But this coalition was destroyed by the Mongol invasions of the 1240s, and afterwards the region was divided between Hungary north of the Danube and Bulgaria to the south. Hungarian kings took control of this area of the lower Danube valley in the late 900s (from the Bulgarians), and ruled jointly with their Turkic allies who had settled from the eastern steppes, the Cumans (sometimes the King of Hungary also added the title ‘King of Cumania’). The Hungarians-often the overlords, extending their rule across the mountains from Transylvania-called it Havasalföld, or ‘Snowy Lowlands’, or sometimes Ungrovlahia. Bulgarian Slavs called it Vlashko, while Turks added a vowel at the start to form Eflak. In the past, the country was referred to as Vlahia, Wlachia, or Valahia, and the people as Vlachs. In fact, their own name for this region is Țara Românească (‘the Romanian Land’) whereas Wallachia comes instead from the name given by non-Romanians to outsiders, from the ancient Germanic term for ‘other’ ( walhaz-which also gives us Welsh and Walloon). Occupying a broad plain bounded on the north by the Carpathians and on the south by the broad river Danube, it formed part of the Ancient Roman province of Dacia, and retained a Latin-based Romance language through the centuries when most of the surrounding lands became increasingly Slavicised. Wallachia is the southernmost of the three Romanian principalities. The three principalities in the late 16th century
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