Romania is a country in southeastern Europe, roughly the same size as the United Kingdom albeit with a much smaller population. One of the more recent members of the European Union, it is currently going through an economic upheaval and has one of the highest GDP growth rates on the continent. Although modern Romania was only formed as recently as 1859, the region has a long and fascinating history as it is on the traditional border between large western germanic cultures and eastern cultures like the Ottomans. The Romanian language is also shows this cross cultural history, being one of the romance languages - that is, having developed from latin much like french, spanish and italian.