Prehistory and antiquity Early Middle Ages The inhabitants of Moldavia were Christians. Archaeological works revealed the remains of a Christian necropolis at
Mihălășeni,
Botoșani county, from the 5th century. The place of worship, and the tombs had Christian characteristics. The place of worship had a rectangular form with sides of eight and seven meters. Similar necropolises and places of worship were found at Nicolina, in Iași The
Bolohoveni are mentioned by the
Hypatian Chronicle in the 13th century. The chronicle shows that this land is bordered on the principalities of Halych, Volhynia and Kiev. Archaeological research also identified the location of 13th-century fortified settlements in this region. Alexandru V. Boldur identified Voscodavie, Voscodavti, Voloscovti, Volcovti, Volosovca and their other towns and villages between the middle course of the rivers Nistru/Dniester and Nipru/Dnieper. The Bolohoveni disappeared from chronicles after their defeat in 1257 by
Daniel of Galicia's troops. Their ethnic identity is uncertain; although Romanian scholars, basing on their ethnonym identify them as
Romanians (who were called
Vlachs in the
Middle Ages), archeological evidence and the
Hypatian Chronicle (which is the only
primary source that documents their history) suggest that they were a
Slavic people. In the early 13th century, the
Brodniks, a possible
Slavic–
Vlach vassal state of
Halych, were present, alongside the Vlachs, in much of the region's territory (towards 1216, the Brodniks are mentioned as in service of
Suzdal). Somewhere in the 11th century, a
Viking named Rodfos
was killed by Vlachs presumably in the area of what would become Moldavia. In 1164, the future
Byzantine emperor Andronikos I Komnenos, was taken prisoner by Vlach shepherds in the same region.
High Middle Ages ) colonists at
Baia (),
Suceava County, Romania , Romania in
Suceava in
Târgu Neamț, Romania in
Soroca,
Republic of Moldova , Ukraine The Franciscan Friar
William of Rubruck, who visited the court of the Great Khan in the 1250s, listed "the Blac", or Vlachs, among the peoples who paid tribute to the Mongols, but the Vlachs' territory is uncertain. Friar William described "Blakia" as "
Assan's territory" south of the Lower Danube, showing that he
identified it with the northern regions of the
Second Bulgarian Empire. Later in the 14th century, King
Charles I of Hungary attempted to expand his realm and the influence of the
Catholic Church eastwards after the fall of Cuman rule, and ordered a campaign under the command of
Phynta de Mende (1324). In 1342 and 1345, the Hungarians were victorious in a battle against
Tatar-Mongols; the conflict was resolved by the death of
Jani Beg, in 1357. The Polish chronicler
Jan Długosz mentioned Moldavians (under the name
Wallachians) as having joined a military expedition in 1342, under King
Władysław I, against the
Margraviate of Brandenburg. In 1353,
Dragoș, mentioned as a Vlach
Knyaz in
Maramureș, was sent by
Louis I to establish a line of defense against the
Golden Horde forces of Mongols on the
Siret River. This expedition resulted in a polity vassal to Hungary, in the
Baia (
Târgul Moldovei or
Moldvabánya) region.
