Towards The Establishment of A Defensive Border Province
After the Mongol invasion of 1241–1242, the population of the steppe regions between the rivers Prut and Dniester was still heterogeneous, because various peoples (such as Cumans, Alans, Mordvins), who had been integrated into the Mongol Empire’s political and military system, were settled there. In these territories, the circulation of Mongol and Byzantine coins was predominant during the first half of the 14th century.
On the other hand, during the same period, there was a large circulation of Hungarian and Central European coins in the northwestern parts of the territory between the Carpathians and the Dniester, because the road linking the city of Lemberg (now Lviv, Ukraine) to the Black Sea crossed this region, and it was also connected to the cities of Transylvania. These economic relations with Transylvania and Halych allowed some Saxon colonists (Romanian: Sași) to settle here. Their presence significantly contributed to the development of mining, craft, and trade in the territory. For example, a Saxon inhabitant of Baia, Alexandro Moldaowicz was mentioned in 1334 in a document signed at Lemberg. Although urban development was still incipient, but Baia, Siret and Suceava became developing economic centers. Place names and hydronyms of Hungarian origin, such as Bacău, Cuejd, prove that communities of Hungarians also moved to settle in the territory; the origin of the Csangos (Romanian: Ceangai) can probably be traced back to them. Hungarian placenames can even be found near the river Dniester where Orhei preserved the Hungarian term for the "place of a stronghold" (várhely), although the Hungarian colonists might have only arrived in the 15th century.
Between 1340 and 1355 a series of Polish and Hungarian campaigns relieved Mongol pressure on the frontier zone and this military offensive pushed the Mongols back onto the steppes. The first stage of these military achievements took place between 1340 and 1349 when King Casimir III of Poland (1333–1370) annexed Halych to his kingdom.
King Louis I of Hungary also started a wide scale policy of expansion in 1343, but the first confrontations with the Mongols and their allies were unfavorable to the royal troops. Afterward, the king appointed Andrew Lackfi, the voivode of Transylvania to carry out an expedition in the country of the Mongols at the head of an army of Székely (Romanian: Secui) and other peoples. In 1345 Andrew Lackfi and his troops launched an expedition across the Carpathians and defeated the Mongols. In lack of documentary evidence, it is disputed whether the Romanians of Maramureş took part in Lackfi's campaign, but it seems plausible to reckon with their participation. In 1346, Székely warriors crossed the mountains again and they also returned with large booty. Pope Clement VI (1342–1352) considered it an appropriate moment to restore the Catholic Church hierarchy east of the Carpathians, and therefore ordered the restoration of the former bishopric of Cumania, with its seat in Milcov, on January 29, 1347. The spread of Hungarian influence in the future Moldavia also contributed to an increasing Romanian presence in the territory, because the Romanian elements that would organize Moldavia migrated there from the Kingdom of Hungary, from the region of Maramureş.
Read more about this topic: Foundation Of Moldavia
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