DOBRUJA, a region of south-east Rumania, bounded north and west by the Danube, east by the Black sea, and south by Bulgaria. Its area is 23,262 sq.km., the population (1926) approx imately 7oo,000. It comprises the four districts of Tulcea, Con stanta, Durostor and Bazargic. It consists of low mountains, fens and sandy steppes, wind-swept and drought-ridden, but remark ably fertile when the lack of irrigation is considered. There are forests, and the peasants raise cereals, but little is available for export. There is also copper near Tulcea, and undeveloped coal fields of some value. Its chief claim to importance lies in the fact that its main port, Constanta, is Rumania's principal sea-port for export, and in winter, when the Danube is ice-bound, her sole link with the Black sea. An oil pipe-line runs from Constanta to -file main Rumanian oil-fields, and a railway connects the town with Bucharest via a bridge at Cerna-Voda. A second line runs from Tulcea, in the north, to Varna, in Bulgaria. The population is very mixed, including besides Rumanians, Bulgars, Tatars, Gagauzes, and, since the War of 1914-18, many Macedonian Vlachs, settled here by the Rumanian Government. (X.) The district was known to the Greeks in the 6th century B.C. and included the Greek colonies of Istros, Tomi and Dionysopolis. In the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. invading Scythians subjugated and later submerged the Thracian population, whence the later names of Scythia Minor and Scythia Pontica. The Romans first invaded it 75-72 B.C., definitely subjecting it in A.D. 46. They and their successors the Byzantine emperors Romanized the population and erected walls for its defence; but it was repeatedly overrun by Goths, Alans and Huns.
In A.D. 678 Asparuch, Khan of the Bulgarians, settled with his horde, by permission of the Byzantine empire, near the present Nicol4e1; but soon repudiated his allegiance and founded the first Bulgarian empire, which included the Dobruja, with its mixed population of Slays, Bulgars and the remnants of the old Roman colonies. It was recovered for Byzantium in ioi8, but in 1186 reverted to the second Bulgarian empire, established by the alli ance of Bulgars, Vlachs and Cumans. Magyars, Petchenegs and Cumans had repeatedly ravaged it, the two last named settling there in such numbers that it was known as Petchengia. In the i3th century the Tatars frequently raided it. With the decline of the Bulgarian empire, one Dobrotitich, a condottiere of Wal lachian origin, founded here an independent, or at least semi autonomous depotate; the name Dobruja derives either from Dobrotitich or from the Topruch Tatars. In 1390 it passed under the suzerainty of Mircea-Voda, Voivode of Wallachia; but after his several capitulations to the Turks 0391, 1393, finally in 141i) it came under Turkish domination for nearly 5oo years. These years brought a further ethnical change, numbers of Turks, Tatars and Circassians being settled in the steppes.
The Treaty of Berlin (July 13, 1878) assigned the Dobruja to Rumania, in compensation for Bessarabia, annexed by Russia. The Treaty of Bucharest (Aug. io, '9'3) advanced the frontier 3om. southward, the two districts of Bazargic and Durostor being ceded to Rumania by Bulgaria. The Central Powers annexed the entire province under the Treaty of Bucharest (May 7, 1918) ; the southern half was ceded immediately to Bulgaria, the northern administered provisionally by the Central Powers in condo minium, while Rumania was allowed to retain the port of Con stanta (Kustenje) as an outlet to the Black sea. The Treaty of Neuilly (Nov. 27, '9'9), restored the 1913 frontier, leaving the entire province to Rumania. (N. L. F.)