|
Romania WALACHIA AND MOLDAVIA UNDER THE RUSSIAN PROTECTORATE, 1711- 1859
The Phanariot Princes
At the turn of the eighteenth century, Peter the
Great's Russia
supplanted Poland as the predominant power in Eastern
Europe and
began exerting its influence over Walachia and Moldavia.
The
Orthodox tsar announced a policy of support for his
coreligionists
within the Ottoman Empire, and Romanian princes in
Walachia and
Moldavia began looking to Russia to break the Turkish
yoke. Peter's
ill-fated attempt to seize Moldavia in 1711 had the
support of both
Romanian princes. After the Turks expelled the Russian
forces, the
sultan moved to strengthen his hold on the principalities
by
appointing Greeks from Constantinople's Phanar, or
"Lighthouse,"
district as princes. These "Phanariot" princes, who
purchased their
positions and usually held them briefly until a higher
bidder
usurped them, were entirely dependent upon their Ottoman
overlords.
Within the principalities, however, their rule was
absolute and the
Porte expected them to leech out as much wealth from their
territories as possible in the least time.
Exploitation, corruption, and the Porte's policy of
rapidly
replacing Phanariot princes wreaked havoc on the
principalities'
social and economic conditions. The boyars became
sycophants;
severe exactions and heavy labor obligations forced the
peasantry
to the brink of starvation; and foreigners monopolized
trade. The
only benevolent Phanariot prince was Constantine
Mavrocordato, who
ruled as prince of Walachia six times and of Moldavia four
times
between 1739 and 1768. Mavrocordato attempted drastic
reforms to
staunch peasant emigration. He abolished several taxes on
the
boyars and clergy, freed certain classes of serfs, and
provided the
peasants sufficient land, pasturage, and wood for fuel.
Mavrocordato also published books, founded schools, and
required
priests to be literate. These reforms, however, proved
ephemeral;
discomfited boyars' undermined Mavrocordato's support at
the Porte,
and he was locked away in a Constantinople prison.
Data as of July 1989
|
