Dobruja

From Freepedia

Dobruja, or sometimes Dobrudja (Dobrogea in Romanian, Добруджа—transliterated Dobrudzha—in Bulgarian, Dobruca in Turkish), is the territory between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, including the Danube Delta and the Romanian coast. It's divided between Northern Dobruja (Dobrogea), which belongs to Romania, and Southern Dobruja (in Romanian, Cadrilater), which belongs to Bulgaria.

The Romanian region of Dobrogea consists of the counties of Constanţa and Tulcea, with a combined area of 15,500 km² and a population of slightly over a million. Its principal cities are Constanţa, Tulcea, Medgidia, and Mangalia.

The Bulgarian region of Dobrudzha, which is divided between the administrative regions of Dobrich and Silistra, has a total area of 7,565 km², and a combined population of some 350,000 people.

History

Main article: History of Dobruja

Dobruja was originally inhabited by Geto-Dacians. A number of Greek colonies were founded in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. In subsequent centuries, control of the region was held at various times by the Thracians, the Macedonians, the Scythians, the Getae-Dacians, and the Sarmatians. In 46 it was annexed by the Roman Empire as Scythia Minor, part of Moesia. Because of its strategic importance, the Romans constructed a double rampart from the Black Sea down to the Danube.

The territory fell under Bulgarian rule at the end of the 7th century, and with the exception of short periods of Byzantine and Tatar domination, remained under their rule until 13th century. After 1325 a political entity under Balica, in southern Dobruja, split from the Second Bulgarian Empire. Despot Dobrotitsa/Dobrotici extended his rule over all Dobruja, giving his name to the region. After 1389 the state came under the rulership of Mircea the Elder, ruler of Wallachia. The Ottomans conquered it in 1415 and controlled it until the late 19th century.

In 1878 Romania received Northern Dobruja as compensation for ceding Southern Bessarabia to Russia, whereas Bulgaria received the smaller, southern part. Bulgaria lost Southern Dobruja to Romania in 1913, after the Second Balkan War, but regained it in September 1940, during World War II. The Romanian inhabitants (most of them being Aromanian refugee-settlers from Macedonia along with some colonists from Wallachia and some Romanians indigenous to the region) were forced to leave the regained territory, while the Bulgarian minority in the north were in turn made to leave for Bulgaria. The 1940 borders were reaffirmed in the post-war treaties of 1947.

Area, population and cities

The entire Dobruja has an area of 23,100 km² and a population of rather more than 1.35 million, of which just over two-thirds of the former and nearly three-quarters of the latter lie in the Romanian part.

Major cities are Constanţa, Tulcea, Medgidia and Mangalia in Romania, and Dobrich and Silistra in Bulgaria.