Alternative History
Nation in Pharaonic Survival in Progress
----
Marquess of Ta Khesayt Noble Coat of Arms (Pharaonic Survival) Marquess of Ta Khesayt Noble Coat of Arms (Pharaonic Survival)
Flag Coats of Arms
Motto: 
----
Anthem: 
---- (----)
("----")
File:----
Pharaonic Survival Map
Capital
(and largest city)
----
Official languages ----
---- ----
Religion ----
Demonym ----
Government ----
 -  ---- ----
 -  ---- ----
Legislature ----
----
 -  ---- ---- 
 -  ---- ---- 
 -  ---- ---- 
 -  ---- ---- 
 -  ---- ---- 
Area
 -  Total ---- km2 
Expression error: Unexpected div operator. sq mi 
Population
 -   estimate ---- 
GDP (PPP) ---- estimate
 -  Total ---- 
 -  Per capita ---- 
GDP (nominal) ---- estimate
 -  Total ---- 
 -  Per capita ---- 
Gini (----) ---- 
HDI (----) ---- 
Currency ---- (----)
Time zone ----
Drives on the ----
Internet TLD ----
Calling code ----

Romania (Romanian: România), officially the Kingdom of Romania (Romanian: Regatul României) is a country located at the intersection of Central and Southeastern Europe, bordering the Black Sea. Romania is bordered to the north and northeast by Ukraine; to the south by Bulgaria; to the southwest by Serbia; to the west by the Danubia; and to the east by the Black Sea. At 238,400 km2, Romania is the eighth-largest country in the European Union by area, and has the seventh-largest population in the European Union with over 19 million inhabitants. Its capital and most populous city is Bucharest, the tenth-largest city in the EU.

The territory's recorded history includes periods of rule by the Dacians, the Roman Empire, the Bulgarian Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire. As a nation-state, the country was formed by the merger of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1859 and gained recognition of its independence in 1878. They were later joined in 1918 by Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia. At the end of World War II, parts of its territories (roughly today's Republic of Moldova) were occupied by the USSR and Romania became a member of the Warsaw Pact. From 1947 to 1965, the state was known as the Romanian People's Republic (Republica Populară Romînă, RPR). After that, it spent time under the eccentric dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, who was deposed and executed in December 1989.

The fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989 was followed by the well-known Romanian Revolution, which nevertheless led to the outbreak of a bloody civil war in Romania between 1990 and 1992, which after the defeat of the communists and the annexation of Moldova subsequently, initiated a series of political and economic reforms. After a decade of economic problems following the revolution and civil war, Romania implemented economic reforms such as low fixed tax rates in 2005 and joined the European Union on January 1, 2007. Although Romania's income level remains one of the lowest in the European Union, the reforms have increased the speed of growth. Romania is now an upper middle-income country.

Romania has the ninth-largest territory and the seventh-largest population (with 21.5 million people) among the member states of the European Union. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest (Romanian: Bucureşti [bukuˈreʃtj]), the sixth-largest city in the EU with 1.9 million inhabitants. In 2007, Sibiu, a city in Transylvania, was chosen as the European Capital of Culture. Romania also joined NATO on 29 March 2004 and is also a member of the Union Latina, Union de la Francophonie, the OSCE and an associate member of the CPLP. Romania is a semi-presidential unitary state.

Etymology[]

The term Romania, land of Romans, can be applied to the set of territories in which one of the Romance languages ​​is spoken. However, it ended up designating the eastern part of the Roman Empire, specifically the conquered and later colonized lands of ancient Dacia.

The fact that Romanians use for themselves a name derived from the Latin romanus (Roman in Spanish) is documented since the 16th century, even by Italian humanists who traveled to Transylvania, Moldavia and Wallachia.

The oldest known document in the Romanian language is from 1521, a letter written by Neacșu de Câmpulung to notify the mayor of Brașov of the imminent attack by the Ottomans. In this document, Wallachia (actually "Wallachia" is an exonym) is called Țara Românească (literally The Romanian Country, as român meant Romanian, and was a derivative of Râm, meaning Rome). In the following centuries, both forms — român and rumân — were used as gentiles for the country, but rumân came to mean serf, and, since the abolition of serfdom in 1746, the form rumân gradually disappeared. The name România with the meaning of Homeland of all Romanians appeared at the beginning of the 19th century.

