Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/28

Rh 16 ROUMANIA An official analysis of the occupations of the people gives the following results (the figures representing heads of families) : Agriculturists 684,168 Artisans and labourers 83,061 Traders .30,417 Officials 22,811 Professors and teachers 6,066 Medical and legal professions nnd druggists.. 995 Artists, musicians, and publicists 2,156 Priests, monks, and nuns 18,452 Various 125,815 Total 973,941 Of the larger cities Bucharest (Bucurest) numbered in 1876 221,805 inhabitants, Jassy 90,125, and Galatz 80,763. Educa- In 1883 there were 2742 primary schools with 124,130 pupils, tion. 8 normal schools with 830 pupils, and 54 high schools with 7993 pupils, besides the two universities of Bucharest and Jassy, con- taining 97 professors and readers and 705 students. It is estimated that about 1000 young men receive their university education abroad, mostly at Paris. There is also a ladies' college, called the Asyle Helene from its founder in its present form, the Princess Helena Cuza, and accommodating 230 girls, many of whom are Learned orphans. Amongst learned institutions the Roumanian Academy institu- claims the first place, and excellent contributions on subjects of tions. national and scientific interest will be found amongst its proceed- ings (Analcle Academiei Romane, 1878 sq.). The academy building at Bucharest contains the national library of over 30,000 volumes and a fine archaeological museum containing many Old Dacian antiquities. Army. The peace strength of the permanent army consists of 1200 officers and 18,532 men, with 180 guns. Besides this, there are the territorial army, consisting of 120,000 men and 84 guns ; the militia, consisting of thirty-two regiments of infantry ; and finally the levte en masse. Every Roumanian, from his twenty-first to his forty-sixth year, is obliged to serve his time in one of the above categories. The total of the Roumanian forces, exclusive of the levte en masse, amounts to about 150,000 men and 288 guns. Mediaeval and Modern History of Walachia and Moldavia. Roumania is the name officially adopted by the united kingdom that comprises the former principalities of Walachia and Moldavia. In its native form it appears simply as "Romania," representing the claim to Roman descent put forward by its inhabitants. These call themselves " Romani " or " Rumeni, " but by their neighbours, Slavonic, Greek, Magyar, and German, they are universally known by one or other form of the word "Vlach." As, however, this Vlach or Rouman race occupies a far wider area than that included in the present Roumanian kingdom, it may be convenient to post- pone the vexed questions connected with its origin, migrations, and distribution for more general treatment under the heading VLACHS, and to confine ourselves on this occasion to Roumania proper the country between the Carpathians, the Lower Danube, and the Black Sea. It may be sufficient here to observe that, according to the concurrent accounts from various sources, the great plains of the later Walachian and Moldavian principalities were first occupied by an immigrant Rouman population coming from the Carpathian lands and the present Transylvania in the early Middle Ages. According to the Russian Nestor and the earliest Hungarian chroniclers, the Carpathian region, including tracts of eastern Hungary, were occupied by a Rouman (" Roman ") population at the time of the Magyar invasion in the 9th century. On the other hand, the meagre annals of the plains that lie on the left bank of the Lower Danube are exclusively occupied till at least the llth century with Slovenes, Petchenegs, Cumans, and Bulgarians. Whatever title the Carpathian Roumans may have to be considered the descendants in situ of the Romanized pro- vincials of Trajan's Dacia, it seems fairly ascertained that the present extension of this easternmost branch of the Latin peoples over the Walachian and Moldavian plains is due to a colonizing movement from the Alpine regions to the west, effected for the most part in the 12th and succeeding centuries. Walachia. For the early history of the Walachian (Valachian, or Wallachian) principality the native sources are late and untrust- worthy. These sources really reduce themselves to a single chron- icle, a part of which appears to have been drawn up in the 16th century in Bulgaro-Slovene, and of which two Rouman translations Radul have seen the light. This "History of the Rouman land since Negru. the arrival of the Roumans " (Istoria tierei Romancsci de cdndtt au desc&licata Romanii) gives a precise account of the founding of the Walachian state by Radul Negru, voivode of the Roumans of Fogaras in Transylvania, who in 1290 descended with a numerous people into the Transalpine plain and established his capital first at Cimpulungu and then at Argish. Radul dies in 1314 and is succeeded by a series of voivodes whose names and dates are duly given ; but this early chapter of Walachian history has been rudely handled by Roesler in his essay on the oldest history of the Walachian voivodeship (Romanisclic Studicn, p. 261 sq. ). The so- called " Chronicle of Hurul " is a modern forgery, and our only real authorities for the beginnings of Roumanian history are Hungarian, Polish, and