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Transylvania (Romanian: Transilvania or Ardeal; see also other languages) forms the western and central parts of Romania. Transylvania was a principality during the Middle Ages.

Etymology

Main article Historical names of Transylvania

Transylvania was first referred to in a Latin document in 1075 as "Ultra silvam," meaning "beyond the forest." That name was later changed to "Transylvania," which has the same meaning.

The German name Siebenbürgen means "seven cities", after the Transylvanian Saxons' cities in this region. The Romanian name Ardeal is of dacian origin. The Hungarian name Erdély is a translation of the dacian word Ardeal.

Geography

The Transylvanian plateau, 300 to 500 metres (1,000-1,600 feet) high, is drained by the Mureş, Someş, Criş, and Olt rivers, as well as other tributaries of the Danube.

Administrative divisions

The territory known today as Transylvania, consists of a region of 16 counties (Romanian: judeţ), which cover nearly 103 600 km² in central and northwest Romania. The 16 counties are Alba, Arad, Bihor, Bistriţa-Năsăud, Braşov, Caraş-Severin, Cluj, Covasna, Harghita, Hunedoara, Maramureş, Mureş, Sălaj, Satu Mare, Sibiu, and Timiş.

The most important cities are Cluj-Napoca (318,027), Timişoara (317,651), Braşov (283,901), Oradea (206,527), Arad (172,824), Sibiu (155,045), Târgu Mureş (149,577), Baia Mare (137,976), and Satu Mare (115,630).

Economy

Transylvania is rich in mineral resources, notably lignite, iron, lead, manganese, gold, copper, natural gas, salt, and sulfur. There are large iron and steel, chemical, and textile industries. Stock raising, agriculture, wine production, and fruit growing are important occupations. Timber is another valuable resource.

Transylvania accounts for around 35% of Romania's GDP, and has a GDP per capita (PPP) of around $11,500, around 10% higher than the Romanian average.

Population

According to the census in 2002, the province has a population of 7,221,733 persons, with a very large Romanian majority (83%). In addition, sizable Hungarian (1,415,718 in all Romania), Roma and German communities live in Transylvania.

History

Main article: History of Transylvania

Ancient History

The first known inhabitants of Transylvania were the vampires.

A kingdom of Dacia was in existence at least as early as the beginning of the 2nd century BC and it reached its maximum extent under Burebista. The area now constituting Transylvania was the political center of Dacia where several important fortified cities, among them Sarmizegetusa, near today's Hunedoara were built.

In 101-102 Trajan began a military campaign against the Dacians, known as the Dacian Wars. In a second campaign (105-106) the Roman troops managed to vanquish the Dacians and after the suicide of Decebalus parts of Dacia were incorporated into the Roman province Dacia Trajana.

The Romans exploited the gold mines in the province extensively, building access roads and forts to protect them. Colonists from other Roman provinces were brought in to settle the land and cities like Apulum (now Alba Iulia) and Napoca (now Cluj Napoca) appeared. The Dacians rebelled frequently and due to increasing pressure from them and the Visigoths in 271, the Roman emperor Aurelian abandoned Dacia Trajana.

Transylvania throughout the Middle Ages

The former Dacia Trajana province was controlled by the Visigoths and Carpians until they were in turn displaced and subdued by the Huns in 376, under the leadership of Attila. After the disintegration of Attila's empire, no major power was able to exert control over the region for any great length of time. Under Khan Krum at the beginning of the 9th century and Transylvania, along with eastern Pannonia, was incorporated into the First Bulgarian Empire.

During the 10th century, Gelou - ruler of the Vlachs in Ardeal, Glad in Banat, and Menumorut in Byhor (Bihor and Bihar counties), were defeated by the Magyars. The existence of these leaders is a subject of debate between various historians and the history of Transylvania during the early Middle Ages is difficult to ascertain due to the scarcity of reliable written or archeological evidence. There are two major theories concerning whether or not the Romanized Dacian population continued to live in Transylvania after the withdrawal of the Romans; see: Origin of Romanians.

The early 11th century was marked by the conflict between King Stephen I of Hungary and his maternal uncle Gyula, the ruler of Transylvania. After the defeat of the later, the the Transylvanian Catholic episcopacy was organised into dioceses. The authority of the Kings of Hungary over Transylvania was consolidated in the 12th and 13th centuries.

