Romania ( /romeni/ roh-MAY-nee-; Romanian: Romnia [romni.

a] (
i

misspelled Rumania,

[10][11][12][13][14]

and formerly also spelled Roumania,

[15][16]

listen)),

occasionally

is a unitary semi-presidential

republic located in Southeastern-Central Europe, north of the Balkan Peninsula and on the western
shore of the Black Sea. It borders Hungary, Serbia, Ukraine, Moldova, and Bulgaria. It covers
238,391 square kilometres (92,043 sq mi) and has a temperate-continental climate. With its 20.1
million inhabitants, it is theseventh most populous member of the European Union. Its capital and
largest city, Bucharest, is the sixth largest city in the European Union.
Modern Romania emerged within the territories of the ancient Roman province of Dacia, and was
formed in 1859 through a personal union of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. The new
state, officially named Romania since 1866, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877.
At the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the
sovereign Kingdom of Romania. At the end of World War II, territories which today roughly
correspond to the Republic of Moldova were occupied by theSoviet Union, and a few years later
Romania became a socialist republic and member of the Warsaw Pact. After the 1989 Revolution,
Romania began a transition back towards democracy and a capitalist market economy.
Following rapid economic growth in the 2000s, Romania has an economy predominantly based on
services, and is a producer and net exporter of machines and electric energy, featuring companies
like Automobile Dacia and OMV Petrom. Living standards have improved, and currently, Romania is
an upper-middle income country with a high Human Development Index. It has been a member
ofNATO since 2004, and part of the European Union since 2007. Around 90% of the population
identify themselves as Eastern Orthodox Christians, and are native speakers of Romanian,
a Romance language. With a rich cultural history, Romania has been the home of
influential artists, musicians, and inventors, and features a variety of tourist attractions.

Etymology[edit]
Main article: Name of Romania
Romania derives from the Latin romanus, meaning "citizen of Rome".[17] The first known use of the
appellation was attested in the 16th-century by Italian humanists travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia,
and Wallachia.[18][19][20][21]

Neacu's letter from 1521, the oldest surviving document written inRomanian.

The oldest surviving document written in Romanian, a 1521 letter known as the "Letter of Neacu
from Cmpulung",[22] is also notable for including the first documented occurrence of the country's
name: Wallachia is mentioned as eara Rumneasc ("The Romanian Land",eara from
the Latin terra, "land"; current spelling: ara Romneasc).
Two spelling forms: romn and rumn were used interchangeably [a] until sociolinguistic
developments in the late 17th century led to semantic differentiation of the two forms: rumncame to
mean "bondsman", while romn retained the original ethnolinguistic meaning.[23] After the abolition
of serfdom in 1746, the word rumn gradually fell out of use and the spelling stabilised to the
form romn.[b] Tudor Vladimirescu, a revolutionary leader of the early 19th century, used the
term Rumnia to refer exclusively to the principality of Wallachia."[24]
The use of the name Romania to refer to the common homeland of all Romaniansits modern-day
meaningis first documented in the early 19th century.[c] The name has been officially in use since
11 December 1861.[25] English-language sources still used the terms Rumania or Roumania, derived
from the French spelling Roumanie and/or the Greek , as recently as World War II,[26] but
the name has since been replaced with the official spelling Romania.[27]

History[edit]
Main article: History of Romania

Early history[edit]
Main articles: Romania in Antiquity, Dacia and Roman Dacia

Roman provinces in the regions now forming Romania in the 2nd century AD

The human remains found in Petera cu Oase ("The Cave of the Bones"), radiocarbon dated as
being from cca. 40,000 years ago, represent the oldest known Homo sapiens in Europe.[28][29]
Prior to the Roman conquest of Dacia, the territories between Danube and Dniester rivers were
inhabited by various Thracian peoples, including the Dacians and the Getae.[30] Herodotus, in his
work "Histories", notes the religious difference between the Getae and other Thracians, [31]however,
according to Strabo, the Dacians and the Getae spoke the same language. [30] Dio Cassius draws
attention to the cultural similarities between the two people.[30] There is a scholarly dispute whether
the Dacians and the Getae were the same people. [32][33]
Roman incursions under Emperor Trajan between 101102 AD and 105106 AD led to result that
about half of the Dacian kingdom became a province of the Roman Empire called "Dacia Traiana".
The Roman rule la