Roumania, a kingdom in the south-east of Europe, situated between 22° 29' and 29° 42' E. long. and between 43° 37' and 48° 13' N. lat. Its general boundaries are on the east and south the rivers Pruth and Danube (with the exception of the Dobrudja, a province south of the latter river at its embouchures), and on the west and north the Carpathian Mountains, along whose heights the boundary line runs. The kingdom presents the form of an irregular blunted crescent, some writers comparing it to a sausage. Its average length is about 358 and its breadth about 188 miles; its approximate area is 49,250 sq. m., and its population (1895) was 5,417,260, including 200,000 Gypsies. Of these 4½ millions belong to the Greek Church (the national religion), and the remainder are Protestants, Jews, &c. There are believed to be about 4,000,000 of Roumanians outside the Roumanian kingdom—in Hungary and Transylvania, Bukowina, Bessarabia and adjoining Russian provinces, Servia and Bulgaria.
The general configuration of the surface of Roumania is an irregular inclined plane, sloping down from the Carpathian Mountains to the northern bank of the Danube, and it is traversed by numerous watercourses (many of which are dry in summer), taking their rise in the mountains and falling into the great river, which render the country well adapted for every kind of agricultural industry. Roumania is divided, roughly speaking, into the two provinces of Wallachia and Moldavia, the first bordering on the Danube, the second on the Pruth. These were formerly distinct principalities, were then united as Moldo-Wallachia, and finally incorporated as an independent kingdom under Charles I. The capital of Roumania is Bucharest in Wallachia, about 30 miles from the Danube; and the chief town of Moldavia is Jassy, not far from the river Pruth. The other towns of any note in Roumania are the seaports of Galatz and Brail (or Braila) at the mouth of the Danube, Craiova (Krajova), Botoshani, Ploiesti (Plojeschi), Pitesti, and the ancient capital Curtea d'Argeş. The last named is famous for its beautiful cathedral, built of a grayish-white limestone resembling alabaster, in the Byzantine order of architecture, with a profusion of Moorish or Arabesque ornamentation.
The most noteworthy peaks of the Carpathians rise from 3000 to 9000 feet above the sea-level, the highest two being Caraiman and Verful, from which a distant view of the Balkans, in Bulgaria, is obtainable in clear weather. Near the foot of Caraiman, at the junction of three valleys, and surrounded by lovely wooded slopes, nestles the charming summer-resort of the court and upper classes, Sinaia. Here the king and queen occupied an old monastery until a beautiful palace was built in the Italian style, where the court spends a considerable portion of the summer. Besides the palace there are many handsome private residences, as well as a public garden, casino (not a gaming-table), and two or three good hotels.
The principal industries of Roumania are agriculture, salt-mining, and petroleum raising and distillation. The principal salt-mines are at Prahova, near Campina, in the Wallachian Carpathians, and at Ocna in Moldavia. They are worked by convicts, and produce a fine bluish-gray rock-salt. Petroleum wells are also worked near Campina, as well as elsewhere, and there are refineries at Tirgoviste, Ploiesti, &c. The chief products of agriculture are maize and cereals, which are largely exported, and amongst the fruits of the country gourds, plums, peaches, walnuts, apples, pears, and grapes are conspicuous and plentiful.
The sylvan scenery of the Carpathians is very lovely, and either there or in the plains are to be found the oak, elm, beech, and, less frequently, the maple, sycamore, mountain-ash, lime, horse-chestnut, and acacia. The usual flora of the subtropical and temperate zones flourish luxuriantly, and at Ferestreu, near Bucharest, there is an excellent agricultural and silvicultural college. The manufacturing industries of the country are still in their infancy, and are greatly handicapped by the cheap productions of Germany and Austria. They include flour and saw milling, match-making, and petroleum-distillation, to which have been added (through an act passed in 1887 for encouraging Roumanian industries) tanning, boot and shoe making, and cement manufacture. Notwithstanding the large importation of manufactured articles of various kinds from Austria, Germany, France, and Great Britain, the peasantry are mainly clothed in garments made by themselves of home spun, woven, and dyed fabrics, and they possess such taste and skill in the manufacture and ornamentation of cloth, gauze, and muslin, and in the trimming of costumes, that their work finds a ready market in the best establishments in the capital.
The most remarkable feature in the agricultural system of Roumania is its peasant proprietary, which was created about the year 1864. Before that year the whole of the land of the country was practically held by the boyards or inferior nobles, who were frequently absentees, or by the state, for the peasants merely owned small patches of land contiguous to their huts or hovels, which were and are still frequently semi-subterranean. The peasantry had been robbed of their land during long ages of feudal oppression and foreign conquest, but when the government became democratic it was determined to restore a portion of it (about one-third) to its original owners at very moderate prices to be fixed by the state. In the first instance the government advanced the purchase-money, creating a loan for the purpose. The greater portion of the debt was paid off by the peasant proprietors by the year 1881, and an act was passed to prevent the alienation of embarrassed estates which would otherwise have fallen into the hands of usurers. The result was that in 1880 there existed in Wallachia and Moldavia 406,893 holdings, averaging 10.6 acres each, and the great change has added materially to the prosperity of the country and its thrifty peasantry.