Romania and Moldova are the only countries in Eastern Europe whose official language is of Romance origin. The figure of the great Roman emperor Trajan (who conquered part of Dacia) is invoked in the country's national anthem, composed during the Revolution of 1848.

History[]

Unification and the Balkan Wars[]

The United Principalities emerged when the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia were united under Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza in 1859. In 1881, Charles I of Romania was crowned, forming the Kingdom of Romania. Its independence from the Ottoman Empire was declared on 9 May 1877 and it was internationally recognised the following year. The new Romanian kingdom prospered under the new monarchy by gradually developing its industrial capacity and national infrastructure so that it could be a modern nation, but in return, the vast majority of the population (more than 80%) could not read or write and had even less access to basic services. But even so, the Romanian kingdom maintained a strong conservative aspect in its society that kept internal communist movements contained and at bay, which was also added to the repressive measures against communists and socialists, equally, liberal ideas within the country were quite considerable with the growing rhythms of social democratic current prospering and in an increasingly greater way.

The Romanian kingdom remained fairly quiet in its development for several years, maintaining strong territorial disputes with its neighbors being the most important; to the north with the regions of Bukovina and Bessarabia with the Russian Empire; to the west with Transylvania with the Empire of Austria-Hungary; and finally to the south with Southern Dobruja with Bulgaria. These territorial ambitions would be largely the basis of the Romanian expansionism and nationalism promoted by the national government. It is in this new century that the Romanian kingdom would begin its most important period of expansion in its entire history so far.

The modernization of the Romanian Navy was very much focused on the Balkans, as a massive modernization and purchase of warships by the nations in this region was taking place. With the Romanian population living on a subsistence economy, any small economic improvement would have given the Romanians enormous resources for their rearmament program. Therefore, when in 1902, there was an increase in exports and the income to the treasury had increased considerably at that time, the Royal Romanian Navy started its series of purchases and acquisitions for its new combat fleet. Three armored cruisers were purchased from France and the three ships were named after the Dacian kings (Rubobostes, Burebista and Decebal), also four destroyers and four torpedo boats from Italy and four more from Austria-Hungary. The ships were commissioned during the following years and would be fully operational in 1905-1906, placing the Romanian Navy as the third most important fleet in the Black Sea. However, the armoured cruisers had a very rough initial career, with the Decebal being capsized in a storm and then costly to salvage by its operators, with the rest having to be refitted to remove weight and add other improvements in the process. The Romanian fleet would see a fair amount of action in the following years, taking part in two of the most important conflicts in the Balkans.

Romania during the first months of 1912, faced with increasing tensions in the Balkans due to the conflict between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ottoman Empire, the Romanians declared themselves neutral, although they would maintain a strong position in favor of the Euro-Balkan League. When the war in the Balkans against the Ottomans took place and after their defeat in just over six months of war, immediate tensions occurred between the nations over the division of the territories occupied by the Ottomans, with the Bulgarians being the main instigators of the dispute due to their desire to annex North Macedonia under Serbian control, in this sense, the Romanians declared that in the event of a possible conflict between the allies, the country would not remain neutral due to its territorial ambitions over the region of Southern Dobruja under Bulgarian control. Thus, when the Bulgarians attacked their former allies and started the Second Balkan War in August 1913, the Romanians mobilized their forces and staged a surprise invasion in the completely unprotected Bulgarian north, which allowed them to successfully and almost unopposed advance on the capital of Sofia and forced the Bulgarians to sign the Treaty of Bucharest in September 1913, which gave full control of Southern Dobruja to Romania. This war was a milestone for the Romanians not only because of the speed of the victory but because there were some interesting actions, the most important being the first country to attack and fly over an enemy capital with aircraft at that time.

First World War[]

The involvement of the Romanian kingdom in the First World War was relatively late, after the outbreak of the conflict in 1914 in the Balkans, the Romanians adopted a neutral position towards the war, but maintained a position of support for Serbia (with whom they had fought against Bulgaria the previous year). Likewise, the Romanian monarchy led by the Hohenzollerns was more inclined to the Central Powers (especially Germany), but the government and a large part of the people were closer to the Entente (mainly France), which led to a tense division between both parties, so neutrality was chosen in the face of the situation.

