Map of Romania with Wallachia in red.

Wallachia (also spelled Walachia or "The Romanian Land") is an historical and geographical region of Romania and a former independent principality. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians. Wallachia is sometimes referred to as Muntenia, through identification with the larger of its two traditional sections; the smaller being Oltenia. With Moldavia and Transylvania, It is was one of three neighboring Romanian principalities. Wallachia was founded as a principality in the early fourteenth century by Basarab I, after a rebellion against Charles I of Hungary. In 1415, Wallachia accepted the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire; this lasted until the nineteenth century, albeit with brief periods of Russian occupation between 1768 and 1854. The fifteenth century ruler, Vlad III the Impaler is widely believed to have inspired the fictitious Dracula. For a few months at the start of the seventeenth century, the three principalities were united by Michael the Brave. In 1859, Wallachia united with Moldavia (the other Danubian Principality), to form the state of Romania. After World War I, Transylvania was allowed to join Romania, reunifying the three former principalities.

Like its neighbors, Wallachia was historically situated at a cross-roads of civilizations, of strategic interest to European powers and to those situated to the East, especially the Ottoman Empire. As contested territory, Wallachia's retention of a distinct sense of national identity over many years of foreign domination is testimony to the resilience and tenacity of its people. Yet animosity has not always characterized Wallachia's relations with those who might be described as the religious and cultural Other. Wallachia in the seventeenth century saw a lengthy period of peace and stability. Regardless of the battles fought and changes in power and in political authority at the elite level, many people in the region discovered that they could value different aspects of the cultural traditions that impacted their lives through trade, the acquisition of education or by exposure to another religious tradition. History warns humanity as a race that civilizational clash is one possibility when civilizations confront each other as their borders. However, when the full story of what life was like in such frontier-zones as Wallachia is told, fruitful exchange between cultures will also be part of the narrative.



The name Wallachia, generally not used by Romanians themselves (but present in some contexts as Valahia or Vlahia), is derived from the Valachs—a word of German origin also present as the Slavic Vlachs—used by foreigners in reference to Romanians.

In the early Middle Ages, in Slavonic texts, the name of Zemli Ungro-Vlahiskoi ("Hungaro-Wallachian Land") was also used. The term, translated in Romanian as Ungrovalahia, remained in use up to the modern era in a religious context, referring to the Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan seat of Hungaro-Wallachia. Official designations of the state were Muntenia and Ţeara Rumânească.

For long periods before the fourteenth century, Wallachia was referred to as Vlaško by Bulgarian sources (and Vlaška by Serbian sources), Walachei or Walachey by German (Transylvanian Saxon) sources. The traditional Hungarian name for Wallachia is Havasalföld, or literally "Snowy Lowlands" (the older form is Havaselve, which means "Land beyond the snowy mountains"). In Ottoman Turkish and Turkish, Eflak, a word derived from "Vlach," is used.


The present-day Counties of Romania comprised by Wallachia

Wallachia is situated north of the Danube (and of present-day Serbia and Bulgaria) and south of the Southern Carpathians, and is traditionally divided between Muntenia in the east (as the political center, Muntenia is often understood as being synonymous with Wallachia), and Oltenia (a former banat) in the west. (A Banate was a tributary state, usually of Hungary.) The division line between the two is the Olt River.

Wallachia's traditional border with Moldavia coincided with the Milcov River for most of its length. To the east, over the Danube north-south bend, Wallachia neighbors Dobruja). Over the Carpathians, Wallachia shared a border with Transylvania. Wallachian princes]] have for long held possession of areas north of this line (Amlaş, Ciceu, Făgăraş, and Haţeg), which are generally not considered part of Wallachia-proper.



From Roman rule to the state's establishment


The area was subject to Romanization sometime during the Migration Period, when most of present-day Romania was also subject to the presence of Goths and Sarmatian peoples known as the Mureş-Cerneahov culture, followed by waves of other nomadic peoples. In 328, the Romans built a bridge between Sucidava (Celei) and Oescus (near Gigen) which indicates that there was a significant trade with the peoples north of the Danube (a short period of Roman rule in the area is attested under Constantine I). The Goths attacked the Roman Empire south of the Danube in 332, settling north of the Danube, then later to the south. The period of Goth rule ended when the Huns arrived in the Pannonian Plain, and, under Attila the Hun, attacked and destroyed some 170 settlements on both sides of the Danube.

Byzantine influence is evident during the fifth to sixth century, such as the site at Ipoteşti-Cândeşti, but from the second half of the sixth century and in the seventh century, Slavic peoples crossed the territory of Wallachia and settled in it, on their way to Byzantium, occupying the southern bank of the Danube. In 593, the Byzantine commander-in-chief Priscus defeated Slavs, Avars, and Gepids on future Wallachian territory, and, in 602, Slavs suffered a crucial defeat in the area; [|Flavius Mauricius Tiberius]], who ordered his army to be deployed north of the Danube, encountered his troops' strong opposition.




