History of Romania
Topic: About Romania (Mar 21, 2006)
Romania in the Middle Ages
Different parts of the territory of present-day Romania were invaded and controlled successively by the Goths from 271 until 4th century, by the Huns until 435, the Gepids, the Avars and the Slavs during the 6th century, the Bulgars (subsequently Bulgarians) during 7th – 11th century, Magyars and Pechenegs during the 10th century, and the Cumans, Bulgarians and Tatars during 12th – 13th century.
Many small local states developed, but only in the 14th century the larger principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia emerged to fight the danger of a new threat in the form of the Ottoman Turks, who conquered Constantinople in 1453. By 1541, the entire Balkan peninsula and most of Hungary became Ottoman provinces. In contrast, Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transylvania, came under Ottoman suzerainty, but conserved fully internal autonomy and, until 18th century, some external independence.
By the 11th century, the area of today’s Transylvania became a largely autonomous part of the Kingdom of Hungary. Kings of Hungary invited the Pechenegs and Cumans from Wallachia to settle in Transylvania, and also the Szecklers, the Teutonic Order and the Saxons and the Schwabs.
In 1475, Stephen the Great of Moldavia scored a decisive victory of the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vaslui. In the year 1600, Wallachia, Moldova and Transylvania principalities were headed by the Wallachian prince Michael the Brave (Mihai Viteazul), Ban of Oltenia, but the chance for a unity dissolved after Mihai was killed, only one year later, by the soldiers of an Austrian army general Giorgio Basta. There are no clear signs Mihai intended to unite the three principalities to lay down foundations of today’s Romania, though we cannot know for sure, as he was prince of Transylvania for less than one year.
In 1699 Transylvania became a territory of Austrian Empire, following the defeat of the Turks. The Austrians, in their turn, rapidly expanded their empire: In 1718 an important part of Wallachia, called Oltenia, was incorporated to the Austrian Empire and was only returned in 1739.
In 1775 the Austrian Empire occupied the north-western part of Moldavia, later called Bukovina, while the eastern half of the principality (called Bessarabia) was occupied in 1812 by Russia.
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