Prehistory Human remains found in
Peștera cu Oase ("Cave with Bones"), radiocarbon date from circa 40,000 years ago, and represent the oldest known
Homo sapiens in Europe.
Neolithic agriculture spread after the arrival of a mixed group of people from
Thessaly in the 6th millennium BC. Excavations near a
salt spring at
Lunca yielded the earliest evidence for salt exploitation in Europe; here salt production began between the 5th and 4th millennium BC. The first permanent settlements developed into "proto-cities", which were larger than . The
Cucuteni–Trypillia culture—the best known
archaeological culture of
Old Europe—flourished in
Muntenia, southeastern Transylvania and northeastern Moldavia in the 3rd millennium BC. The first fortified settlements appeared around 1800 BC, showing the militant character of
Bronze Age societies.
Antiquity during
Burebista's reign (early 40s BC) Greek colonies established on the
Black Sea coast in the 7th century BC became important centres of commerce with the local tribes. Among the native peoples,
Herodotus listed the
Getae of the Lower Danube region, the
Agathyrsi of Transylvania and the
Syginnae of the plains along the river
Tisza at the beginning of the 5th century BC. Centuries later,
Strabo associated the Getae with the
Dacians who dominated the lands along the southern
Carpathian Mountains in the 1st century BC.
Burebista was the first Dacian ruler to unite the local tribes. He also conquered the Greek colonies in
Dobruja and the neighbouring peoples as far as the Middle Danube and the
Balkan Mountains between around 55 and 44 BC. After Burebista was murdered in 44 BC, his kingdom collapsed. The Romans reached
Dacia during Burebista's reign and conquered Dobruja in 46 AD.
Dacia was again united under
Decebalus around 85 AD. He resisted the Romans for decades, but the Roman army defeated his troops in 106 AD. Emperor
Trajan transformed
Banat,
Oltenia and the greater part of Transylvania into a new
province called
Roman Dacia, but Dacian,
Germanic and
Sarmatian tribes continued to dominate the lands along the Roman frontiers. The Romans pursued an organised colonisation policy, and the provincials enjoyed a long period of peace and prosperity in the 2nd century. Scholars accepting the Daco-Roman continuity theory—one of the main theories about the
origin of the Romanians—say that the cohabitation of the native Dacians and the Roman colonists in Roman Dacia was the first phase of the Romanians'
ethnogenesis. The
Carpians,
Goths and other neighbouring tribes made regular raids against Dacia from the 210s. The Romans could not resist, and Emperor
Aurelian ordered the evacuation of the province
Dacia Trajana in the 270s. Scholars supporting the continuity theory are convinced that most Latin-speaking commoners stayed behind when the army and civil administration was withdrawn. The Romans did not abandon their fortresses along the northern banks of the Lower Danube for decades, and Dobruja (known as
Scythia Minor) remained an integral part of the Roman Empire until the early 7th century.
Middle Ages -speaking
Thervingi, and the neighbouring tribes (370s AD) The Goths were expanding towards the Lower Danube from the 230s, forcing the native peoples to flee to the Roman Empire or to accept their
suzerainty. The Goths' rule ended abruptly when the
Huns invaded their territory in 376, causing new waves of migrations. The Huns forced the remnants of the local population into submission, but their empire collapsed in 454. The
Gepids took possession of the former Dacia province. Place names that are of
Slavic origin abound in Romania, indicating that a significant Slavic-speaking population lived in the territory. The first
Slavic groups settled in Moldavia and Wallachia in the 6th century, in Transylvania around 600. The nomadic
Avars defeated the Gepids and established a powerful empire around 570. The
Bulgars, who also came from the European
Pontic steppe, occupied the Lower Danube region in 680. (681–1018) around 850 After the
Avar Khaganate collapsed in the 790s, the
First Bulgarian Empire became the dominant power of the region, occupying lands as far as the river
Tisa. The
First Bulgarian Empire had a mixed population consisting of the Bulgar conquerors,
Slavs and
Vlachs (or Romanians) but the
Slavicisation of the Bulgar elite had already begun in the 9th century. Following the conquest of southern
Transylvania around 830, people from the Bulgar Empire mined salt at the local salt mines. The
Council of Preslav declared
Old Church Slavonic the language of liturgy in the country in 893. The Vlachs also adopted Old Church Slavonic as their liturgical language. The
Magyars (or Hungarians) took control of the steppes north of the Lower Danube in the 830s, but the Bulgarians and the
Pechenegs jointly forced them to abandon this region for the
lowlands along the Middle Danube around 894. Centuries later, the
Gesta Hungarorum wrote of the invading Magyars' wars against three dukes—
Glad,
Menumorut and the Vlach
Gelou—for Banat, Crișana and Transylvania. The
Gesta also listed many peoples—Slavs, Bulgarians, Vlachs,
Khazars, and
Székelys—inhabiting the same regions. The reliability of the
Gesta is debated. Some scholars regard it as a basically accurate account, others describe it as a literary work filled with invented details. The Pechenegs seized the lowlands abandoned by the Hungarians to the east of the Carpathians.