The government of Roumania is a hereditary limited monarchy, and the constitution provides for an irresponsible king, who must belong to the Orthodox Greek Church; a council of ministers; a senate and a chamber of deputies. The members of both houses are indirectly chosen mainly by 'colleges' of voters; but the large towns elect directly. Senators are elected for eight years, one-half retiring every four years. Members of the lower house sit for four years, but either chamber may be dissolved separately. The income of a senator must be at least £376 per annum. One of the most important political institutions in which Roumania is largely concerned is the 'Danubian Commission' (see DANUBE), whose headquarters are at Galatz. There is a British representative on the Commission. This is rendered necessary by the great preponderance of British trade; for whilst the total number of vessels which cleared from the Danube at Sulina in 1897 was 1324, with a tonnage of 1,397,917, the proportion of British vessels (all steamers but four) was 544, of 855,477 tons, and those figures form approximately the proportion during recent years. The following statistics, concisely stated, show the financial and commercial position of Roumania at the present time, and of her commercial relations with Great Britain.
At the end of the century the National Debt was just over £50,000,000; the revenue about covered an expenditure of £10,000,000. The permanent army comprises 60,000 officers and men. The annual exports of all kinds were valued at about £14,000,000; total value of imports, £10,000,000; total value of exports to the United Kingdom, chiefly cereals and seeds, from £2,500,000 to £4,000,000 a year; total value of exports from the United Kingdom to Roumania, chiefly cotton, yarn, and manufactures, wrought and unwrought metals, coal, &c., from £900,000 to £1,400,000.
History and Political Relations.—The early Greek historians mention a Thracian tribe, the Getæ, from whom were descended the Dacians, a brave race who occupied the northern side of the Ister or Danube, and flourished as a free people down to about the end of the first century of our era. Before that time the Dacians had come into conflict with both Greeks and Romans, but in the year 101 A.D. the Emperor Trajan undertook the first of two expeditions against their king, Decebalus, which terminated in the complete subjugation of the country. Traces of the Roman invasion and conquest are still to be found in the military road constructed by Trajan along the banks of the Danube, including a commemorative tablet, and in the piers of a bridge across the river near Orsova. Pressed by the barbarian races who eventually compassed the downfall of the Roman empire, Dacia, which had been constituted a Roman colony, was evacuated by the Romans in the reign of Aurelian (about 274 A.D.), and for about a thousand years the banks of the Danube served as halting-places for the first-named wandering tribes, amongst whom the most conspicuous were the Goths; the Huns under Attila; the Lombards under Alboin; the Bulgari, who afterwards settled on the plains south of the Danube and founded Bulgaria; the Ungri, a savage race who settled in Hungary; and the Wallachs, from whom Wallachia has derived its name. For a considerable period both banks of the Danube were governed by the sovereigns of what is known as the Wallacho-Bulgarian dynasty, which was brought to a close by a Tartar invasion about the year 1250 A.D. After that there gradually arose out of a number of smaller states an independent realm in Wallachia, with its traditions of heroes and chiefs, Mircea the Old, Michael the Brave (whose memory is perpetuated by a beautiful equestrian statue at Bucharest), and others; whilst the neighbouring state of Moldavia had also its heroes in Stephen the Great, &c. These rulers for a long time resisted the Mussulman advance, but were eventually reduced to vassalage by the victorious Turks, and were compelled to sign what are known as the 'Capitulations,' and to pay an annual tribute to the sultan. The first treaty with Wallachia known by that name was signed as far back as 1393; but that with Moldavia, which country was supported by the king of Poland, followed as late as 1513.
Although Wallachia and Moldavia thus became states tributary to the Porte, they retained sufficient independence to be in a sense autonomous; but in the course of time their princes, or voivodes as they were called, were Turkish nominees, whose tenure of office may be judged by the fact that in the course of ninety years (from 1723 to 1812) the government of Wallachia passed through the hands of no less than forty of those rulers. They were mostly Greeks, known as Phanariotes or Fanariots (q.v.), who during their brief tenure of power practised the most scandalous extortions upon the people, in order to enrich themselves and remit the annual tribute to Constantinople. The great majority of those Fanariot voivodes either were assassinated or were disgraced through the intrigues of their rivals at the Sublime Porte; and some of them did not scruple to appeal during their brief tenure of power for the support of Russia, which country was constantly at war with their suzerain.
The Muscovites began to make inroads into the Danubian principalities as early as the year 1709, under Peter the Great, and continued to invade them at intervals, especially in the reign of the Empress Anne in 1755 and in that of Catharine IV. in 1768. In the first instance the Czar Peter was invited to enter the states by the voivodes Brancovano of Wallachia and Cantemir of Moldavia, who desired to secure their independence under his protection; but no such inducement was afterwards requisite; and although the Russian invasions and occupations were always undertaken on the pretext of liberating the Christians from the Mussulman yoke, the real object has been to advance step by step to Constantinople and to secure possession of the whole Balkan peninsula. At different times the Russians exercised absolute sway in the principalities, notably from 1789 to 1792 and from 1806 to 1812, when the princes under their protection were called Hospodars (q.v.), a Slavonic word. In 1848 they helped to suppress the national rising there, as they did in Hungary, but in 1853, before the Crimean war, their power began to wane. At the termination of that war they were compelled by the allied powers to cede Bessarabia to the principalities.
