ancient times Moldavia and.Watlachia formed an important part of Dacia (q.v.), and the two countries have in general experienced the same vicissitudes At the period of the migration of nations, and in the following centuries they were the scene of the struggles between the Gothic, Hunnic, Bulgarian, and Slavic races—the Avari, Chazars, Petschenegi, Uzi, and Magyars, who alternately ruled or were expelled from the country, These peoples all left some traces (more or less) of themselves among the Romanized Dacian inhabitants, and thus helped to form that composite people, the modern Wallaehs, who, in the 11th c., were converted to the Christianity of the Eastern or Greek church. Their incursions, however; frightfully devastated the country. In the 11th c., the Kumans, a Turkish race, established in Moldavia a kingdom of their own. Two centuries later the great storm of Mongols broke over the land. It now fell into the hands of the Nogai Tartars, who left it utterly wasted, so that only in the forests and mountains was'anylraedleft of the tt a ti \V a I Ift chinn population. In the latter half of the 13th c., a petty Wallaeli chief of Transylvania, Radai. Negro of 'Fogarasch, entered Wallachia, took possession of a portion of the country,-dfvided it f mong his bojarc (noble followers), founded a senate of 12 members, and. an elective molarchy; and gradually conquered the whole of Wallachia. Rather less than a century later (1354), a similar
attempt, also successful, was made by a Wallach chief of the liungarian Marmarush, of the name of Bogdan, to re•people Moldavia. In the beginning of the 16th c.. both princi palities placed themselves under the protection of the Porte. and gradually the bojars lost the right of electing their own ruler, whose office was bought in Constantinople. After 1711 the Turks governed the countries by Fanariot princes (see FANARIOTS), who in reality only farmed the revenues. enriched themselves, and impoverished the land. In 1802 the Russians wrested from Turkey the right of surveillance over the principali ties. A great number of nobles—through family marriages with the Fanariots—were now of Greek descent, the court-tongue was Greek, and the religious and political sym pathies of the country were the same. Hence the effort of the principalities in 1821 to emancipate themselves from Turkish authority, which was only the prelude to the greater and more successful struggle in Greece itself, In 1822 Russia forced Turkey to choose the princes or hospodars of Wallachia and Moldavia front natives, and not from the corrupt Greeks of Constantinople; and after to a'llov them to hold their dignity for life. The principalities, united under one ruler in 1858, were brought under one administration in 1861. For subsequent history, see ROIMIANIA.