Oltenia: Encyclopedia II - Oltenia - History

Oltenia - History

Oltenia was inhabited by Dacians during the ancient times and in 106, at the end of the Dacian Wars, it was incorpored in the Roman Empire (see Roman Dacia). In 129, during Hadrian's rule, it formed Dacia Inferior, one of the two divisions of the province (together with Dacia Superior, in today's Transylvania); Marcus Aurelius' administrative reform made Oltenia one of the three new divisions (tres Daciae) as Dacia Malvensis - a name stemming from the locality named Malva, an unidentified site. It was colonized with veterans of the Roman legions. The Romans withdrew their administration south of the Danube in the mid-3rd century and Oltenia was ruled by the Germanic Goths and Dacian Carpians.

Around 1247 a new principality emerged in Oltenia under the rule of Seneslau, which would later merge with Muntenia to form the mediaeval state of Wallachia. From an unknown moment and up until 1831, the voivode was represented in Oltenia by a ban (marele ban al Craiovei - "the great ban of Craiova"), considered the greatest office in Wallachian hierarchy, and one that was held most by members of the Craioveşti family (from the late 1400s to about 1550).

During the 15th century, Wallachia had to accept the Ottoman suzeranity and to pay an annual tribute to keep its autonomy. However, many rulers, including the Oltenian-born Mihai Viteazul, fought against the Ottoman Empire, giving Wallachia brief periods of independence.

After 1716, the Ottomans decided to cease choosing the voivode from among the Romanian boyars and established the Phanariote regime: the rulers were to be appointed from the influential Greeks of the Phanar neighbourhood of Istanbul.

Two years later, in 1718 under the terms of the Treaty of Passarowitz, Oltenia was split from Wallachia and annexed by the Habsburg Monarchy (de facto, it was under Austrian occupation by 1716), but in 1737 it was returned to Wallachia (see Austro-Turkish War of 1716-18 and Austro-Turkish War, 1737-1739). Under the occupation, Oltenia was the only part of the Danubian Principalities to experience Enlightened absolutism and Austrian administration, although these were met by considerable and mounting opposition from conservative boyars. While welcomed at first as liberators, the Austrians quickly disenchanted the inhabitants by imposing rigid administrative, fiscal, judicial and political reforms which were meant to centralize and integrate the territory (antagonizing both ends of the social spectrum: withdrawing privileges from the nobility and enforcing taxes for peasants).

In 1821, Oltenia and the county of Gorj were at the center of Tudor Vladimirescu's uprising (see Wallachian uprising of 1821). Tudor initially gathered his Pandurs in Padeş and relied on a grid of fortified monasteries such as Tismana and Strehaia.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki