Image Source: ARCEN Association, facebook.com/AsociatiaARCEN/
Beginning with the introduction of modern humans to Europe, the region now known as Romania has a storied history. For much of this history, Romania has balanced itself between Eastern and Western culture, and ideologies. The earliest known culture to control Romania was the Dacians, whose culture was thought to pre-date 440 BCE. This society traded with the Greeks and was influenced by their culture. The Dacian people also interacted with the Roman Empire, eventually being conquered and incorporated into Roman society. Romania was relinquished to invading Goth and Carpi tribes, being one of the first regions given up by the Roman Empire, around 271AD. After this, Romania was influenced by the movement of the Bulgars into the Danube delta region. These people, the Pechenegs from Central Asia, and the Cumans from the Black Sea introduced Turkish dishes and culture, some of which can still be seen in Romanian cuisine today. In the early middle ages, Romania was settled by additional peoples, such as the saxons, who influenced Romanian culture through food, music, and language. As Romania entered the 14th and 15th centuries, Wallachian and Moldovian monarchs found themselves between the influence of the Ottomans to the southeast and the Polish to the Northwest. They were eventually conquered by the Ottomans. Romania and much of the Balkan peninsula remained under the control of the Ottoman empire until the Russo-Turkish war.
During the 1830s and 1840s, the national political goals of Romania were to preserve the autonomy of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. During this time, the Romanian government looked to other countries for support against the pressure of the Turks, getting most of their support from Russia. After a long period of Russian interference into Romania, the country closed itself off 30 years prior to the First World War, with the belief that Russia and other countries had taken advantage of them.
Nationalistic tensions in Romania led the country to enter the First World War early. The goal was to unify Romanian peoples that had been separated in previous wars, including Transylvania and Bukovina. However, hopes of unification were quickly dashed once the majority of the country was occupied by axis powers.
In the interwar period, the country worked to bring itself to parity with western countries. This began with experiments in liberal policies and government; the country shifted to a constitutional monarchy and then, just prior to the Second World War, to authoritarianism . Fascist, anti-Semitic parties in Romania, namely the “Iron Guard”, gained power; King Carol the Second attempted to first co-opt the group and then dismantle them. In response, the facist parties began to pressure King Carol, eventually forcing him to abdicate in favor of these groups. An understanding of the history of Romania helps to explain why Romania was in a position to turn to Communism at the end of the Second World War and why Communism remained the system of government in the country for 42 years.