian Democrat Social Party (PDSR) or the Democratic National Salvation Front-FDSN), and the Alliance for Romania (APR). Throughout several elections, coalitions, and governments, parties that emerged from the FSN governed or participated in the government of Romania from 1990 until today.

In 1996, the CDR entered power on a "Contract with Romania" platform which would have required the CDR to resign en masse after 200 days from a mixed coalition government. Some members had signed on to the contract programme, while others had not; once in power, the "Contract" was repudiated. The major CDR parties were electorally eviscerated in 2000, and the Social Democrats returned to power, with Ion Iliescu once again president of Romania and Adrian Năstase, the president of the Social-Democratic Party (PSD), as prime minister.

The Romanian Athenaeum

On December 12, 2004, Traian Băsescu was elected president of Romania, with campaign promises to stop corruption by bringing the corrupt to justice and by unmasking all former Securitate members. He was supported during elections by a coalition, called Justice and Truth Alliance (DA), formed of his Democratic Party and of the National-Liberal Party. The government was formed by a larger coalition which also included the Romanian Humanist Party (now called Conservative Party) and the ethnic Hungarian party UDMR.

Romanian heads of state (from the Unification of 1859)

Politics

The legislative branch of the Romanian government consists of two chambers, Senatul (The Senate), which has 137 members (as of 2004), and Camera Deputaţilor (The Chamber of Deputies), which has 332 members (as of 2004). The members of both chambers are elected every four years.

The President is also elected by popular vote, every five years (until 2004, four years).

Casa Poporului, the Romanian Parliament (Closeup of the lights in front)

The President appoints the Prime Minister, who heads the Government, and the members of the Government, who are chosen by the Prime Minister. In fact the Prime Minister is a member of the party or of the coalition that holds the majority in The Parliament. The President can choose the Prime minister only if none of the parties hold 50% + 1 of the total number of the members of the Parliament. The Government is subject to a parliamentary vote of approval.

The judicial power belongs to a hierarchical system of courts culminating with the supreme court-Înalta Curte de Justiţie şi Casaţie (The High Court of Justice and Casation). The Romanian judicial system is an inquisitorial system, of strong French influence.

The Curtea Constituţională (The Constitutional Court) judges the exceptions of non-constitutionality when invoked in any judicial court and judges the compliance of laws or other state regulations to the Romanian Constitution , if these are brought before it. It follows the tradition of the French Constitutional Council in requiring 9 judges to hold a 9 year, non-renewable term. Following the 2003 revision of the Constitution, its decisions cannot be defeated by any majority of the Parliament.

Administrative divisions

Administrative map of Romania with historical regions Transylvania in green, Wallachia blue, the Moldavian region red, and Dobrogea yellow

Main article: Counties of Romania

Romania is divided into 41 judeţe, or counties, and the municipality of Bucharest (Bucureşti) - the capital. See also Administrative divisions of Romania.

The counties are (in alphabetical order):

{
*Alba
*Arad
*ArgeÅŸ
*Bacău
*Bihor
*Bistriţa-Năsăud
*BotoÅŸani
*BraÅŸov
*Brăila
*Buzău
*CaraÅŸ-Severin
*Călăraşi
*Cluj
*Constanţa
*Covasna
*Dâmboviţa
*Dolj
*Galaţi
*Giurgiu
*Gorj
*Harghita
*Hunedoara
*Ialomiţa
*IaÅŸi
*Ilfov
*MaramureÅŸ
*Mehedinţi
*MureÅŸ
*Neamţ
*Olt
*Prahova
*Satu Mare
*Sălaj
*Sibiu
*Suceava
*Teleorman
*TimiÅŸ
*Tulcea
*Vaslui
*Vâlcea
*Vrancea