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Romania The Romanian Army in World War I
Prior to World War I, Carol I emphasized military ties
with
Germany and forced France to compete with Germany as a
source of
military assistance for, and influence on, the Romanian
state. The
sympathies of most Romanians, however, lay with France. In
1913
Romania mobilized nearly 500,000 men against Bulgaria
during the
Second Balkan War and, at a decisive moment, marched
virtually
unopposed on the Bulgarian capital, Sofia.
Although it sympathized with France, Britain, and
Russia,
Romania maintained an armed neutrality during the first
two years
of World War I. The warring alliances tried to induce
Romania to
enter the war on their side in return for territorial
gain. The
Central Powers offered Bukovina and Bessarabia, which
would be
carved out of tsarist Russia. The Triple Entente promised
Romania
Transylvania, which would be detached from the
Austro-Hungarian
Empire.
Romania finally joined the Entente in August 1916 and
fought
alongside Russian armies on the eastern front. It
mobilized
approximately 750,000 men against German and
Austro-Hungarian
soldiers in the northern Carpathian Mountains and against
German
and Bulgarian troops along its southern border. Romanian
forces
suffered a string of early and catastrophic defeats, and
Bucharest
was occupied in December 1916. The final blow to the
Romanian
effort in the war was the collapse of Russian armies in
October
1917, which disrupted Romania's supply lines. As a result,
Romania
was obliged to sue for peace in December 1917. Romania
lost
approximately 400,000 soldiers to combat wounds or
disease, as well
as untold numbers of civilians.
Although Romania was a defeated power, its French and
British
allies eventually were victorious, and it reaped major
territorial
gains as a result of the peace treaties that officially
ended World
War I. It received Transylvania from Austria-Hungary,
Dobruja from
Bulgaria, and Bukovina and Bessarabia from Soviet Russia
(see
fig. 1). These gains nearly doubled its size but also earned it
the
enmity of its immediate neighbors.
Data as of July 1989
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