Walachia

History

As many parts of the Balkan Peninsula, the area of Walachia was populated in very early times already. Archaeological findings reach back until the Old Stone Age. Later on the region was part of the Dacian Empire and from the beginning of the 2nd until the end of the 3rd century it belonged to the Roman province Dacia. After the end of the Roman dominion Walachia was a march- through area for various tribes during several centuries as well as the Banat and Transylvania. Many princedoms, ruled by Hungarian lordliness were established and turned into the independent princedoms Walachia and Moldova in the middle of the 14th century. Though there was a strong resistance both areas became part of the Ottoman dominion at the beginning of the 15th century and had to pay tributes to them. Nevertheless they could keep a partial political autonomy. In 1895 Walachia and the princedom Moldova decided to establish a Union, which is considered to be the hour of birth of Romania. But only by the Romanian victories in the Russian- Ottoman war in 1877 Romania could become completely independent of Turkey. The high tributes, the strong dependence of the farmers of their landlords as well as numerous wars and despoilments led to a rather thin settlement of Walachia. Maybe that is why the name is still closely connected to images of isolated, lonely regions, which are difficult to reach. Nowadays there are 9 million people with different ethnic backgrounds living in this swathe of land. The majority of them are Romanians.