The Battle of Posada in the Chronicon Pictum (A medieval Hungarian chronicle dating from the mid-fourteenth century).

One of the first written pieces of evidence of local voivodes (commanders) is in connection with Litovoi (1272), who ruled over land each side of the Carpathians (including Făgăraş in Transylvania), and refused to pay tribute to the Hungarian King Ladislaus IV. His successor was his brother Bărbat (1285-1288). The continuing weakening of the Hungarian state by further Mongol invasions (1285-1319) and the fall of the Árpád dynasty opened the way for the unification of Wallachian polities, and to independence from Hungarian rule.




Mircea the Elder to Radu the Great

Wallachia and its divisions (judeţe), c. 1390[1]

As the entire Balkan Peninsula become an integral part of the emerging Ottoman Empire (a process which concluded with the Fall of Constantinople to Sultan Mehmed II in 1453), Wallachia became engaged in frequent confrontations and, in the final years of Mircea the Elder's reign, became an Ottoman tributary state. Mircea (reigned 1386-1418), initially defeated the Ottomans in several battles (including that of Rovine in 1394), driving them away from Dobruja and briefly extending his rule to the Danube Delta, Dobruja and Silistra (ca.1400-1404). He oscillated between alliances with Sigismund of Hungary and Poland (taking part in the Battle of Nicopolis), and accepted Ottoman a peace treaty with the Ottomans in 1415, after Mehmed I took control of Turnu and Giurgiu—the two ports remained part of the Ottoman state, with brief interruptions, until 1829. In 1418-1420, Mihail I defeated the Ottomans in Severin, only to be killed in battle by the counter-offensive; in 1422, the danger was averted for a short while when Dan II inflicted a defeat on Murad II with the help of Pippo Spano.

Wallachia as pictured in the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle

The peace signed in 1428 inaugurated a period of internal crisis, as Dan had to defend himself against Radu Prasnaglava, who led the first in a series of boyar (noblemen) coalitions against established princes (in time, these became overtly pro-Ottoman in answer to repression). Victorious in 1431 (the year when the boyar-backed Alexandru I Aldea took the throne), boyars (nobles) were dealt successive blows by Vlad II Dracul (1436-1442; 1443-1447), who nevertheless attempted to compromise between the Sultan and the Holy Roman Empire.


Mihnea cel Rău to Petru Cercel

The late 1400s saw the ascension of the powerful Craioveşti family, virtually independent rulers of the Oltenian banat, who sought Ottoman support in their rivalry with Mihnea cel Rău (1508-1510) and replaced him with Vlăduţ; after the latter proved to be hostile to the bans, the House of Basarab formally ended with the rise of Neagoe Basarab, a Craioveşti. Neagoe's peaceful rule (1512-1521), noted for its cultural aspects (the building of the Curtea de Argeş Cathedral and Renaissance influences), also saw an increase in influence for the Saxon merchants in Braşov and Sibiu, and Wallachia's alliance with Louis II of Hungary. Under Teodosie, the country was again under a four-month-long Ottoman occupation, a military administration which seemed to be an attempt to create a Wallachian Pashaluk. (In the Ottoman empire, a Pahsaluk was an eyelet or province under a governor appointed by the Sultan who carried the rank of Pasha.) This danger rallied all boyars in support of Radu de la Afumaţi (four rules between 1522 and 1529), who lost the battle after an agreement between the Craioveşti and Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent; Prince Radu eventually confirmed Süleyman's position as suzerain, and agreed to pay an even higher tribute.

Wallachia (highlighted in green) towards the end of the 16th century


The Ottoman Empire increasingly relied on Wallachia and Moldavia for the supply and maintenance of its |military forces; the local army, however, soon disappeared due to the increased costs and the much more obvious efficiency of mercenary troops.


Fighting between Michael the Brave and the Ottomans in Giurgiu, 1595.


