Romanians trace their history back to the 300's B.C. But Romania did not become an independent, unified country until 1861.  During most of the time in-between, various foreign peoples ruled all or part of Romania. 

Early days.  Historians do not know when Romania was first settled.  But a people called the Dacians were known to be living there by the 300's B.C. The Dacians farmed, mined gold and iron ore, and traded with neighboring peoples.  Romania was called Dacia during this period. 

The Romans, under Emperor Trajan, conquered Dacia in A.D. 106 and made it a province of the Roman Empire.  Roman soldiers occupied Dacia, and Roman colonists settled there.  The Romans intermarried with the Dacians, who adopted Roman customs and the Latin language.  Dacia became known as Romania because of the Roman occupation and influence. 

Barbarians from the east and north began invading Romania during the A.D. 200's.  They forced the Romans to abandon the province in the late 200's.  The invasions were to continue off and on until the 1100's.  The invaders included Bulgars, Goths, Huns, Magyars, Slavs, and Tatars.  These groups, especially the Slavs, intermarried with the Romanians. 

Unification movement.  The period of invasions slowed the development of Romania into a unified nation.  For hundreds of years, various groups fought for control of the region, and no one group gained full control.  The first steps toward unification took place between 1250 and 1350.  The people of Walachia, a region in southern Romania, gradually united and formed an independent state under a single ruler.  The people of Moldavia, in eastern Romania, did the same.  A prince ruled each state, and so they were called principalities. 

Earlier, during the 1000's, Hungary had taken over most of what is now northern Romania.  This area, called Transylvania, had many Romanian people.  But it did not become part of Romania until the 1900's. 

Ottoman rule.  The independence of the principalities was short-lived.  The Ottomans of Asia Minor (now Turkey) swept into Europe in the mid-1400's.  They conquered Walachia in 1476 and Moldavia in 1504.  The Ottoman Empire ruled these lands almost continuously for over 300 years.  The peasants in the principalities--who made up most of the population--led hard lives even before the Ottomans took over.  They were poor farmers, but they had to pay high taxes to the ruling nobles.  Conditions grew worse under the Ottomans, who let Romanian nobles rule in their name, but demanded increased taxes from the peasants for themselves. 

The Romanian nobles made several attempts to gain freedom from the Ottoman Empire.  As a result, in the early 1700's, the empire sent wealthy Greeks to govern the principalities.  These Greeks were called Phanariots because they came from the Phanar district of Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey).  They taxed the peasants far more than ever before and treated them harshly.  Phanariot rule lasted until 1821, when a revolt by Romanians forced the Ottomans to remove the Greeks from power.  Many scholars believe that Romania's peasants never suffered more than they did during the Phanariot period. 

Russian control.  During the late 1700's, the Ottoman Empire suffered a series of military defeats at the hands of Russia.  Little by little, the Ottomans lost parts of their empire.  Officially, Ottoman rule of the principalities lasted until 1878.  But, in effect, it ended in 1829, when Russian troops occupied the principalities. 

Russia drew up a constitution for the principalities in the early 1830's.  The constitution, called Organic Statutes, gave governing power in each principality to an assembly of nobles.  This marked the beginning of representative government in Romania.  Russia's troops withdrew from the principalities in 1834. 

The origins of modern Romania.  The idea of uniting Moldavia and Walachia existed almost from the time the principalities were founded.  The unification movement grew rapidly during the mid-1800's.  In 1859, the assemblies of the two principalities elected Prince Alexander John Cuza as their common ruler.  In 1861, the principalities officially united to form a nation called Romania. 

Many of the leaders of the unification movement were young Romanians who had studied in Paris.  There, they learned about a revolutionary spirit that was sweeping through Europe.  Many Europeans were demanding an end to undemocratic government and calling for improvements in living conditions for the lower classes.  The young Romanians demanded reforms after they returned home.  Prince Cuza responded.  His government bought much land from wealthy Romanians and gave it to peasants.  It also increased the number of free schools for the poor.  Many of the wealthy Romanians opposed Cuza.  They forced the prince to resign in 1866. 

