THE ROMANIANS HISTORICAL PLACE EUROPE

. i riTTiTiinTiïti'l t x t
THE ROMANIANS HISTORICAL PLACE
IN
EUROPE
T h e Romanian people belongs to the large group of
neo-Latin peoples of Europe, and is, today, the sole inheritor
of the Oriental Roman world. It is, together with the Greeks,
one of the oldest peoples in south-eastern Europe; the only
Latin enclave at the gates of the Orient. The Romanians are
also, when compared to the Albanians Bulgarians, Croatians,
Greeks, Mayars, Serbians, etc., the most numerous people in
the south-east of Europe, numbering today 24 million, of
which the great majority (23 million) live in Romania.
The Romanians are the only Romanic people, except
for the Rhaeto-Romans in Switzerland, who retained in their
name the memory of Rome. Like the other Romanic peo­
ples, they came into being during the first century after
Christ. The way they formed as a people followed the gen­
eral rule of genesis of Romanic peoples. The basic elements
in the formation of the Romanian people are: the pre-Roman
autochtonous element, that is, the Thraco-Dacians (the equi­
valent of the Gauls for the French) and the conquering ele­
ment, that is, the Romans, the common denominator of all
Romanic peoples. The Gaetae or the Dacians (as the Greek
writers called them) are the northern branch of the Thracians, an Indo-European people, of whom Herodot said they
were, affter the Indians, the most numerous people in the
world.
In the sixth century B.C., the Daco-Gaetae fought
against Darius, the Persian king, in the fourth century
against Alexander-Macedon and during the first century
B.C. they confronted the Romans. After about 20 years of
uninterrupted battles, in 106 A.D., the Dacian king, Diurpaneus-Decebal was defeated by the Romans who were led by
Trajan (98-119), one of the most important emperors the
Roman Empire ever had.
Following this victory, most of Dacia's territory was
transformed into a Roman province. The centre of this pro­
vince was situated in Transylvania. As a result of the Romanization process accomplished by a massive colonization and
organised with Latinophone elements, by the colonists and
natives living together and by the superiority of the R o m a n
culture and civilisation, the Daco-Gaetae started to speak
Latin, to adopt Roman beliefs and customs and, as had hap­
pened to the Gauls and the Caltibers, acquired a forma men­
tis romana. The Emperor Aurelian (270-275) was forced,
because of the crisis the Roman Empire was going through,
to withdraw Roman rule (the army, the administration and
part of the citizens) form Dacia south of the Danube. The
great majority of the Daco-Roman population continued,
however, to live in the old Dacia, resisting the invasions of
the barbarians (Goths, Huns, Gepidae, Avars, Slavs, etc.)
The Romanians enter history as a well-defined people
in the eighteenth to ninenteenth centuries after they had as­
similated the Slavs, the only migratory element (the equiva­
lent of the Francs for the French who settled in Dacia in
great numbers. Unlike the Bulgarians, the Magyars and the
loan Aurel Pop
Russians, the Romanians, similarly to the Greeks, do not re­
tain in their collective memory an exact date of their becom­
ing Christians. When the Romanians became known histori­
cally they had already been Christianized directly, through
Latin, and their faith was strengthened by the missionaries
who came form the south of the Danube in the foruth cen­
tury.
During the nineth to fourteenth centuries, in spite of
the hampering invasions of the migrators (Hungarians, Pecenegs, Cumans, Tartars), the Romanians organized themsel­
ves into political forms of incipient statal character and later
into proper medieval states. When the first attacks of the pa­
gan Magyar tribes were carried out against Transylvania,
The Romanians had incipient states here (duchies or voievoderships) of which the most important was ruled by Gelu the
Romanian {Gelu, quidam Blaccus).
