National Awakening of Romania

National Awakening Of Romania

During the period of Austro-Hungarian rule in Transylvania and Ottoman suzerainty over Wallachia and Moldavia, most Romanians were treated as second-class citizens (or even non-citizens) in their country. In some Transylvanian cities, such as Braşov (at that time the Transylvanian Saxon citadel of Kronstadt) and Sibiu, Romanians were not even allowed to reside within the city walls.

The Romanians looked for support firstly from Russia, who they thought would help the Romanian Orthodox people in their struggle against the Islamic Ottoman empire. However, Russia's expansionist goals after annexing Bessarabia in 1812, made them suspicious that they would just become part of another far-flung empire. Since Austria also had similar goals, as shown by the annexations of Oltenia (1718–1739) and Bukovina (1775), the Romanians started looking for allies in Western Europe.

In the Romantic era, the concept of a national state emerged among the Romanians, as among many other peoples of Europe and a national awakening began. Defining themselves against the nearby Slavs, Germans, and Hungarians, the nationalist Romanians looked for models of nationality in the other Latin countries, notably France.