the Paris Treaty that ended World War II. During the process of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Moldavian and Ukrainian SSRs proclaimed their independence in 1991, becoming the modern states of Moldova and Ukraine while preserving the existing partition of Bessarabia. Following a short war in the early 1990s, the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic was proclaimed in the Transnistria, extending its authority also over the municipality of Bender on the right bank of Dniester river. Part of the Gagauz-inhabited areas in southern Bessarabia was organised in 1994 as an autonomous region within Moldova. Etymology and usage of the name According to the traditional explanation, the name Bessarabia (Basarabia in Romanian) derives from the Wallachian Basarab dynasty, who allegedly ruled over the southern part of the area in the 14th century. However, some scholars question this, claiming that: the name was initially an exonym applied by Western cartographers it was first used in local sources only in the late 17th century; the idea that it referred to Moldavian regions near the Black Sea was explicitly rejected as a cartographic confusion by the early Moldavian chronicler Miron Costin, and; the confusion may have been caused by medieval Western cartographers, misinterpreting contemporaneous Polish references to Wallachia as Bessarabia as referring to a separate land between Wallachia and Moldavia. According to Dimitrie Cantemir, the name Bessarabia originally applied only to the part of the territory south of the Upper Trajanic Wall, i.e. an area only slightly bigger than present-day Budjak. Geography The region is bounded by the Dniester to the north and east, the Prut to the west, and the lower River Danube and Black Sea to the south. It has an area of . The area is mostly hilly plains and flat steppes. It is very fertile and has lignite deposits and stone quarries. People living in the area grow sugar beet, sunflower, wheat, maize, tobacco, wine grapes, and fruit. They raise sheep and cattle. The main industry in the region is agricultural processing. The main cities are Chișinău (former capital of the Russian Bessarabia Governorate, now capital of Moldova), and Izmail and Bilhorod-Dnistrovs'kyi (historically called Cetatea Albă and Akkerman; both now within Ukraine). Other towns of administrative or historical importance include: Khotyn, Reni, and Kilia (all now in Ukraine); and Lipcani, Briceni, Soroca, Bălți, Orhei, Ungheni, Bender/Tighina, and Cahul (all now in Moldova). History In the late 14th century, the newly