Bucharest (Bucuresti) city (state capital), history - - Pictures
The history of Bucharest is traced to the 15th century. Following the revolt of the vassal principalities of Walachia and Moldavia against their Ottoman conquerors, the Ottomans burned the city in 1595. In 1698 the Ottoman sultan Mustafa II made Bucharest the seat of the Walachian government. Wars routinely erupted among the Ottoman Empire, Austria, and Russia between 1711 and 1829, and Bucharest, geographically in the middle of the conflicts, was periodically occupied and destroyed.
In 1859 Bucharest became the administrative center of the united principalities of Walachia and Moldavia, under Ottoman suzerainty. By the decisions of the Congress of Berlin, which provided for a general settlement of the Balkan situation after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 and 1878, Romania was recognized as an independent country with Bucharest as its capital. German troops occupied Bucharest from December 1916 until mid-1918 during World War I. During World War II Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu admitted German troops into Romania in October 1940, and the Germans occupied Bucharest until 1944. Weakened by Romanian insurrection and Allied bombings, the Germans surrendered when Soviet forces entered the city in August. Soviet military occupation lasted until 1958.