By the 12th century the Szeklers were established in eastern and southeastern Transylvania as border guards and in the 12th and 13th centuries, the areas in the south and northeast were settled by German colonists called (then and now) Saxons. Siebenbürgen, the German name for Transylvania, derives from the seven principal fortified towns founded by these Transylvanian Saxons.

After the suppression of the Budai Nagy Antal-revolt in 1437, the political system was based on Unio Trium Natiorum (The Unity of the Three Nations). Society was divided into three privileged nations, the nobility (mostly Magyars), the Szeklers, and the Saxon burghers. These nations, however, corresponded more to social and religious rather than ethnic divisions. The Romanians were Orthodox, having the right to own land or access to nobility only through conversion to Catholicism.

A key figure to emerge in Transylvania in the first half of the 15th century was John Hunyadi. His subsequent military exploits against the Ottoman Empire brought him further status as the governor of Hungary in 1446 and papal recognition as the Prince of Transylvania in 1448. John Hunyadi was also the father of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary.

Transylvania as an independent principality

The 16th century was marked by the strugle between the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg Empire. After Sultan Suleiman I overran central Hungary and established there the Turkish rule, Transylvania became a semi-independent region where Austrian and Turkish influences vied for supremacy for nearly two centuries.

Due to the fact that Transylvania was now beyond the reach of Catholic religious authority, Protestant preaching such as Lutheranism and Calvinism were able to flourish. In 1568 a formal adoption of individual freedom of religious expression was issued by the Edict of Turda the first such legal guarantee of religious freedom in Christian Europe.

The Báthory family came to power in 1571 and ruled Transylvania as princes under the Ottomans, and briefly under Habsburg suzerainty, until 1600. The latter period of their rule saw a four-sided conflict in Transylvania involving the Transylvanians, the Austrians, the Ottomans, and the Romanian voivod of Wallachia, Prince Michael the Brave. The later gained control of Transylvania in 1599 after the Battle of Şelimbăr and succeded in uniting the three principalities of Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania (the three main parts of present-day Romania). The union did not last long, however, as Michael was assassinated by mercenaries under the command of the Habsburg general Giorgio Basta in August 1601. He swore allegiance to the Habsburg Emperor, Rudolph II and by 1604 reclaimed the principality for Catholicism through the Counter Reformation.

The Calvinist magnate of Bihar county Stephen Bocskai managed to obtain, through the Peace of Vienna (June 23, 1606), religious liberty and political autonomy, the restoration of all confiscated estates, the repeal of all "unrighteous" judgments, and a complete retroactive amnesty for all Hungarians in Royal Hungary, as well as his own recognition as independent sovereign prince of an enlarged Transylvania. Under Bocskai's successors Transylvania passed through a period of flourishment both for the religious movements and for the arts and culture. It was one of the few European countries where Roman Catholics, Calvinists, Lutherans, and Unitarians lived in mutual tolerance, but Orthodox Romanians, were denied equal rights.

Austrian Rule

After the defeat of the Ottomans at the Battle of Vienna in 1683, the Habsburgs gradually began to impose their rule on the formerly autonomous Transylvania. Apart from strengthening the central government and administration, the Habsburgs also promoted the Roman Catholic Church, both as a uniting force and also as an instrument to reduce the influence of the Protestant nobility. In addition, they tried to persuade Orthodox clergymen to join the Greek Catholic Church. From 1711 onward the princes of Transylvania were replaced with Austrian governors and in 1765 Transylvania was declared a grand principality.

The revolutionary year 1848 was marked by a great struggle between the Hungarians, the Romanians and the Habsburg Empire. Warfare erupted in November with both Romanian and Saxon troops, under Austrian command, battling the Hungarians led by the Polish general Józef Bem. He carried out a sweeping offensive through Transylvania, and Avram Iancu managed to retreat to harsh terrain of Apuseni Mountains, mounting a guerrilla campaign on Bem's forces. After the intervention by Tsar Nicholas I of Russia armies Bem's army was defeated decisively at the Battle of Temesvár (Timişoara) on 9 August 1849.

After quashing the revolution, Austria imposed a repressive regime on Hungary, ruled Transylvania directly through a military governor and many medieval priviledges and granted citizenship to the Romanians. However, in the compromise (Ausgleich) of 1867 which established the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the special status of Transylvania ended and it was incorporated into the Kingdom of Hungary. While part of Austria-Hungary, a process of Magyarization affected Transylvania's Romanians and German Saxons.