The conquest of Transylvania by the Magyars in the
eleventh to thirteenth centuries, after they had become Chri­
stians in the western way, determined some of the Romanian
leaders to move their resistance centres south and east of the
Carpathians (e.g. Negru Voda of Faragas or Bogdan Voda
of Maramureş) thus enhancing the process of statal develop­
ment in these regions. Thus, while Transylvania remained an
autonomous duchy within the Hungarian Kingdom, inhabit­
ed by Romanians mostly and partly colonized by alien popu­
lations, Moldavia and Wallachia became independent states
in the fourteenth century. Internationally, they were integra­
ted in the feudo-vassal system of the time. During the four­
teenth to sixteenth centuries, by their resistance against the
Ottoman danger, these statal forms participated in the de­
fence of central and western Europe. Under Voivodes
Mircea the Old, Vlad Tepes, Iancu of Huucdoara, Stephen
the Great, Michael the Brave, etc., the three Romanian
countries were, after an expression of that time, real gates of
Christianity. In 1599-1600 Michael the Brave united the three
Romanian countries for the first time, showing that Transyl­
vania, where ethnically the Romanians were in the majority,
could become Romanian from the political point of view as
well. Throughout the Middle Ages, although vassal and tri­
butary to the Turks, the Romanian countries, unlike the By­
zantine Empire, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, Hungary, and so
on, preserved their statal form, that is, their autonomy, with
their own institutions, not having been conquered by the Sul­
tan's Empire. In the eighteenth century the Romanians in
Transylvania, though excluded as a nation from the political
life of the country and their orthodox religion not recogniz­
ed, started a national emancipation movement in conjunc­
tion with the one in the Principalities. The period of demo­
cratic revolutions (1821-1849) signified the Romanians con­
firmation as a modern nation. In 1859, with ranee's support,
the basis of the Romanian national state was laid by the uni­
fication of Moldavia with Wallachia. This state, called Ro-
mania, which included approximately one third of Roma­
nians, accomplished absolute independence after a war
against Turkey in 1877. As a consequence of the victory in
this war, Dobrudja united with Romania in 1878. In 1918,
after Romania had participated in World War I beside An­
tanta, a new democratic revolution broke out as a result of
the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires.
Through democratically elected representatives, according to
the right of people to self-determination, it was decided on 9
April 1918, at Kisinev, to unite Bessarabia (occupied by Rus­
sia in 1812) with Romania; on 28 November 1918, at Cer­
năuţi, the union of Bucovina (occupied by Austria in 1775)
with Romania; and on 1 december 1918, at Alba Iulia, the
union of Transylvania, Banat, Crisana and M a r a m u r e ş with
Romania. Through the Peace of Paris of 1919-1920, the
great powers confirmed the Romanian peoples decisions as
well as similar acts of the Yugoslavians, Polish, Czechs, Slovakians, etc.
Thus, in 1918, Romania entered the concert of world
nations with dignity as a unitary independent state within
which the rights of all citizens, regardless of their nationality,
were guaranteed by the constitution of 1923. After a short
interbelic democratic experience there followed 50 years
(1938-1989) of communism which have not altered the hu­
manitarian spirit of the Romanian people. After the over­
throw of the communist regime which stayed in power owing
to a brutal dictatorship, today Romania strives for a natural
reintegration into a Europe of tree, equal nations.
Iff ^ ^ s ^ ^ ^
WHO OWNS
THE LAND
OWNS
In 1902 t h e H u n g a r i a n publicist, B a l o g h Pal, p u b ­
lished in B u d a p e s t a n extensive w o r k u n d e r t h e title "A
Népfayók
Magyarorszàgon"
(Nationalities in t h e H u n g a r ­
ian K i n g d o m ) edited b y the Ministry of E d u c a t i o n a n d
Cults. It v o i c e d t h e point of view of t h e H u n g a r i a n g o v ­
e r n m e n t . T h e p u r p o s e of this p u b l i c a t i o n , w h i c h m a k e s a n
analysis of t h e official c e n s u s of t h e H u n g a r i a n State in
1880, w a s t o p r o v e that t h e R o m a n i a n s " i n f i l t r a t e d " T r a n ­
sylvania successively. It also indicated t h e p o i n t s of e n ­
t r a n c e a s well a s t h e places w h e r e t h e y settled.
F r o m t h e b e g i n n i n g , it is interesting t o n o t i c e that in
o r d e r t o s u p p o r t his affirmation, t h e a u t h o r d o e s n o t p r o ­
v i d e a n y original d o c u m e n t s . H e h a s at his d i s p o s a l
m a i n l y t w o s o u r c e s , a n d t h e statistical d a t a f r o m MajorGeneral Lenk I g n â c z ' s w o r k : T h e G e o g r a p h i c , Statistic,
H y d r o g r a p h i c - o r t h o g r a p h i c L e x i c o n of Ardeal, v o l I - IV,
Vienna, 1839.
