Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historic region in modern Moldova and Ukraine. Rather than a national or ethnic region, Bessarabia very specifically refers to the geographic region along the Black Sea coast north of the Danube delta and southwest of the Dniester.
Contents
History
A variety of steppe nomadic nations either passed through Bessarabia or settled there. This includes the Bulgars, Magyars, Huns, and Tatars.
By the 1300s, Moldavia was dominant in this region. Bogdan III vassalized Moldavia to the Ottomans in 1514, bringing Bessarabia into the empire as well.
This region was contested between the Ottomans and Russians through the Russo-Turkish Wars. The portion of Bessarabia east of the Prut was ceded to Russia in 1818; the remainder, which became known as Southern Bessarabia, was also ceded in 1829. Russia reorganized this land into the Bessarabia Governorate.
The remainder of Moldavia and Wallachia were subject to Russian military occupation, though it remained an Ottoman vassal. The revolutions of 1848 were expressed here as Danubian nationalism, which the Ottomans and Russians jointly suppressed.
Southern Bessarabia was ceded back to the Ottomans following the Crimean War. It was included in the reformed vilayet of Danube and the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which soon was renamed to Romania.
Russia again seized the Black Sea coast in the Russo-Turkish War of 1878. Although the Treaty of Berlin confirmed the independence of Romania, it was compelled to cede Southern Bessarabia to Russia. As a consolation, Russia ceded neighboring Dobruja to Romania and Bulgaria.
Bessarabia for the most part became Moldova. Southern Bessarabia, now known as Budjak, was kept in Ukraine.