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Overview
The conflict over the Transnistrian territory has its roots in the history of the region’s geopolitical struggle. The disputed legitimacy of the secession of Transnistria stems from the fact that Moldovan authorities view its territory as historically belonging to Moldova. The Transnistrian self-proclaimed authorities consider the territory to the left of river Nistru to be illegitimately appropriated and placed under administrative control of Moldovan authorities.

Historical perspective
Historically, Romanians descend from the ancient Dacia, which was conquered by the Roman Empire in 101-106 AD and Romanized afterwards. After their withdrawal in 270 AD, the people formed their own language and culture by combining their Latin roots with the impacts of other migratory populations such as Slavs, Bulgarian, Magyars during the great Eurasian migrations. After a long process of assimilation and eastward migration, they emerged as Romanians (previously acknowledged by regional names: Wallachians, Modovians). In the move eastward, they settled in the region ranging from the eastern Carpathian Mountains to the hills surrounding the river Nistru, also crossing Nistru, moving to its left bank in a scattered or organized manner, reaching further into the current Ukrainian territory. At the same time, the mass settlement remained along the Nistru River.

The territory between rivers Nistru and Prut (Bessarabia, or in Romanian – Basarabia, currently roughly the territory of the Republic of Moldova) has historically been a part of a larger Moldova – a Moldova that encompassed a large territory in the east of what is nowadays Romania. This territory, to the west of Prut river (present-day Romanian region called Moldova) along with the territory to the east of Prut (historical Bessarabia or current Republic of Moldova) formed the Moldova that was part of the Romanian motherland. This Moldova fell under the Hungarian suzerainty and emerged as an independent province only in 1349, established by Prince Bogdan, who formed the Principality of Moldova. In 1512, under pressure from the Ottoman Empire, the principality has become its tributary state and faced invasions by Turks, Crimean Tatars, and Russians. In 1972 the Treaty of Iasi forced the Ottomans to cede part of the province to the Russian Empire. Thus the Russian Empire obtained the territory east of Nistru (current Transnistria - which had a majority of Moldovans with yet a large nomad Tatar population) and Bessarabia (current territory between Nistru and Prut – the Republic of Moldova). After the Russo-Turkish War of 1806-1812, with the Treaty of Bucharest (1812), following the annexation of Moldova east of Prut, the remaining part of the principality of Moldova (the Moldova west of Prut) was united with Wallachia. In 1859, the principality of Wallachia and the part of Moldovan principality west of Prut River were united to from the current Romania. It has received complete independence and international recognition in 1878.

In the year 1917, during World War I and after the Bolshevik Revolution, political leaders in Bessarabia created a National Council (Sfatul Tarii), which proclaimed Bessarabia the independent Democratic Moldovan Republic, federated with Russia. In 1918, it declared its complete independence from Russia and voted to unite with Romania. Russia declared such actions a seizure of its territory and formed the Autonomous Moldavian Republic in 1924 on land east of the Nistru River in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukrainian SSR), using Romanian as language and the Latin alphabet (although between 1932 and 1938 only, Cyrillic afterwards). The region was soon renamed Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Moldavian ASSR), and the capital was changed from Balta to Tiraspol in 1929. In 1940, Bessarabia was occupied by Soviet forces as a consequence of a secret protocol attached to the 1939 Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact – thus the Soviet Union obtained the current territory of the Republic of Moldova and Transnistria (the latter was a part dismembered from the 1924 Moldovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic – Moldovan ASSR) and formed it into the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic – Moldovian SSR.

Romania sought to regain Bessarabia by joining Germany in the 1941 attack on the U.S.S.R and re-conquering the territory during World War II. But the regained territory was ceded back to Moscow when aggression between the U.S.S.R. and Romania ended at the conclusion of World War II, due to the alliance of the two against Germany. Thus the current territory of the Republic of Moldova and Transnistria again became part of Soviet Union and the current boundary between Moldova and Romania was established in 1947.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moldova declared its independence in 1991. Transnistria has also proclaimed itself an independent Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic, with its leader being Igor Smirnov.

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