Ottomans
Romania and the Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire was an imperial power centered around the borders of the Mediterranean Sea, that existed from 1299, when Osman I declared the independence of the Ottoman Principality, to 1923, after the Treaty of Sčvres following the World War I. At that times, the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia represented one of the barriers Europe benefited of against the Ottoman Empire.
Wallachia
The
Ottoman Turks crossed the Bosporus in 1352 and Wallachia's Prince Mircea
the Elder (Mircea cel Bătrân, 1386-1418) sent his forces to the Battle
of Rovine in the 1394. The Romanians won, but, the Wallachian prince
was obliged to fled to Transylvania. He enlisted his forces in a crusade
called by King Sigismund of Hungary, but the Turks routed Sigismund's
forces in 1396 at Nicopolis. In 1402 the Mongol leader Tamerlane attacked
the Ottomans from the east, captured the sultan Bayezid I in the Battle of
Ankara, who committed suicide and sparked a civil war. When peace
returned, the Ottomans renewed their assault on the Balkans. In 1417
Mircea capitulated to Sultan Mehmed I and agreed to pay an annual tribute
and surrender territory; in return the sultan allowed Wallachia to remain
a principality and to retain the Eastern Orthodox faith, but Wallachia
lost lost Dobrudja and the ports of Giurgiu and Turnu on the left bank of
the Danube.
When Constantinople succumbed to Mohammed II in 1453, the Ottomans cut off Genoese and Venetian galleys from Black Sea ports, trade ceased, and the Romanian principalities' isolation deepened.
Moldavia
The descendants of the prince Bogdan from Moldavia did not face the Ottoman danger from the very beginning, but they had to put into practice a skilful policy of equilibrium between Poland and Hungary. Among them, Petru Musat (Peter Musat the First) and Alexandru cel Bun (Alexander the Good) (1400-1432) became outstanding personalities of the area.
Moldavia
and its prince Stephen the Great (Ştefan cel Mare: 1457-1504),
were the principalities' last hope of repelling the Ottoman threat.
Stephen drew on Moldavia's peasantry to raise a 55,000-man army and
repelled the invading forces of Hungary's King Matthias Corvinus in
the Battle of Baia in 1467. In 1471 Stephen's army invaded
Wallachia and defeated the Turks when they retaliated in 1473 and 1474.
After these victories, Stephen implored Pope
Sixtus IV to forge a Christian alliance against the Turks. The pope
replied with a letter naming Stephen an "Athlete of Christ", but
he did not heed Stephen's calls for Christian unity. During the last
decades of Stephen's reign, the Turks increased the pressure on Moldavia.
They captured key Black Sea ports in 1484 and burned Moldavia's capital,
Suceava, in 1485. Stephen rebounded with a victory in 1486 but thereafter
confined his efforts to secure Moldavia's independence to the diplomatic
arena. Frustrated by vain attempts to unite the West against the Turks,
Stephen, on his deathbed, reportedly told his son to submit to the Turks
if they offered an honorable suzerainty. Succession struggles weakened
Moldavia after his death.
Transylvania
The voivode of Transylvania John Hunyadi (Iancu de Hunedoara, 1441-1456) fought heavy defense battles against the Ottoman Turks, delaying their expansion to Central Europe. At the same time, as he was leading the opposition of the whole area. After the king Wladislaus III of Poland fell in action during the Battle of Varna in the year 1444, he was elected governor, but he died of plague soon after the battle.
In 1514, nobles and a crusade sparked a peasant revolt in Hungary and Transylvania. Peasants under George Dozsa sacked estates across the country, but they suffered a decisive defeat at Timisoara. Dozsa and the other rebel leaders were tortured and executed. After the revolt, the Hungarian nobles enacted laws that condemned the serfs to eternal bondage and increased their work obligations. With the serfs and nobles deeply alienated from each other and jealous magnates challenging the king's power, Hungary was vulnerable to outside aggression.