The last stage in the growth of the Ottoman Empire brought increased pressures on Wallachia: political control was accompanied by Ottoman economical hegemony, the discarding of the capital in Târgovişte in favor of Bucharest (closer to the Ottoman border, and a rapidly-growing trade center), the establishment of serfdom under Michael the Brave as a measure to increase manorial revenues, and the decrease in importance of low-ranking boyars. (Threatened with extinction, they took part in the seimeni rebellion of 1655. (The Seimeni were mercenaries charged with protecting the Prince, whose land grants were being curtailed. They rebelled in 1655 but were defeated.) Furthermore, the growing importance of appointment to high office in front of land ownership brought about an influx of Greek and Levantine families, a process already resented by locals during the rules of Radu Mihnea in the early 1600s. Matei Basarab, a boyar appointee, brought a long period of relative peace (1632-1654), with the noted exception of the 1653 Battle of Finta, fought between Wallachians and the troops of Moldavian prince Vasile Lupu — ending in disaster for the latter, who was replaced with Prince Matei's favorite, Gheorghe Ştefan, on the throne in Iaşi. A close alliance between Gheorghe Ştefan and Matei's successor Constantin Şerban was maintained by Transylvania's George II Rákóczi, but their designs for independence from Ottoman rule were crushed by the troops of Mehmed IV in 1658-1659. The reigns of Gheorghe Ghica and Grigore I Ghica, the sultan's favorites, signified attempts to prevent such incidents; however, they were also the onset of a violent clash between the Băleanu and Cantacuzino boyar families, which was to mark Wallachia's history until the 1680s. The Cantacuzinos, threatened by the alliance between the Băleanus and the |Ghicas, backed their own choice of princes (Antonie Vodă din Popeşti and George Ducas) before promoting themselves—with the ascension of Şerban Cantacuzino (1678-1688).

Russo-Turkish Wars and the Phanariotes

The Balkans in 1699
Map of Wallachia by the Stolnic Constantin Cantacuzino

Wallachia became a target for Habsburg incursions during the last stages of the Great Turkish War c. 1690, when the ruler Constantin Brâncoveanu secretly and unsuccessfully negotiated an anti-Ottoman coalition. Brâncoveanu's reign (1688-1714), noted for its late Renaissance cultural achievements, also coincided with the rise of Imperial Russia under |Emperor Peter the Great—he was approached by the latter during the Russo-Turkish War of 1710-1711, and lost his throne and life sometime after sultan Ahmed III caught news of the negotiations. Despite his denunciation of Brâncoveanu's policies, Ştefan Cantacuzino attached himself to Habsburg projects and opened the country to the armies of Prince Eugene of Savoy; he was himself deposed and executed in 1716.

Immediately following the deposition of Prince Ştefan, the Ottomans renounced the purely nominal elective system (which had by then already witnessed the decrease in importance of the Boyar Divan (council) over the sultan's decision), and princes of the two Danubian Principalities were appointed from the Phanariotes of Istanbul. (Wealthy Greek merchants.) Inaugurated by Nicholas Mavrocordatos in Moldavia after Dimitrie Cantemir, Phanariote rule was brought to Wallachia in 1715 by the very same ruler. The tense relations between boyars and princes brought a decrease in the number of taxed people (as a privilege gained by the former), a subsequent increase in total taxes, and the enlarged powers of a boyar circle in the Divan.


The troops of Prince Josias of Coburg in Bucharest, 1789



Principality of Wallachia, 1793-1812, highlighted in green

After the Peace of Bucharest (1812), the rule of Jean Georges Caradja, although remembered for a major plague epidemic, was notable for its cultural and industrial ventures. During the period, Wallachia increased its strategic importance for most European states interested in supervising Russian expansion; consulates were opened in Bucharest, having an indirect but major impact on Wallachian economy through the protection they extended to sudiţi (fabric) traders (who soon competed successfully against local guilds).

From Wallachia to Romania

Early 1800s



The Legislative Assembly of Wallachia in 1837

The 1829 Treaty of Adrianople, without overturning Ottoman suzerainty, placed Wallachia and Moldavia under Russian military rule, awarding them the first common institutions and the semblance of a constitution. Wallachia was returned ownership of Brăila, Giurgiu (both of which soon developed into major trading cities on the Danube), and Turnu Măgurele. The treaty also allowed Moldavia and Wallachia to freely trade with countries other than the Ottoman Empire, which signaled substantial economic and urban growth, as well as improving the peasant situation. Princes were now elected for life “rather than for short periods …from among the boyars.”[2] Many of the provisions had been specified by the 1826 Akkerman Convention between Russia and the Ottomans (it had never been fully implemented in the three-year interval). The duty of overseeing of the Principalities was left to Russian general Pavel Kiselyov; this interval was marked by a series of major changes, including the reestablishment of a Wallachian Army (1831), a tax reform (which nonetheless confirmed tax exemptions for the privileged), as well as major urban works in Bucharest and other cities. In 1834, Wallachia's throne was occupied by Alexandru II Ghica—a move in contradiction with the Adrianople treaty, as he had not been elected by the new Legislative Assembly; removed by the suzerains in 1842, he was replaced with an elected prince, Gheorghe Bibescu.


