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| Vlachs (Romanians) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Vlachs (Romanians) |
| Native name | Români |
| Languages | Romanian |
| Religions | Eastern Orthodoxy |
Vlachs (Romanians) are an Eastern Romance-speaking people of Southeastern and Central Europe associated with the historical territories of Transylvania, Moldavia, Wallachia, and the Banat. They are central to the histories of the Kingdom of Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, the Habsburg Monarchy, and the Russian Empire, and their ethnogenesis intersects with Byzantine, Roman, Slavic, Hungarian, and Ottoman interactions across the Balkans, Carpathians, and the Danube River basin.
The names used for Vlachs reflect layered identities shaped by Byzantine Empire nomenclature, medieval chronicles like the Gesta Hungarorum, and later nationalist historiographies such as those of Mihail Kogălniceanu, Nicolae Iorga, and Vasile Pârvan. Terms including "Vlach", "Wallach", "Romanian", and regional designations like "Moldavian" or "Transylvanian" were applied by external polities (for example, the Kingdom of Poland and the Tsardom of Russia) and local institutions including the Orthodox Church and princely courts of Moldavia and Wallachia. Identity narratives were influenced by legal documents such as the Golden Bull of 1222 and treaties like the Treaty of Trianon, as well as cultural productions by figures including Ion Creangă, Mihai Eminescu, and George Enescu.
Scholars debate continuity models linking the Vlachs to Romanized populations of Dacia and migrationist models emphasizing movement across the Balkans during the Migration Period involving groups referenced in sources such as Procopius and Theophylact Simocatta. Linguistic evidence connects Romanian to Eastern Romance languages alongside contacts with Old Church Slavonic, Hungarian, Greek, and Turkish, while archaeological records from sites in Dobruja, Crișana, and Bessarabia intersect with material cultures tied to the Byzantine Empire, Avar Khaganate, and later Bulgarian Empire. Genetic studies have been compared to populations of Mount Athos monastic communities, Pannonian Basin inhabitants, and Anatolian diasporas, considered alongside medieval migrations such as the Pechenegs and Cumans.
Medieval polities in which Vlach populations featured prominently include the principalities of Wallachia (founded by figures like Vlad III and Basarab I), Moldavia (with rulers such as Stephen the Great), and the autonomous communities within the Kingdom of Hungary and the Second Bulgarian Empire. These principalities negotiated their positions through instruments like the Suleiman's correspondence era diplomacy, dynastic alliances with houses from Habsburg Monarchy to Poland–Lithuania, and military confrontations including skirmishes with the Ottoman Army, campaigns by John Hunyadi, and uprisings influenced by events such as the Long Turkish War and the Peasant Revolt of 1514. Administrative structures involved boyar elites, princely courts, and ecclesiastical authorities tied to the Metropolis of Moldavia and Bukovina and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.
The Romanian language evolved as an Eastern Romance language with major dialectal divisions historically identified as Daco‑Romanian, Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian, and Istro-Romanian. Standardization processes in the 19th century were shaped by intellectuals such as Timotei Cipariu, Andrei Șaguna, and legal codifications inspired by models from France, Italy, and Latin philology. Contact phenomena include loanwords from Slavic, Greek, Hungarian, and Turkish, and the alphabetic reforms engaged scholars tied to institutions like the Romanian Academy and universities in Iași, Bucharest, and Cluj-Napoca.
Religious life centers on Eastern Orthodox Church traditions as preserved in monasteries such as Putna Monastery, Voroneț Monastery, and associated hagiographic cycles about figures like Stephen the Great. Folk culture features oral literature exemplified by ballads collected by Vasile Alecsandri, ritual customs during Easter, Christmas, and pastoral practices in the Carpathian Mountains expressed in instruments like the pan flute and dances recorded by ethnographers connected to the Folklore Archive of the Romanian Academy. Visual and architectural contributions include Moldavian art seen in the Painted churches of Mount Athos influences and Byzantine iconography alongside vernacular forms found in the Brâncovenesc style.
Vlachs inhabit primarily Romania and Moldova with significant communities across the Serbian Banat, Bulgaria, Ukraine (notably Northern Dobruja and Bukovina), and diasporas in United States, Canada, France, and Israel. Population movements were affected by events like the Russo-Turkish Wars, the Crimean War, the World War I, and the World War II, while 20th-century policies under regimes including King Michael I of Romania's era, the Communist Party of Romania, and post-1989 administrations influenced census classifications, migration to cities such as Bucharest and Timișoara, and minority rights frameworks negotiated in forums like the Council of Europe.
The 19th-century national awakening culminated in projects such as the Union of the Principalities (1859) under leaders like Alexandru Ioan Cuza, the proclamation of the Kingdom of Romania (1881) under Carol I of Romania, and later territorial rearrangements following the Paris Peace Conference, 1919 and the Treaty of Trianon. Political life in the 20th and 21st centuries involved parties and actors from the National Liberal Party to the Social Democratic Party, Cold War alignments with the Eastern Bloc, post-communist integration into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union, and ongoing debates about minorities such as Hungarians in Romania and relations with Republic of Moldova and Ukraine.
Category:Ethnic groups in Europe Category:Romance peoples