Founding of Moldavia

This article is about the founding of the medieval Principality of Moldavia. For the establishment of the modern Republic of Moldova, see Declaration of Independence of Moldova.

The founding of Moldavia (Romanian: Descălecatul Moldovei) was an event that traditionally dates to 1346 when a Vlach voivode, Dragoș, departed the Voivodeship of Maramureș in Transylvania and travelled eastwards with his fellow people to further settle the plain lying in between the Eastern Carpathians and the Prut river. This was incentivised by the Kingdom of Hungary, after several military victories in the 1340s drove out the nomadic mongols and tatars in the region - which in turn facilitated expansion and settlement east of the Carpathians. Dragoș established a defensive borderland, protecting the Kingdom's eastern flank. 13 years later, Bogdan I, another Vlach voivode from Maramureș who had fallen out with King Louis of Hungary, crossed the Carpathians in 1359 and took control of Moldavia, wrenching the region from Hungary's vassalage and turning the borderland into a principality. For the next five centuries, the Principality of Moldavia would be an important player in regional affairs until its union with Wallachia in 1859, initiating the establishment of the modern Romanian state.

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