There are few places in the world with this much bang for the buck, assuming
you avoid the crap, and dodge the scams while you home in on your travel goals.
You can get started by talking to Romania travel offices located in your home
country.
Ancient Romania was inhabited by Thracian tribes that were a combo of Getae and
Dacians. In the 7th century BC the Greeks started establishing trading colonies
along the Black Sea at Callatis, Tomis and Histria. In the 1st century BC, King
Burebista attempted to defy the Roman threat by indian
establishing a Dacian state. The
last Dacian king, Decebal (ruled AD 87-106) made progress in uniting this
nascent state, but ultimately he was unable to hold off attacks by Roman emperor
Trajan in AD 101-02. More attacks thrashed the area in 105-06, until the Romans
won the deciding victory at the Dacian capital of Sarmizegetusa, absorbing Dacia
into the Roman Empire.
The Middle Ages were busy. Goths, Huns, Avars, Slavs, Bulgars and Magyars
(Hungarians) all rotated in and out of the territory from the 4th to the 10th
centuries, leaving behind fragments of culture, language and of course the gene
pool. At the same time the Magyars moved into Transylvania in indian
greater numbers,
taking up areas north and west of the Carpathian Mountains and by the 13th
century pretty much all of Transylvania was under the Hungarian crown, ruled as
an autonomous principality. With Tartar raids on Transylvania in the mid-13th
century getting more frequent and effective, King Bela IV of Hungary decided to
bulk up his presence in the area, luring German Saxons to settle there with
offers of free land and tax incentives, as well as giving the Székelys - a
Hungarian ethnic group - in the region total autonomy in return for their
military support.
The Turks finally trounced Hungary in the 16th century and Transylvania latinas
became a
part of the Ottoman Empire. They were allowed autonomy, assuming they continued
to cough up cash tributes to the sultan. Wallachia and Moldavia were also forced
to pay tributes to the Turks in order to keep autonomy, which kept out occupying
forces (as well as any trace of Turkish culture, architecture, etc). Their
combined forces successfully overran Turkish strongholds in 1594. A truce was
finally called in 1595. An internal power struggle ensued almost immediately,
which opened the door for a joint Habsburg-Transylvanian noble army to move into
Transylvania. When the Turks were defeated at the gates of Vienna in 1687,
Transylvania came exclusively under Habsburg rule.
Transylvania got caught up in the Hungarian revolution in 1848, as Hungary tried
to end to Habsburg domination. Feeling revolution fever, Romanians started their
own latina
campaign for political emancipation and equality. The Austrians convinced
Transylvania’s Romanians to go after the Hungarian revolutionaries in
Transylvania with the incentive of national recognition in return. Transylvanian
Romanians agreed, enthusiastically assaulting Transylvanian Hungarians, fueled
by the desire of vengeance for centuries of mistreatment by the Hungarians.
Russian intervention ended this duplicitous arrangement and Austria-Hungary took
control, ruling from Budapest. The Hungarian language was imposed and anyone who
resisted was punished.
Romania expanded in WWI, taking Transylvania, Banat and Bucovina from
Austria-Hungary and Bessarabia from Russia forming modern Romania. WWII was
another story. Domestic political turmoil combined with having latina
too many
agreements with too many conflicting entities caused havoc. The USSR re-occupied
Bessarabia, Romania was forced to cede northern Transylvania to Hungary by order
of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy and Southern Dobrogea was given to Bulgaria.
Still grasping for a quick solution to everyone snatching their land, Romania
allowed German troops to enter in October 1940 and General Antonescu joined
Hitler’s anti-Soviet war in hopes of recovering Bessarabia, which he did in
August 1941. Meanwhile over 200,000 Romanian Jews - mainly from newly regained
Bessarabia - and 40,000 Roma (Gypsies) were deported to transit camps in
Transdniestr and murdered in Auschwitz. It didn't last. Antonescu was grabbed by
the Soviets and condemned to death, while Bessarabia fell back into Soviet
hands. When the Soviets threatened Romania’s borders, the nation lost its nerve
and suddenly changed sides (again) on August 23rd, 1944. They started off with a
bang, capturing the 53,159 German soldiers stationed in Romania at the time.
Romania salvaged its independence, shortened the war and eventually got most of
its territory back, while suffering appalling losses of its soldiers.
After furiously rounding up all prewar leaders, prominent intellectuals and
suspected dissidents and locking them up (or working them to death), the
Communists embarked on their whimsical, ill-considered and violent reign. Moscow
decided to let the Romanians fly solo, withdrawing Soviet troops from the
country in 1958, and Nicolae Ceausescu eventually came to power in 1965.
After 25 years of this insanity, the hot Latin blood took over. While communist
regimes were dropping like flies, desperate and pissed off Romanians united
against Ceausescu and the Securitate, first in Timisoara and then in Bucharest.
What started as public condemning of Ceausescu by Father Làszlo Tokés on
December 15th, 1989 mushroomed into crazed violence as the Securitate tried to
regain control and culminated with the Ceausescus fleeing Bucharest by
helicopter on December 22nd. They were captured, taken to Târgoviste for a quick
and dirty 'trial' and executed in a hail of bullets on Christmas Day (Merry
Christmas indeed!). For a more detail analysis of the events that led to
Ceausescu's fall, read this Wikipedia article.
Barely known by Europeans and anonymous to the rest of the world, Moldova is
one of the last true, off-the-beaten-path destinations around.
The country's amazingly tasty and cheap wine industry is what draws most
visitors, but there's far more on offer here, including cave monasteries,
fortresses and nightlife that will challenge the heartiest of revelers.
Despite being ranked as the Unhappiest Country in the World, according to data
from the World Values Survey, these people will make you feel comfortable and
welcome (hotel clerks notwithstanding).
Moldova straddles two different historic regions divided by the Dniestr (Nistru)
River. Historic Romanian Bessarabia covers the region west of the Dniestr, while
tsarist Russia took hold of the territory east of the river (today's
Transdniestr) after driving out the Turks in 1792.
The Soviets snatched back the Bessarabia region during WWII and united it with
the southern part of the Moldavian ASSR (Transdniestr) and renamed it Moldavian
Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldavian SSR). Not wasting a moment, allied Romanian
and German troops attacked the Soviet Union in 1941. Bessarabia and Transdniestr
fell into Romanian hands and thousands of Bessarabian Jews were rounded up and
deported to Auschwitz. The Soviet army reoccupied Transdniestr and Bessarabia in
1944 and handed out payback in the form of deporting 25,000 ethnic Moldovans
(Romanians) to Siberia and Kazakhstan in 1949, followed by some 250,000 from
1950 to 1952.
Sensing opportunity, both Transdniestr and Turkic-speaking Gagauzia region in
southern Moldova launched their respective bids to divorce themselves from
Moldova. Gaugazia merely wanted autonomy within Moldova, but Transdniestr would
settled for nothing less than outright independence. In May of 1992 full-scale
civil war broke out in Transdniestr when Moldovan police clashed with
Transdniestran militia in Bendery, who were duly backed by troops from Russia.
An estimated 500 to 700 people were killed and thousands wounded.
Moldova proper has made recent moves to improve it's international image, in the
face of being labelled as the poorest nation in Europe and one of the most
corrupt countries in the world. In late 2005, the country signed agreements
committing itself to combat corruption and lock down people trafficking. Average
household income remains low, with roughly one-third of the country’s fragile
GDP comprised of monies sent home from emigrants working abroad.
For more information visit romania and moldova site