Dobruja

Dobruja (dō`brjə, dô`–), Rom. Dobrogea, Bulg. Dobrudza, historic region, c.9,000 sq mi (23,300 sq km), SE Europe, in SE Romania and NE Bulgaria, between the lower Danube River and the Black Sea. The chief cities are Constanţa, in Romania, and Dobrich and Silistra, in Bulgaria. Dobruja comprises a low coastal strip and a hilly and forested inland. Largely agricultural, the region grows cereal crops, has vineyards, and breeds Merino sheep. The largest industrial concentration is in and around Constanţa. Tourism is also economically important, particularly in the Romanian part of Dobruja. The population includes Romanians, Bulgarians, Turks, and Tatars. Dobruja's original inhabitants were conquered in the 6th cent. B.C. by the Greeks, who founded colonies along the Black Sea coast. The region passed to the Scythians in the 5th cent. B.C. and to the Romans (who made it part of Moesia) in the 1st cent. B.C. As part of the Roman Empire and later of the Byzantine, it suffered frequent invasions from the Goths, Huns, Avars, and other tribes. Part of the first Bulgarian empire (681–1018), it was reconquered by the Byzantines. In 1186 it was included in the second Bulgarian empire. Tatar raids were common in the 13th cent. In the 14th cent. the region became an autonomous state under Walachian prince Dobrotich, from whom the name Dobruja derives. Turks conquered the region in 1411, and for the next five centuries it remained a sparsely populated and barely cultivated territory of the Ottoman Empire. In 1878 the Congress of Berlin awarded N Dobruja to Romania and a strip of land later known as S Dobruja to Bulgaria. As a result of the second Balkan War Bulgaria ceded (1913) S Dobruja to Romania. The Treaty of Neuilly, signed in 1919 between Bulgaria and the Allies of World War I, gave all of Dobruja to Romania. In 1940, however, the German-imposed Treaty of Craiova forced Romania to transfer S Dobruja to Bulgaria.

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Dobruja

a region of E Europe, between the River Danube and the Black Sea: the north passed to Romania and the south to Bulgaria after the Berlin Congress (1878)

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Dobruja 

or Dobrudja (in Rumanian Dobrogea, in Bulgarian Dobrudzha), a historic region in Europe between the lower course of the Danube River and the Black Sea coast. The northern part of the region, comprising the districts of Tulcea and Constanta, is part of the Socialist Republic of Rumania; the southern part, comprising the cities Tolbukhin and Silistra, is part of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria.

Originally settled by Thracian tribes, Dobruja was occupied by the Scythians in the fifth century B.C. and the Romans in the first century A.D.. Beginning in the third century Dobruja was invaded by Goths, Huns, and other tribes. The Slavs appeared in the region in the early sixth century. The region became part of the first Bulgarian kingdom during its establishment in the seventh century. Controlled by Byzantium in the llth and 12th centuries, Dobruja became part of the second Bulgarian kingdom in the late 12th century. With the decline of this kingdom an independent feudal state arose in Dobruja in the 14th century. Founded by the Bulgarian Balik, it was named Dobruja after his successor, Dobrotich.

In the late 1520’s Dobruja was occupied by the Ottoman Empire. After the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78, South Dobruja was ceded to Bulgaria and North Dobruja to Rumania. The Treaty of Bucharest of 1913 ceded South Dobruja to Rumania; this provision remained in effect until 1940, except during the period from 1916 to 1918, when the entire region was occupied by Bulgarian and German troops. The Bulgarian-Rumanian treaty signed in Craiova on Sept. 7, 1940, returned possession of South Dobruja to Bulgaria. Peace treaties between Bulgaria and Rumania reaffirmed the Bulgarian-Rumanian border in Dobruja in 1947.

REFERENCES

Manolov, I. Z. Dobrudzha po p”tia na sotsialisma. Sofia, 1954.
Georgiev, I. Dobrudzha v borbata za svoboda. Sofia, 1962.
Pippidi, D., and D. Berciu. Din istoria Dobrogei. Bucharest, 1965.

F. I. SADCHIKOV