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 Romania| Facts & Figures |
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| President: Traian Basescu (2007) Prime Minister: Calin
Popescu-Tariceanu (2004) Land area: 88,934 sq mi (230,339 sq km);
total area: 91,699 sq mi (237,500 sq km) Population (2009 est.): 22,215,421
(growth rate: –0.1%); birth rate: 10.5/1000; infant mortality
rate: 22.9/1000; life expectancy: 72.4; density per sq mi: 250
Capital and largest city (2003 est.):
Bucharest, 2,210,800 (metro. area), 1,906,800
(city proper) Other large cities: Iasi, 320,000;
Cluj-Napoca, 316,400; Timisoara, 316,100; Constanta, 309,000;
Craiova, 301,100, Galati, 297,100; Brasov, 282,500 Monetary unit: lei More Facts & Figures |
GeographyRomania is in southeast Europe and is slightly smaller than Oregon. The
Carpathian Mountains divide Romania's upper half from north to south and
connect near the center of the country with the Transylvanian Alps,
running east and west. North and west of these ranges lies the
Transylvanian plateau, and to the south and east are the plains of
Moldavia and Walachia. In its last 190 mi (306 km), the Danube River flows
through Romania only. It enters the Black Sea in northern Dobruja, just
south of the border with Ukraine.
GovernmentRepublic.
HistoryMost of Romania was the Roman province of Dacia from about
A.D.
100 to 271. From the 3rd to the 12th century,
wave after wave of barbarian conquerors overran the native Daco-Roman
population. Subjection to the first Bulgarian Empire (8th–10th
century) brought Eastern Orthodox Christianity to the Romanians. In the
11th century, Transylvania was absorbed into the Hungarian empire. By the
16th century, the main Romanian principalities of Moldavia and Walachia
had become satellites within the Ottoman Empire, although they retained
much independence. After the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–1829, they
became Russian protectorates. The nation became a kingdom in 1881 after
the Congress of Berlin.
At the start of World War I, Romania proclaimed its neutrality, but it
later joined the Allied side and in 1916 declared war on the Central
Powers. The armistice of Nov. 11, 1918, gave Romania vast territories from
Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, doubling its size. The areas
acquired included Bessarabia, Transylvania, and Bukovina. The Banat, a
Hungarian area, was divided with Yugoslavia. King Carol II was crowned in
1930 and transformed the throne into a royal dictatorship. In 1938, he
abolished the democratic constitution of 1923. In 1940, the country was
reorganized along Fascist lines, and the Fascist Iron Guard became the
nucleus of the new totalitarian party. On June 27, the Soviet Union
occupied Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. King Carol II dissolved
parliament, granted the new prime minister, Ion Antonescu, full power,
abdicated his throne, and went into exile.
Romania subsequently signed the Axis Pact on Nov. 23, 1940, and the
following June joined in Germany's attack on the Soviet Union, reoccupying
Bessarabia. About 270,000 Jews were massacred in Fascist Romania.
Following the invasion of Romania by the Red Army in Aug. 1944, King
Michael led a coup that ousted the Antonescu government. An armistice with
the Soviet Union was signed in Moscow on Sept. 12, 1944. A
Communist-dominated government bloc won elections in 1946, Michael
abdicated on Dec. 30, 1947, and in 1955 Romania joined the Warsaw Treaty
Organization and the United Nations.
Running a neo-Stalinist police state from 1967–1989, Nicolae
Ceausescu wound the iron curtain tightly around Romania, turning a
moderately prosperous country into one at the brink of starvation. To
repay his $10 billion foreign debt in 1982, he ransacked the Romanian
economy of everything that could be exported, leaving the country with
desperate shortages of food, fuel, and other essentials. An army-assisted
rebellion in Dec. 1989 led to Ceausescu's overthrow, trial, and
execution.
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