B a l o g h Pel's s t u d y c o v e r s t h e entire territory of
dualist H u n g a r y w h i c h , t o m a k e t h e r e s e a r c h easier, w a s
d i v i d e d into f o u r parts of w h i c h w e are particularly inter­
ested in t h e a r e a called " B e y o n d t h e Piatra C r a i u l u i " (Tul
K r a l y h é g ó n ) c o v e r i n g t h e w h o l e area of t h e f o r m e r Great
Principality of Transylvania. It c o n s i s t e d of 5 c o u n t i e s as
well a s t h e 8 c o u n t i e s in t h e H u n g a r i a n territory, namely,
t h o s e in Banat, Crisana a n d M a r a m u r e ş w h i c h w e r e out­
side t h e Great Principality of Transylvania.
In 1870 t h e " L a w of R e g i s t r a t i o n " w a s p a s s e d a n d
e n f o r c e d t h r o u g h o u t H u n g a r y . T h e entire territory of H u n ­
g a r y w a s m e a s u r e d , calculated a n d r e c o r d e d in t h e r e g ­
isters c o m p i l e d w i t h t h e help of t o p o g r a p h i c sheets of
e a c h village. B y 1890 all t h e villages a n d t o w n s of
H u n g a r y h a d their registers, m a p s a n d d e e d s of
o w n e r s h i p of t h e entire territory w h i c h b e l o n g e d t o t h e m
as well as t h e n a m e s of t h e l a n d o w n e r s .
T h e first relatively c o m p l e t e c e n s u s in H u n g a r y ,
w h i c h b e s i d e s t h e statistical d a t a w i t h regard t o t h e p o p ­
ulation of t h e k i n g d o m , also i n c l u d e d precise d a t a a b o u t
the d i s t r i b u t i o n of t h e nationalities over t h e entire territory,
w a s carried o u t in H u n g a r y in 1890.
THE
COUNTRY
Mihai
Racoltea
O n p a g e 144 t h e a u t h o r reveals a n e w element of
great i m p o r t a n c e , w h i c h puts a n e n d t o all t h e g r o u n d l e s s
s p e c u l a t i o n s w h i c h s u p p o r t e d t h e t h e o r y of t h e " d e s e r t e d
l a n d " of Transylvania a n d of t h e R o m a n i a n s " i n f i l t r a t i o n "
a m o n g t h e " n a t i v e " Magyars. W e refer t o t h e d a t a e x ­
t r a c t e d f r o m t h e 1890 c e n s u s a b o u t nationalities in t h e
k i n g d o m a n d t h e lands o w n e d a n d w o r k e d b y t h e m .
A c c o r d i n g t o B a l o g h Pal, t h e situation in t h e H u n ­
garian K i n g d o m in 1890 w a s t h e f o l l o w i n g :
No. Settlers Nationality No. Settlements
7 548 644 Hungarians
2 680 161 Romanians
1 982 348 Slovakians
1 726 168 Germans
429 341 Ruthenians
191 553 Croatians
483 341 Serbs
71 457 Vencis
20 478 Others
15 133 491 of these
7 548 850 non-Magyars
4 718
2 981
2 711
1 114
612
237
149
147
17
12 686
7 968
Area occupied
21
11
6
4
2
231
950
538
561
300
480
1
155 c u .
547 c u .
559 c u .
164 c u .
699 c u .
864 c u .
1 567 512 CU.
138 197 c u .
79 209 c u .
48 847 646 c u .
27 616 491 c u .
T h e figure 7 5 4 8 644 H u n g a r i a n s i n c l u d e s 3 6 7 8 3 9
Szecklers a n d c c a . 250 000 p e o p l e of o t h e r nationalities
(Jews a n d Gypsies) w h o in t h e c e n s u s w e r e r e c o r d e d a s
H u n g a r i a n s d u e t o t h e l a n g u a g e t h e y s p o k e , n o t t o their
nationality. There w e r e 6 883 203 H u n g a r i a n s a n d a p p r o x i ­
mately 8 000 000 n o n - M a g y a r s .
T h e entire territory of Transylvania, c o v e r i n g 29 2 5 9
304 cadastral units, w a s distributed as f o l l o w s :
c u . = cadastral unit = 5 600 square metres