Byzantine. In 1330 the voivode Alexander Bazarad or Bassaraba succeeded Hun- in inflicting a crushing defeat on his suzerain King Charles of garian Hungary, and for fourteen years Wallachia enjoyed complete hide- sujire- pendence. Louis the Great succeeded for a while in restoring the macy. Hungarian supremacy, but in 1367 the voivode Vlad or Vladislav inflicted another severe defeat on the Hungarians, and succeeded for a time in ousting the Magyar ban of Severin and thus incor- lorating Little Walachia, the country west of the Aluta, in his ominions. Subsequently, in order to retain a hold on the loyalty of the Walachian voivode, the king of Hungary invested him with the title of duke of Fogaras and Omlas, Kouman districts situate in Transylvania, and this investiture seems to have left its impress on the traditional account of Radul Negru. Under the voivode Mircea (1383-1419), whose prowess is still Mircea. celebrated in the national folk-songs, Walnchia played for a while a more ambitious part. This prince, during the earlier part of his reign, sought a counterpoise to Hungarian influence in the close alliance with King Vladislav Jagieifo of Poland. He added to his other titles that of "count of Severin, despot of the Dobrudja, and lord of Silistria," and both Widin and Sistov appear in his pos- session. A Walachian contingent, apparently Mircea's, aided the Servian Kniaz Lazar on the fatal field of Kosovo ; later ho was led by the force of circumstances to ally himself with his former enemy Sigismund of Hungary against Bajazet, and in 1396 shared with him the disaster of Nikopolis. Bajazet subsequently invaded and laid waste a large part of Walachia, but the voivode succeeded in inflicting considerable loss on the retiring Turks, and the capture of Bajazet by Timur in 1402 gave the country a reprieve. In the internecine struggle that followed amongst the sons of Bajazet, Mircea espoused the cause of Musa ; but, though he thus obtained for a while considerable influence in the Turkish councils, this policy eventually drew on him the vengeance of Sultan Mahomet I., who succeeded in reducing him to a tributary position. During the succeeding period the Walachian princes appeal- alternately as the allies of Hungary or the creatures of the Turk. In the later battle of Kosovo of 1448, between Hunyadiand Sultan Murad, the Walachian contingent treacherously surrendered to the Turks, but this did not hinder the victorious sultan from massacring the prisoners and adding to the tribute a yearly contribution of 3000 javelins and 4000 shields. In 1453 Constantinople fell ; in 1454 Hunyadi died ; and two years later the sultan invaded Walachia to set up Vlad IV., the son of a former voivode. The Vlad the father of this Vlad had himself been notorious for his ferocity, Impaler. but his son, during his Turkish sojourn, had improved on his father's example. He was known in Walachia as " Dracul," or the Devil, and has left a name in history as Vlad the Impaler. The stories of his ferocious savagery exceed belief. He is said to have feasted amongst his impaled victims. When the sultan Mahomet, infuriated at the impalement of his envoy, the pasha of Widin, who had been charged with Vlad's deposition, invaded Walachia in person with an immense host, he is said to have found at one spot a forest of pales on which were the bodies of men, women, and children. The voivode Radul, who was now substituted for this monster by Turkish influence, was constrained to pay a tribute of 12,000 ducats. The shifting policy of the Walachian princes at this time is State of well described in a letter of the Hungarian king Matthias to Walachii Casimir of Poland. " The voivodes," he writes, " of Walachia and circ. Moldavia fawn alternately upon the Turks, the Tatars, the Poles, 1500. and the Hungarians, that among so many masters their perfidy may remain unpunished." The prevalent laxity of marriage, the frequency of divorce, and the fact that illegitimate children could succeed as well as those born in lawful wedlock, by multiplying the candidates for the voivodeship and preventing any regular system of succession, contributed much to the internal confusion of trie country. The elections, though often controlled by the Divan, were still constitutionally in the hands of the boiars, who were split up into various factions, each with its own pretender to the throne. The princes followed one another in rapid succession, and a large proportion met with violent ends. A large part of the population led a pastoral life, and at the time of Verantius's visit to Walachia in the early part of the 16th century the towns and villages were built of wood and wattle and daub. Tirgovist alone, at this time the capital of the country, was a considerable town, with two stone castles. Nagul Bassaraba, who succeeded in 1512, was a great builder of monasteries, and, besides erecting a monastic church at Argish, which he coated with white marble, and a new cathedral at Tirgovist, adorned Mount Athos with his pious works. He transferred the direct allegiance of the Walachian Church to Constantinople. On Nagul s death, however, in 1521, the brief period of comparative prosperity which his architectural works attest was tragically interrupted, and it seemed for a time