The birth of Romania

The institutional and administrative unification of Moldavia and Wallachia under the same ruler, with the recognition of the Ottoman Empire, was achieved by the Romanian political elite between 1859 and 1861. Several years later the next important objective, the independence of the new state, which was called Romania, was also attained. Then, at the beginning of the 20th century a consolidated Romania, which had become a kingdom in 1881, added to its territory southern Dobruja, which belonged to Bulgaria, after getting involved in the second Balkan War. Finally, the creation of Romania was completed after World War I, when the provinces of Banat, Bukovina, Transylvania, Partium and Bessarabia united with the Romanian Kingdom following the disintegration of Austro-Hungary and tsarist Russia.