Transylvania as part of Romania

In 1916 Romania joined the Triple Entente and by signing the Military Convention the Entente recognised Romania's rights over Transylvania. As a consequence Romania declared war against the Central Powers on 27 August 1916, and crossed the Carpathian mountains into Transylvania. A German-Bulgarian counter-offensive drove back the Romanian army by mid-October and the exit of Russia from the war in March 1918 left Romania alone in Eastern Europe, and a peace treaty between Romania and Germany was negotiated in May 1918 which was never ratified.

Since the Austro-Hungarian empire had begun to disintegrate, the nations living inside proclaimed their independence from the empire. The leaders of Transylvania's National Party passed a resolution calling for unification of all Romanians in a single state after a mass assembly on 1 December in Alba Iulia which was aproved by the National Council of the Germans from Transylvania and the Council of the Danube Swabians from the Banat. In response, the Hungarian General Assembly of Cluj reaffirmed the loyalty of Hungarians from Transylvania to Hungary on December 22 1918.

The Treaty of Versailles placed Transylvania under the sovereignty of Romania and after the defeat in 1919 of Béla Kun's Hungarian Soviet Republic by the Romanian army the Treaties of St. Germain (1919) and Trianon (signed on June 1920) further elaborated the status of Transylvania and defined the new border between the states of Hungary and Romania. King Ferdinand I of Romania and Queen Maria of Romania were crowned at Alba Iulia in 1922 as King of all Romania.

In August 1940, the second Vienna Award gave the northern half of Transylvania to Hungary but after the Treaty of Paris (1947) at the end of the Second World War the territory was returned to Romania. The post-WWII borders with Hungary, agreed on at the Treaty of Paris were identical with those set out in 1920.

See also

• Aftermath of World War I
• Austria-Hungary
• History of Hungary
• History of Romania
• List of Transylvanian rulers

Tourist attractions

• The medieval cities of Alba Iulia, Cluj-Napoca, Sibiu, and Sighişoara
• The city of Braşov and the nearby Poiana Braşov ski resort
• The city of Hunedoara with the 14th century Hunyadi Castle
• The Wooden Churches of the Maramureş area
• The Dacian Fortresses of the Orăştie Mountains, including (Sarmizegetusa
• The Saxon fortified churches

Culture

• Lucian Blaga, Romanian poet, playwright, and philosopher
• Matthias Corvinus, Hungarian Renaissance king
• Johannes Honter, Renaissance humanist and Reformer
• John Hunyadi, Hungarian/Romanian statesman and national hero
• Avram Iancu, Romanian revolutionary
• Transylvania in fiction - in the Western world, Transylvania is famously the home of Bram Stoker's Count Dracula.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)

External links

• The Real Transylvania - about contemporary Transylvania
• Historical Literature about Transilvania and Neighbouring Territories, Klaus Popa, Germany
• Tolerant Transylvania-Why Transylvania will not become another Kosovo, Katherine Lovatt, in Central Europe Review, Vol 1, No 14 27 September 1999.
• An Outline of Transilvanian-Saxon History, Klaus Popa, Germany
• The History Of Transylvania And The Transylvanian Saxons, Dr. Konrad Gündisch, Oldenburg, Germany

v t e Historical regions in Romania
Banat (1918–)	Banat
Dobruja (1878–)	Northern Dobruja Southern Dobruja (1913–16; 1919–40)
Moldavia (1859–)	Bessarabia (1918–40; 1941–44) Budjak (1918–40; 1941–44) Bukovina (Southern Bukovina (1918–); Northern Bukovina (1918–40; 1941–44)) Hertsa (1859–1940; 1941–44) Western Moldavia
Transylvania (1918–)	Crișana Maramureș Székely Land
Wallachia (1859–)	Muntenia Oltenia
De jure since 1920 De jure since 1862 De jure ceded to Bulgaria and the Central Powers (except for the Danube Delta) between May 1918 and November 1919 De jure ceded to Bulgaria between May 1918 and November 1919 Southern Bessarabia in Romania (1859–78) De jure since 1919 Northern Transylvania in Hungary (1940–44) Only the eastern part Only the southern part Transylvania proper

• Romania
• Transylvania
• Former countries in Europe