Byzantine missionaries proselytised in the lands east of the Tisa from the 940s and Byzantine troops occupied Dobruja in the 970s. The first
king of Hungary,
Stephen I, who supported Western European missionaries, defeated the local chieftains and established
Roman Catholic bishoprics (office of a bishop) in Transylvania and Banat in the early 11th century. Significant Pecheneg groups fled to the Byzantine Empire in the 1040s; the
Oghuz Turks followed them, and the nomadic
Cumans became the dominant power of the steppes in the 1060s. Cooperation between the Cumans and the Vlachs against the Byzantine Empire is well documented from the end of the 11th century. Scholars who reject the Daco-Roman continuity theory say that the first Vlach groups left their
Balkan homeland for the mountain pastures of the eastern and southern Carpathians in the 11th century, establishing the Romanians' presence in the lands to the north of the Lower Danube. (also known as Vlad the Impaler), medieval ruler of Wallachia Exposed to nomadic incursions, Transylvania developed into an important border province of the
Kingdom of Hungary. The Székelys—a community of free warriors—settled in central Transylvania around 1100 and moved to the easternmost regions around 1200. Colonists from the
Holy Roman Empire—the
Transylvanian Saxons' ancestors—came to the province in the 1150s. A high-ranking royal official, styled
voivode, ruled the Transylvanian
counties from the 1170s, but the Székely and Saxon
seats (or districts) were not subject to the voivodes' authority. Royal charters wrote of the "
Vlachs' land" in southern Transylvania in the early 13th century, indicating the existence of
autonomous Romanian communities. Papal correspondence mentions the activities of Orthodox prelates among the Romanians in Muntenia in the 1230s. Also in the 13th century, the
Republic of Genoa started establishing
colonies on the Black Sea, including
Calafat, and
Constanța. The Mongols destroyed large territories during
their invasion of Eastern and Central Europe in 1241 and 1242. The Mongols'
Golden Horde emerged as the dominant power of Eastern Europe, but
Béla IV of Hungary's land grant to the
Knights Hospitallers in Oltenia and Muntenia shows that the local
Vlach rulers were subject to the king's authority in 1247.
Basarab I of Wallachia united the Romanian polities between the southern Carpathians and the Lower Danube in the 1310s. He defeated the Hungarian royal army in the
Battle of Posada and secured the independence of
Wallachia in 1330. The second Romanian principality,
Moldavia, achieved full autonomy during the reign of
Bogdan I around 1360. A local dynasty ruled the
Despotate of Dobruja in the second half of the 14th century, but the
Ottoman Empire took possession of the territory after 1388. Princes
Mircea I and
Vlad III of Wallachia, and
Stephen III of Moldavia defended their countries' independence against the Ottomans. Most Wallachian and Moldavian princes paid a regular tribute to the Ottoman sultans from 1417 and 1456, respectively.
John Hunyadi, organised the defence of the
Kingdom of Hungary and
anti-Ottoman campaigns from 1440 until his death in 1456. Increasing taxes outraged the Transylvanian peasants, and
they rose up in an open rebellion in 1437, but the Hungarian nobles and the heads of the Saxon and Székely communities jointly suppressed their revolt. The formal alliance of the Hungarian, Saxon, and Székely leaders, known as the
Union of the Three Nations, became an important element of the self-government of Transylvania. The Orthodox Romanian
knezes ("chiefs") were excluded from the Union.
