RUMANIA 



5103 



RUMANIA 



THE STORY OF 

 RUMANIA 



UMANIA, TOO ma' ni a, a kingdom of Europe, situ- 

 ated in the southeastern part of that continent, just north of 

 the Balkan Peninsula. The country gained its independence 

 from Turkey after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878, and 

 since that time has made remarkable progress. It has become 

 known as the "Belgium of the East," and Bucharest, its capital, 

 iled "Little Paris." Rumania is a small country, but it oc- 

 cupies a very important geographical situation, both from a 



gical and a commercial point of view. 

 It forms the easiest approach from the north 

 towards the Balkan Peninsula and Constan- 

 tinople, and it contains the mouth of the 

 Danube, that very important artery of com- 

 munication and commerce of Central Europe; 

 thus it possesses the shortest water route be- 

 tween Central Europe and Asia. At the same 

 time the extensive plain of the Danube con- 

 stitutes the natural highway between the east 

 and the middle of Europe. 



Size and Location. Rumania added greatly 

 to its area by the outcome of the War of the 

 Nations. In 1914, at the beginning of the strug- 

 gle, it covered 53,489 square miles, almost the 

 exact area of Arkansas. It was bounded on the 

 north by Russia, and on the south by Bulgaria, 

 being separated from the latter over most of 

 the boundary by the Danube River. On the 

 east it bordered on Russia and the Black Sea, 

 and on the west it adjoined Serbia for a short 

 distance, most of the curving western boundary 

 following the Carpathian Mountains and the 

 Transylvanian Alps, which lay as a barrier be- 

 tween Rumania and Hungary. The portion of 

 the country lying south and east of the Danube, 

 or the. Dobrudja, was acquired by Rumania 

 after the war of 1877-1878, having been ex- 



Going to Market 



number were Rumanians. There were in the 

 country about 250,000 Jews and 200,000 gypsies, 

 besides a great number of Bulgarians, Serbs, 

 Germans, Hungarians, Turks and Armenians. 

 There were, per- 

 haps, 4,000,000 

 Rumanians scat- 

 tered through 

 neighboring coun- 

 tries. The Ru- 

 manians belong 

 to the Latin race 

 and speak a Ro- 

 mance language, 



that is one de- Rumanla>a commerclal and 

 rived from the political importance is not to 

 be measured by its size. 



1 O 



LOCATION MAP 



Latin . It 



most like the Italian of all the Romance lan- 

 guages. Over eight-tenths of the people are 

 peasants, and their chief occupation is agri- 

 culture. They passionately love their coun- 

 try, and the greatest desire of each farmer is 

 to own the piece of land he tills. This feel- 

 ing has been beautifully expressed by a modern 

 poet, himself a peasant, in a poem cnntlnl 

 We Want Land, which has become the rallying 

 song of the peasants. In I-Vhniary, 1919, a land 



changed for the southern part of Bessarabia, reform measure was passed which provided for 



which was taken by Russia. At the close of the 

 War of the Nations Rumania laid claim to 

 Transylvania, a province of Hungary; Buko- 

 wina, a crownland of Austria; and Bessarabia. 

 Thr allicii council WHS to decide these claims. 



The People. Before the outbreak of the War 

 of the Nations in 1914 Rumania had a popu- 

 lation of 7,508,009, about the same as t 

 Pennsylvania. Over ninety per cent of tin* 



the division of the large estates into 

 farms for the peasantry. This law will tran>- 

 form Rumania into a land of small farms and 

 prosperous farmers. 



The principal towns are Bucharest, the capi- 

 tal ; Jassy, Galati, Braila, Ploesti and Craiova. 



Physical Features. The Carpathian Moun- 

 tains and their prolongation, the Transylvanian 

 Alps, form the most striking physical feature of 