The wealthy Romanians selected Karl of Hohenzollern to replace Cuza.  Karl was a German prince who knew little about Romania.  According to one story, he even had to consult a map to learn where the country was.  But he was to rule Romania for nearly 50 years. 

Karl took the name Prince Carol.  In 1878, the major nations of Europe officially recognized Romania's full independence from Turkey.  In 1881, Romania became a kingdom, and Carol became King Carol I. 

At the start of Carol's reign, Romania's first political parties were established, and the people were given the right to elect their government representatives.  But a complex election system kept the peasants from having many representatives.  Romania's economy improved under Carol.  Wealthy Romanians benefited from the economic growth, but the peasants gained little from it.  In 1907, Romania's peasants revolted.  They burned the houses and destroyed the crops of many wealthy landowners.  The Romanian Army put down the revolt, killing at least 10,000 peasants.  Carol died in 1914, and his nephew Ferdinand became king. 

World War I was fought from 1914 to 1918.  Romania remained neutral at first.  But in 1916, it joined France, Great Britain, and the other Allies in their fight against the Central Powers (chiefly Austria-Hungary and Germany).  Romania wanted to gain Banat, Bukovina, and Transylvania--three provinces of Austria-Hungary that had large Romanian populations.  The Allies won the war, and Romania received the territories it wanted as part of the peace settlement.  As a result, Romania about doubled in size and population.  For the first time, Romania's territory included almost all the land where large numbers of Romanians lived. 

Depression and fascism.  Liberal political parties headed Romania's government after World War I.  They divided the estates of many of the wealthy landowners into small farms and sold the farms to peasants.  The liberals wanted to continue helping the peasants, but a worldwide depression that began in 1929 destroyed the economy of Romania.  Millions of Romanians lost their jobs, and poverty became severe throughout the country. 

Romania's economic problems caused many people to seek new leadership in the early 1930's.  The Iron Guard soon became a strong authoritarian movement.  Its followers were fascists who sought to destroy Romania's government and establish a dictatorship.  This group used terror against its political opponents and blamed Communists, Jews, and liberals for Romania's problems. 

King Ferdinand died in 1927, and his son Carol became King Carol II three years later.  The popularity and power of the Iron Guard grew during the early years of Carol's reign.  Fearing a loss of his own authority, Carol made himself dictator of Romania.  He outlawed the Iron Guard and all political parties. 

World War II began in Europe in September 1939, as a struggle between Germany and the Allies--a group of nations led by France and Great Britain.  Romania remained neutral at first.  By June of 1940, Germany had gained a great military advantage over the Allies.  Germany allowed Hungary to take northern Transylvania from Romania.  The Soviet Union took part of northeastern Romania.  Bulgaria took territory in the southeast. 

The territorial losses turned the people against King Carol, and he gave up his throne on Sept. 6, 1940.  Carol's son Michael became king, but Premier Ion Antonescu ruled.  Antonescu cooperated with Germany, and German troops occupied Romania in October.  Romania then joined the war on the side of Germany. 

By August 1944, the tide of the war had turned against Germany.  King Michael then overthrew Antonescu, and Romania joined the Allies.  The war ended in 1945, and the Allies took northern Transylvania from Hungary and returned it to Romania.  The Soviet Union and Bulgaria kept the Romanian territory they had taken. 

Communist control.  The Soviet Union had been formed as a Communist nation under Russia's leadership in 1922, and it existed until 1991.  During World War II, the Soviet Union fought on the side of the Allies.  Soviet troops occupied Romania in 1944 and stayed there until the late 1950's. 

Romania's Communist Party had never been strong before World War II.  But under the protection of the Soviet troops, Romanian Communists took over the government after the war.  They killed or imprisoned their political opponents, and forced King Michael to give up his throne on Dec. 30, 1947. 

