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Regional History
Difficulties


Topics covered in this section:


Introduction

I immediately ran into a difficulty as soon as I began to write about Romania's history. The problem is that Romania's history takes place in three major regions (often referred to as principalities). Local history sometimes plays out on its own regional "stage," independent of the other two regions, and sometimes all three regions are involved.

Principalities

The three regions (principalities) are:

  • Wallachia is an east-west corridor of open plains in the southern part of Romania. Currently, the preferred name of this region is Muntenia, referring to the fact that it lies at the foot of the mountains.
  • Moldavia is a north-south area in the eastern part of Romania. Many Romanians call it Moldova, which is confusing to me, since there's also the Republic of Moldova (which was part of the former Soviet Union) just next door to the east of Moldavia.
  • Transylvania is an oval-shaped area in northwestern Romania. Hungarian nationalists claim that it is their land, "stolen" by Romania.

There are other local regions as well, like Dobrudja (or Dobrogea) on the Black Sea coastline, Bucovina at the northernmost tip of Moldavia, the Banat flanking Transylvania on the southwest, Crisana bordering Transylvania on the west, and Maramures comprising the northern part of Transylvania. However, historically speaking, the three regions mentioned in the bullets above are the chief players.

Sometimes, when describing events in the three principalities, I'll explore a regional event from beginning to end, even though it temporarily causes us to stray from the chronological unfolding of events. This cannot be helped.

My Method of Presentation

There are two basic ways to present the history of Romania. One is to ignore the shifting borders and talk about the region that falls within the present-day borders of Romania, encompassing all three principalities. The other is to tell the history of the combined Romanian people without regard for where the political borders are at any given moment in time.

Generally, I'll adopt the latter. After all, when you look beneath the geopolitical surface (where the borders shifted based on which empire was in charge at the moment), you'll find a large group of people who share the same language and culture. They have lived in the region forever (or nearly so). They are, of course, the Romanians.

I'll leave it up to the scholars to debate who their first "ancestors" were and where the borders should "properly" lie.

Peasant Farmers

During Romania's history, scores of nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes passed through the area, leaving little behind to document their passing. That's to be expected, however, since migratory peoples seldom carry written histories with them on their extensive travels. Books would have been considered excess baggage.

Even those who did settle down left precious little history behind. They were an agrarian society who had little use for preserving their history. They were the poor, the peasants, the serfs, the majority.

And as is so often the case, the historic spotlight seldom focuses on such people.

Go Elsewhere

At this point, you have a couple of options:


Enjoy your stay and have a great day!

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