For Western people, Romania means only Dracula Land, because of the Bram Stoker novel, where the drama was located in a Western county of Romania, called Transylvania. Actually, the Prince of Wallachia - Vlad the Impales - who conducted some bloody battles against the Ottoman invaders of his country in the middle of the XV-th Century, has no real links with the famous vampire legend, except perhaps Vlad's favorite frightful punishment against criminals and invaders - impalement. However, nowadays, the Bran Castle (near Brasov) and the future Dracula Park (near the medieval town of Sighishoara) remain exciting points of tourist attraction.

The modern history of the Romanians starts in 1859, when the Principalities of Moldova and Wallachia decided to unite. Because the respective regions were under the domination of the Ottoman Empire, Romania became a Principality. The Romanian Government chose in 1866 to offer the throne to the 27 year old Prince Carol of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, who became King Carol I in 1881. In 1877 as Commander of Russian-Romanian troops in the Russian-Ottoman war, he led his nation in a successful war of liberation from the Ottoman Empire, that culminated with a Declaration of Independence on 10 May 1877. King Carol I ruled Romania for nearly half a century, a period that saw a lot of economic, social and political modernization for the country.

During the first two years of the WW I, King Ferdinand continued his predecessor's policy of neutrality, but on August 14, 1916 the King's Council decided to enter the war on the side of the Allies (Entente Powers). Romanian troops crossed into Transylvania against the Austro-Hungarians forces. However, their campaign stalled and German and Austrian forces counter-attacked, occupying Bucharest in December 1916. In springtime 1917 the Romanian Army regrouped under a French Military Mission and achieved several victories over the Central Power forces. The situation dramatically changed the next year, 1918, when the king led his victorious army back into Bucharest.

After Bessarabia and Bucovina National Assemblies decided the union with Romanian kingdom, on 1 December 1918 the representatives of the people of Transylvania, Banat and Crisana decided also on unification with Romania "for all ages to come". Benefiting from abundance of natural resources and boasting a constitutional regime based on democratic system and the rule of law, the country recorded a strong upsurge of development and played a major role within the League of Nations at Geneva, mainly through its foreign minister Nicolae Titulescu.

During WW II, after the fall of France - their principal ally - Romania lost in just a couple of months, in 1940, Bessarabia and Bukovina to the Soviet Union, which threatened general war, and north-western part of Transylvania to Hungary. The political internal crisis led to the abdication of King Carol II in favor of his son Michael I and the taking over of power by General Ion Antonescu, who imposed a dictatorship and a strict cooperation with the Axis Powers, particularly with the Third Reich. Hence, from June 22, 1941, until 1944, Romania fought the Communists by participating in the German Army military campaign against the Soviet Union. But on August 23, 1944, King Michael arrested Marshal Antonescu for refusing to call for an armistice. Then Romania soon joined the United Nations Coalition, fighting a Western campaign alongside the Soviet Army against the Third Reich and Hungary, until Victory Day.

Unfortunately, after three years of opposition to the Communist onslaught, the young King was forced to abdicate on December 30, 1947. Romania was proclaimed as a Popular Republic inside the Iron Curtain. In May 1955 along with the other Communist Eastern countries, Romania joined the Warsaw Treaty, but played in the late 60’s, an independent foreign policy. However, the nearly half century of Communist rule in Romania was tragically dominated by lies, corruption, terror, and human rights violations. When the Communist regimes across Eastern Europe fell in 1989, all those factors erupted in mid-December antigovernment demonstrations, that led to a general uprising against Ceausescu's dictatorial regime.

After 1990, a democratic multi-partite system was formed, a Parliamentary system was re-established, a free-media developed and in 1991 a modern and democratic values Constitution was adopted establishing the Rule of Law and a free-market economy.