Early modern times and national awakening The Kingdom of Hungary collapsed, and the Ottomans occupied parts of
Banat and
Crișana in 1541. Transylvania and
Maramureș, along with the rest of Banat and Crișana, developed into a new state under Ottoman suzerainty, the
Principality of Transylvania. The
Reformation, initiated in Germany by
Martin Luther in 1517, encouraged the spread of
Protestantism across the region; by 1568, the
Edict of Torda formally granted local communities the right to choose their own preachers, sanctioning the existence of four "received" religions (
Catholicism,
Lutheranism,
Calvinism, and
Unitarianism). The Romanians' Orthodox faith remained only tolerated, although they made up more than one-third of the population, according to 17th-century estimates. In June 1609,
Gabriel Báthory freed the Romanian Orthodox clergy from both taxation and service demands. The princes of Transylvania, Wallachia, and Moldavia joined the
Holy League against the Ottoman Empire in 1594. The Wallachian prince,
Michael the Brave, united the three principalities under his rule in May 1600. The neighbouring powers forced him to abdicate in September, but he became a symbol of the unification of the Romanian lands in the 19th century. Although the rulers of the three principalities continued to pay tribute to the Ottomans, the most talented princes—
Gabriel Bethlen of Transylvania,
Matei Basarab of Wallachia, and
Vasile Lupu of Moldavia—strengthened their autonomy. The united armies of the
Holy League expelled the Ottoman troops from Central Europe between 1684 and 1699, and the Principality of Transylvania was integrated into the
Habsburg monarchy. The Habsburgs supported the Catholic clergy and persuaded the Orthodox Romanian prelates to accept the
union with the Roman Catholic Church in 1699. In the
18th century,
Moldavia and
Wallachia maintained their internal autonomy, but in
1711 and
1716, respectively, the period of the
Phanariots began, with rulers appointed directly by the Porte from among the noble families of
Greek origin in
Constantinople. With the signing of the
Ausgleich in
1867,
Transylvania quickly lost its remaining political autonomy, being politically and administratively incorporated into the
Kingdom of Hungary. The Church Union strengthened the Romanian intellectuals' devotion to their Roman heritage. The Orthodox Church was restored in Transylvania only after Orthodox monks stirred up revolts in 1744 and 1759. The organisation of the
Transylvanian Military Frontier caused further disturbances,
especially among the Székelys in 1764. Princes
Dimitrie Cantemir of Moldavia and
Constantin Brâncoveanu of Wallachia concluded alliances with the Habsburg Monarchy and Russia against the Ottomans, but they were dethroned in 1711 and 1714, respectively. The sultans lost confidence in the native princes and appointed Orthodox merchants from the
Phanar district of Istanbul to rule Moldavia and Wallachia. The
Phanariot princes pursued oppressive fiscal policies and dissolved the army. The neighbouring powers took advantage of the situation: the Habsburg Monarchy annexed the northwestern part of Moldavia, or
Bukovina, in 1775, and the
Russian Empire seized the eastern half of Moldavia, or
Bessarabia, in 1812. A census revealed that the Romanians were more numerous than any other ethnic group in Transylvania in 1733, but legislation continued to use contemptuous adjectives (such as "tolerated" and "admitted") when referring to them. The
Uniate bishop,
Inocențiu Micu-Klein, who demanded recognition of the Romanians as the fourth privileged nation, was forced into exile. Uniate and Orthodox clerics and laymen jointly signed a
plea for the Transylvanian Romanians' emancipation in 1791, but the monarch and the local authorities refused to grant their requests. to
2010 The
Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca authorised the Russian ambassador in Istanbul to defend the autonomy of Moldavia and Wallachia (known as the
Danubian Principalities) in 1774. Taking advantage of the
Greek War of Independence, a Wallachian lesser nobleman, Tudor Vladimirescu, stirred up a revolt against the Ottomans in January 1821, but he was murdered in June by Phanariot Greeks. After a
new Russo-Turkish War, the
Treaty of Adrianople strengthened the autonomy of the Danubian Principalities in 1829, although it also acknowledged the sultan's right to confirm the election of the princes.
