Name
The name Bucovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became Austrian Empire in 1804, and Austria-Hungary in 1867.

The official German name, die Bukowina, of the province under Austrian rule (1775–1918), was derived from the Slavic form Bukowina, which stands for beech tree (бук [buk] as, for example, in Ukrainian or, even, Buch in German). Another German name for the region, das Buchenland, is mostly used in poetry, and means "beech land", or "the land of beech trees".

During the Middle Ages, the region was the northwestern third of "Ţara de Sus" (Upper Country in Romanian) part of the Moldavian Principality, as opposed to "Ţara de Jos" (Lower Country). The region has become the cradle of the Moldavian Principality, and remained its political center until 1574, when its capital was moved from Suceava to Iasi.

In Romania the term Northern Bucovina is synonymous to Chernivtsi Oblast of Ukraine, and (Southern) Bucovina to Suceava County of Romania.

Bucovina’s History
BUCOVINA (Rom.) Bukovina (Eng), Bukowina (Germ.) Bukovyna (Ukr), is historic region of E Europe, in SW Ukraine and NE Romania. Traversed by the Carpathian Mts. and the upper Prut and Siretul rivers.

The population is largely Romanian in Southern Bucovina and Ukrainian in the north. Most of the region's Jews were exterminated during World War II.

A part of the Roman province of Dacia, Bucovina was overrun after the 3d cent. AD by the Huns and other nomads. After the Mongols withdrew from Moldavia, Bucovina became (14th cent.) the nucleus of the Moldavian principality.

In 1514, Bucovina, then part of Moldavia, became tributary to the Turkish sultans. Ceded by the Ottoman Empire to Austria in 1775, it was at first a district of Galicia but in 1848 was made, as a titular duchy, a separate Austrian crownland. The region won limited autonomy from Austria, and in 1861 Chernivtsy was made the seat of a provincial diet.

With the dissolution of the Austrian empire in 1918, the General Congress of Bucovina voted the union with Romania. Romanian control of the province was recognized internationally in the Treaty of St. Germain in 1919.

In a treaty of June 1940, Romania ceded the northern part of Bucovina to the USSR, which incorporated it into the Ukrainian SSR. Although Romanian troops reoccupied N.Bucovina during World War II. In 1944 the Red Army drove the Axis forces out and re-established the Soviet control over the territory. Romania was forced to formally cede the northern part of Bucovina to the USSR by the 1947 Paris peace treaty.

Northern Bucovina now forms part of the Chernivtsi oblast in Ukraine. The remainder of the area forms one of the historical provinces of Romania and is part of the administrative region of Suceava. See more details about Bucovina’s History at Wikipedia – The free encyclopedia.