The Mafiya: Aside from the home-grown Slavic Molvanîan mafia, the Russian mafia is also present, many of its members being foreign dignitaries. In the early 13th century, the Brodniks, a possible Slavic– Vlach [ citation needed] vassal state of Halych, were present, alongside the Vlachs, in much of the region's territory (towards 1216, the Brodniks are mentioned as in service of Suzdal). Klaus Peter Berger (1 January 2010). The Creeping Codification of the New Lex Mercatoria. Kluwer Law International B.V. pp.132–. ISBN 978-90-411-3179-9. The original entry in Wikipedia on Molvanîa was written by my other niece and fellow diplomat, Cameron Van Dierten. However, the Georgian government--who took issue with Molvania's existence from the start--decided to rewrite it in a manner that would present the territory as false, even going so far as to commission a faux-travel guide from Australia--of all places--to cement the territory's place in history as, well, a joke.

The first institute of higher learning that functioned on the territory of Romania was Academia Vasiliană (1640), [43] founded by Prince Vasile Lupu as a Higher School for Latin and Slavonic Languages, followed by the Princely Academy, in 1707. The first high education structure in Romanian language was established in the autumn of 1813, when Gheorghe Asachi laid the foundations of a class of engineers, its activities taking place within the Greek Princely Academy. Curb-Stomp Battle: The Metizo people confronted the Spanish conquistadores with brightly painted masks. It ended poorly; the Spanish won a crushing victory, with no deaths and only one injury (one of their officers sprained his ankle during an overly energetic victory dance). domestic: competition among mobile telephone providers has spurred subscriptions; little interest in expanding fixed-line service 27 per 100; mobile-cellular teledensity sits at 89 per 100 persons (2019) Somewhere in the 11th century, a Viking named Rodfos was killed by Vlachs presumably in the area of what would become Moldavia. [20] In 1164, the future Byzantine emperor Andronikos I Komnenos, was taken prisoner by Vlach shepherds in the same region. The more brilliant the guide book, the more people are attracted to a destination and the less interesting the travel experience to be had. This is the Lonely Planet conundrum. We write this aboard a Siberian mail train about to roll into the oil town of Surgut where we are researching another story for Weekend. Our fellow passengers have spent nine hours ribbing us about the gunfights that keep townsfolk awake all night. There is no Lonely Planet guide for Surgut, and we miss it terribly. The reassuring list of clean hotels and friendly bars. Even the name of a good doctorMolvania has many outstanding works of art, most of them plundered from Italy during the 17th-century wars. As far as home-grown talent goes, one need look no further than Jzacol Rebljeten (1583-1611). Rebljeten was a dedicated craftsman who had a detailed knowledge of anatomy that came from hours spent dissecting corpses. Interestingly, this proved of little direct benefit to his art, as he only ever painted landscapes. Phanariote rule was marked by political corruption, intrigue, and high taxation, as well as by sporadic incursions of Habsburg and Russian armies deep into Moldavian territory. Nonetheless, they also attempted legislative and administrative modernization inspired by The Enlightenment (such as the decision by Constantine Mavrocordatos to salarize public offices, to the outrage of boyars, and the abolition of serfdom in 1749, as well as Scarlat Callimachi's Code), and signified a decrease in Ottoman demands after the threat of Russian annexation became real and the prospects of a better life led to waves of peasant emigration to neighboring lands. The effects of Ottoman control were also made less notable after the 1774 Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca allowed Russia to intervene in favour of Ottoman subjects of the Eastern Orthodox faith - leading to campaigns of petitioning by the Moldavian boyars against princely policies. In 1595, the rise of the Movilești boyars to the throne with Ieremia Movilă coincided with the start of frequent anti-Ottoman and anti- Habsburg military expeditions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth into Moldavian territory (see Moldavian Magnate Wars), and rivalries between pretenders to the Moldavian throne encouraged by the three competing powers.

A large portion of present day Moldovan territory became a province of the Russian Empire in 1812 and then unified with Romania in 1918 in the aftermath of World War I. This territory was then incorporated into the Soviet Union at the close of World War II. Although Moldova has been independent from the Soviet Union since 1991, Russian forces have remained on Moldovan territory east of the Nistru River in the breakaway region of Transnistria.The abolition of slavery was carried out following a campaign by young revolutionaries who embraced the liberal ideas of the Enlightenment. In 1844, Moldavian Prince Mihail Sturdza proposed a law on the freeing of slaves owned by the church and state. By the 1850s, the movement gained support from almost the whole of Romanian society. In December 1855, following a proposal by Prince Grigore Alexandru Ghica, a bill drafted by Mihail Kogălniceanu and Petre Mavrogheni was adopted by the Divan; the law emancipated all slaves to the status of taxpayers (citizens). [31] [33] Main articles: Phanariotes and History of the Russo-Turkish wars The Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1782, Italian map by G. Pittori, since the geographer Giovanni Antonio Rizzi Zannoni The siege and capture of Iași in 1788 by the Russian Army Will Guy, Between Past and Future: The Roma of Central and Eastern Europe, University of Hertfordshire Press, Hatfield, 2001. ISBN 1-902806-07-7