Bogdan of Cuhea, another Vlach
voivode from Maramureș who had fallen out with the Hungarian king, crossed the Carpathians in 1359, took control of Moldavia, and succeeded in wrenching Moldavia from Hungarian control. His realm extended north to the
Cheremosh River, while the southern part of Moldavia was still occupied by the Tatar Mongols. After first residing in Baia, Bogdan moved Moldavia's seat to
Siret (it was to remain there until
Petru II Mușat moved it to
Suceava; it was finally moved to
Iași under
Alexandru Lăpușneanu - in 1565). The area around Suceava, roughly correspondent to future
Bukovina, would later constitute one of the two administrative divisions of the new realm, under the name
Țara de Sus (the "Upper Land"), whereas the rest, on both sides of the
Prut river, formed
Țara de Jos (the "Lower Land"). Disfavored by the brief union of
Angevin Poland and Hungary (the latter was still the country's overlord), Bogdan's successor
Lațcu accepted
conversion to
Latin Catholicism around 1370. Despite the founding of the
Latin diocese of Siret, this move did not have any lasting consequences. Despite remaining officially
Eastern Orthodox and culturally connected with the
Byzantine Empire after 1382, princes of the
House of Bogdan-Mușat entered a conflict with the
Constantinople Patriarchate about control of appointments to the newly founded
Moldavian Metropolitan seat;
Patriarch Antony IV even cast an
anathema over Moldavia after
Roman I expelled Constantinople's candidate, sending him back to Byzantium. The crisis was finally settled in favor of the Moldavian princes under
Alexander I. Nevertheless, religious policy remained complex: while conversions to faiths other than Orthodox were discouraged (and forbidden for princes), Moldavia included sizable Latin Catholic communities (Germans and
Magyars), as well as
Armenians of the non-Chalcedonian
Armenian Apostolic Church; after 1460, the country welcomed
Hussite refugees (founders of
Ciuburciu and, probably,
Huși). The principality of Moldavia covered the entire geographic region of Moldavia. In various periods, various other territories were politically connected with the Moldavian principality. This is the case of the province of
Pokuttya, the fiefdoms of
Cetatea de Baltă and
Ciceu (both in
Transylvania) or, at a later date, the territories between the Dniester and the Bug rivers. Petru II profited from the end of the Hungarian-Polish union and moved the country closer to the
Jagiellonian realm, becoming a
vassal of
Władysław II on September 26, 1387. This gesture was to have unexpected consequences: Petru supplied the Polish ruler with funds needed in the war against the
Teutonic Knights, and was granted control over
Pokuttya until the debt was repaid; as this is not recorded to have been carried out, the region became disputed by the two states, until it was lost by Moldavia in the
Battle of Obertyn (1531). Prince Petru also expanded his rule southwards to the
Danube Delta. His brother Roman I conquered the Hungarian-ruled
Cetatea Albă in 1392, giving Moldavia an outlet to the
Black Sea, before being toppled from the throne for supporting
Fyodor Koriatovych in his conflict with
Vytautas the Great of
Lithuania. Under
Stephen I. Although
Alexander I was brought to the throne in 1400 by the Hungarians (with assistance from
Mircea I of Wallachia), he shifted his allegiances towards Poland (notably engaging Moldavian forces on the Polish side in the
Battle of Grunwald and the
Siege of Marienburg), and placed his own choice of rulers in Wallachia. His reign was one of the most successful in Moldavia's history, but also saw the first confrontation with the
Ottoman Turks at Cetatea Albă in 1420, and later even a conflict with the Poles. A deep crisis was to follow Alexandru's long reign, with his successors battling each other in a succession of wars that divided the country until the murder of
Bogdan II and the ascension of
Petru III Aron in 1451. Nevertheless, Moldavia was subject to further Hungarian interventions after that moment, as
Matthias Corvinus deposed Aron and backed
Alexăndrel to the throne in
Suceava. Petru Aron's rule also signified the beginning of Moldavia's
Ottoman Empire allegiance, as the ruler agreed to pay
tribute to Sultan
Mehmed II.
Late Middle Ages Under
Stephen the Great, who took the throne and subsequently came to an agreement with
Casimir IV of Poland in 1457, the state reached its most glorious period. Stephen blocked Hungarian interventions in the
Battle of Baia, invaded Wallachia in 1471, and dealt with Ottoman reprisals in a major victory (the 1475
Battle of Vaslui); after feeling threatened by Polish ambitions, he also attacked
Galicia and resisted
a Polish invasion in the
Battle of the Cosmin Forest (1497). However, he had to surrender
Chilia (now Kiliia) and
Cetatea Albă (now Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi), the two main fortresses in the
Budjak, to the Ottomans in 1484, and in 1498 he had to accept Ottoman suzerainty, when he was forced to agree to continue paying tribute to Sultan
Bayezid II. Following the taking of
Hotin (Khotyn) and
Pokuttya, Stephen's rule also brought a brief extension of Moldavian rule into
Transylvania: Cetatea de Baltă and
Ciceu became his
fiefs in 1489.
