Editing Geography of Romania (section)

==History==
Traditionally Romania is divided into several historic regions that no longer perform any administrative function:
[[File:Physical map of Romania.jpg|left|250px|thumb|Physical and administrative map of Romania, with the [[Historical regions of Romania|historic regions]] in grey (''Țara Românească'' means Wallachia).]][[Dobruja]] is the easternmost region, extending from the northward course of the Danube to the shores of the Black Sea.

[[Moldavia]] stretches from the [[Eastern Carpathians]] to the [[Prut River]] on the Moldovan and Ukrainian border.

[[Wallachia]] reaches south from the [[Transylvanian Alps]] to the Bulgarian border and is divided by the [[Olt River]] into [[Oltenia]] on the west and [[Muntenia]] on the east. The Danube forms a natural border between Muntenia and Dobruja.

The west-central region, known as [[Transylvania]], is delimited by the arc of the Carpathians, which separates it from the [[Maramureș region]] in the northwest; by the [[Crișana]] area, which borders Hungary in the west; and by the [[Banat]] region of the southwest, which adjoins both [[Hungary]] and [[Serbia]]. It is these areas west of the Carpathians that contain the highest concentrations of the nation's largest ethnic minorities—[[Hungarians in Romania|Hungarians]], [[Transylvanian Saxons|Germans]], and [[Serbs]].

Romania's exterior boundaries are a result of relatively recent events. At the outbreak of [[World War I]], the country's territory included only the provinces of Walachia, Moldavia, and [[Dobruja]]. This area, known as the Regat or the [[Romanian Old Kingdom|Old Kingdom]], came into being with the disintegration of the [[Ottoman Empire]] in the mid-nineteenth century. At the end of World War I, Romania acquired Transylvania and the Banat. Some of this territory was lost during [[World War II]], but negotiations returned it to Romania. Although this acquisition united some 85 percent of the [[Romanian language|Romanian-speaking]] population of Eastern Europe into one nation, it left a considerable number of ethnic Hungarians under Romanian rule. Disputes between Hungary and Romania regarding this territory would surface regularly, as both considered the region part of their national heritage. Questions were also periodically raised as to the historical validity of the Soviet-Romanian border. [[Bukovina]] and [[Bessarabia]], former Romanian provinces where significant percentages of the population are Romanian-speaking, were part of the [[Soviet Union]] from the end of World War II to its dissolution, and subsequently part of the (formerly Soviet) states of Ukraine and [[Moldova]]. Despite ongoing and potential disputes, however, since 1989 Romania has no territorial claims to make.

Romania's current administrative divisions include 41 counties and one city - Bucharest - with special status, see [[Administrative divisions of Romania]].