Military history of Romania
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The military
During
For 1000 years, numerous migrating people including the
overran the territory of modern Romania.During the
The
The 19th century saw the formation of the modern Romanian state through the unification of Moldavia and Wallachia. Independence from the Ottoman Empire was secured after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 and Romania became a kingdom in 1881. The participation on the Allied (Entente) side during World War I triggered the unification of the remaining Romanian inhabited territories with the kingdom, thus forming Greater Romania.
Romania reached its zenith during the inter-war period. After World War II, it was reduced to its modern borders and fell in the Soviet sphere of influence.
Themes in Romanian military history
The national unity objective
The primary objective of the Romanian leadership in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century was to join all the territories inhabited by
Important military rivalries resulted from the clash of Romania's national interests with the interests of neighbouring countries in the past.
- Romanian-Hungarian rivalry for the control of Transylvania. It started at the end of World War I when Transylvania was awarded to Romania through the Treaty of Trianon. Transylvania had an absolute Romanian majority in 1918, but had been for extensive periods of time under Hungarian rule. In 1940, Northern Transylvania was given to Hungary at the Second Vienna Award only to be ceded back to Romania in 1945. After 1989, relations between the two countries flourished, especially after both Romania and Hungary entered NATO and the European Union. Hungary renounced all territorial claims to Transylvania in a 1995 bilateral treaty.
- Romanian-Bulgarian rivalry was triggered by the Romanian annexation of Treaty of Neuilly. With the advent of World War II, Bulgaria regained the region in the September 1940 Axis-sponsored Treaty of Craiova. Since then relations between both countries normalised.
- Romanian-Russian/Soviet rivalry erupted because of the Russian occupation of Eastern Moldavia (Bessarabia), a territory which had been part of the Principality of Hotin regions) are in Ukraine.
The regional balance of power
During the
Dacians and Romans
The
In (335 BC), Alexander the Great engaged the Thracians in order to secure the northern boundary of the Macedonian kingdom. He crossed the Danube and made a short incursion on the Getae living north of the river.
Lysimachus, one of the successors of Alexander, who ruled over Thrace, Asia Minor and Macedonia tried to conquer territories north of the Danube, but was defeated and taken prisoner by the Getae king Dromichaetes. However, Dromichaetes set him free on amicable terms.
Dacian Wars
Faced with the growing military presence of the
A strong offensive was carried in 87 when five or six legions commanded by general
The Roman offensive continued the following year, with general Tettius Iulianus now in command. The Roman army entered Dacia following the same route as Cornelius Fuscus the previous year. The battle took place mainly in the same area, at Tapae, this time the outcome being a Roman victory. Because of the difficult road to Sarmizegetusa and the defeats suffered by Domitian in Pannonia, the Roman offensive was halted and Decebalus sued for peace.
According to the peace of 89, Decebalus became a client king of Rome receiving money, craftsmen and war machines from the Roman Empire, to defend the empire's borders. Instead of using the money as Rome intended, Decebalus decided to build new citadels in the mountains and to reinforce the already existing ones. This was the main reason for the following Roman attack under emperor Trajan.
In 101 Trajan (reigned 98–117), after gaining the approval of the Roman Senate, began advancing on Dacia. A stone bridge later known as Trajan's bridge was constructed over the Danube to assist the legionaries' advance. The Roman offensive was spearheaded by two legionary columns, marching right to the heart of Dacia, burning towns and villages in the process. In the winter of 101–102, the Dacians led massive assaults on the legions stationed in Moesia, but were defeated by Trajan in the Battle of Adamclisi. In 102 the Roman armies converged for a final assault and defeated the Dacian army at the third Battle of Tapae. After the battle, Decebalus chose to surrender. The war concluded with a Roman victory but the Dacians planned to organize further resistance.
Trajan invaded again in 105, this time with the intention of transforming Dacia into a Roman province. After several skirmishes, an assault against the capital Sarmisegetusa took place in 106 with the participation of the legions II Adiutrix, IV Flavia Felix and a cavalry detachment (vexillatio) from Legio VI Ferrata. The Romans destroyed the water pipes to the capital and the city fell. Decebalus fled, but committed suicide rather than face capture. Nevertheless, the war went on and the last battle with the Dacian army took place at Porolissum. At the end of the war the Romans organized the province of Dacia on large parts of the former Dacian kingdom. The Roman rule would last from 106 until 271 (or 275 according to some sources).
