A short history... (2)

These pages discuss the peoples known to Hungarians as csango, which includes those who refer to themselves as Catholic Romanians or Hungarians in Moldavia, and at times includes the Romanians of Greek-Catholic faith found that have moved from Transylvania to Moldavia.

All these groups of peoples are generalised under the single term of csango, but to understand one must separate them by their various origins, histories and circumstances and separate religious and nationalistic politics that overwhelm many of the common beliefs. The concept of nationality can have various criteria such as genetic ancestry, culture, religion, or language.

The term first appeared in documents in the late 18th century. There are many suggested derivations of csango, a popular one is meaning "people who are separated", may be the one that fits data best is that it comes from csángani meaning to hybridize and was applied by the Szekely to the Romanians who changed to Catholic religion and became known as csángók. This later explanation may have been less favoured in historic-politics when there was a wish not to include Romanians into the equation, but this logically fits the facts for some of the groups currently under the generalised term csango.

The following table summarised the peoples that are commonly known as Csango.

Circumstances | Religion | Ancestry | Language | Culture | Where | Numbers

Catholics from | Catholic | Cuman, | Romanised | Romanised | | low

Hungarian,

Romanian

Cuman rule |

before |

Romanian |

Moldavia |

________________________________________________________________________

Szekely who | Catholic | Szekely | Hungarian | Still some | Moldavia – | 25,000

in particular

Trotus and

Tazlau valleys

Szekely |

Moldavian |

Romanian |

fled from the |

1764 massacre |

______________________________________________________________________________

Szekely who | Catholic | Szekely | Hungarian | Szekely | now relocated to Deva

(Transylvania) and Hungary

moved to |

Bucovina in |

1775 when it |

became part |

of the Austrian |

Empire |

______________________________________________________________________________

Romanians that | Catholic or | Romanian | bi-lingual | Transylvanian | Transylvania

/Romanian

|Romania/Hung|

Lutheran |

changed to |

Catholic or |

Lutheran |

______________________________________________________________________________

Romanians that | Catholic or | Romanian| Transylvanian | Romanian | Moldavia – |200,000

|around Bacau

|and Roman

dialect|

Lutheran |

changed to |

Catholic or |

Lutheran |

and moved |

to Moldavia |

______________________________________________________________________________

Romanians that| Catholic | Romanian | Transylvanian | Romanian |Moldavia – | few 1000

around Bacau |

and Roman |

dialect/Hungarian|

or Lutheran|

changed to |

Catholic or |

Lutheran |

and moved |

to Moldavia, |

and where |

more "Magyarised"|

Please note: I understand that this challenges some common beliefs in identity which have become politically associated with nationality.