Birthday of a nation

Today is the national day of Romania, the country I've been born in and lived in for the past (almost) 16 years of my life.

Happy birthday, Romania!

Let me tell you about 1917-1918. It was the period of Greater Romania (Romania Mare - picture 3). The first province to join Romania was Bessarabia (Basarabia), in March 1918, following the "October Revolution" of 1917, which brought about the collapse of the Tsardom of Russia. After Ukraine tried to annex the province of Bukovina, it requested help from the Kingdom of Romania, which sent an army to protect the Bukovinans. Using the right to self-determination, Bukovina joined the Kingdom on the 27'th October, 1918. In November a national gathering is convoked in Alba-Iulia and on the date of December 1'st 1918, 1200 delegations of the Romanians in Transylvania (yeah, Dracula, that's the place!), in the presence of a popular gathering of over 100000 people, decide the unification of Transylvania with the Kingdom of Romania, thus uniting all the historical provinces populated by Romanians, creating the largest Romanian country ever to exist in time of peace.

It was the second time that the unification of every territory occupied by Romanians was achieved, the first being Michael the Brave's (Mihai Viteazul - picture 2 - Mishu FTW! :)) ) conquest in 1600, ended one year later, after his death.

Romanians have always been good patriots and close brothers, but sometimes we forget that. The sad thing is that it takes an important or even critical event as a war or a cataclysm to make us remember that we are all members of the same community. Patriotism is mostly forgotten during peaceful times, people going as far as joking and making fun of their own compatriots when they talk of the spirit of this country, a spirit that has helped us keep our own national identity during the years that have passed from the conquest of Dacia by the Romans, in 106 A.D.

Even then, Dacia was an important province and it was said that the leader Burebista (82-44 B.C.), who managed to unite the Northern part of the Thracians (Romania's territory of today) under his rule, defeating the Romans and the Celts, along with other peoples, managed to bring together the greatest army from there to India, seeding fear among his enemies.

The Romanian countries fought in order to deny the Ottoman Empire in the Middle Ages access to Europe, refusing their advance countless times. Names like Mircea cel Batran ("Mircea the Elder"), Stefan cel Mare ("Stefan the Great") Vlad Tepes ("Vlad the Impaler" - yep, that's him) or Iancu de Hunedoara ("John Hunyadi") struck a great deal of fear in the turks. Romania acted as a guardian of Europe, as the "Gates of Christianity" who stayed firmly shut in front of the Ottomans.

Romania has been an important country during the last couple of centuries, too. Bucharest, it's capital, was even called "Little Paris" in the interbellic period. Although important territories were lost in the forties, first Bassarabia and Bukovina were lost to the Soviet Union after the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, then a large part of Northern Transylvania to Hungary and the Cadrilater to Bulgaria, separating the Romanians politically once again, the spirit is still alive in the heart of every true Romanian, be him under the name of "Romanian", "Moldavian", "Ukranian" or any other such nationality, because we all have common ancestors, common roots.

One cannot forget his roots, or he will never fully understand who he really is.

I am a Romanian, and I'm proud to say it. Now, who are you?