Our journey begins a long time ago when Romania was known as Dacia. Tribes lived there, and their ruler was called Decebal. Still, they had a powerful enemy: the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire had plans for those tribes. It wanted to conquer them. After two big battles, the Roman Empire only managed to conquer a part of Dacia. And there the Romans found a home for many years. It was then when the Romanian language and people took birth.
After a period of time, barbarians wanted to conquer the land because of its treasures. The Romans left Dacia and so the territory got split. It stayed that way for a very long time. In time, the Romanian territories became three. They were called principalities and were named Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania. This is where Vlad Dracul steps into the story. He became the ruler of Wallachia. He fought against the Ottoman Empire that wanted to conquer Wallachia. Vlad Dracul managed to keep the Empire away, but after his death, the threat remained.
It’s true: as principalities, Romanians had a lot of enemies. And then they had the idea: they had to be united. The first Romanian ruler who did that was Mihai Viteazul (Michael the Brave). It was for a short period of time though. He died and the Romanian principalities got split once again.
Many years passed. Romanians wanted to become one. However, there were many people who wanted them split. Why? Because split, they didn’t have so much power. But a brave Romanian ruler managed the impossible. He united two of the three principalities: Wallachia and Moldavia. His name: Alexandru Ioan Cuza (Alexander John Cuza). Romania was one step closer to turn into a true country.
World War I came and brought bad things with it. But it brought some good news for Romanians. After the war ended, Prince Carol I, part of the Hohenzollern royal family, united Transylvania with Romania. Finally, they were all united! And Carol I became king of Romania.
And this is how, after a long period of time, Romanians were able to live together. There were no more boundaries between them. Today, Romania is not a kingdom, like the Great Britain. It has a president, just like the United States. In the end, history teaches us that the best and easiest way to live is peacefully. When there is peace, children can learn and play, and history becomes just another story about each other.
Online Romanian lessons for kids: dinolingo.com