Romania - Eastern Europe - page 476

indeed, at all), so the status quo—no matter how frustrating and dehumanizing—was
fastidiously maintained.
In 2007, Traian B â sescu enters his third year as president of Romania. Heading a
large coalition, B â sescu professes to hold real democratic ideals and genuinely oppose
corruption; as such the E.U. views his leadership as critical for the country's future.
While Romania remains one of Europe's poorest nations, there has after all been
steady reform; the new government has imposed one of Europe's most liberal tax sys-
tems and wages are steadily arising. The spirit of development that has slowly gripped
the nation may not necessarily have the entire population hopping at the pace set by
Bucharest, but it clearly signals the aspirations for a prosperous future and—despite
ongoing public and media aspersions about corruption and political bungling—urban
Romania seems hellbent on careening into full-blown capitalism and reaping the fruits
of free-market enterprise.
A LOOK AT THE PAST
Romania's past is defined by violent conflict and war. Peace—and indeed nationhood—
is new to a region that has been perpetually invaded for well over a millennium.
While Thracian tribes settled here about 3,000 years ago, Romanians trace their cul-
ture back to the Dacians. They were a highly regarded race, referred to by Herodotus as
“the fairest and most courageous of men” because of their fearlessness in the face of
death. Greeks colonized the territory near the Black Sea coast and developed the cities
of Tomis (now Constanta), Istria, and Callatis (now Mangalia) from around 700 B . C .,
while the Dacian king Burebista controlled most of what is now Romania; he established
a powerful kingdom between 70 and 44 B . C . By A . D . 100, the Dacian civilization had
reached its zenith and the Romans now moved in, forcing its inhabitants to adopt the
language of the conquerors. Rome was to rule Dacia for nearly 200 years before Chris-
tianity was adopted in the 4th century by the Daco-Romans who fell subject to invasion
by assorted European and Asian tribes for the next 6 centuries. By the 11th century,
when Magyar (Hungarian) armies invaded and occupied Transylvania, Romanians were
the only Latin-speaking people in the eastern quadrant of the former Roman Empire.
They were also the only Latin people still practicing the Orthodox faith.
While Transylvania's Romanian population was almost entirely subjugated by rul-
ing Hungarians and their Saxon allies, the Middle Ages saw great (and bloodthirsty)
local warriors in Moldavia and Wallachia—men like Stephen the Great, Vlad the
Impaler, and Michael the Brave—fighting to maintain their sovereignty in the face of
the ongoing Hungarian and Ottoman threat. In 1600, the Wallachian prince, Michael
the Brave (Mihai Viteazul), even briefly united the three provinces, only to be defeated
by the Turkish and Habsburg armies; Transylvania became a jewel in the burgeoning
Austro-Hungarian Empire while other bits of Romania were carved up and divided
between different powers.
In 1848, Hungary took complete control of Transylvania, while Moldavia and Wal-
lachia, headed for unification, finally merging to become a fledgling Romania in the
1860s. A decision was made to give the new country a nonpartisan ruler, and so a Ger-
man blue blood, Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was chosen to sit on the
throne of the new Romanian kingdom, created in 1881. He ruled as King Carol I
until 1914 when he was succeeded by his nephew and adopted son, Ferdinand. Dur-
ing Ferdinand's rule, Romania joined World War I on the side of the Triple Entente
in a successful effort to incorporate the lost Romanian provinces of Transylvania,