on the map of the
Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary, 1780–1784. The present-day borders of Romania are projected to the historical map. (; ; ), 1905 In ancient times, this area was settled by
Celts,
Dacians,
Sarmatians,
Germanic peoples and
Akatziri. In the first century BC, it was part of the
Dacian Kingdom under
Burebista, while in the early Middle Ages, it was ruled by the
Hunnic Empire, the
Kingdom of the Gepids, the
Kingdom of the Avars, the
White Croatia,
Hungarians and even the
Kievan Rus'. The territory was part of the
Kingdom of Hungary from the 11th century and was nominally divided between the
Gyepű border region,
comitatus of
Szatmár and comitatus of
Borsova. Initially, the
Romanian inhabitants of the region were allowed to preserve their political organization, the
Voivodeship of Maramureș, divided into many small autonomous areas. The King long struggled to convince the
Voivodes to accept the title of
Count, with the implied loss of independence in political and financial matters. During the
Middle Ages, the people in many mountain villages, where each family by definition had a considerable domain, were called
nameși, meaning free peasants taking pride in their family. The origin of the word is disputed: in the Kingdom of Hungary, free people possessing land were called in
Hungarian. In
Romanian means extended family, but this name's root is better explained as deriving from the
Greek verb , meaning to divide something (mainly land) into parts and give it to (people with the right to use it, either to rent it or use it for free; singular ). The region was reorganized to
Máramaros County in the 14th century. In the 16th century, the Kingdom of Hungary was invaded by the
Ottoman Empire, and the area came under administration of the semi-independent Ottoman
Principality of Transylvania. Later (in the late 17th century) it came under the administration of the
Habsburg monarchy (which became the
Austrian Empire in 1804). During Habsburg administration, the region was initially part of the lands of the
Habsburg Principality of Transylvania, but was later (in 1732) transferred to the
Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary. In 1867, the Austrian Empire was transformed into the dual monarchy of
Austria-Hungary and the region was included in the
Transleithanian or
Hungarian part of the Monarchy. After the
First World War, the region was divided between Romania and the
Czechoslovak region of
Carpathian Ruthenia, with the border following that of the short-lived
Hutsul Republic. In March 1939
Hungary annexed Carpathian Ruthenia and in August 1940 annexed the region of
Northern Transylvania, which included southern Maramureș, from Romania; the territories remained under Hungarian control until 1944. After
World War II, the southern section returned to Romania and is now part of
Maramureș County; the
northern section was incorporated into the
Soviet Union as part of the
Ukrainian SSR and is now part of
Zakarpattia Oblast of independent
Ukraine. ==People==