Romanians
Inhabited by the ancient
Dacians, today's territory of
Romania was conquered by the
Roman Empire in
106, when
Trajan's army defeated the army of
Decebalus. The Roman administration withdrew two centuries later, under the pressure of the
Goths and
Carpi.
Middle ages
The invasions that followed - such as the ones of
Slavs,
Hungarians, and
Tatars - did not allow Romanians to develop any large centralized state, which was only achieved in the
13th century when the Romanian principalities of
Moldavia and
Wallachia emerged to fight the
Ottoman Turks.
The entire
Balkan peninsula was annexed by the
Ottoman Empire, but Moldavia, Wallachia, and
Transylvania remained autonomous under Ottoman suzerainty. The three principalities were united in
1600 by Wallachian
Mihai Viteazul, however, he was assassinated shortly afterwards.
Up until
1699, Transylvania was ruled by Hungarians, but in
1699 it became a part of the
Austrian empire. By the
19th century, Austrians were awarded the region of
Bukovina by the Ottoman Empire and in
1812, the Russians occupied the eastern half of Moldavia, known as
Bessarabia.
Modern age
In
1821 and
1848, two rebellions occurred, and both failed; but they had an important role in the spreading of the liberal ideology. In
1859,
Moldavia and
Wallachia elected the same ruler -
Alexander John Cuza and thus they were unified.
Romania, lead by German Prince
Carol I fought the War of Independence against The Ottomans, which was recognized in
1878. In
1916, Romania joined
World War I on the
Entente side and at the end of it,
Transylvania,
Bessarabia and
Bukovina voted to unite with
Romania, resulting in
Greater Romania.
During World War II,
Romania lost territory in both east and west, as a part of
Transylvania was awarded by
Hitler and
Mussolini to
Hungary (it was later returned to
Romania), and
Bessarabia and Northern
Bukovina, which were taken by the Soviets and included in the
Moldavian SSR and
Ukrainian SSR. Both losses were facilitated by the
Molotov-Ribbentrop German-Soviet non-aggression pact, which explicitly mentioned the eastern territories.
The
Soviet Union forced
Romania to adopt a Communist government and King
Michael had to abdicate and leave for exile.
Ceauşescu became the head of the
Romanian Communist Party in
1965 and his draconian rule of the
1980s was stopped by a
Revolution in 1989.
The Romanian revolution brought to power the dissident communist leader
Ion Iliescu. He remained in power until
1996, and then once more between
2000 and
2004.
Emil Constantinescu was president from
1996 to
2000, and
Traian Băsescu started his mandate in
2004.
Romania joined
NATO in
2002 and is expected to join the
European Union in
2007.
Main article: Culture of Romania
Contribution to humanity
Main article: List of Romanians
Romanians have played an important role in the
arts,
sciences and
engineering.
In the history of flight,
Traian Vuia built the first self-propelling heavier-than-air aircraft, while
Henri Coandă built the first aircraft powered by a
jet engine.
Victor Babeş discovered more than 50 germs and a cure for a disease named after him,
babesiosis; biologist
Nicolae Paulescu discovered
insulin. Another biologist,
Emil Palade, received the Nobel Prize for his contributions to
cell biology. Mathematican
Ştefan Odobleja is considered to be the ideological father behind
cybernetics.
In the arts and culture, important figures were
George Enescu (music composer),
Constantin Brâncusi (sculptor),
Eugène Ionesco (playwright),
Mircea Eliade (historian of religion and novelist) and
Emil Cioran (essayist).
Count Dracula is a worldwide icon of Romania. However, the idea of Dracula as a vampire is not genuinely Romanian. It was created by the Irishman
Bram Stoker from
Balkan folklore and the historic Wallachian figure of
Vlad Ţepeş.
Language
Main article: Romanian language
The origins of
Romanian language, a
Romance language, can be traced back to the Roman colonization of
Dacia. The basic vocabulary is of Latin origin, although there are some
substratum Dacian words. Of all the Romance languages, it could be said that Romanian is the most archaic one, having retained, for example, the inflected structure of Latin grammar.
During the Middle Ages, Romanian was isolated from the other Romance languages, and borrowed words from the nearby
Slavic languages. The
Turkish occupation enriched the language with a picturesque Turkic vocabulary by now thoroughly integrated into everyday speech. During the modern era, most neologisms were borrowed from
French and
Italian, though increasingly the language is falling under the sway of English borrowings.
The
Moldovan language, in its official form, is practically identical to Romanian, although there are some differences in colloquial speech. In the de-facto independent (but internationally unrecognised) region of
Transnistria, the official script used to write Moldovan is Cyrillic.
A 2005
Ethnologue estimation puts the (world-wide) number of Romanian speakers at approximately 23.5 million,
[Romanian language on Ethnologue.] not all of whom however are necessarily ethnic Romanians.
Surnames
Many Romanian names have the surname suffix -escu, which used to be a
patronymic. (for example, "Petrescu" used to be the son of "Petre") Many Romanians of France changed their ending in -esco, because the way it is pronounced "-cu" in French. Other suffixes are "-eanu", which indicates the geographical origin and "-aru", which indicates the occupation.
The most common surnames are Ionescu ("son of John") and Popescu ("son of the priest").
