Romania (i/roʊˈmeɪniə/ roh-may-nee-ə; dated: Roumania;[6] or Rumania;[7][8] Romanian:România [romɨˈni.a] ( listen)) is a country located at the intersection of Central andSoutheastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea.[9] Romania shares a border with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and Moldova to the northeast and east, and Bulgaria to the south.
At 238,400 square kilometers (92,000 sq mi), Romania is the ninth largest country of theEuropean Union by area, and has the seventh largest population of the European Union with over 19 million people.[2] Its capital and largest city is Bucharest, the tenth largest city in the EU, with a population of around 2 million.
The Kingdom of Romania emerged when the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia were united under Prince Alexander Ioan Cuza in 1859. Independence from the Ottoman Empirewas declared on 9 May 1877, and was internationally recognized the following year. At the end of World War I, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the Kingdom of Romania. Greater Romania emerged into an era of progression and prosperity that would continue until World War II. By the end of the War, many north-eastern areas of Romania's territories were occupied by the Soviet Union, and Romania forcibly became asocialist republic and a member of the Warsaw Pact.
With the fall of the Iron Curtain and the 1989 Revolution, Romania began its transition towards democracy and a capitalist market economy. After a decade of post-revolution economic problems, extensive reforms fostered economic recovery making Romania now an upper middle-income country with high human development.[10]
Romania joined NATO on 29 March 2004, the European Union on 1 January 2007 and is also a member of the Latin Union, of the Francophonie, the OSCE, the WTO, the BSECand the United Nations. Today, Romania is a unitary semi-presidential republic, in which the executive branch consists of the President and the Government.[11]
