Middle Ages
Which country occupied Bessarabia in 1812?
Romania
"Gesta Hungarorum" mentioned the existence of three voivodeships in Transylvania in the 9th century: the Voivodeship of Gelou, the Voivodeship of Glad and the Voivodeship of Menumorut. The anonymous author describes the first as Vlach. Another voivodeship, ruled by Gyula, was mentioned in the 11th century. A Russian chronicle writes of a plundering raid in 1059 against Transylvania by Cumans and Vlachs. An Old Bulgarian inscription from 1176 attests the existence of a župan Dimitri who ruled over Dobruja in 943. In the Middle Ages, Romanians lived in three distinct principalities: Wallachia ( – "The Romanian Land"), Moldavia () and Transylvania (). By the 11th century, Transylvania had become a largely autonomous part of the Kingdom of Hungary. It was independent as the Principality of Transylvania from the 16th century until 1711. In Wallachia and Moldavia, many small local states with varying degrees of independence developed. Only in the 14th century did the larger principalities of Wallachia (1310) and Moldavia (around 1352) emerge to fight the threat of the Ottoman Empire. Both territories inhabited by Romanians achieved their independence from the Hungarian Crown after military conflicts (Battle of Posada, 1330) or social conflicts (Moldavian boyars' revolt against Hungary, 1364) — these historic events being initiated by Basarab I of Wallachia (1310–1352) and Bogdan I of Moldavia (1359–1365). By 1541, the entire Balkan peninsula and most of Hungary had become Ottoman provinces. Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transylvania were under Ottoman suzerainty, preserving partial or full internal autonomy until the mid-19th century (Transylvania until 1699). During this period, in the Romanian lands the feudal system slowly disappeared. A few rulers of territories in what is now Romania distinguished themselves: these rulers include Stephen the Great, Vasile Lupu, and Dimitrie Cantemir in Moldavia; Matei Basarab, Vlad the Impaler, and Constantin Brâncoveanu in Wallachia; and John Hunyadi ("Ioannes Corvinus") and Gabriel Bethlen in Transylvania. In 1600, the principalities of Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania were simultaneously headed by the Wallachian prince Michael the Brave ("Mihai Viteazul"), but the chance for a lasting unification was lost after Mihai was assassinated only one year later. After his death, as vassal tributary states, Moldavia and Wallachia had complete internal autonomy and external independence, which they finally lost in the 18th century. In 1699, Transylvania became a territory of the Habsburgs' Austrian empire following the Austrian victory over the Turks in the Great Turkish War. The Habsburgs in turn expanded their empire in 1718 to include an important part of Wallachia called Oltenia (which was returned only in 1739), and in 1775 to include the northwestern part of Moldavia, later called Bukovina. The eastern half of the Moldavian principality (called Bessarabia) was occupied in 1812 by Russia.