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Many of you probably think of from 82 BC until 106 AD, when it mania. In 1947, became a as a mythical place, was conquered by the Roman Em- Communist dictatorship until 1989 home to the vampire Count Dracula pire. The Roman withdrew in 271, when the brutal regime of Nicalae immortalized in Bram Stoker’s but had a lasting effect on the Ro- Ceaşesu was overthrown. novel Dracula published in 1897. manian language, which today is Today Transylvania is among Transylvania is in fact a very real still fundamentally Latin in struc- the most prosperous regions in Ro- place with a long, complicated, and ture. For the next several hundred mania. Here iron, steel, chemical, often bloody history. At the junc- years, Transylvania was overrun by and textile manufacturing as well as tion of eastern and western Europe a succession of tribes from the agriculture, stock raising, and tim- and the Balkans, today it is part of north and east including the Visi- bering. The majority of the popula- the nation of Romania and is bor- goths and the . tion is Romanian although there are dered on the east and south by the At the end of the 9th century, it also sizable numbers of Hungari- Carpathian Mountains. Literally was conquered by the Magyars, ans, Germans, and Roma. Although meaning “land beyond the forests,” later known as the Hungarians, and Transylvania is beginning to attract Transylvania is a scenic mix of from 1003 until 1526 was a prov- tourists, it is still as Bram Stoker deep valleys, mountains, pine for- ince of Hungary. It was during this wrote over a century ago, “one of ests, and alpine meadows. The land period that the namesake of Bram the wildest and least-known por- is rich in mineral resources, includ- Stoker’s novel Dracula was born. tions of Europe.” ing lignite, lead, manganese, gold, In 1526 as a result of the Battle of and copper. The Greek Herodotus Mahács, Transylvania became an wrote an account of the Agathyrsi independent principality ruled by who lived there in the 5th Century Calvinist Hungarian princes. In BC, describing them as luxurious 1566, Hungary was divided be- people who enjoyed wearing gold tween the Habsburgs and the Turks. ornaments. By 1683, the Habsburgs acquired Studying maps can help you Transylvania, and in 1867 it be- begin to understand Transylvania’s came part of the newly established history, its geographic location, and Austro-Hungarian Empire. Follow- its relationship to larger and ing its defeat in World War I, the stronger powers in Europe and Austro-Hungarian Empire began to Asia. “Getting Lost in Maps” can deteriorate, and in 1918, Transylva- also give you clues to the ethnic, nia became part of Romania. In linguistic, religious and cultural 1940 at the beginning of World diversity you find in the region to- War II, Hungary allied with Ger- day. many and Italy and regained about Transylvania was once the nu- 40 percent of Transylvania. After cleus of the Kingdom of the war, the region reverted to Ro- Sources: Tayler, Jeffrey, “Transylvania Today,” Atlantic, June 1997, http://www.theatlantic.com/ doc/199706/transylvania Benda, Kálman, “A Short ,” http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/ faf/toc02.htm. “History of Transylvania,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Transylvania