Early Modern Era and Renaissance on the
Dniester River, present-day
Ukraine, then bordering the northern frontier of the Moldavian Principality and southern
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Under
Bogdan III the One-Eyed, Ottoman overlordship was confirmed in the shape that would rapidly evolve into control over Moldavia's affairs.
Peter IV Rareș, who reigned in the 1530s and 1540s, clashed with the
Habsburg monarchy over his ambitions in Transylvania (losing possessions in the region to
George Martinuzzi), was defeated in Pokuttya by Poland, and failed in his attempt to extricate Moldavia from Ottoman rule – the country lost
Bender to the Ottomans, who included it in their
Silistra Eyalet. A period of profound crisis followed. Moldavia stopped issuing its own coinage , under
Prince Ștefăniță, when it was confronted with rapid depletion of funds and rising demands from the
Porte. Such problems became endemic when the country, brought into the
Great Turkish War, suffered the impact of the
stagnation of the Ottoman Empire; at one point, during the 1650s and 1660s, princes began relying on
counterfeit coinage (usually copies of
Swedish riksdalers, as was that issued by
Eustratie Dabija). The economic decline was accompanied by a failure to maintain state structures: the
feudal-based
Moldavian military forces were no longer convoked, and the few troops maintained by the rulers remained professional
mercenaries such as the
seimeni. in Iași, housed the
Vasilian College, an institution of higher learning founded in 1640 became Prince of Wallachia, of Transylvania, and of Moldavia. However, Moldavia and the similarly affected Wallachia remained both important sources of income for the Ottoman Empire and relatively prosperous agricultural economies (especially as suppliers of grain and cattle – the latter was especially relevant in Moldavia, which remained an under-populated country of
pastures). In time, much of the resources were tied to the
Ottoman economy, either through
monopolies on trade that were only lifted in 1829, after the
Treaty of Adrianople (which did not affect all domains directly), or through the raise in direct taxes - the one demanded by the Ottomans from the princes, as well as the ones demanded by the princes from the country's population. Taxes were directly proportional with Ottoman requests, but also with the growing importance of Ottoman appointment and sanctioning of princes in front of election by the
boyars and the boyar Council – ''
(drawing in a competition among pretenders, which also implied the intervention of creditors as suppliers of bribes). The fiscal system soon included taxes such as the văcărit'' (a tax on head of cattle), first introduced by
Iancu Sasul in the 1580s. The economic opportunities offered brought about a significant influx of
Greek and
Levantine financiers and officials, who entered a stiff competition with the high boyars over appointments to the Court. As the
manor system suffered the blows of economic crises, and in the absence of
salarisation (which implied that persons in office could decide their own income), obtaining princely appointment became the major focus of a boyar's career. Such changes also implied the decline of free peasantry and the rise of
serfdom, as well as the rapid fall in the importance of low boyars (a traditional institution, the latter soon became marginal, and, in more successful instances, added to the population of towns); however, they also implied a rapid transition towards a
monetary economy, based on exchanges in foreign currency. Serfdom was doubled by the much less numerous slave population (
robi), composed of migrant
Roma and captured
Nogais. The conflict between princes and boyars was to become exceptionally violent – the latter group, who frequently appealed to the Ottoman court in order to have princes comply with its demands, was persecuted by rulers such as
Alexandru Lăpușneanu and
John III. Ioan Vodă's revolt against the Ottomans ended in his execution (1574). The country descended into political chaos, with frequent Ottoman and
Tatar incursions and pillages. The claims of Mușatins to the crown and the traditional system of succession were ended by scores of illegitimate reigns; one of the usurpers,
Ioan Iacob Heraclid, was a