Romania's positioning in the conflict became quite partial to the Entente as the Balkan nations joined one after another in the fray, with Greece and Bulgaria being the last to join in 1915. The Romanian situation became increasingly tense and unsustainable as all its neighbours were involved in the conflict, the Black Sea and the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits were turned into a war zone by the naval confrontation between the navies of the Russian and Ottoman Empires, which denied Romanian naval action due to the incursions of small Ottoman and Bulgarian ships in their vicinity, and the problem of Romanian trade being strangled by the protectionist and austere measures of Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria, with only the Russians willing to buy Romanian goods, albeit at a lower cost than normal. This situation of isolation was unbearable for the Romanians, who increasingly saw the Central Powers as an annoyance. Despite German attempts to win Romanians over to their side by giving up territories, the Austro-Hungarian refusal to give up territories in Transylvania, which was Romania's main claim to be on the side of the Central Powers, and the Bulgarian claim to Southern Dobruja, buried any union with them, while the Franco-British proposals were widely accepted by Romanian politicians who offered all territories in exchange for their union with the Entente, this issue finally made the Romanian monarchy agree to join the Allies to make real its territorial ambition of uniting all Romanians. Finally, in mid-November 1916, Romania declared war on the Central Powers and made public its union with the Entente.

After Romania was freed from occupation by the Central Powers following the collapse of Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire in 1918 and the end of the war in 1919, the nation began a new era with a seemingly prosperous future; the kingdom had added territorial gains in most of the disputed areas with its neighbors, including Transylvania with Hungary to the west, Bukovina and Bessarabia with Russia to the north, and Southern Dobruja with Bulgaria to the south, forming what was known as Greater Romania (România Mare in Romanian) and becoming the most powerful nation in terms of territory, population, and overall industrial capacity.

Interwar Period[]

The success of the Entente meant that the interwar period was a time of economic and cultural prosperity for Romania, during the final years of the reign of Ferdinand I, who was called The Integrator and was acclaimed for his successes, however, his son Charles II would prove to be completely opposed to his father and would be responsible for abolishing the constitution and establishing a de facto government, accompanied by his entourage of corrupt politicians. This was in addition to the fact that his reign was initially marked by the effects of the great economic and financial crisis. Romanian politics was also affected by the severe crisis resulting from the Great Depression which caused serious problems in the Romanian economy which was seriously hit.

Romania intervened alongside the Allied powers in the expedition to Crimea with the Russian Civil War underway in 1919, supporting the forces of Anton Denikin's White Army under the fear that the Soviets would claim the northern territories of the country that had recently been taken. The defeat and death of Denikin and the retreat of the White troops under Commander Piotr Wrangel in the defense of the Isthmus of Perekov to Crimea. During the retreat and flight from the peninsula, the Romanians took possession of the Russian battleship Ioann Zlatoust, the ship was evacuated to the Port of Constanta in January 1920 after the Red Army began to break through to Crimea, it would be renamed Decebal respectively. The Pre-Dreadnought would be the flagship of the Royal Romanian Navy and would be rebuilt as a Coastal Battleship in the 1930s. Romania would end up recognizing the Soviet Union in 1925, but would maintain clear tensions with the USSR over the regions of Bukovina and Bessarabia.

The 1930s began strongly for the Romanians after partially recovering from the Great Depression, with a country heavily worn down by the crisis and the corrupt and inefficient government of Charles II. The situation in Romania at both the internal and external level was extremely tense and worrying for the Romanian state; the rise of the Romanian fascist movement with the Iron Guard was assuming a growing power and influence within the large Romanian rural population dissatisfied with the management of the aristocracy and the nobility of the nation, which meant enormous problems for the royal government that saw its influence decrease in contrast with the Romanian fascists who were gaining more and more space and importance within the internal politics despite the multiple attempts of repression and the persecution of the Romanian state towards them, which only gave more strength to Romanian fascism; the international scenario was less hopeful, with its neighbors claiming territories belonging to the kingdom under strong irredentist and warmongering proclamations being Bulgaria, Hungary, and above all, the Soviet Union as its most important rivals.

