Archaeological finds show that Moldovans are an ancient people, with a civilization going back to the Stone Age. Our beautiful local pottery dates to the Copper Age, when the Cucuteni-Tripolie culture flourished.
In the First Century A.D., the territory was populated by Dacian tribes, which Rome’s Emperor Traijan considered a threat and decided to conquer. Present-day Romania, which was part of the conquered territory, got its name from the Roman Empire.
In 1359 the military overlord Bogdan I founded the feudal state of Moldova between the Carpathian Mountains, the Nistru River, the Danube and the Black Sea.
If you want to charm Moldovans, tell them you have heard of Stephen the Great. He is the most important character in the country’s history, reigning from 1457 to 1504.
In 1812, the swath of Moldovan territory between the Prut and Nistru Rivers known as Bessarabia became a Russian protectorate. It retained that status for 106 years.
In 1918, Bessarabia opted to become part of Romania. But in 1940, after Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, dividing much of Eastern Europe between them, the Soviets annexed Moldova.
The Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic gave way to an independent Moldova on August 27, 1991.
In 2005, Moldova shifted its political orientation toward Western Europe by becoming the first former Soviet country to adopt a European Union action plan, under which it would join the economic and political alliance someday. Moldova has been steadily embracing the principles necessary for it to become an EU member.