History of Moldova

To a great extent, Moldova’s history has been shaped by the foreigners who came to stay and by those who merely passed through, including Greek colonists, invading Turks and Tatars, officials of the Russian Empire, German and Bulgarian colonists, communist functionaries from the Soviet Union, soldiers from Nazi Germany, Romanian nationalists, and twentieth-century Russian and Ukrainian immigrants. Each group has left its own legacy, being either cultural, or economic, or political.

For a better understanding of Moldovan nation, we present you the chronology of the most important events in the history of Moldova:

6^th – 1^st century BC – The Getho-Dacian civilization was spread throughout Moldova.

105 BC – after the conquest of Dacia by Emperor Trajan, the local population was romanized, taking from the conquerors their language and advanced culture of the Roman Empire.

1359 – Bogdan I founded Moldovan feudal state. Originally called Bogdania, the principality stretched from the Carpathian Mountains to the Nistru River and was later renamed Moldova, after the Moldova River (in present-day found in Romania).

14^th -15^th century – The principality of Moldavia was established between the Nistru River and the Carpathian Mountains.

1457-1504 – Consolidation of Moldova under, the greatest Moldovan personality, Stefan cel Mare. He won 45 fights out of 47.

1512 – Moldavia was conquered by Ottoman Empire and became a tributary state of the empire for the next 300 years.

1538 – Moldavia became a vassal of the Ottoman Empire, to which it owed a percentage of the internal revenue that in time rose to 10%. Moldavia was forbidden to have foreign relations to the detriment of the Ottoman Empire but was allowed internal autonomy, including sole authority over foreign trade.

1774 – Following a victory in a war against Ottomans, Russia became a protector of the Christian Moldavia, still a vassal of the Ottoman Empire at the time.

1775 – The Habsburg Monarchy annexed ca. 11% of the territory of Moldavia, which became known as Bukovina.

1812 – As a result of the Russian –Turkish Peace Treaty signed in Bucharest, Eastern Moldova, named Bessarabia, was annexed to Russian Empire (until 1856) and Western Moldova became part of the Ottoman Empire.

1835 – The tsarist authorities declared a 7-year deadline to transfer the education from Romanian to Russian.

1856 – 1878 – Bessarabia was returned to Romania.

1859 – The Principalities of Moldavia (Moldovan territory west of the Prut River) and Wallachia united and formed Romanian United Principalities. This unity took place during the reign of Alexandru Ioan Cuza and laid the foundations of modern Romania.

1878 – 1918 – Bessarabia was returned to Russia

1918 – After the revolution in Russia, the supreme authority of the Bessarabian state – Sfatul Tarii, decided to unite with Romania. This unity lasted till 1940.

1920 – The Treaty of Paris recognized the Moldova-Romanian union, something that the Soviet Union refused to do.

1924 – The USSR established Moldavia as an Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

1940 – The country was annexed by the Soviet Union as a consequence of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact of 1939. Moldova functioned as a territorial entity within the USSR until 1989.

1989 – Romanian was brought back as the official Moldovan language. The Latin script replaced the Cyrillic script used earlier.

1990 – Moldova declared itself a sovereign country. The Gagauz people in the south-west declared their independence, soon the Transnistria followed. Authorities of Moldova refused to admit the possibility of the declarations.

1991, August 27 – Republic of Moldova became an independent and sovereign State.

1991-1992 – Clashes occurred between Transnistrian forces and the Moldovan police. Between March 2 and July 26, 1992, the conflict escalated into a military engagement. Following an intervention of the Russian 14^th army into the conflict on the side of the separatists, the war was stopped.

1993 – The Moldovan Leu is installed to replace the Russian Ruble.

2001 – Communist leader Vladimir Voronin became president with just over a 50% vote.

2009, April – Following the parliamentary elections on April 5, the Communist Party won 49.48% of the votes. On April 6, several NGOs and opposite party organized a protest in Chişinău, as they considered the result of the elections fraudulent.. The demonstration had spun out of control on April 7 and escalated into a riot when a part of the crowd attacked the presidential offices and broke into the parliament building, looting and setting its interior on fire. Police had regained control on the night of April 8, arresting and detaining several hundred protesters.

2012, March 19 – After 917 days of political crisis, Constitutional Court of Moldova confirmed Nicolae Timofti as the head of state.