Romania

Romania (dated: Rumania, Roumania; Romanian: RomÐ"Ñžnia, IPA: [ro.mЙЁЛ?ni.a]) is a country located in South-East Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea.[2] Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory. It shares a border with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova to the northeast, and Bulgaria to the south.

Romania is a semi-presidential unitary state. As a nation-state, the country was formed by the merging of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1859 and it gained recognition of its independence in 1878. Later, in 1918, they were joined by Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia. At the end of World War II, parts of its territories (roughly the present day Moldova) were occupied by USSR and Romania became a member of the Warsaw Pact. With the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, Romania started a series of political and economic reforms that allowed for Romania to join the European Union on January 1, 2007.

Romania has the 9th largest territory and the 7th largest population (with 22 million people[3]) among the European Union member states. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest (Romanian: BucureÐ*ÑŸti /bu.kuЛ?reКÑ"tКІ/ (helpÐ'*info)), the 6th largest city in the EU with 1.9 million people. In 2007, Sibiu, a large city in Transylvania, was chosen as a European Capital of Culture.[4] Romania also joined NATO on March 29, 2004, and is also a member of the Latin Union, of the Francophonie and of OSCE.The name of Romania (Rumania or RomÐ"Ñžnia) comes from RomÐ"Ñžn (Romanian) which is a derivative of the word Romanus ("Roman") from Latin.[5][6] The fact that Romanians have said the name is a derivative of Romanus (Romanian: RomÐ"Ñžn/RumÐ"Ñžn) is mentioned as early as the 16th century by many authors, including Italian Humanists travelling in Transylvania, Moldavia and Wallachia.[7][8][9][10] The oldest surviving document written in the Romanian language is a 1521 letter (known as "NeacÐ*ÑŸu's Letter from CÐ"Ñžmpulung"[11]) which notifies the mayor of BraÐ*ÑŸov about the imminent attack of the Ottoman Turks. This document is also notable for having the first occurrence of "Rumanian" in a Romanian written text, Wallachia being here named The Rumanian Land - Ð*Ñžeara RumÐ"ÑžneascÐ"Ñ" (Ð*Ñžeara from the Latin: Terra land). In the following centuries, Romanian documents use interchangeably two spelling forms: RomÐ"Ñžn and RumÐ"Ñžn.[12] Socio-linguistic evolutions in the late 17th century led to a process of semantic differentiation: the form "rumÐ"Ñžn", presumably usual among lower classes, got the meaning of "bondsman", while the form romÐ"Ñžn kept an ethno-linguistic meaning.[13] After the abolition of serfdom in 1746, the form "rumÐ"Ñžn" gradually disappears and the spelling definitively stabilises to the form "romÐ"Ñžn", "romÐ"Ñžnesc".[14] The name "RomÐ"Ñžnia" as common homeland of all Romanians is documented in the early 19th century.[15] This name has been officially in use since December 11, 1861.[16]

English-language sources still used the term "Rumania", borrowed from the French spelling "Roumania", as recently as World War II,[17] but since then the term has disappeared entirely.

Communism

(1947вЂ"1989)

Main article: Communist Romania

In 1947, King Michael I was forced by the Communists to abdicate and leave the country, Romania was proclaimed a republic[75][76] , and remained under direct military and economic control of the USSR until the late 1950s. During this period, Romania's resources were drained by the "SovRom" agreements: mixed Soviet-Romanian companies established to mask the looting of Romania by the Soviet Union.[77][78][79]

After the negotiated retreat of Soviet troops in 1958, Romania, under the new leadership of Nicolae CeauÐ*ÑŸescu, started to pursue independent policies. Such examples are the condemnation of the Soviet-led 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia (being the only Warsaw Pact country not to take part in the invasion), the continuation of diplomatic relations with Israel after the Six-Day War of 1967 (again, the only Warsaw Pact country to do so), the establishment of economic (1963) and diplomatic (1967) relations with the Federal Republic of Germany, and so forth.[80] Also, close ties with the Arab countries (and the PLO) allowed Romania to play a key role in the Israel-Egypt and Israel-PLO peace processes by intermediating the visit of Sadat in Israel.[81] A short-lived period of relative economic well-being and openness followed in the late 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s.[citation needed] As Romania's foreign debt sharply increased between 1977 and 1981 (from 3 to 10 billion US dollars),[82] the influence of international financial organisations such as the IMF or the World Bank grew, conflicting with Nicolae CeauÐ*ÑŸescu's autarchic policies. CeauÐ*ÑŸescu eventually initiated a project of total reimbursement of the foreign debt (completed in 1989, shortly before his overthrow). To achieve this goal, he imposed policies that impoverished Romanians and exhausted the Romanian economy. He greatly extended the authority police state and imposed a cult of personality. These led to a dramatic decrease in CeauÐ*ÑŸescu-popularity and culminated in his overthrow