LOCATION
Romania is situated in the southeastern part of Central
Europe and shares borders with Hungary to the northwest, Yugoslavia
to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, the Black Sea and Ukraine
to the southeast and to the north and the Republic of Moldova to the
east. Roughly the size of Oregon, Romania is the second largest
country in the area, after Poland.
HISTORY
Romania's
history has not been as
idyllically peaceful as its geography. Over the centuries, various
migrating people invaded Romania. Romania's
historical provinces
Wallachia and Moldova offered furious resistance to the invading
Ottoman Turks. Transylvania was successively under Hapsburg, Ottoman
or Wallachian rule, while remaining an autonomous province.
Romania's post
WORLD WAR
II history as a communist-block nation is more widely known,
primarily due to the excesses of the former dictator
Nicolae Ceausescu. In
December 1989 a national uprising
led to his overthrow. The
1991 Constitution established Romania as a republic with a
multiparty system, market economy and individual rights of free
speech, religion and private ownership.
