Danubian Principalities

The Principalities of the Danube wider concept – Moldavia, Wallachia, and Serbia
The Danubian Principalities in the mid-19th century

The Danubian Principalities (Romanian: Principatele Dunărene, Serbian: Дунавске кнежевине, romanized: Dunavske kneževine) was a conventional name given to the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which emerged in the early 14th century. The term was coined in the Habsburg monarchy after the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca (1774) in order to designate an area on the lower Danube with a common geopolitical situation.[1] The term was largely used then by foreign political circles and public opinion until the union of the two principalities in 1859. Alongside Transylvania, the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia became the basis for the Kingdom of Romania, and by extension the modern nation-state of Romania.[2]

In a wider context, the concept may also apply to the Principality of Serbia as one of The Principalities of the Danube,[3][4] which came under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Porte from 1817.[5]

  1. ^ Heppner Harald, Österreich und die Donaufürstentümer 1774–1812. Ein Beitrag zur habsburgischen Südosteuropapolitik, Habilitationsschrift, Graz, 1984, pp. 8–9
  2. ^ Gourdon, É. (1857). Histoire du Congrès de Paris. Librairie nouvelle. p. 14. Retrieved 2014-12-15.
  3. ^ "www.harpers.org/archive/1876/03/0044983". harpers.org. Retrieved 2014-12-15.
  4. ^ Wikisource:The Principalities of the Danube
  5. ^ Mitev, P. (2010). Empires and Peninsulas: Southeastern Europe Between Karlowitz and the Peace of Adrianople, 1699–1829. Lit. p. 147. ISBN 978-3643106117. Retrieved 2014-12-15.