Parallels

Topics covered in this section:

• Introduction
• United States of America
• Romania
• Bitter Losers

Introduction

And now for a little side trip before I wrap up this section.

The history of Romania has many parallels to American history, but reversed in many cases. That's one of the main reasons I find it so intriguing.

First, let's talk briefly about the Native Americans. Then we will compare their plight to that of the Native Romanians.

United States of America

In early America, we -- the New Americans -- saw vast regions of land to the west that, in our minds, were going to waste. There were no farms, no roads, no cities. Just a bunch of villages ... and Native Americans -- or, as Columbus mistook them, Indians (thinking he had landed in the West Indies) -- sitting atop all those rich, natural resources.

We saw the land. We wanted the land. We took the land.

But our Christian sensibilities required that we justify why we forcibly took it away from the Native Americans. So we invented lots of reasons why it was ours by right. Thus was born the "Manifest Destiny" of the United States. This land, we felt, had been set aside by God especially for our use.

To our way of thinking, our manifest destiny granted us the God-given right to take whatever land we desired -- and we desired a lot of land. After all, we reasoned, the aboriginal American Indians didn't deserve such a fine, rich land. Although they had lived here for thousands of years before we came along, they were still living as "savages." They had done little to subdue the land. They had no grant deeds. They had built no fences or walls or fortresses or castles. How was anyone supposed to know where their land began or ended without these European landmarks?

So we swept across the country like locusts, taking whatever we wanted, always moving westward. If the Native Americans got in our way, we gathered them together and put them on Indian reservations in places where there was no reason to covet the land.

How could the native population possibly resist our Manifest Destiny?

They were a bunch of scattered tribes who often fought each other over hunting and fishing territory. Our army was better organized and certainly better equipped (at least in the beginning). What chance did bows and arrows have against a repeating rifle? Sabers had a decided advantage over knives. And a single Hotchkiss gun, placed on a hillside, could massacre an entire village in just a few short minutes.

The New Americans were stronger than the Native Americans, and with the banner of our Manifest Destiny waving over the land, we conquered and subdued the land. The Native Americans lost.

By the way, if you're interested in the Native American people and their beliefs, you might want to stop by the Native American Burrow here in the Den.

Romania

Now contrast this with the history of Romania.

The native Romanians had inhabited the land for hundreds of thousands of years -- ever since the Stone Age. They were generally a peaceful people, mostly farmers and artisans. Peasants. Of course, they sometimes had skirmishes with their neighbors, but overall, they adopted a "live and let live" philosophy.

Unfortunately, they were surrounded by powerful neighbors who saw their land and coveted it for themselves. Not only was it a land blessed with a wealth of natural resources, but it was also a land that sat smack dab in the middle of the crossroads between Europe, the Orient, and the Middle East.

Anyone who controlled this territory could exploit its riches and its strategic location. As expected, there was no shortage of countries who sought to control it. At the time that Romania's modern borders were drawn, there were three powerful empires competing for the land -- the Catholic Habsburgs of Austria-Hungary, the Muslim sultans of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire, and the Orthodox Russian czars. Three powerful empires and three powerful religions.

They saw the land. They wanted the land. They took the land. Sound familiar?

To their way of thinking, the manifest destiny (though they didn't call it that) of the stronger, neighboring countries granted them the God-given right to take whatever land they desired -- and they desired a lot of land.

After all, the aboriginal Romanians didn't "deserve" such a fine, rich land. Although they had lived there for hundreds of thousands of years, they had done little to subdue the land. They had no grant deeds. They had built few fences or walls or fortresses or castles. How was anyone supposed to know where their land began or ended without these landmarks?

Like the Native Americans, the native Romanians were no match for the military might of their neighbors. A pitchfork makes a very poor military weapon. Powerful nations felt it was their destiny to take the land away from the native Romanians.

So these neighboring empires swept across the country like locusts, taking whatever they wanted. If the native Romanians got in their way, they were turned into serfs who were required to pay exorbitant taxes to the foreign landowners.

And so, the history of Romania is a history filled with conquests by one strong neighboring country after another. Using their superior military -- or sometimes, their economic -- strength, these neighbors swarmed over the land, overrunning the territory inhabited by the native Romanians. We'll discuss many of these conquests in these web pages devoted to the history of Romania.

Bitter Losers

Earlier I said there were many parallels between the history of the United States and of Romania, but reversed. By that I meant that the Native Romanians did not end up like the Native Americans. The latter are still treated as second-class citizens here in the United States and are still socially tied to their reservations. The Native Romanians, on the other hand, managed to overcome their powerful neighbors and to regain much of their land (causing much bitterness among the losers). The underdog (Romania), in this case, emerged victorious.

As expected, that has only "poured salt into an already open wound." Many of the neighboring countries, who were required to back down on their manifest destiny and return land to the aboriginal Romanian inhabitants, now resent the Romanian people. They protest: How dare the Romanian people reclaim what was theirs in the beginning? True, they don't say it quite that way, but they're angry nonetheless.

And so, today there are great -- and sometimes bitter -- struggles by historians from these powerful neighbors to "prove" their country's right to the land and, at the same time, to paint the Romanian claims as so much hot air.

Well, I'm going to take a definite side in this debate.

I happen to applaud the Romanian people for taking back their rightful land. As happened in the Bible story of David and Goliath, the little guy won. And it makes me feel good to know that these simple farmers and artisans managed to stand up to their militarily powerful neighbors -- and win. It seems the pitchfork can be a formidable weapon after all.

Go Elsewhere

At this point, you have a couple of options:

• Return to the History Department to choose another timeframe.
• Return to the Introduction Section to choose another topic.
• Rewind to the previous topic in the Introduction Section, History (Myth?) Written by Victors
• Fast forward to the next timeframe, the Pre-History Section.

Enjoy your stay and have a great day!