The Communists declared Romania an "independent people's democracy."  But Romania was a Soviet satellite (country controlled by the Soviet Union).  In 1948 and 1952, Romania adopted constitutions that praised the Soviet Union.  Romania's government, educational system, and other institutions were modeled on those of the Soviet Union.  Soviet leaders directed Romania's economy and forced the country to emphasize agriculture and neglect industry.  They also set foreign policy. 

Opposition to the Soviet Union.  Resentment of Soviet interference in Romania's affairs grew during the 1950's.  In the early 1960's, Romania's Communists--led by Communist Party head Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej--began to oppose this interference openly.  Gheorghiu-Dej died in 1965.  Nicolae Ceausescu, who succeeded him as party head, continued the opposition. 

In 1962, Romania insisted that each Communist country should be free to develop its own economic system, trade freely with all nations, and make its own foreign policy.  Romania's leaders then began expanding industry and increasing trade with Western nations.  In 1964, Romania exchanged ambassadors with the United States.  Romania's leaders hosted a visit by U.S. President Richard M. Nixon in 1969.  They also declared Romania neutral in a dispute between the Soviet Union and China.  In 1965, Romania adopted a Constitution that called for the nation's complete independence.  In 1977, Romania began strengthening its ties with the nations of the nonaligned movement.  These nations, primarily in Asia and Africa, had refused to support either the Communist or non-Communist bloc. 

Also in 1977, an earthquake struck Bucharest and other parts of Romania.  It caused about 1,500 deaths and over $1 billion in damage. 

The government's industrialization policy increased the size of Romania's urban communities.  Each year, thousands of young people moved from rural areas to cities to work in industry and government. 

In the 1980's, new jobs were created, but Romania's living standard remained low and consumer goods were scarce.  Reasons for the struggling economy included corruption in the Communist Party and overreliance on central government economic planning.  In addition, Romania had to borrow heavily from Western European banks to finance its industrial build-up.  Paying off this debt took funds away from further development and slowed economic growth. 

Recent developments.  Ceausescu's government maintained an extensive system of restrictions on the lives of the people.  In mid-December 1989, thousands of people in the city of Timisoara staged demonstrations, calling for greater freedom from the Communist government and for an improved standard of living.  Government security forces responded to the protests by firing on the people and killing hundreds.  Antigovernment protests then spread across Romania.  In Bucharest, tens of thousands gathered in the streets and called for increased freedoms and the resignation of Ceausescu.  Security forces fired on the crowds, bringing the death toll of demonstrators into the thousands.  Army units joined the revolt, and fierce fighting between the army and Ceausescu's security forces followed. 

On December 22, Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, fled Bucharest during a massive antigovernment demonstration.  However, they were soon captured by the army.  A secret trial took place and Ceausescu and his wife were charged with murder and embezzlement of government funds.  They were found guilty and were executed on December 25.  The National Salvation Front, a group made up chiefly of former Communists, took control of the government.  Ion Iliescu, leader of the Front, became the acting president.  The Front canceled a number of Ceausescu's restrictions on freedom.  Free multiparty elections took place in May 1990.  Iliescu won the presidency, and the Front also won a wide majority in the legislature.  Iliescu then stepped down as leader of the Front in accordance with a law established in early 1990.  The law states that the head of state cannot be a party leader. 

Opposition parties complained of abuse and intimidation by members of the ruling party during the election.  In mid-1990, progovernment and antigovernment demonstrators clashed on the streets of Bucharest.  Hundreds were injured.  Large antigovernment demonstrations continued in the early 1990's, often in protest of economic conditions.  In late 1991, following strikes and riots staged by miners, the government of the National Salvation Front resigned.  It was replaced by a coalition government dominated by the Front.  Iliescu remained president.  New national elections were held in late 1992.  Iliescu was reelected president.  But in this election, he represented a political party called the Democratic National Salvation Front.  This party broke away from the National Salvation Front in 1992.  In 1993, it changed its name to the Social Democratic Party of Romania. 

Iliescu's government was dominated by former Communists who favored only limited political and economic reform.  In 1996, Emil Constantinescu, who supported more rapid reform, was elected president.  His party, the Democratic Convention of Romania, also won the most seats in the legislature.