34,950 year old modern human remains with a possible Neanderthalian trait were discovered in present-day Romania
when the Peștera cu Oase ("The Cave with Bones") was uncovered in 2002. In 2011 older human remains were identified in the UK (Kents Cavern 41,500 to 44,200 years old) and Italy (Grotta del Cavallo 43,000 to 45,000 years old).
Nonetheless the Romanian fossils are still among the oldest remains of Homo sapiens in
Europe, so they may be representative of the first such people to have entered the continent.
The remains are especially interesting because they present a mixture of archaic, early modern
human and Neanderthal morphological features.
The earliest written evidence of people living in the territory of present-day Romania, the Getae, comes from Herodotus, in his Histories Book IV (c. 440 BC). Territories located north of
the Danube were inhabited by Dacians, who are considered to have belonged to the Getae
tribes, mentioned by Herodotus, that were a branch of Thracian people. The Dacian kingdom
reached its peak between 82 and 44 BC during the reign of Burebista.
Roman incursions under Emperor Trajan between 101–102 AD and 105–106 AD resulted in
half of the Dacian kingdom becoming a province of the Roman Empire called "Dacia Felix".
The Roman rule lasted for 165 years. During this period the province was fully integrated in
the Roman Empire, and a sizeable part of the population were newcomers from other provinces. The Roman colonists introduced the Latin language. According to followers of the continuity theory, the intense Romanization gave birth to the Romanian people of today. Burebista,
Decebalus and Trajan are considered the Romanians' forefathers in Romanian historiography.
In the Middle Ages, Romanians lived in three Romanian principalities: Wallachia (Romanian:
Țara Românească – "The Romanian Land"), Moldavia (Romanian: Moldova) and in Transylvania. By 1541, as with the entire Balkan peninsula and most of Hungary, Moldavia, Wallachia,
and Transylvania were under Ottoman suzerainty, preserving partial or full internal autonomy
until the mid-19th century (Transylvania until 1711). This period featured several prominent
rulers such as: Stephen the Great, Vasile Lupu, Alexander the Great and Dimitrie Cantemir in
Moldavia; Vlad the Impaler, Mircea the Elder, Matei Basarab, Neagoe Basarab and Constantin
Brâncoveanu in Wallachia; and Gabriel Bethlen in the Principality of Transylvania, as well as
John Hunyadi and Matthias Corvinus in Transylvania, while it was still a part of the Kingdom
of Hungary. In 1600, all three principalities were ruled simultaneously by the Wallachian
prince Michael the Brave (Mihai Viteazul), who was considered, later on, the Prerunner of
modern Romania and became a point of reference for nationalists, as well as a catalyst for
achieving a single Romanian state.
Romania remained neutral for the first two years of World War I. Following the secret Treaty
of Bucharest, according to which Romania would acquire territories with a majority of Romanian population from Austria-Hungary, it joined the Entente Powers and declared war on 27
August 1916. After ѡ