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During the period of Austro-Hungarian rule in Transylvania and Ottoman suzerainty over Wallachia and Moldavia, most Romanians were in the situation of being second-class citizens (or even non-citizens) in their own country. In some Transylvanian cities, such as Braşov (at that time the Transylvanian Saxon citadel of Kronstadt), Romanians were not even allowed to reside within the city walls.

The Romanians looked for support firstly from Russia, who they thought would help the Romanian Orthodox people in their struggle against the Islamic Ottoman empire. However, Russia's expansionist goals (it annexed Bessarabia in 1812)

made them realize that they would just become part of another far-flung empire. Since Austria also had similar goals,as shown by the annexations of Oltenia (1718-1739) and Bukovina (1775), the Romanians started looking for allies in Western Europe.

Increasingly, in the Romantic era, the concept of a national state emerged among the Romanians, as among many other peoples of Europe. Defining themselves against the nearby Slavs, Germans, and Hungarians, the nationalist Romanians looked for models of nationality in the other "Latin" countries, notably France.

As in most European countries, 1848 brought revolution to Moldavia, Wallachia, and Transylvania, preceded by the unsuccessful Tudor Vladimirescu's rebellion in 1821. Its goals - complete independence for the first two and national emancipation in the third - remained unfulfilled, but were the basis of the subsequent revolutions.

The Great Powers did not support the Romanians' expressed desire to officially unite in a single state, forcing Romania to proceed alone against the Turks. The electors in both Moldavia and Wallachia chose the same person – Alexandru Ioan Cuza – as prince (Domnitor in Romanian). Thus, Romania was created as a personal union, albeit a Romania that didn't include Transylvania, where Romanian nationalism inevitably ran up against Hungarian nationalism. For some time yet, Austria-Hungary, especially under the Dual Monarchy of 1867, would keep the Hungarians firmly in control, even in parts of Transylvania where Romanians constituted a local majority.

In 1861 the Transylvanian Association for the Literature and Culture of the Romanians (ASTRA) was founded in Sibiu (then Hermannstadt), protected by an uncommonly enlightened local government composed largely of Germans.

Main article: Romanian War of Independence

1812	Russia annexes Bessarabia.
1829	Treaty of Adrianople: Russia declares protectorate over Moldavia and Wallachia.
1834	Russians withdraw from Moldavia and Wallachia.
1846	Customs union of Moldavia and Wallachia.
1848	Failed revolutions in the principalities and in Transylvania.
	Russia reoccupies Moldavia and Wallachia.
1856	Partial Russian withdrawal, following Crimean War.
1859	Alexandru Ioan Cuza unites Moldavia and Wallachia under his personal rule.
1861	ASTRA founded.
1862	Formal union of Moldavia and Wallachia to form principality of Romania.
1867	Formation of the Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary, which assigns Transylvania to Hungary.
1918	After World War I, Transylvania, part of Banat, Bessarabia (Eastern Moldavia between Prut and Dniester rivers) and Bukovina unite with Romania.

National Awakening in the Balkans

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