The ethnogenesis of the Romanian people was probably completed by the 10th century. The first stage, the Romanization of the Geto-Dacians, had now been followed by the second, the assimilation of the Slavs by the Daco-Romans.

Between the 10th and 14th centuries new political formations emerged in the Carpathian-Danube region. The Hungarians, who had settled in Pannonia at the end of the 9th century and who entered Dacia in the 10th century, overwhelmed the Slavic-Romanian duchies, or voivodates, that they encountered there. In the 11th century they made the territory north of the Carpathians, which was to become known as Transylvania, a part of the Hungarian kingdom. To the south a number of small voivodates coalesced by 1330 into the independent Romanian principality of Walachia, and to the east a second principality, Moldavia, achieved independence in 1359.

Between Turkey and Austria

Between the 14th and 18th centuries the Romanian principalities of Moldavia and Walachia evolved as part of the Eastern Orthodox religious and cultural world: their ecclesiastical allegiance was to the patriarchate of Constantinople; their princes emulated the Byzantine emperors and drew their written law from Byzantine codes; their economy was agrarian and their society rural; and their art and literature followed Eastern religious and didactic patterns. Yet the Romanians also possessed qualities that set them apart from their neighbours and drew them westward: they spoke a language derived from Latin, and they recognized the Romans as their ancestors.

Nearly four centuries of Ottoman Turkish domination between the 15th and 19th centuries reinforced the Romanians’ attachment to the East. Hardly had the principalities achieved independence than they were forced to confront the relentless advance of Ottoman armies into southeastern Europe. By recognizing the suzerainty of the sultan and by paying him annual tribute, the Romanians avoided direct incorporation into the Ottoman Empire. The Romanians thus preserved their political institutions, laws, and social structure, and they avoided a massive settlement of Muslims onto their land.

The autonomy of the principalities was not seriously compromised until the beginning of the 18th century. The princes carried on their own foreign policy (although such action violated their formal vassal status), and they even joined anti-Turkish coalitions in order to throw off Ottoman domination. The reign of Michael the Brave of Walachia (1593–1601) marked the high point of Romanian autonomy. In order to help drive the Ottomans out of Europe, Michael adhered to the Holy League of European powers and the papacy; he thus regained full independence and even united Moldavia and Transylvania under his rule. But the breakup of the coalition ended his brief success, for the Romanians were too outnumbered to stand alone against the Ottomans.

The heaviest burden of Ottoman suzerainty was not political but economic. The tribute rose steadily, and demands for goods of all kinds—grain, sheep, and lumber, supplied at less than market value—knew no bounds. The Ottomans prized wheat especially, and by the end of the 16th century Constantinople had become dependent on supplies from the principalities.

Ottoman domination reached its height in the 18th century during what is generally known as the Phanariot regime. The Romanian principalities were now vital military bulwarks of the empire, as Russia and the Habsburg monarchy pressed relentlessly against its frontiers, and Ottoman officials decided to replace native princes with members of Greek or Hellenized families from the Phanar district of Constantinople who had amply demonstrated their loyalty to the sultan. As a consequence, the autonomy of the principalities was drastically curtailed, and the payment of tribute and the delivery of supplies rose precipitously. Greek influence in the church and in cultural life expanded, despite opposition from native boyars (nobles) and churchmen. Yet many of the Phanariot princes were capable and farsighted rulers: as prince of Walachia in 1746 and of Moldavia in 1749, Constantin Mavrocordat abolished serfdom, and Alexandru Ipsilanti of Walachia (reigned 1774–82) initiated extensive administrative and legal reforms. Alexandru’s enlightened reign, moreover, coincided with subtle shifts in economic and social life and with the emergence of new spiritual and intellectual aspirations that pointed to the West and to reform.

Society in Walachia and Moldavia

The political system in the principalities resembled an oligarchy rather than an absolute monarchy. The prince was indeed the central figure and exercised broad executive, legislative, and judicial powers. Yet his authority was not unlimited, for he depended on the boyars and the clergy for crucial material and moral support. The boyars sat in the highest councils of state and assisted the prince in governing and dispensing justice. The higher clergy shared these civil responsibilities, since a separation of church and state was still an alien idea. Nevertheless, despite the involvement of boyars and clergy in political life, representative institutions failed to develop—perhaps primarily because of the lack of cohesiveness among the boyars. Although they were able to impose a so-called boyar regime on the princes in the 17th century, they were unable to secure their predominance by a strong institutional base.

Society in the two principalities was rural. It was highly stratified, and social mobility was strictly limited. The great boyars, few in number, monopolized political and economic power, but the lesser boyars and myriad other groups enjoyed numerous privileges, especially exemptions from taxation. The mass of peasants bore the main burdens of society and received little from it in return. Merchants and artisans, organized in guilds in order to restrict competition and to ensure profits, lent urban life its particular air, but they found no place in the prince’s councils. Nor did they exercise self-government, because cities were the property of the crown.

The economies of the principalities rested upon agriculture. The estates of boyars and monasteries formed the superstructure of agricultural production, but the peasants, who worked the land in traditional ways, supplied the draft animals and tools and made fundamental decisions about what to raise and how. By the beginning of the 18th century, the majority of peasants had sunk to the level of serfs.