Romania

Romania is the largest of the Balkan states with a population of about 22 million people, sitting at the crossroads of Europe bordering Bulgaria in the South, Ukraine to the North, Hungary and Serbia to the West, and Moldova and the Black Sea to the East. The country has seen several empires come and go - Roman, Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian, all leaving their legacy in terms of language, culture, food, architecture and the arts. The capital, Bucharest, earned the nickname ‘Little Paris of the East’, though it was the stunning medieval city of Sibiu in Transylvania that was crowned European Capital of Culture in 2007.

Romania has a rich cultural and natural diversity. Its dramatic mountain scenery includes the densely forested Carpathian Mountains, the Danube Delta (the largest and best preserved wetland in Europe) and 70km of fine white sandy beaches on the Black Sea Coast.

In picturesque valleys and on mountain slopes are many health and winter resorts. Romania’s cultural heritage can be experienced in the Saxon towns of Transylvania, also home to Bran Castle, of Dracula fame, the painted monasteries of Bucovina and the rural village idyll of Maramures, just a few of the many UNESCO preserved sites.

Traditional occupations such as shepherding, weaving and carpentry are still very much alive in quaint villages, where painting icons on glass and coloring eggs provide a stark contrast to the other 21st century activities. Food in rural Transylvania is frequently organic and, surprisingly to the Western visitor, full of flavor, while a glass of ‘palinca’- twice distilled local plum brandy- is always a treat. Romanian folklore is among some of the most varied and traditional in Europe with famous poets such as Mihai Eminescu, and Ion Creanga who wrote Romanian traditional stories. Extremely captivating and beautiful regional costumes can be seen in villages near Sibiu, in the Apuseni Mountains or Maramures, Bucovina. Transylvanian folk music and dancing are also well known abroad, particularly the national traditional folk ethnic costumes and accessories.

Some of the most famous Romanian personalities worldwide include sculptor Constantin Brancusi, famous for his amazing and original wood carving talent, George Enescu, arguably one of the greatest violin players of all time, former tennis player, Ilie “Nasty” Nastase, gymnast Nadia Comaneci who won three gold medals at the 1976 Olympics, including scoring the first perfect “10” in Olympics gymnastics history. Many other writers, painters, statesmen, and academics have also enhanced Romania’s image around the world and left lasting legacies.

Unfortunately, Romania's long history has not been as idyllically peaceful as its geography. From about 200 B.C., when it was settled by the Dacians, a Thracian tribe, Romania has been in the path of a series of migrations and conquests. Under the emperor Trajan early in the second century A.D., Dacia was incorporated into the Roman Empire, but was abandoned by a declining Rome less than two centuries later. Until 14th century A.D., Dacia was in turn invaded by several nomadic peoples and in order to defend themselves against such invasions, the Romanian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia were founded around 1310 and 1352, in the Southern and Eastern parts of today's Romania, respectively. Romanians lived in three distinct principalities: besides Wallachia and Moldavia, there was also Transylvania, in the Western part of today's Romania.

Heavily taxed and badly administered under the Ottoman Empire, Wallachia and Moldavia were unified under a single native prince in 1859, and had their full independence ratified in the 1878 Treaty of Berlin. A German prince, Carol of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was crowned first King of Romania in 1881. The new state, squeezed between the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian empires, looked to the West, for its cultural, educational, and administrative models and influence.

In World War I, Romania joined the Allies in their fight against the Axis powers, and at the end of the war it achieved its greatest territorial extent, uniting all the historical Romanian territories, Moldavia and Wallachia with Transylvania, Banat, Bessarabia (present-day Moldova), and Bucovina. Most of Romania's pre-World War II governments maintained the forms, but not always the substance, of a liberal constitutional monarchy. The quasi-mystical fascist Iron Guard movement was a key destabilizing factor, which led to the creation of a royal dictatorship in 1938 under King Carol II. In 1940, the authoritarian General Antonescu took control. Romania entered World War II on the side of the Axis Powers in June 1941, invading the Soviet Union to recover Bessarabia and Bukovina, which had been annexed in 1940.

In 1947, Romania became a people's republic, under a Communist rule. Subsequently, it became a socialist republic during Nicolae Ceausescu's regime, which started in the late 1960's. The Communist regime was overthrown as a result of the Romanian Revolution of December 1989. After the revolution, Romania adopted a new constitution, started intense economic and political reforms and set December 1st as the National Day, also referred to as the Great Union Day, the most significant event that originally marked the unification of the country in 1918.

Almost two decades have past since Romania became a young democracy. Romania joined NATO in 2004, and in 2005 the European Union (EU) approved entry with final acceptance contingent upon a number of reforms, including increased law enforcement and environmental measures, and the protection of the rights of the Roma minority, since Romania has the world's largest population of Roma. On January 1, 2007, Romania officially joined the EU, which now comprises 27 member states, and is the seventh largest nation among the EU member states. The country is expected to join the Eurozone by 2014.(www.rainbowdiplomacy.com)