Danubian Principalities

Danubian Principalities (Romanian: Principatele Dunărene, Serbian: Дунавске кнежевине/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. The term was largely used then by foreign political circles and public opinion until the union of the two Principalities (1859). Alongside Transylvania, the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia became the basis for the Kingdom of Romania, and by extension the modern Romanian nation-state.

In a wider context, the concept may also apply to the Principality of Serbia as one of The Principalities of the Danube which came under the suzerainty (alongside Wallachia and Moldavia) of the Porte from 1817.

The two emerged as vassals of the Hungarian Crown (in the case of Wallachia, Hungarian suzerainty had been present for the polities which preceded the unifying rule of Basarab I), and remained so until their independence (1330 for Wallachia and 1359 for Moldavia). In 1476 Wallachia and in 1538 Moldavia came under initially formal Ottoman suzerainty; however, they preserved their self-rule in all aspects but foreign affairs, except for periods when individual princes defied Ottoman suzerainty and established extensive foreign relations as well — one such rule, that of Michael the Brave, also brought a brief personal union of the Danubian Principalities with each other and with Transylvania in 1600.

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