"Is It 'Rumania' or 'Romania?' " Part 3

Note: Initially I intended to end this series with Part 3, but as I sometimes do, I decided to continue for a likely two additional parts, in order to do justice to Rumanian history, especially the World War Two and postwar eras. 

While manufacturing and oil production expanded after Rumanian independence, wealthy landowners derived much of the benefit. Discontent boiled over in 1907 in the Rumanian Peasants' Revolt, but the government used the army to put down the revolt in which thousands of peasants died and thousands more were imprisoned. In 1913 Rumania gained the territory of the ethnically diverse Southern Dobruja from Bulgaria in a localized Balkan war (known as the "Second Balkan War").

The beginning of World War One in the late summer of 1914 saw Rumania remain neutral, although with its army at the ready. German influence through the German-based monarchy, a branch of the Hohenzollerns,* and German business investment in the country after its independence, made possible a Rumanian entry into the war on side of Germany and Austria-Hungary, but the Allies offered Rumania Transylvania (then under Hungarian control **) when Austria-Hungary was defeated, and this, and a generally more pro-Russian (Russia was on the Allied side) and pro-Allied sentiment within Rumania, had the country enter the war in August of 1916. The Bolshevik  Revolution of late 1917 saw Russian involvement in the war essentially end, and this brought Rumania to the peace table in December 1917.*** As the war approached its end in November 1918, Rumania again entered the war on the Allied side. Votes by various segments of representatives of Rumania territories led to a united Rumania, as Transylvania joined the nation, however, along with more than a million and a half Hungarians, a sore spot which festered thereafter, with a brief clash of arms which ended in 1920. 

* King Carol I died in the fall of 1914 and was succeeded by his nephew, Ferdinand, who was born in Germany, and who ruled as Ferdinand I. 

** Formerly known as the Austrian Empire from 1804, an agreement in 1867 saw the empire divided between Austro-German control of the western areas and Hungarian control of the eastern areas; thus, "Austria-Hungary," or more formally the "Austro-Hungarian Empire." The Habsburg emperor was simultaneously King of Hungary, and foreign policy and military matters were held in common.

*** Russia was the only close ally of Rumania in eastern Europe, and without joint military operations with Russia, the Rumanians were unable to continue the war on their own.

WORD HISTORY:
Vampire-The ultimate origin of this word is unknown, but English seems to have borrowed it from French "vampire," a borrowing from German "Vampir," which was borrowed from Hungarian "vampir," borrowed from Serbian "vampir." Serbian is a Slavic language and there are forms of the word in many other Slavic languages. Whether a form of the word was a Slavic invention or whether Slavic acquired the word as a borrowing, perhaps from a Turkic language source, is uncertain.