Mihail Kogălniceanu,
Nicolae Bălcescu and other leaders of the
1848 revolutions in Moldavia and
Wallachia demanded the emancipation of the peasants and the union of the two principalities, but Russian and Ottoman troops crushed their revolt. The Wallachian revolutionists were the first to adopt the blue, yellow and red
tricolour as the
national flag. In Transylvania, most Romanians supported the imperial government against the
Hungarian revolutionaries after the Diet passed a law concerning the union of Transylvania and Hungary. Bishop
Andrei Șaguna proposed the unification of the Romanians of the Habsburg Monarchy in a separate duchy, but the central government refused to change the internal borders.
Unification and the Kingdom of Romania with his nephew
Ferdinand and his son,
Carol II From the Little Union to the Great War The modern Romanian state was created through the
unification of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, accepted as a federative structure by the Great Powers following the
Paris Convention of 1858, and later cemented by the simultaneous election as ruler of both states of the unionist
Alexandru Ioan Cuza. After carrying out numerous reforms that laid the foundations for the modernisation of the state, he was forced in 1866 by a broad coalition of the political parties of the time, also known as the "
Monstrous coalition", to abdicate and leave the country. The union was at one time in peril, but the political leaders of the era succeeded in placing on the princely throne
Carol I of Romania, who accepted the Constitution and took the oath on 10 May 1866. Eleven years later, on 10 May 1877, Romania proclaimed its independence—achieved on the battlefield—and in 1881, on the same day of the year, Carol was crowned as
King of Romania. In 1913, Romania entered the
Second Balkan War against
Bulgaria, at the end of which it obtained
Southern Dobruja. In 1914,
King Carol I died, and his nephew,
Ferdinand I, succeeded him on the throne. Although the Romanian forces did not perform well militarily, by the end of the war the Austrian and Russian Empires had disintegrated; the National Assembly in
Transylvania, and the
Sfatul Țării in
Bessarabia and
Bukovina proclaimed their union with Romania, and
King Ferdinand I and
Queen Maria were crowned sovereign of all Romanians in
Alba Iulia on 15 October 1922. After
World War I, the union of
Bukovina with Romania was ratified in 1919 by the
Treaty of Saint Germain. Most of the territories claimed by Romania from the
Kingdom of Hungary—
Crișana,
Transylvania and parts of
Banat and
Maramureș—were annexed to the
Kingdom of Romania. This act was ratified in 1920 by the
Treaty of Trianon, which defined the new border between Hungary and Romania.
Interwar period After having left the country and renounced his claim to the throne in 1925,
Carol II returned in 1930 and usurped his son's throne; influenced by his inner circle—referred to by historians as the "Royal Camarilla"—he gradually undermined the democratic system, and in 1938 he assumed dictatorial powers. Although he was pro-Western (especially Anglophile), Carol attempted to appease extreme centrifugal forces by appointing nationalist governments that adopted anti-Semitic measures, such as the
Goga cabinet and the one led by the Orthodox Patriarch
Miron Cristea.
