Emperor Mihai: "We see no need to expand into the lands of the Tatars.
The destiny of Romania lies to the south."
The Tatar Question
Diplomatic relations of Romania
- Ambassadors exchanged with: Ottoman Empire (suzerain power), Poland-Lithuania, Slovakia, Habsburg Lands, Saxony, Bavaria, Venice, Rome, Genoa, Russia.
- Diplomatic contacts with: Denmark, Sweden, several German and Italian States, France, Spain, England.
- Military alliances with: Ottoman Empire (as suzerain power, supposed to defend its vassal Romania against any threats), Poland and Russia (defensive alliance against Tatar incursions in their lands), Slovakia (defensive alliance against any threats)
- Protected Nations: Transylvanian Saxons, Szeklers, Transylvanian Hungarians (peasants and townpeople as there were no more Hungarian nobles left in Romania), Hanseatic Germans in Portu.
- Recognized Religions: Romanian Orthodoxism (Religion of the State, mandatory for all ethnic Romanians), Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism, Islam (conditioned by equal religious rigths granted to the Romanians in the Ottoman Empire).
The Romanian Army
All mercenaries have been dismissed. Only Romanians were allowed to serve in the Romanian army. Because of their military traditions and former standing as the oldest allies of Mihai, the Szeklers were an exception to this rule (in exchange for tax exemptions).
Romania had two kinds of army:
1. The Small Army (Oastea cea Mică) consisting of about 12,000 professional Romanian soldiers and about 3,000 Szeklers.
2. The Great Army (Oastea cea Mare) consisting of every adult Romanian man, sane in body and mind, capable of using weapons. Although around 800,000 potentially fit that description, without a proper conscription system no more than 200,000 could be expected to answer the call of the Great Voivode.
The army was organized in units (in increasing size): groups (
cete, 10-100 men), cohorts (
cohorte, 300-500 men), legions (
legiunĭ, 2000-3000 men), armies (
armate, 10,000-15,000 men)
Military ranks were introduced: soldiers (
ostașĭ / oștenĭ, untrained peasants), legionnaires (
legionarĭ, trained professionals), leaders (
capĭ, leading groups), captains (
căpitanĭ, leading cohorts), generals (
generalĭ, leading legions) voivodes (
voevoḑĭ, leading armies), Great Voivode (
Mare Voevod, leader of the whole army)
The army was also organized in specialized units: infantry, cavalry, artilery and a kind of special operations units (
ascunși / literary hidden ones). A Romanian Navy would be added soon.
The Land Reform
Although the State and the Church were working around the clock to instill patriotism and national fervour inside the newly proclaimed Romanian nation, it was a clear fact that the vast majority of peasants were only fighting in order to get a piece of arable land, the ancestral dream of every Romanian peasant.
And because Mihai had already promissed them land, he had to keep his word. The Land Reform Law was arguably the most difficult law passed by the Romanian Senat (Mihai had rescinded his title of Dictator and its incumbent powers after the conclusion of the anti-Habsburg war, as promissed).
After much deliberation, Mihai and the Senate decided that only the war veterans would get small lots of land, just enough to be able to feed their families.
There was no problem to provide land for the Transylvanian veterans as all land previously owned by the Hungarian and Ottoman landlords was now property of the state. The situation outside the Carpathian arch was not so favourable.
Some of the land belonging to the boyars and the Church in Wallachia and Moldavia was alloted to the peasants, the boyars and priests receiving compensation elsewhere, mainly in the newly annexed territories.
Almost no one wanted land in Edisan which was mostly barren steppe and under a continuous Tatar threat.
The Land Reform Law was nothing more than a compromise leaving the boyars and clergy only a little dissatisfied and the peasants looking forward to another war in order to get more land.
About the Tatars
A few words have to be said about the Tatars. The reader must not assume the Tatars were always that peaceful little colorful nation in the center of the Crimean Peninsula.
In the Middle Ages, the Tatar Crimean Khanate was by far the greatest scourge in that part of Europe.
Based in the Crimean Peninsula, they produced almost nothing, their whole economy being based on continously raiding their neighbours, Moldavia, Poland and Russia. They organized frequent attacks through the northern Black Sea steppe, looting, killing, destroying and taking enormous amounts of Christian slaves which they sold to the Ottomans. This led to massive depopulation and destruction in the steppe north of the Black Sea.
For hundreds of years, Poland and Moldavia had been in a neverending state of war with those Tatars, which were the most hated people in both countries.
Although Poland for example was much more powerful than the Khanate, this amounted to almost nothing because of three factors:
1. The Crimean Khanate was an Ottoman vassal and the Ottoman Empire could and did send large armies to defend it through its former land connection Dobrudja-Bessarabia-Edisan. Now, that land connection was no more since Bessarabia and Edisan were integral parts of Poland's ally, Romania. Moreover, the Pressburg Peace Treaty actually gave Poland and Romania a free hand to finally deal with the Tatars.
2. The Christian armies found it very difficult to wage war in the deserted steppe where they could find no shelter, no food and very little water east of the Dnieper. The sad fact was that the core Tatar territory, the Crimean Peninsula, was protected by a vast buffer of mostly deserted, underdeveloped territory which had to be overcome first. Mihai thought he had a viable solution to this problem and confered about it with the Poles and the Russian Cossacks.
The cold winter of 1602-1603 witnessed a period of extremely severe Tatar raids in southern Poland and Romanian Edisan and Bessarabia, because with the Dnieper, Southern Bug and Dniester frozen solid there was no physical barrier against them. Around 400 Romanian soldiers had been killed and more than 2000 people taken into slavery. The situation became unbearable.
22 February 1603
Romania, Poland-Lithuania and Russia activated their alliance against the Tatars and decided to invade and conquer the Crimean Khanate and split it among them. Russia would get its Easternmost part between the River Don and the eastern coast of the Sea of Azov, Poland would get its central part and Romania would get the land up to the right bank of the Dnieper.
Romania and Poland-Lithuania informed the Ottomans about the Tatar problem and asked them, as suzerain power of the Tatars, to intervene. The Ottoman ambassadors stated that the Ottoman Empire does not have the means to coerce the Tatars.
The Allies proceeded to inform the Ottomans that as per the provisions of the Pressburg Peace Treaty they have the right to retaliate against the Tatars.
The Ottoman ambassadors recognized the allies' right to enforce the Treaty only insisting that no Christian army should enter the Crimean Peninsula proper, which they suggested they had an interest in directly annexing it.
23 February 1603
The Black Sea Alliance (Poland-Lithuania, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Polish Cossacks, Russian Cossacks) sent a declaration of War to the Tatar Crimean Khanate.
The Ottoman ambassadors in Warsaw, Alba Iulia and Koșice were informed. They confirmed that the Ottoman Empire will not intervene in the war as long the Crimean Peninsula was not invaded.
The Tatars did what they always did when stronger armies attacked them. They simply evacuated the steppe and retreated towards Crimea.
The main problem for the Black Sea Alliance would be one of logistics.
On the last day of February, the three-pronged invasion began.
Finally the day had come for Eastern Europe to get rid of the Tatar menace once and for all.
(excluding any recent immigrants). And I do not think there are any ethnic Hungarian which are Romanian nationalists.