Suleiman the Magnificent stormed Belgrade in 1521, the Hungarian Kingdom disappeared following the Battle of Mohacs (1526), and the Ottomans conquered Buda in 1541. They installed a pasha to rule over central Hungary; Transylvania became an autonomous principality under Ottoman suzerainty; and the Habsburgs assumed control over fragments of northern and western Hungary.
The Protestant Reformation spread rapidly in Transylvania after Hungary's collapse, and the region became one of Europe's Protestant strongholds. Transylvania's Germans adopted Lutheranism, and many Hungarians converted to Calvinism. However, the Protestants, who printed and distributed catechisms in the Romanian language, failed to lure many Romanians from Orthodoxy. In 1571 the Transylvanian Diet approved a law guaranteeing freedom of worship and equal rights for Transylvania's four "received" religions: Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, and Unitarian.
Romanian unification
Native princes governed Transylvania from 1540 to 1690, chosen by the Transylvania's ruling families, mostly Hungarian, subject to the Empire confirmation. After the conquer of Buda, Wallachian and Moldavian princes were chosen by the Ottomans among the sons of noble hostages or refugees at Constantinople. The Transylvanian Diet became a parliament, and the Transylvanian Estates revived the Union of Three Nations, which still excluded the serfs (and the vast majority of Romanians) from political power. Princes took pains to separate Transylvania's Romanians from those in Wallachia and Moldavia and forbade Eastern Orthodox priests to enter Transylvania from Wallachia. In the peaceful moments of their history, when they were not forced to strive for their independence, Romanians bent towards culture and the works of art. Imposing princely palaces were built at Câmpulung-Muscel, Curtea de Arges and Târgoviste in Wallachia, at Suceava and Iasi in Moldavia, alongside a number of defence cities (Poienari, Cetatea Neamtului, Suceava, Chilia, Cetatea Alba etc.) and beautiful monasteries (Tismana, Cozia, Dealu, Curtea de Arges, Neamt, Putna, Voronet, Sucevita).
The
Romanians' final hero before the Turks and Greeks closed their
stranglehold on the principalities was Wallachia's Michael
the Brave (Mihai Viteazul, 1593-1601). He became voivode of Wallachia
in 1593 and, with Sigismund Bathory of Transylvania and Aron Vodă
of Moldavia, he joined the Christian League, an anti-Ottoman
coalition initiated by the Papacy
and the Holy Roman Empire among Austria, Mantua, Ferrara, Spain. In the
year 1595, the Turks were defeated at Călugăreni, situated
between Bucharest and the Danubian port of Giurgiu.
In 1599 the prince Sigismund Bathory abandoned the Principality of Transylvania in favor of his cousin, the cardinal Andre Bŕthory who negotiated a pact with the Ottomans. At that moment, Michael the Brave crossed the mountains. On October 18, 1599 he won the Battle of Şelimbăr, near Sibiu, gaining the control of Transylvania and, afterwards, he made his entry in Alba Iulia.
On May 8, 1600, Michael's forces defeated the combined Polish and Moldavian army of Ieremia Movilă in the Battle of Bacău, and he entitled himself prince of the three countries, (Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia) which he governed, however, separately.
The neighboring great-powers (the Ottoman Empire, Poland, and the Hapsburg Empire) became increasingly hostile to Michael and he incurred also the hostility of the nobility of Transylvania, who revolted against him. The prince lost the Battle of Mirăslău, that opposed him to the nobles of Transylvania allied with the imperial general Giorgio Basta, on September 18, 1600. A Polish army led by Jan Zamoyski drove the Wallachians from Moldavia, and defeated Michael at Năieni, Ceptura, and Bucov. The Polish army also entered eastern Wallachia and established Simion Movilă as the ruler: forces loyal to Michael remained only in Oltenia. Michael asked for assistance from Rudolf II, the reigning Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary. However, he received help only when the emperor heard that Basta had lost control of Transylvania to the Hungarian nobleman lead by Sigismund Bathory. Meanwhile, forces loyal to Michael in Wallachia drove out Simion Movilă. Michael, allied with Basta, defeated the Hungarian noblemen at Gurăslău, but Basta ordered the assassination of Michael in Câmpia Turzii, on 9 August 1601.
