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Transylvania
Transylvania
Timeline: 1983: Doomsday

OTL equivalent: Romania, Budjak, Moldova, parts of Eastern Serbia
Flag Coat of Arms
Flag Coat of Arms
Location of Transylvania
Location of Transylvania
Capital Cluj-Napoca
Largest city Cluj-Napoca
Other cities Arad, Craiova, Oradea, Požarevac, Sibiu, Târgu Mureș, Timişoara
Language
  official
 
Romanian, Hungarian
  others German, Roma, Serbian
Religion Romanian Orthodox
Demonym Transylvanian
Government Semi-Federal Republic
President Remus Cernea
Prime Minister Mona Muscă
Area approx. 298,000 km²
Population approx. 6,750,000 
Independence 26 Sept 1983 (De Facto) 22 July 1990 (De Jure)
Currency Transylvanian Leu
Organizations Black Sea Accords

Transylvania is a federal republic located in the southern one-half of the Carpathian Mountains. Based mainly out of what was once Western Romania, it is considered the legitimate successor to the Romanian state. The country was formed after Doomsday destroyed much of the rest of Romania, leaving the counties in the historical Transylvanian and Otlenian regions as the only functioning areas left in Romania. In the next few years Transylvania was able to survive the after effects from nuclear war and return as a new democratic state.

Today Transylvania remains one of the largest countries left in central or eastern Europe. It continues to use the symbols of the old Principality of Transylvania and retains a vast amount of history and pride among its people. It remains fairly stable despite facing constant problems with refugees and conflict between the Hungarian minority and Romanian majority. While they are based out of Transylvania, Otlenia, and the Banat, they also control the region, with military outposts throughout otherwise uninhabited areas of former Romania, as well as Moldova and the Bujak region of the former Ukraine. The Hungarian state of Partium is in most ways a protectorate as well.

History[]

Pre-Doomsday[]

In its early history, the territory of Transylvania belonged to a variety of empires and states, including Dacia, the Roman Empire, the Hun Empire and the Gepid Kingdom. There were also periods when autonomous political entities arose under the control of the Byzantine and the Bulgarian Empire. Due to increasing pressure from the Visigoths, the Romans abandoned the province during the reign of Emperor Aurelian in 271.

The Hungarians conquered the area at the end of the 9th century and firmly established their control over it in 1003. During the 1300s, the area was devastated by the Mongols repeatedly. After the Battle of Mohács in 1526, Transylvania became part of the Eastern Hungarian Kingdom which, in 1571, was transformed into the Principality of Transylvania, a vassal of the Ottoman Empire.

The Habsburgs acquired the territory shortly after the Battle of Vienna in 1683. From 1711 onward, the princes of Transylvania were replaced with imperial governors. The 300-year long special separate status of the area came to an end by the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, ushering in a period of Magyarization.

Following its defeat in World War I, Austria-Hungary began to disintegrate. The ethnic Romanian majority elected representatives, who then proclaimed Union with the Kingdom of Romania on December 1, 1918. In August 1940, in the midst of World War II, Hungary regained about 40% of Transylvania in the Vienna Award. The territory, however, was returned to Romania in 1945. After World War II, almost all of the German-speaking population left Transylvania for Germany.

Doomsday[]

Although the communist government was very among its people, Romania was still one of the largest members of the Warsaw Pact and was thus aligned with the Soviet Union. This, along with its large military, made it a target for several nuclear missiles. The majority of these missiles were believed to be ballistic missiles launched sites from Western Europe, though the strikes on the capital of Bucharest and the naval port of Constanţa on the Black Sea are believed to have been ICBMs. Other strikes occurred on the cities of Galati, for its steel mill, Brasov for its aircraft plant, and Ploiesti, for its refineries and oil fields.

The blasts killed an estimated 3 million people instantly, with millions more in the east dying from radioactive fallout afterwards. A large amount of radiation was flooded into the country from the nearby nuclear explosions at the foreign cities of Sofia, Budapest, and Chişinău, as well as the bridge-city of Rousse along the Danube in Northern Bulgaria, the army base in the city of Tiraspol, the steel mills at Ribnita and the Soviet port and naval base at Izmail. To make matters even worse, the winds in Romania and the surrounding region at the time were blowing east and northeast, extensively contaminating areas in Eastern Romania that had been previously unaffected, as well as areas east of there. Thus the eastern part of the country witnessed a total collapse of both order and society, with the entire region becoming depopulated as those who could not make it west all perished.