Faced with this situation, and with ever-increasing tensions between Germany, the Soviet Union and the Allied powers, the Romanian government began a rearmament programme from 1935 onwards, in response to the threat posed by the growing Soviet military power and tensions with its neighbours over their various territorial claims. Over 200 light tanks of the Czechoslovakian R-2 and French Renault R-50 models were purchased for the Romanian army, from which the 1st Armoured Division of the Royal Romanian Army was formed in 1939, while few modern artillery pieces were acquired. However, the training and discipline of the Romanian forces was extremely archaic and obsolete, leaving huge gaps in the combat value of the Romanian formations. Aircraft acquisition was very important for the Royal Romanian Air Force and by 1939 there were over 700 aircraft in service with some of them locally manufactured that were introduced into service by 1941-42, important fighter aircraft were the new IAR.80 fighters and IAR.82 bombers, however, the huge variety of aircraft made maintenance and the logistics necessary to operate them extremely complicated leading to availability problems that would not be corrected until 1940 by the time the war had started. The Royal Romanian Navy began an ambitious rearmament program for its fleet, unlike the army or air force, the Romanian navy had better training and discipline in its ranks, added to a better planning of its needs, a light cruiser, four destroyers, two minelayers, four submarines and seven torpedo boats were acquired, these acquisitions gave the Romanian navy naval superiority in a possible war against Bulgaria and a window of opportunity in a conflict with the Soviets.

Second World War[]

Cold War and the Ceausescu regime[]

The end of the war brought about major changes with Romania falling under the shadow of communism following the fall of the Antonescu regime. Soviet forces quickly consolidated the Communist Party as the ruling party in the nation and began massive purges against political parties and opponents who might pose a potential opposition or resistance within the Romanian communist regime under the guise of eliminating Romanian fascism from the nation. The new Romanian government was placed under the control of the leader of the Socialist Party of Romania who established himself as the dictator of Romania under the full influence of the Soviet Union and integrated his country into a full alliance of the nation in the Balkans along with socialist Serbia and Hungary. This was clearly demonstrated by the final secession of Bessarabia to the USSR and the creation of Moldavia as a buffer state so that a possible enemy incursion through the south through Romania could not happen again, and by this series of treaties which delimited the nation's borders, thus eliminating Romania's possible ambitions, although retaining all of Transylvania as "compensation" for the Romanians.

The new People's Republic of Romania was officially established in 1948, thus ending a harsh and repressive situation for the Romanian people under communist rule. The change of model brought about the "modernization" of the nation in several aspects such as planned industrialization through five-year plans, the creation of large networks of public infrastructure such as roads, buildings, schools, houses, factories, etc., at the cost of the complete elimination of any freedom of expression, the suppression of the Orthodox religion within the country at strong and brutal levels of pressure and persecution, as well as a strong militarization with social control through espionage and torture of any social dissent. During this time, Romania was established along with the rest of the countries as part of the Warsaw Pact in 1949 to confront NATO.

The Romanian opposition was framed under the exiled King Michael I, who established an organization of all possible opponents abroad and would maintain his residence in Greece and France as a government in exile. The Romanian community in exile was finally formed in 1951 into the Romanian Liberation Front with over 46,000 members and which played a major role in espionage operations inside Romania, helping to gather intelligence for the Western alliance and/or allowing the escape of dissident members and civilians seeking to flee the communist regime of Ceaușescu. An armed wing of this organization was formed under the name of the Free Division Bucharest which would be part of many operations of NATO forces during the following years such as the Yom Kippur War, the Western Sahara War among others.

During the following years, the nation experienced a period of prosperity during the 60s and 70s, where the quality of life of the inhabitants grew remarkably, but the same lack of freedom of expression remained, while the trade that until then was limited to the eastern countries was able to "expand" with Tito's Serbia establishing good relations with the western countries and that opened the Romanians to trade with Serbia to certain foreign products, but these were extremely minor and did not reach the majority of the general population. What did increase in the meantime was the military budget which increased considerably in the face of the growth of the arms race between the Warsaw Pact and NATO. With the Romanian People's Armed Forces growing to become the 3rd largest army in the entire alliance only behind East Germany, this came with the Romanian military industry growing impressively producing tanks, planes and warships like never before seen in the nation, helped by cooperation with Serbia in very lucrative military projects that led to some arms exports on the world market.