World War II was
regained after the end of World War II Following the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, in June 1940 Romania accepted the loss of
Bessarabia,
Northern Bukovina and the
Hertsa region in favour of the
USSR (as stipulated in the Soviet ultimatum of 28 June 1940). Unaware of the details of the Soviet–German pact, Carol attempted to secure an alliance with
Nazi Germany, and appointed Ion Gigurtu as President of the Council of Ministers, who declared that he would pursue a Nazi pro-Axis (Berlin–Rome) policy that was anti-Semitic and fascist-totalitarian in nature. Between 4 July and 4 September 1940, by accepting
Hitler's arbitration over Transylvania (after Gigurtu declared on radio that Romania must make territorial sacrifices to justify its Nazi orientation and full adherence to the Berlin–Rome Axis), Romania ceded
Northern Transylvania—including the city of
Cluj—to Hungary. The vast territories in Transylvania ceded by Ion Gigurtu to Hungary contained important natural resources, including gold mines. Ion Gigurtu also initiated negotiations to cede 8,000 km2 of Southern Dobruja to Bulgaria, these negotiations were interrupted by Antonescu's unconditional acceptance of the territorial cession. In response to the chaotic withdrawal from Bessarabia, the territorial cessions, public discontent, and protests from political leaders, King Carol II suspended the
1938 Constitution of Romania and appointed General
Ion Antonescu as Prime Minister. This measure, supported by the
Iron Guard, demanded that the king abdicate in favour of his son,
Mihai. Subsequently, Antonescu assumed dictatorial powers and became President of the Council of Ministers, as the self-titled "Leader" of the state. In 1941, as an ally of
Nazi Germany, Romania entered
World War II by declaring war on the
Soviet Union. Following Antonescu's outright refusal, King Mihai I ordered the dismissal and arrest of the marshal, and Romania switched sides to join the Allies. Less than three years after the
Soviet occupation of Romania, in 1947,
King Michael I was forced to abdicate and the
People's Republic of Romania—a state of "popular democracy"—was proclaimed. The newly established communist regime, led by the
Romanian Workers' Party, consolidated its power through a Stalinist-type policy aimed at suppressing any political opposition and transforming the economic and social structures of the old bourgeois regime. In the early 1960s, the Romanian government began asserting a certain degree of independence from the
Soviet Union in its foreign policy, although it did not abandon its repressive policies (which it labeled "revolutionary conquests") in domestic affairs. After a brief power struggle,
Nicolae Ceaușescu emerged as the head of the communist party, An interim council composed of figures from civil society and former communist officials assumed control of the government, and
Ion Iliescu became the provisional president of the country. The new government reversed many of the authoritarian communist policies and dismissed several leaders of the former regime, although still influenced by members of the former regime (the basis for the
Golaniad, and
Mineriads). In
May 1990, the first free elections in Romania since the
1937 elections were held, with Iliescu of the
National Salvation Front winning the presidency with 85% of the vote. In
1992, he was reelected in the first election after the adoption of
a permanent constitution via
a referendum held
the previous year. Illiescu lost the
1996 election to
Emil Constantinescu, but returned to power in
2000.
Traian Băsescu was elected president in
2004 and
2009, serving until
2014 at which point
Klaus Iohannis succeeded him, being re-elected in
2019 and serving until
2025. During these years several events occurred. In 2009, the country was bailed out by the
International Monetary Fund as result of the
Great Recession in Europe following the
2008 financial crisis. The post-1989 period has been characterised by the privatisation and closure of several former industrial and economic enterprises from the communist period, while
corruption has been a
major issue in contemporary politics. A
National Anticorruption Directorate was formed in the country in 2002. During the 2000s, Romania had one of the highest economic growth rates in Europe and has been referred at times as "the Tiger of Eastern Europe". This has been accompanied by a significant improvement in living standards as the country successfully reduced domestic poverty and established a functional democratic state. However, Romania's development suffered a major setback during the
late 2000s' recession leading to a large gross domestic product contraction and a budget deficit in 2009. This led to Romania borrowing from the International Monetary Fund. Worsening economic conditions led to
unrest and triggered a political crisis in 2012. Since 2014, Romania launched an anti-corruption effort that led to the prosecution of medium- and high-level political, judicial and administrative offenses by the
National Anticorruption Directorate. In 2015, massive
anti-corruption protests which developed in the wake of the
Colectiv nightclub fire led to the resignation of prime minister
Victor Ponta. During 2017–2019, in response to measures which were perceived to weaken the fight against corruption, some of the
biggest post-1989 protests took place in Romania, with over 500,000 people protesting nationwide. as well as an increased
corruption. Around this time, Romania was also hit by the
COVID-19 pandemic. In the
2024 presidential election, Independent candidate
Călin Georgescu achieved a surprise win in the first round. However, the
Constitutional Court annulled the election results, citing
Russian meddling. The cancellation led to
far-right protests,
criticism by the
Trump administration, and
Ilie Bolojan becoming acting president in February 2025 as Iohannis resigned to political pressure. In the subsequent
2025 Romanian presidential election,
Bucharest Mayor Nicușor Dan was elected president. ==Geography==