In the year 1859 both principalities elected Prince Cuza (born at Galatz, 1820) as their ruler, and he reigned in Roumania, as the united provinces were then called, until 1866, when he was deposed on account of his extortions and gross immorality, and was succeeded by Prince Charles of Hohenzollern. This revolution was mainly led by two able statesmen, Bratiano and Rosetti, who may be said to have been jointly the counterpart of the Italian Cavour, and who for many years enjoyed great popularity as the chief ministers of state. On the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish war in 1877 the Roumanians espoused the Russian cause. Prince Charles was actually appointed commander-in-chief of the allied armies, the Russian Cesarewitch serving under him; and the Roumanians captured the first redoubt, the Grivitzza, at Plevna, thereby enabling the Russians to reduce that stronghold and bring the war to a triumphant close. The conquerors, however, deprived their allies of part of their territory, Bessarabia, giving them in exchange the Dobrudja, which they exacted from the Porte—an exchange laid down in the treaty of San Stefano, and subsequently confirmed by the Berlin Conference (June 1878), when Roumania was recognised as a completely independent power. The effect of that exchange has, however, been unfortunate for Russia in two respects. It has caused a permanent estrangement between the Roumanians and their guardian allies, and the Dobrudja has served as a barrier against Russian aggression in Bulgaria. In 1881 Prince Charles was invested with the kingly dignity with the acquiescence of the European Powers, and since that time, although there have been ministerial crises, and although the Russians have continued to carry on secret intrigues, not only in Roumania, but from thence in Bulgaria, the Roumanians have practically freed themselves from Russian as well as Turkish influence, and have taken their place amongst the independent nations of Europe.
The various conquerors who have at one time or another occupied Roumania have left their traces in her language and customs. The social condition of the middle and upper classes bears traces of the libertinage of their barbarian conquerors of the Mussulman as well as of the Christian faith. The peasantry are a hardy and thrifty race, and in the highest circles of society the influence of Queen Carmen Sylva has been throughout beneficent. As her marriage left no heir, the succession to the throne passed to Prince Ferdinand of Hohenzollern (born in 1865), the nephew of the king.
Language and Literature.—Roumanian (or Walachian) is one of the Romance Languages (q.v.), a daughter of the Latin; but, though the language is unmistakably Romance in type, the vocabulary is mixed, the number of Latin roots being variously estimated at more or less than half of the total, the next greatest element being Slavonic words (amounting, according to some authorities, to even more than the Latin roots), with some hundreds of Turkish, Greek, and Albanian words. Most Roumanians speak what is practically the same language—the Daco-Roumanian—throughout the kingdom, in Transylvania, in the Banat, and other parts of Hungary, Bukowina, and Bessarabia. The Macedo-Roumanian, south of the Danube and amongst the Balkans and Pindus, is largely modified by Greek; and the Istro-Roumanian, spoken by 2000 or 3000 in Istria and Croatia, has been much Slavonised.
Roumanian literature may be said to date from the 17th century, though the first Roumanian book, a psalter, was printed in 1577. The chronicles of the 17th century are the earliest specimens of national literature; but Greek was long the language of the educated, and it is only since the beginning of the 19th century that there is a popular Roumanian literature, the most interesting part of it being the songs. Of these Alexandri (q.v.), himself the most notable of native Roumanian poets, made a full collection (1866). Other names are Alexandrescu, Eminescu, and Scherbanescu. There are German translations by Carmen Sylva (q.v.), Kotzebue, and others. Dora D'Istria (see GHIA) wrote mainly in French. Among authorities on the language are Hasdeu, Miklosich, Gaster, and Titkin, and there are histories of the literature by Cipariu, Densusianu, Gaster, Popfiu, and Philippide (1894). The great dictionaries are those of Codresco (1875), Lamriann and Massinu, Dictionariulu Limbei Romane (2 vols. 1876-79), and Hasden, Etymologicum Magnum Romaniae (parts i. and ii. 1885-92); and there are standard Chrestomathies by Gaster (new ed. 1891) and Pompilin. There are German translations of Roumanian folktales, poems, and songs by Albert Schott (1845), Wite Kremnitz (1882-83), and Rudow (1888).
See works on Roumania in Roumanian by Aurelian, Terra Nostra (1880); in French by Beaure and Mathorel (1878), Blaramberg (1886), and Bley (1896); in German by Henke (1877), Bergner (1887), and Benger (1896); and in English by the present writer (1882) and Mrs Walker (1888); the Histories by Laurianu (1873), Hasdeu (1874), Cogulniceanu, Schinkai, Tocilescu, Vacarescu, Hurmuzaki, Stourdza (1886), &c.; Lavcleye, The Balkan Peninsula (trans. 1887), W. Millar, The Balkans in the 'Story of the Nations' series (1896), and other books named at BALKAN PENINSULA; the Roumanian official statistics; and a long series of English consular reports and Board of Trade returns.