History of Romania

Romanians descend from the Dacians, an ancient people who fell under Rome's dominance in the first century A.D., intermarried with Roman colonists and addopted elements of Roman culture, including a Vulgar Latin that evolved into today's Romanian.

For thousands of years, Romania suffered from a location that was not very favourable with plunders both from the side of Hungary or of the Otoman Empire, of the Russian influence or of the Austrian influence.

Romanian history is even more interesting during the XXth century with the two world wars that put a mark on it, the presence of the kings and queens, the Soviet power crushing Romanian forces and later the strict communist control both of Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and of Ceausescu.

After the collapse of communism in the rest of Eastern Europe, a mid-December protest started in Timisoara and grew rapidly into a country-wide protest against Ceausescu regime, sweeping the dictator from power.

Romania has made great progress in consolidating democratic institutions. The press is free and outspoken. Independent radio networks and private television stations have developed and at present it is on the point of entering the European Union in January 2007, after having joined NATO in 2004.