period. Banat, Crişana, and Transylvania were integrated into the Kingdom of Hungary in the 11th century. These regions were subject to plundering raids by the nomadic Pechenegs and Cumans, who dominated the lowlands east of the mountains. Hungarian monarchs promoted the immigration of Western European settlers to Transylvania from the 1150s. The settlers' descendants, who were known as Transylvanian Saxons from the early 13th century, received collective privileges in 1224. Because of the settlement of the Saxons in their former territories, the Székelys were moved to the easternmost zones of the kingdom. The emergence of the Mongol Empire in the Eurasian Steppes in the first decades of the 13th century had lasting effects on the history of the region. The Mongols subjugated the Cumans in the 1230s and destroyed many settlements throughout the Kingdom of Hungary in 1241 and 1242, bringing the Early Middle Ages to an end. Background Roman provinces and native tribes Contacts between the Roman Empirewhich developed into the largest empire in the history of Europeand the natives of the regions now forming Romania commenced in the 2nd century BC. These regions were inhabited by Dacians, Bastarnae and other peoples whose incursions posed a threat to the empire. The Romans initially attempted to secure their frontiers by various means, including the creation of buffer zones. Finally, they decided that the annexation of the lands of these fierce "barbarians" was the best measure. The territory of the Getae between the river Danube and the Black Sea (modern Dobruja) was the first region to be incorporated into the empire. It was attached to the Roman province of Moesia in 46 AD. The Lower Danube marked the boundary between the empire and "Barbaricum" until Emperor Trajan decided to expand the frontiers over territories controlled by the Dacian Kingdom. He achieved his goal through two military campaigns, the second of which ended with the annihilation of the Dacian state and the establishment of the province of Dacia in 106. It included Oltenia and large portions of Banat, Transylvania, and Wallachia. Many settlers "from all over the Roman world" arrived and settled in the new province in the following decades. Dacia was situated over the empire's natural borders. Dacia was surrounded by native tribes inhabiting the regions of Crișana, Maramureș, and Moldavia, which are now part of Romania. Dacia province was plundered by neighboring tribes, including the Carpians and Sarmatians from the