ROUMANIA 



827 



of 1,397,917, the proportion of British vessels (all 

 steamers but four) was 544, of 855,477 tons, and those 

 figures form approximately the proportion during 

 recent years. The following statistics, concisely 

 stated, show the financial and commercial position 

 of Roumania at the present time, and of her com- 

 mercial relations with Great Britain. 



In 1895 the National Debt was 47,585,630, paying over 

 3,000,000 annual interest ; revenue, 7,214,000 ; expenditure, 

 7,816,897. The permanent army comprises 60,000 officers 

 and men. The total exports of all kinds were valued at 

 16,962,000 ; total value of imports, 13,616,000 ; total value 

 of cx|M>rts to the United Kingdom, chiefly cereals and seeds, 

 2,118,505 ; total value of exports from the United Kingdom to 

 Koumania, chiefly cotton, yarn, and manufactures, wrought and 

 nnwrought metals, coal, &c., 891,917,000; (in 1896, 1,286,582). 



History and Political Relations. The early 

 Greek historians mention a Thracian trihe, the 

 Getae, from whom were descended the Dacians, 

 a brave race who occupied the northern side of 

 the later or Danube, and flourished as a free 

 people down to about the end of the first 

 century of our era. Before that time the Dacians 

 had come into conflict with both Greeks and 

 Romans, but in the year 101 A.D. the Emperor 

 Trajan undertook the first of two expeditions 

 against their king, Decebalus, which terminated 

 in the complete subjugation of the country. Traces 

 of the Roman invasion and conquest are still to be 

 found in the military road constructed by Trajan 

 along the banks of the Danube, including a com- 

 memorative tablet, and in the piers of a bridge 

 across the river near Orsova. Pressed by the 

 barbarian races who eventually compassed the 

 downfall of the Roman empire, Dacia, which had 

 been constituted a Roman colony, was evacuated 

 by the Romans in the reign of Aurelian (about 

 274 A.D.), and for about a thousand years the banks 

 of the Danube served as halting-places for the first- 

 named wandering tribes, amongst whom the most 

 conspicuous were the Goths ; the Huns under Attila ; 

 the Lombards under Alboin ; the Bulgari, who 

 afterwards settled on the plains south of the Danube 

 and founded Bulgaria ; the Ungri, a savage race 

 who settled in Hungary ; and the Wallachs, from 

 whom Wallachia has derived its name. For a con- 

 siderable period both banks of the Danube were 

 governed by the sovereigns of what is known as the 

 Wallacho-Bulgarian dynasty, which was brought to 

 a close by a Tartar invasion about the year 1250 

 A.D. After that there gradually arose out of a 

 number of smaller states an independent realm in 

 Wallachia, with its traditions of heroes and chiefs, 

 Mircea the Old, Michael the Brave ( whose memory 

 is perpetuated by a beautiful equestrian statue at 

 Bucharest), and others; whilst the neighlmuring 

 state of Moldavia had also its heroes in Stephen 

 the Great, &c. These rulers for a long time 

 resisted the Mussulman advance, but were eventu- 

 ally reduced to vassalage by the victorious Turks, 

 and were compelled to sign what are known as the 

 'Capitulations,' and to pay an annual tribute to 

 the sultan. The first treaty with Wallachia 

 known by that name was signed as far back as 

 1393 ; but that with Moldavia, which country was 

 supported by the king of Poland, followed as late 

 as 1513. 



Although Wallachia and Moldavia thus became 

 states tributary to the Porte, they retained sufficient 

 independence to be in a sense autonomous ; but in 

 *he course of time their princes, or voivodes as they 

 T called, were Turkish nominees, whose tenure 

 .( ollice may be judged by the fact that in the 

 course of ninety years (from 1723 to 1812) the 

 government of Wallachia passed through the hands 

 of no less than forty of those rulers. They were 

 mostly Greeks, known as Phanariotes or Fanariots 

 (q.v.), who during their brief tenure of power 

 practised the most scandalous extortions upon the 



people, in order to enrich themselves and remit the 

 annual tribute to Constantinople. The great 

 majority of those Fauariot voivodes either were 

 assassinated or were disgraced through the intrigues 

 of their rivals at the Sublime Porte ; and some of 

 them did not scruple to appeal during their brief 

 tenure of power for the support of Russia, which 

 country was constantly at war with their suzerain. 



The Muscovites began to make inroads into the 

 Danubian principalities as early as the year 1709, 

 under Peter the Great, and continued to invade 

 them at intervals, especially in the reign of the 

 Empress Anne in 1755 and in that of Catharine 

 IV. in 1768. In the first instance the Czar Peter 

 was invited to enter the states by the voivodes 

 Brancovano of Wallachia and Canteinir of Mol- 

 davia, who desired to secure their independence 

 under his protection ; but no such inducement was 

 afterwards requisite ; and although the Russian 

 invasions and occupations were always undertaken 

 on the pretext of liberating the Christians from 

 the Mussulman yoke, the real object has been to 

 advance step by step to Constantinople and to 

 secure possession of the whole Balkan peninsula. 

 At different times the Russians exercised absolute 

 sway in the principalities, notably from 1789 to 

 1792 and from 1806 to 1812, when the princes under 

 their protection were called Hospodars (q.v.), a 

 Slavonic word. In 1848 they helped to suppress the 

 national rising there, as they did in Hungary, but 

 in 1853, before the Crimean war, their power began 

 to wane. At the termination of that war they 

 were compelled by the allied powers to cede Bess- 

 arabia to the principalities. 



In the year 1859 both principalities elected Prince 

 Couza (born at Galatz, 1820) as their ruler, and he 

 reigned in Roumania, as the united provinces were 

 then called, until 1866, when he was deposed on 

 account of his extortions and gross immorality, and 

 was succeeded by Prince Charles of Hohenzollern. 

 This revolution was mainly led by two able 

 statesmen, Bratiano and Rosetti, who may be 

 said to have been jointly the counterpart of the 

 Italian Cavour, and who for many years enjoyed 

 great popularity as the chief ministers of state. On 

 the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish war in 1877 the 

 Roumanians espoused the Russian cause. Prince 

 Charles was actually appointed commander-in-chief 

 of the allied armies, the Russian Cesarewitch serv- 

 ing under him ; and the Roumanians captured the 

 first redoubt, the Grivitza, at Plevna, thereby 

 enabling the Russians to reduce that stronghold 

 and bring the war to a triumphant close. The 

 conquerors, however, deprived tneir allies of part 

 of their territory, Bessarabia, giving them in ex- 

 change the Dobrudja, which they exacted from the 

 Porte an exchange laid down in the treaty of San 

 Stefano, and subsequently confirmed by the Berlin 

 Conference (June 1878), when Roumania was re- 

 cognised as a completely independent power. The 

 effect of that exchange has, however, been un. 

 fortunate for Russia in two respects. It has 

 caused a permanent estrangement between the 

 Roumanians and their guardian allies, and the 

 Dobrudja has served as a barrier against Russian 

 aggression in Bulgaria. In 1881 Prince Charles 

 was invested with the kingly dignity with the 

 acquiescence of the European Powers, and since 

 that time, although there have been ministerial 

 crises, and although the Russians have continued 

 to carry on secret intrigues, not only in Rou- 

 mania, but from thence in Bulgaria, the Rou- 

 manians have practically freed themselves from 

 Russian as well as Turkish influence, and have 

 taken their place amongst the independent nation- 

 alities of Europe. 



The various conquerors who have at one time or 

 another occupied Roumania have left their traces 



