Roumania

(5,800), a kingdom of SE. Europe, wedged in between Ru ia (N.) and Bulgaria (S.), with an eastern shore on the Black Sea; the Car path i ans on the W. divide it from Austro-Hungary; comprises the old principalities of Moldavia and Wall a chia, which, long subject to Turkey, united under one ruler in 1859, and received their independence in 1878, in which year the province of Dobrudja was ceded by Ru ia; in 1881 the combined provinces were recognised as a kingdom; forms a fertile and well-watered plain sloping N. to S., which grows immense quantities of grain, the chief export; salt-mining and petroleum-making are also important industries; the bulk of the people belong to the Greek Church; peasant proprietorship on a large scale is a feature of the national life; government is vested in a hereditary limited monarch, a council of ministers, a senate, and a chamber of deputies; Bucharest ( q. v .) is the capital, and Galatz ( q. v .) the chief port.