1848 Revolutionaries carrying an early version of the Romanian flag


Frăţia, a clandestine movement created in 1843, began planning a revolution to overthrow Bibescu and repeal Regulamentul Organic in 1848 (inspired by the European rebellions of the same year, by new notions of state-hood and nationalism). Their pan-Wallachian coup d'état was initially successful only near Turnu Măgurele, where crowds cheered the Islaz Proclamation (June 21); among others, the document called for political freedoms, independence, land reform, and the creation of a national guard. On June 11-12, the movement was successful in deposing Bibescu and establishing a Provisional Government. Although sympathetic to the anti-Russian goals of the revolution, the Ottomans were pressured by Russia into repressing it: Ottoman troops entered Bucharest on September 13. Russian and Turkish troops, present until 1851, brought Barbu Dimitrie Ştirbei to the throne, during which interval most participants in the revolution were sent into exile.

Briefly under renewed Russian occupation during the Crimean War, Wallachia and Moldavia were given a new status with a neutral Austrian administration (1854-1856) and the Treaty of Paris (1856): A tutelage shared by Ottomans and a Congress of Great Powers (the Great Britain, the Second French Empire, the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia, the Austrian Empire, Prussia, and, albeit never again fully, Russia), with a kaymakam'’ (governor) led internal administration. An emerging movement for union of the two Danubian Principalities was advocated by the French and by their Sardinian allies, supported by Russia and Prussia but was rejected—or regarded with suspicion—by all other overseers. The prince of Wallachia supported union, “since it would give his province supremacy because of its size, while the Prince of Moldavia opposed it from the same consideration.” The plan, as it originally developed, left the two principalities separate but with a joint commission “to draw up common law codes and other legislation needed by both.”[3]

Wallachia's ad-hoc divan” (council) in 1857


Those elected changed their allegiance after a mass protest of Bucharest crowds, and Cuza was voted prince of Wallachia on February 5 (January 24 Old Style and New Style dates), consequently confirmed as Domnitor of the United Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia (of Romania from 1861). Internationally recognized only for the duration of his reign, the union was irreversible after the ascension of Carol I in 1866 (coinciding with the Austro-Prussian War, it came at a time when Austria, the main opponent of the decision, was not in a position to intervene). Romania proclaimed its independence in 1877 and in 1881, became a Kingdom.


Situated at a cultural and civilizational crossroads, Wallachian culture, like that of the rest of Romania, is a blend of different influences, including Slav, Saxon, Ukrainian, Roman, Gypsy and Turkish. While hostility towards the powers and cultures that conquered the region over the years fed a strong desire for self-determination, animosity did not always characterize relationships. In many respects, Wallachia also bridged-cultures and created a space where exchange took place between different peoples. Conflict was often at the level of the princes and leaders, while life at the local level went on regardless of who was winning or losing on the battlefield. At the local level, people valued what they saw as useful or as beautiful in the different cultures that impacted their lives. Thus,

Romania has its unique culture, which is the product of its geography and of its distinct historical evolution. Romanians are the sole Christian Orthodox among the Latin peoples and the sole Latin people in the Eastern Orthodox area. The Romanians sense of identity has always been deeply related to their Roman roots, in conjunction with their Orthodoxy. A sense of their ethnic insularity in the area has kept Romanians available for a fruitful communication with other peoples and cultures.[4]

When the story of inter-civilizations relations is told, periods of fruitful exchange and even of peaceful coexistence (not infrequently under some form of imperial rule, must not be neglected. The people of Wallachia maintained their sense of identity through centuries of political domination by others. They are no less proud of their culture than if it had developed in isolation, regarding it as a unique product of their geo-political circumstances.


  1. Petre Dan, Hotarele românismului în date (Bucharest, HU: Editura, Litera International, 2005, ISBN 973675278X), 32-34.
  2. Shaw and Shaw (1977), 135.
  3. Shaw and Shaw (1977), 142.
  4. Romana Folklore Festival, Romania: Culture. Retrieved September 14, 2008.


  • East, W. Gordon. 1973. The Union of Moldavia and Wallachia, 1859; an Episode in Diplomatic History. New York, NY: Octagon Books. ISBN 9780374924508.
  • Florescu, Radu, and Raymond T. McNally. 1974. Dracula: A Biography of Vlad the Impaler, 1431-1476. London, UK: Hale. ISBN 9780709146148.
  • Hentea, Călin. 2007. Brief Romanian Military History. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810858206.
  • Panaite, Viorel. 2000. The Ottoman Law of War and Peace: The Ottoman Empire and Tribute Payers. East European monographs, no. 562. Boulder, CO: East European Monographs. ISBN 9780880334617.
  • Shaw, Stanford J and Shaw, Ezel Kural. 1977. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521291668.
  • Stoker, Bram. 1897. 2008. Dracula. Richmond, VA: Oneoworld Classics. ISBN 9781847490261.
  • Wilkinson, William. 1971. An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. New York, NY: Arno Press. ISBN 9780405027796.

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