Religion
The majority of Romanians are
Eastern Orthodox Christians, belonging to the
Romanian Orthodox Church. According to the 2002 census, 94.0% of ethnic Romanians in
Romania identified themselves as Romanian Orthodox (in comparison to 86.8% of Romania's total population, including other ethnic groups). However, it must be noted that the actual rate of church attendance is significantly lower, and that many Romanians are only nominally believers. For example, only 39% of urban Romanians attend church once a week or more.
[Study into Urban Religiosity in Romania, Open Society Foundation (Microsoft Word Document)]Romanian Catholics are present in
Transylvania,
Bucharest, and parts of
Moldavia, belonging to both the
Eastern Rite (
Romanian Catholic Church) and the Roman Rite (
Roman Catholic Church). A small percentage of Romanians are
Protestant (2.8%) or
atheist.
Romanians have no official date for adoption of Christianity. It appears that Christianization occurred gradually, starting with the
Saint Andrew's mission during the Roman era and then continuing while the Romanian people and language emerged, as suggested by archeological findings and by Romanian words for church ("biserica" < basilica),
God ("
Dumnezeu" < Domine Deus), Easter ("Paste" < Paschae), etc.
After the
Great Schism, there existed a Catholic Bishopric of
Cumania (later, separate bishoprics in both
Wallachia and
Moldavia). However, this seems to be the exception, rather than the rule, as in both
Wallachia and
Moldavia the state religion (the one use for crowning, and other ceremonies) was orthodox. Until the
17th century, the official language of the liturgy was
Old Church Slavonic. Then, it gradually changed to Romanian.
Symbols
 |
Coat of Arms of Romania |
The colours of
blue,
yellow and
red, which are now used on the both the
flag of Romania and the
flag of Moldova were used by the nationalist movement of
1820s, but it is clear that they were even older, some suggest that they can be traced to the military flag of the Byzantine province of
Moesia.
In addition to these colours, each historical province of Romania has its own characteristic animal symbol:
*
Oltenia:
Lion*
Dobrogea:
Dolphin*
Moldavia:
Aurochs*
Transylvania:
Black eagle*
Wallachia:
EagleThe
Coat of Arms of Romania combines these together.
Customs
Main article: Romanian customs
(to be written)In English they are usually called Romanians or Rumanians except in some historical texts, where they are called
Vlachs.
Romanian
The name "Romanian" is derived from Latin "Romanus". Under regular phonetical changes that are typical to the Romanian languages, the name was transformed in "rumân" (
ru'mɨn). An older form of "român" was still in use in some regions. During the
National awakening of Romania of early
19th century, the latter form was preferred, in order to emphasise the link with ancient Rome.
Vlach
The name of "
Vlachs" is an
exonym that was used by Slavs to refer to all Romanized natives of the Balkans. It holds its origin from ancient Germanic - being a cognate to "Welsh" and "Walloon" -, and perhaps even further back in time, from the
Roman name Volcae, which was originally a
Celtic tribe. From the Slavs, it was passed on to other peoples, such as the
Hungarians (
Olah) and
Greeks (
Vlachoi). (see:
Etymology of Vlach) Vlach was also used for all Orthodox Christians.
Wallachia, a region in Romania, takes its name from the same source.
Nowadays, the term Vlach is more often used to refer to the Romanized populations of the Balkans who do not speak the
Romanian language but rather the
Aromanian language and other Romance languages such as
Istro-Romanian and
Megleno-Romanian. Aromanian, Istro-Romanian and Megleno-Romanian are the closest related languages to the Romanian language.
Daco-Romanian
To distinguish Romanians from the other Romanic peoples of the Balkans (Aromanians, Megleno-Romanians and Istro-Romanians), the term
Daco-Romanian is sometimes used to refer to those who speak the standard
Romanian language and live in the territory of ancient
Dacia (today comprising mostly Romania and Moldova), although some Daco-Romanians can be found in
Serbia (which was part of ancient
Moesia).
Toponyms
In the Middle Ages, Romanian shepherds migrated with their flocks in search of better
pastures and reached Southern
Poland,
Croatia,
Greece, and
Eastern Thrace.
Anthroponyms
These are family names that have been derived from either
Vlach or
Romanian. Most of these names have been given when a Romanian settled in a non-Romanian region.
* Oláh (37,147 Hungarians have this name)
* Vlach
* Vlahuta
* Vlasa
* Vlašic
* Vlasceanu
* Vlachopoulos
The closest ethnic groups to the Romanians are the other Romanic peoples of Southeastern Europe: the
Istro-Romanians, the
Aromanians (Macedo-Romanians) and the
Megleno-Romanians. The Istro-Romanians are the closest ethnic group to the Romanians, and it is believed they left
Maramureş,
Transylvania about a thousand years ago and settled in
Istria,
Croatia. Numbering about 500 people, they speak the
Istro-Romanian language, the closest living relative of Romanian.
The Aromanians and the Megleno-Romanians are Romanic peoples who live south of the Danube, mainly in
Greece,
Albania and the
Republic of Macedonia, although some of them migrated to Romania in the 20th century. It is believed that they diverged from the Romanians in the
7th to
9th century, and currently speak the
Aromanian language and
Megleno-Romanian language, both of which are
Eastern Romance languages, like Romanian, and are sometimes considered by traditional Romanian linguists to be dialects of standard (Daco-)Romanian.
*
Brodnici*
Bolohoveni*
Romanians of Serbia*
Moravian Wallachia*
Culture of Romania*
Music of Romania*
The Romanians nation in the beginning of the 20th century