Post-Doomsday[]

However, there were three areas in particular that managed to remain functioning in the chaos. The western regions of Transylvania, Oltenia, and Banat were largely intact. Here, Yugoslavia to the west acted as a buffer zone free of fallout. The Carpathian Mountains also acted as an extra shield of protection, preventing radiation from being blown into the region in any large amount. The counties here were able to keep things under relative control, at least for the time being. The people tried to reach out to other nearby states for help - however, most states in the region either collapsed or disappeared entirely.

Only Yugoslavia to the west remained somewhat functional, though Belgrade had vanished in the nuclear fires. They, however, shut down their borders, preventing anything traveling to and from the country - they wanted no refugees, and the beginnings of the First Yugoslav War were rising. They even threatened military action against anyone caught trying to trespass their borders.

Using what little remained of the Romanian military, it was decided that the surviving people in the country would try to fortify themselves in the Carpathian Mountains and the areas they sheltered. This was partly because it was the least effected region in the country and also because it could provide a degree of natural defense against the outside world. The strategic location in the center of the country might have been a factor as well, although this is most likely a simple coincidence. Either way the region managed to remain stable and functional throughout the rest of the year, while the rest of the country vanished.

As the region had an adequate agricultural industry, it was able to feed its population, though narrowly, aided by the self-sufficient lifestyle of the locals, many of whom lived the same as they had a few hundred years before the blasts.

Although lacking in manpower and equipment, the military was able to use more than a hundred surviving castles and fortresses in the area to once again defend the territory, in a strange twist of fate, from rogue soldiers and armed refugees. Finally, since most refugees from surrounding area fled to either Yugoslavia or Austria, despite the declarations against it by both governments, the region experienced relatively few of them compared to most areas in the first few years of its existence.

Second Yugoslav War[]

The coup in Serbia in the summer of 2011 had complicated matters, even more so after reports emerged in mid-October that the Serbian government was forcibly conscripting ethnic Romanians at Vrsac, near the border, and probably elsewhere as well.

Serbian support of Vidinite exiles in their shocking attacks on civilians in the Rhodopian capital of Smolyan led to that nation declaring war on Serbia. Viewing it as an attack on the Rhodopians by the Serbian government, and holding their own claims and issues with Serbia, Transylvania - and, by virtue of that, Partium as well - declared war in defense of its ally.

Overrunning the small number of defenders in northern Serbia easily, Transylvanian troops, along with soldiers from Partium, secured large swaths of territory. Serbian forces were rapidly moved northwards in an attempt to slow down or even stop them, allowing other nations to smash their way through Serbian lines in the south.

Transylvanian troops would be present, essentially besieging the Serbian capital, when the Serbian government surrendered on May 22nd, 2012. This event would lead to almost all of Transylvanian claims on the Serbian state being annexed by the Transylvanian government, while the Serbian state was dissolved and split being the victorious parties.

Serbians started leaving these areas for Macedonian-controlled areas shortly thereafter. Most are still in the area, however.

Politics and Government[]

Transylvania is governed by a combination of a president, and a parliament, which itself consists of two chambers - the Chamber of Deputies, and the Senate. Presidential elections occur once every five years, and parliamentary elections are held every three.

The last presidential elections were held on November 20th, 2011. Incumbent President Gheorghe Funar of the Transylvanian National Party lost the election to Remus Cernea, an independent who was supported by the Ecologist and Social Democratic Parties, as well as the German People's Party and the Magyar Party. The Conservative Party candidate, Codruţ Şereş, finished a distant third, and the National Liberal Party candidate, Teodor Atanasiu, placed even further behind that. The next election is scheduled to be held on November 20th, 2016.

Immediately after his victory, Cernea appointed Mona Muscă, head of the National Liberal Party in Parliament, to the post of Prime Minister. She replaced Iosif Matula, of the Transylvanian Conservative Party, in the role.

In parliamentary elections held on November 30th, 2012, the Transylvanian National Party remained the largest single party, and slightly increased their numbers in Parliament. However, the other parties remained in control of both chambers, with Prime Minister Muscă remaining in power.