This may be relevant, because according to the Daco-Roman theory, one of the theories on the origin of Romanian speakers, the Wallachians are relatives of the Dacians.
Roman Dacia
The province of Dacia was administered by a Roman governor of praetorian rank. Legio XIII Gemina (stationed at
Dacians were recruited into the Roman Army, and were employed in the construction and guarding of Hadrian's Wall in Britannia, or elsewhere in the Roman Empire. Several Cohors Primae Dacorum ("First cohort of Dacians") and Alae Dacorum fighting in the ranks of legions were stationed in Britannia at Deva (Chester), Vindolanda (on the Stanegate) and Banna (Birdoswald).
In the third century, the attacks on Roman Dacia conducted by the
At the beginning of the next century, Romans had tried to retake control of the north of the Danube: in Constantine the Great's campaign from 332, 100,000 Goths were killed in battles on north of the Danube.[2][3][4] For a very short time, near 328, there were plans regain administration of the north of the Danube; a stone bridge was erected between Sucidava and Oescus. After 334 AD, in Constantine the Great's campaign, 300,000 Sarmatians were evacuated from the north of the Danube, and the Roman limes were once again reestablished on Danube.[3][5][6][7]
Early Middle ages
During the Early Middle Ages, the Northern Balkan Peninsula became a conduit for invading tribes who targeted richer lands further west and south. Information about the military operations conducted in this period is very scarce.
The territory of modern Romania was part of the
The Byzantine Empire held the region between the Danube and the Black Sea (modern Dobruja) from time to time (such as during Justinian's reign in the 6th century) or again under some emperors of the Macedonian and Komnenian dynasties, being part of the Byzantine Paristrion thema (province) between in the period 971–976 and between 1001 and 1185, although it was a border that was hard to maintain due to the constant invasions from the north. Dobrudja was part of the Bulgarian Empire during its whole period of existence. The area around the Danube Delta was the site of battle of Ongal in 680 which led to the formation of Bulgaria in 681.[8] Since the formation of the country the Bulgarians controlled the Wallachian Plain and Bessarabia to the north of the Danube, bordering the Avars to the north-west.[9] The Bulgarians under Khan Krum destroyed the crumbling Avar Khanate in 803 and moved the border along the river Tisza,[10] thus including Transylvania and parts of Pannonia in the Bulgarian state. In a military conflict with the Franks between 827–829 the Bulgarians secured their border with the Frankish Empire.
At the end of the 10th century, Dobruja was the theatre of operations between the Kievan Rus army led by Prince
High and Late Middle Ages
Transylvania and the Mongol Invasion of 1241
From the 11th century until 1541
In 1241 Transylvania suffered greatly during the
Güyük invaded Transylvania in three columns through the
Wallachia and Moldavia
The lands east and south of the Carpathians fell under Mongol occupation after 1241, until the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia emerged in the 14th century as Hungarian vassals.
In 1330
In the same period,
Anti-Ottoman Wars
The Ottoman Empire became a major military power in the later 14th century, when they conquered Anatolia, most of the Balkans and were threatening Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire.
Conflict firstly erupted between the Ottomans led by
In 1394 Beyazid I crossed the Danube, leading a strong army with the purpose of overthrowing Mircea and replacing him with an Ottoman vassal. The Wallachians adopted scorched earth and
The defeat and capture of sultan Beyazid I by
Wallachia fell into anarchy following Mircea's death in 1418. After 1420 control of the principality changed hands until Alexander I Aldea, an Ottoman vassal was installed. King Sigismund of Hungary arranged for Aldea's overthrow and replacement with his own vassal, Vlad II Dracul.
A series of anti-Ottoman offensives were carried by the Voivode of Transylvania, John Hunyadi. Hunyadi's forces soundly defeated the Turks in 1441 and 1442. A smaller crusading force commanded by Hunyadi, consisting of Hungarians, Wallachians under Vlad Dracul, Serbs, and a large contingent of German and French knights crossed the Danube into Serbia, defeated two Ottoman armies, captured Niš, crossed the Balkan Mountains in winter, and advanced as far as Sofia. The Turkish sultan Murad II, faced with revolts in Albania and the Peloponnese, negotiated with the crusaders, signing a ten-year truce at Edirne in 1444 that recognized Serbian independence and formally released Wallachia from Ottoman vassalage.