Protestant Greek who encouraged the
Renaissance and attempted to introduce
Lutheranism to Moldavia. In 1595, the rise of the
Movilești boyars to the throne with
Ieremia Movilă coincided with the start of frequent anti-Ottoman and anti-
Habsburg military expeditions of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth into Moldavian territory (see
Moldavian Magnate Wars), and rivalries between pretenders to the Moldavian throne encouraged by the three competing powers. The Wallachian prince
Michael the Brave, after previously taking over
Transylvania, also deposed Prince Ieremia Movilă, in 1600, and managed to become the first Prince to rule over Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transylvania; the episode ended in Polish conquests of lands down to
Bucharest, soon ended by the outbreak of the
Polish–Swedish War and the reestablishment of Ottoman rule. Polish incursions were dealt a blow by the Ottomans. During the 1620
Battle of Cecora, the voivode of the Principality of Moldavia, was assassinated by the
Septilici noble family in which also saw an end to the reign of
Gaspar Graziani. A period of relative peace followed during the more prosperous and prestigious rule of
Vasile Lupu. He took the throne as a boyar appointee in 1637 and began battling his rival
Gheorghe Ștefan, as well as the Wallachian prince
Matei Basarab. However, his invasion of Wallachia, with the backing of
Cossack Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, ended in disaster at the
Battle of Finta in 1653. A few years later, Moldavia was occupied for two short intervals by the anti-Ottoman Wallachian prince
Constantin Șerban, who clashed with the first ruler of the
Ghica family,
George Ghica. In the early 1680s, Moldavian troops under
George Ducas intervened in
right-bank Ukraine and assisted
Mehmed IV in the
Battle of Vienna, only to suffer the effects of the
Great Turkish War.
Phanariots (1711–1822) in 1782, Italian map by G. Pittori, since the geographer Giovanni Antonio Rizzi Zannoni by the Russian Army during the
Russo-Turkish War in 1788 During the late 17th century, Moldavia became the target of the
Russian Empire's southwards expansion, inaugurated by
Peter the Great with the
Russo-Turkish War of 1710-1711. Prince
Dimitrie Cantemir sided with Peter in open rebellion against the Ottomans, but he was defeated at
Stănilești. Sultan
Ahmed III officially discarded recognition of local choices for princes, imposing instead a system relying solely on Ottoman approval: the
Phanariote epoch, inaugurated by the reign of
Nicholas Mavrocordatos. Phanariote rule was marked by
political corruption, intrigue, and high taxation, as well as by sporadic incursions of Habsburg and Russian armies deep into Moldavian territory. Nonetheless, they also attempted legislative and administrative modernization inspired by
The Enlightenment (such as the decision by
Constantine Mavrocordatos to salarize public offices, to the outrage of boyars, and the abolition of serfdom in 1749, as well as
Scarlat Callimachi's
Code), and signified a decrease in Ottoman demands after the threat of Russian annexation became real and the prospects of a better life led to waves of peasant emigration to neighboring lands. The effects of Ottoman control were also made less notable after the 1774
Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca allowed Russia to intervene in favour of Ottoman subjects of the Eastern Orthodox faith - leading to campaigns of petitioning by the Moldavian boyars against princely policies. In 1712,
Hotin was taken over by the Ottomans and became part of a defensive system that Moldavian princes were required to maintain, as well as an area for Islamic
colonization (the
Laz community).
Fragmentation In 1775, Moldavia lost to the
Habsburg Empire its northwestern part, which became known as
Bukovina. For Moldavia, it meant both an important territorial loss and a major blow to the cattle trade, as the region stood on the trade route to Central Europe. The
Treaty of Jassy in 1792 forced the Ottoman Empire to cede
Yedisan to the Russian Empire, which made Russian presence much more notable, given that the Empire acquired a common border with Moldavia. The first effect of this was the cession of the eastern half of Moldavia (renamed as
Bessarabia) to the Russian Empire in 1812.