There are currently eight parties with some degree of representation in the Chamber or the Senate, along with a small number of independents. There are numerous other small parties, largely consisting of ones for small minorities. The Senate has a total of 56 seats, and the Chamber has a total of 141.

Name Ideology Founded Seats in the Senate Seats in the Chamber of Deputies Governing Coalition? Leader
German People's Party German Rights, Centrism 1990 1 2 Yes Klaus Iohannis
Independents N/A N/A 0 3 Variable N/A
Magyar Party Hungarian Rights, Liberalism 1990 12 25 Yes Hunor Kelemen
National Liberal Party Liberalism 1990 12 32 Yes Mona Muscă
National Peasants' Party Agrarianism 1990 1 3 Yes Gheorghe Ciuhandu
Social Democratic Party Socialism 1990 8 20 No Valeriu Zgonea
Transylvanian Conservative Party Conservatism 1990 6 13 Yes Iosif Matula
Ecologist Party of Transylvania Environmentalism 1978/1990 0 1 No Ovidiu-Cristian Iane
Transylvanian National Party Romanian Nationalism 1990 16 42 No Pavel Cherescu

Regions of Transylvania[]

Transylvania is divided into three basic areas - settled areas, normally referred to as "Transylvania Proper," which is divided into counties, a band of resettlement, and five military districts.

Only the settled areas have representation in government.

The resettlement band is a strip of territory, 30-to-60 miles in width, east of the settled zones. Encouraged with incentives, Transylvanian citizens, along with immigrants and refugees, are moving into the area, re-populating it, and establishing, or in many cases re-establishing, villages and towns. The "band", as it is commonly known, is, however, under military control, though as it becomes more inhabited this is being scaled back somewhat.

Once the band has become populated enough, parts will be divided up into new counties, and other portions will join already-established ones. Afterward, pending environmental reviews, the band will be moved eastward. The government plans on resettling the rest of its territory this way, as it becomes both safe and possible to do so. It is hoped that WCRB and WFF investigations near the Black Sea will aid this endeavor.

Four of the military districts are in the east - one each for the Interior, the Coast, Moldova, and the Bujak. The other district, by far the newest one, is composed of the territories annexed following the Second Yugoslav War. It is likely that it will be formed into counties on its own once the ravages of war have been repaired somewhat.

Military[]

Transylvania maintains a small but powerful regular army for its size, as they consider the region to be relatively peaceful, outside of the rumors of chaos from the Ukraine east of Podolia and the areas around the former city-state of Vidin.

However, every able-bodied man, and any woman who so chooses, receives military training for six months at the age of 18, and then for a two-week period every year thereafter until they turn 30 years of age. These conscripts, after their six months, form the reserve forces, and after turning 30 become part of the militia, with a week of training each summer. After turning 40, anyone may retire from the militia - though many do not - but barring those in senior leadership positions, all must retire upon turning 50.

Most of the Transylvanian forces in the East are composed of conscripts.

Economy[]

Sports and Culture[]

International Relations[]

Transylvania is close in relations between both the successor states of the Ukraine to the northeast and the Greek Federation far to the south. Rhodope is considered an ally by most of the leadership, and the Republic is on record as saying that any attack on Rhodope is an attack on them. Relations with Macedonia are generally good as well.

They are a member of the League of Nations, and have agreed to cooperate with WCRB expeditions into the former Ukraine by sending one of their own into the area as well, though their main goal is to further their own interests, especially in the Budjak, which they control.

Following agreements made with its allies and co-belligerents in the Second Yugoslav War, Transylvanian claims for portions of Serbia that are largely inhabited by Romanians or what Transylvania considers Romanians were taken over by the Transylvanian government. This may be an issue in the future.

With the signing of the Black Sea Accords on August 31st, 2011, a new period for international relations began in the area. Given their status, Partium joined along with them. Aid for reclamation efforts in Partium, and for the construction of dams in the area, was promised, and arrived over the next few months. The first dams are scheduled for completion in late 2013. The Greek government also agreed to supply funding for the WWF project ongoing in the Northern Black Sea - preliminary reports are due in the summer of 2013, extended from the original time frame of fall, 2012.

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