1. IMoi.DAViA (Ger. Mohlav, Turk. Pogdan or Kera- Islak) is bounded on the N. and E. by Russia, on the S. by Wallachia and the Danube, and on the W. by the Austrian empire. Greatest length from nortli-west to south-east, 280 miles; greatest breadth, 128 miles; area, 20,118 stpiare miles; jjopulation about 2,000,000. The countr}" forms, geographically, part of the great undulat- ing pastoral jilains or steppes of South Kussia, except towards the west, where spurs from the Carpathians give it a somewhat mountainous character. It is wa- tered by the Pruth, the Sereth, and the Danube, and is almost everywhere fertile. The forests of Moldavia are also of great extent and importance. But the riches of the country consist mainly in its cattle and horses, of which immense numbers are reared on its sjjlendid and far-stretching pastures. Swine and sheep are also numerous: and the rearing of bees, owing to the multi- tude of lime-trees, is extensively carried on. Tlie great plagues of tlie land are locusts and earthquakes. ISIin- erals and precious metals are said to be abundant, but they have not as yet been worked. The capital is Jassy, but the great centre of trade is Galatz. The principal exports are wool, lambskins, hides, feathers, maize, tar, tallow, honey, leeches, cattle, and salt (in blocks) ; the imports are chiefly the manufactured products of West- ern Europe.
2. Watxac'iiia, the larger of the united Danubian Principalities, is bounded on the N. by the Austrian empire and Moldavia, ou the E. and S. by the Danube, and on the W. by the Austrian empire and the Danube. Length from the western frontier to Cape Kaliakra on
I the Black Sea, 305 miles; greatest breadth. 130 miles; I area. 27.930 scpiare miles: ])0]iulation, 2,400.920. The 1 greater part of Wallachia is quite flat; hut iu the north, I where it liorders on Hungary and Transylvania, it grad- ually rises up into a great mountain-wall, impassable save in live jilaces. It is destitute of wood throughout almost its whole extent, and (especially along the banks of the Daniilie) is covered with marshy swamps miles upon miles in breadth. The princi])al river Howing through the country is the Aluta, which joins the Dan- ube at Nikojiol. The climate is extreme ; the summer heats are intense, while in winter the land lies under deep snow for four months. The soil is rich, and woidd leave nothing to be desired, were it not for the ravages of locusts and the calamitous summer droughts. The principal products are corn, maize, millet, w ine, liax, to- I bacco, and olive-oil. The vast treeless heaths aflford
MOLDAVIA AND WALLACHIA 435 MOLDAVIA AND WALLACHIA
sustenance to great herds of cattle, sheep, and horses. As in Moldavia, agriculture is ail important branch of industry. In minerals — especiall}' gold, silver, copper, and rock-salt — the soil is rich, but only the last of these is extensively worked. The imports and exports are the same as in Moldavia. In both countries they might be more than doubled, as scarcely one half of the soil, which is said to be everywhere good, is under cultivation.
3. Hlstori/. — In ancient times what now constitutes Roumania formed an important part of Dacia. At the period of the migration of nations, and in the following centuries, it was the scene of the struggles between the Gothic, Hunnic, Bulgarian, and Slavic races, who left their traces among the Romanized Dacian inhabitants, and helped to form that composite people, the modern Wallachs, who in the 11th century were converted to the Christianity of the Eastern or Greek Church. Their incursions, however, frightfully devastated the country. In the 11th century the Kumans, a Turkish race, estab- lished in Moldavia a kingdom of their own. Two cen- turies later the great storm of Mongols broke over the land. It now fell into the hands of the Nogai Tartars, who left it utterly wasted, so that only in the forests and mountains was any trace left of the native Wallachian population. In the latter half of the 13th century a petty Wallach chief of Transylvania, Radu Negru of Fogarasch, entered Wallachia, took possession of a por- tion of the country, divided it among his nobles, founded a senate of twelve members and an elective monar- ch}^, and gradually conquered the whole of Wallachia. Rather less than a century later (1354) a similar attempt, also successful, was made by a Wallach chief of the Hun- garian Marmarosh, of the name of Bogdan, to repeople Moldavia. In the beginning of the 16th century both principalities placed themselves under the protection of the porte, and gradually the nobles or boyars lost the right of electing their own ruler, whose office was bought in Constantinople. After 1711 the Turks governed the countries by Fanariot princes, who in reality only farmed the revenues, enriched themselves, and impoverished the land. In 1802 the Russians wrested from Turkey the right of surveillance over the principalities. A great number of the nobles, through family marriages with the Fanariots, were now of Greek descent, the court tongue was Greek, and the religious and political sym- pathies of the country were the same : hence the effort of the principalities in 1821 to emancipate themselves from Turkish authority, which was only the prelude to the greater and more successful struggle in Greece itself. In 1822 Russia forced Turkey to choose the princes or hospodars of AVallachia and Moldavia from natives, and not from the corrupt Greeks of Constantinople, and after 1829 to allow them to hold their dignity for life. The principalities were united, as has been already mentioned, under one ruler in 1858, and under one administration in 18G1. In 1866 the Wallachians refused to endorse the reign of Cusa, and, with the consent of Turkey and the great Powers, prince Charles of HohenzoUern was called to govern the united principalities. He was the first to call the country Roumania. To this day (1875) he re- mains its ruler.