In 1444 Pope Eugenius urged the crusade's renewal, and Hunyadi marched eastward along the southern bank of the Danube, through northern Bulgaria, toward the Black Sea. The crusaders arrived at Varna in November 1444 only to discover that Murad II had assembled a powerful army to meet them. In the ensuing Battle of Varna, king Wladislaw of Poland and Hungary was killed and the crusader army was completely destroyed. Hunyadi escaped with a small portion of his troops, and was elected regent of Hungary in 1446.
In 1447 the Turks campaigned in Albania against Skanderbeg's rebels, but operations were cut short by news of a new crusader invasion led by Hunyadi. The crusaders, joined by troops sent by Skanderbeg and Voivode Vladislav II of Wallachia (1447–56), Hunyadi's Wallachian vassal met the Ottoman army in October 1448 at Kosovo Polje but were defeated.
Hunyadi secured victory at the
Wallachia, led by
Stephen the Great initially used the Ottoman vassalage inherited from his father as a tool against Hungary, Moldavia's traditional enemy. He participated in Mehmed II's invasion of Wallachia against his cousin Vlad the Impaler in 1462 because, at the time, Vlad was a Hungarian ally. An exceptional military commander and organizer, Stephen captured the Danube commercial city of Chilia from Wallachia in 1465 and defeated a Hungarian invasion of his state in 1467 at the Battle of Baia. As his successes both on the battlefield and in imposing his authority within Moldavia grew, Stephen ceased paying the annual tribute to the Ottomans, and his relationship with Mehmed II deteriorated. He invaded Wallachia in 1474 and ousted its prince, who was Mehmed's vassal. In response, Mehmed demanded that Stefan resume his tribute payments and turn over the city of Chilia as well. Stefan refused and soundly repulsed Mehmed's subsequent punitive invasion of Moldavia in early 1475 near Vaslui.
Stephen realized that Mehmed would seek to avenge the defeat, so he sought Hungarian aid by becoming the vassal of Matthias Corvinus. Mehmed personally led an invasion of Moldavia in 1476, and his forces plundered the country up to Suceava, Stephen's capital, winning the
Principality of Romania (1866–1881)
The Romanian War of Independence was a military conflict from 1877 to 1878. Fought as a part of the larger Russo-Turkish War, the conflict saw the Principality of Romania, at the time a nominal vassal of the Ottoman Empire, gain its independence from the Sublime Porte.
Kingdom of Romania (1881–1947)
The Kingdom of Romania was an active belligerent in the following military conflicts:
- 1907 Romanian Peasants' Revolt(1907)
- Second Balkan War (1913)
- World War I (1916–17; 1918)[note 1]
- Polish–Ukrainian War (1918–1919)
- Hungarian–Romanian War (1919)
- Bender Uprising (1919)
- Legionnaires' rebellion and Bucharest pogrom (1941)
- World War II (1941–1945)
Communist Romania (1947–1989)
The Romanian People's Republic (1947–1965) and the Socialist Republic of Romania (1965–1991) were active belligerents in the following military conflicts:
- Romanian anti-communist resistance movement (1947–1962)
- Romanian Revolution(1989)
Present-day Romania (1989–present)
The present state of Romania and the Romanian Armed Forces have participated in the following military conflicts:
- Gulf War (1990–1991)
- War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
- Iraq War (2003–2009)
- 2011 military intervention in Libya (2011)
See also
References
Notes
- ^ Romania participated on the side of the Allies from August 1916 to December 1917, when the Armistice of Focșani ended hostilities between Romania and the Central Powers. Romania reentered the war, again on the side of the Allies, in November 1918.
Citations
- ^ Stoica, Vasile (1919). The Roumanian Question: The Roumanians and their Lands. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Printing Company. p. 18.
- ^ Origo Constantini 6.32 mentions the actions
- ^ a b Eusebius Vita Constantini IV.6
- ^ Charles Manson Odahl, Constantine and the Christiane Empire chapter X
- ^ Barnes, Victories of Constantine, pp. 150–154
- ^ Grant, Constantine the Great, pp. 61–68
- ^ Charles Manson Odahl, Constantine and the Christian Empire Chapter X
- ^ Runciman, S. A History of the First Bulgarian Empire. Book I, pp. 26–27
- ^ Runciman, S. A History of the First Bulgarian Empire. Book I, pp. 27–28
- ^ Runciman, S. A History of the First Bulgarian Empire. Book II, pp. 50–51
Further reading
- UNRV History – Dacia
- Breviarium historiae Romanae by Eutropius