However, this increase in the military budget caused the living conditions of the Romanians to decline as the rottenness of the communist production system was decreasing and rotting in the low productivity and corruption of the economic sector of the country, added to the rampant corruption within the government in the face of the luxurious and glamorous life while the people lived in deplorable living conditions as the decline of the Eastern Soviet Bloc increased substantially in the 1980s and the inability of the Soviets to implement reforms to change the situation of the system, this also affected Romania, which saw its economy dependent on the USSR decline over time and the communist regime unable to control the crisis that afflicted the country at every moment.

Fall of Communism, Civil War and Monarchy Restoration[]

The uprising of the Romanian people after the fall of the Berlin Wall made the fall of the communist regime just a matter of time. Despite the attempts of the Romanian Communist Party to control the situation through strong repression with the security forces and the army, they were ultimately unsuccessful when police and soldiers joined the protesters. The capture of Ceaușescu and his subsequent execution, however, did not prevent the radical Romanian communists from organizing themselves to fight for power, driven by the vision of preserving and fighting for communism to the last consequences, dividing the country in two and leading to the outbreak of the Romanian Civil War. The Romanian opposition forces to the communists were revitalized with the arrival of the exiles of the FLR with Michael I at the head who organized the civil, police and military forces that would eventually form the Romanian Liberation Army in opposition to the Romanian People's Army who dominated the northeast regions of Bucharest and the northeastern regions of the country with Moldova as their main base of operations.

2000s[]

Romania joined the European Union on January 1, 2002.

In 2017, King Michael I died after suffering from leukemia. His death caused great pain to the nation, being considered as the best monarch of the country in its history. His funeral was attended by several dignitaries from Europe and monarchs related to the king, including the Pope. The procession was held in a harsh and solemn manner with large numbers of people tearfully bidding farewell to their monarch, accompanied by hundreds of veterans who followed him on his journey to the royal crypt.

After this event, his daughter Margaret I would be crowned Queen of Romania in 2018. Being the first woman to hold the crown, she also has great popularity among the population and considerable influence within national politics. She is one of the most beloved and popular monarchs in the world today.

Present[]

Government and politics[]

Elisabeta Karina of Romania

Elisabeta I of Romania.

The King of Romania (now Elizabeth I) serves as head of state and symbol of the nation's unity. The monarch appoints a prime minister who must have the backing of parliament. This prime minister in turn appoints the other members of the cabinet and, together with 42 prefects (one for each district and for the independent municipality of Bucharest), they form the executive branch.

The Romanian parliament is bicameral: the Senate (Romanian: Senatul), which has 137 members, and the Chamber of Deputies (Romanian: Camera Deputaților), which has 332 members. Members of the Chamber of Deputies are elected every four years by universal suffrage while the Senate is made up of representatives of corporate entities.

The judiciary is independent of the other two and is based on the French Civil Code. The constitutional court is the highest court, filled by nine judges serving nine-year terms that cannot be renewed. It acts in trials where the interpretation of the constitution is in doubt, and its verdicts cannot be revoked, not even by a parliamentary majority; only the King can annul trials.

Foreign Relations[]

Armed Forces[]

Romanian tanks attack during Combined Resolve II (14095508658)

Royal Romanian Army tank.

The Romanian Armed Forces are the military forces of the Kingdom of Romania. They are in charge of the protection, safeguarding, security and defence of the nation's borders, acting both in times of war and peace. The number of personnel within the Armed Forces is 654,492 members. The budget allocated to the armed forces represents 2.3% of the nation's GDP, by law within the nation, the military budget must not be less than 1.2% of the GDP. Its top leader is the President, who, in turn, appoints the Commander of the FARUM for its direction and management, which is represented by the Commander General of the FARUM, the highest position for all members and branches of the Romanian military forces. The armed forces are divided and organized by three components:

  • Royal Romanian Army
  • Royal Romanian Air Force
  • Royal Romanian Navy