Organic Statute, 1848 revolution of Moldavia Phanariote rule was officially ended after the 1821 occupation of the country by
Alexander Ypsilantis's
Filiki Eteria during the
Greek War of Independence; the subsequent Ottoman retaliation led to the rule of
Ioan Sturdza. He was considered the first of a new system, since the Ottomans and Russia had agreed in 1826 to allow for the election by locals of rulers over the two
Danubian Principalities, and convened on their mandating for seven-year terms. In practice, a new foundation to reigns in Moldavia was created by the
Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829), beginning a period of Russian domination over the two countries which ended only in 1856. Begun as a military occupation under the command of
Pavel Kiselyov, Russian domination gave Wallachia and Moldavia, which were not removed from nominal Ottoman control, the modernizing
Organic Statute (the first document resembling a
constitution, as well as the first to regard both principalities). After 1829, the country also became an important destination for
immigration of
Ashkenazi Jews from the
Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria and areas of Russia (
see History of the Jews in Romania and Sudiți). (1834), dedicated to the Organic Statute The first Moldavian rule established under the Statute, that of
Mihail Sturdza, was nonetheless ambivalent: eager to reduce abuse of office, Sturdza introduced reforms (the abolition of slavery,
secularization, economic rebuilding), but he was widely seen as enforcing his own power over that of the newly instituted consultative Assembly. A supporter of the union of his country with Wallachia and of Romanian
Romantic nationalism, he obtained the establishment of a
customs union between the two countries (1847) and showed support for
radical projects favored by low boyars; nevertheless, he clamped down with noted violence the
Moldavian revolutionary attempt in the last days of March 1848.
Grigore Alexandru Ghica allowed the exiled revolutionaries to return to Moldavia c. 1853, which led to the creation of the
National Party (), a trans-boundary group of radical union supporters which campaigned for a single state under a foreign dynasty.
Southern Bessarabia In 1856, under the terms of the
Treaty of Paris, the Russian Empire returned to Moldavia a significant territory in southern
Bessarabia (including a part of
Budjak), organised later as the
Bolgrad,
Cahul, and
Ismail counties.
Union with Wallachia Russian domination ended abruptly after the
Crimean War, when the Treaty of Paris also passed the two Romanian principalities under the tutelage of
Great European Powers (together with Russia and the Ottoman overlord, power-sharing included the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Austrian Empire, the
French Empire, the
Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, and
Prussia). Due to Austrian and Ottoman opposition and British reserves, the union program as demanded by radical campaigners was debated intensely. In September 1857, given that
Caimacam Nicolae Vogoride had perpetrated
fraud in elections in Moldavia, the Powers allowed the two states to convene ad hoc
divans, which were to decide a new constitutional framework; the result showed overwhelming support for the union, as the creation of a
liberal and
neutral state. After further meetings among leaders of tutor states, an agreement was reached (the
Paris Convention), whereby a limited union was to be enforced – separate governments and thrones, with only two bodies in common (a
Court of Cassation and a Central Commission residing in
Focșani); it also stipulated that an end to all privilege was to be passed into law, and awarded back to Moldavia the areas around
Bolhrad,
Cahul, and
Izmail. However, the Convention failed to note whether the two thrones could not be occupied by the same person, allowing
Partida Națională to introduce the candidacy of
Alexandru Ioan Cuza in both countries. On January 17 (January 5, 1859,
Old Style), in
Iași, he was elected prince of Moldavia by the respective electoral body. After street pressure over the much more
conservative body in
Bucharest, Cuza was elected in Wallachia as well (February 5/January 24), this being considered as the day of the
unification of Moldavia and Wallachia by means of a
personal union. In 1862, after diplomatic missions that helped remove opposition to the action, the
United Principalities (the basis of modern Romania) was formally created, and instituted Cuza as
Domnitor – thus officially ending the existence of the Principality of Moldavia. All other pending legal matters were clarified after the replacement of Cuza with
Carol of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen in April 1866, and the creation of an independent
Kingdom of Romania in 1881. ==Society==