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Romania The Balkan Wars and World War I
After the 1907 peasant uprising, foreign events shaped
Romania's political agenda. In 1908 Austria annexed
Bosnia, a clear
indication that Vienna sought to destroy Serbia. A year
later Ionel
Bratianu, son of the former Liberal Party leader, became
Romania's
prime minister. Bratianu feared that Bulgarian expansion
might
upset the Balkan balance of power and sought compensation
for any
potential Bulgarian gains at the Ottomans' expense.
Then in October 1912, the First Balkan War erupted.
Serbia,
Montenegro, and Greece scored quick victories over Ottoman
forces,
and Bulgarian forces drove to within thirty-three
kilometers of
Constantinople. Romania called on Sofia to hand over the
fortress
of Silistra; Bulgaria's foreign minister, however, offered
only
minor border changes, which excluded Silistra, and
assurances for
the rights of the Kutzovlachs in Macedonia and northern
Greece.
After the war, Romania threatened to occupy Bulgarian
territory,
but a British proposal for arbitration prevented
hostilities. The
resulting May 1913 Protocol of St. Petersburg awarded
Romania
control of Silistra; the protocol did not satisfy
Bucharest's
appetite for territory, however, and Sofia considered the
award
excessive.
On June 28, 1913, the Second Balkan War broke out when
Bulgaria
launched an unsuccessful surprise attack on Serbia and
Greece. The
Ottomans joined in the fighting against Bulgaria, and
Romania's
army marched into southern Dobruja before turning toward
Sofia. The
warring states signed an armistice on July 30, 1913, and
in the
subsequent Treaty of Bucharest, Romania retained Silistra
and other
strategic areas of Dobruja. During the invasion of
Bulgaria, large
numbers of Romanian soldiers saw firsthand Bulgaria's
abundant
peasant holdings and more advanced farming methods and
noted the
absence of wealthy landowners and rapacious middlemen.
Bratianu's
Liberal Party tapped the resulting impatience of Romania's
peasantry by making land and franchise reform the thrust
of its new
program; they proved an unstoppable combination against
the
Conservatives. In January 1914, the Liberals rose to power
and
convoked a constituent assembly to elaborate agrarian and
electoral
reform programs.
When Bratianu became premier, he learned that Charles
had
renewed the secret treaty with the other Central Powers in
1913
despite the fact that the king knew the treaty would enjoy
no
popular support because of Hungary's continuing efforts to
Magyarize Transylvania's Romanians. On June 28, 1914, a
Bosnian
Serb assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to
the
Austrian throne and the Dual Monarchy's most ardent
supporter of
the rights of Transylvania's Romanians. Within days
Austria
presented Serbia with an ultimatum that made war
inevitable. At
first, King Charles felt the secret treaty did not bind
Romania to
declare war on Serbia for a quarrel that Austria-Hungary
had
provoked with its ultimatum. The Central Powers, eager to
have
Charles mobilize Romania's forces against Russia, evoked
the king's
German ancestry and tempted him with a promise to restore
Bessarabia; at the same time, Russia offered Transylvania
to
Romania if it would join the Triple Entente, the military
alliance
of Great Britain, France, and Russia set up to counter the
Central
Powers. At a meeting of government and opposition-party
leaders
deciding Romania's course of action, Charles advocated
joining the
Central Powers. But upon hearing about Charles' secret,
unconstitutional treaty, virtually all the government
leaders
rejected the king's proposal and opted for a wait-and-see
policy.
Romanian public opinion adamantly backed the French, and
Bucharest
crowds cheered after the French checked the German advance
at the
Marne River.
King Charles, infirm and disconsolate that Romania did
not
honor his secret treaty, died in October 1914. If it had
not been
for the war, Romanians would have grieved for the end of a
fortyeight -year reign that had brought them the most prosperous
and
peaceful period in their entire history. Charles's
successor,
Ferdinand (1914-27), and Bratianu chose to conserve
Romania's
resources and continue playing a waiting game until they
could
discern the outcome of the war. In November Hungary tried
to
dissipate Romania's animosity by announcing a number of
reforms
benefiting Transylvania's ethnic Romanians, but even
Germany termed
the measures inadequate. In October 1915, Romania's rival,
Bulgaria, joined the Central Powers and, in unison with
Germany,
attacked Serbia. Russian victories in Galicia in 1916,
Allied
promises of territory, and fear of Germany finally
convinced
Romania to join the war on the side of Britain, Russia,
France, and
Italy. On August 27, 1916, Romania declared war on
Austria-Hungary.
Confident of victory, Romanian troops crossed into
Transylvania.
Their campaign stalled, however, and German and Austrian
forces
counterattacked, drove the Romanian army and thousands of
refugees
back over the Carpathian passes, and in December occupied
Bucharest. Bulgarian forces also invaded from across the
Danube,
and Russian reinforcements sent to Romania's aid proved
feckless.
Meanwhile, Ferdinand and his ministers fled to Iasi, where
the
Romanian army regrouped under a French military mission,
achieved
several victories over Central Power forces, and held a
line along
the Siret River.
In February 1917, revolution erupted in Russia's
capital,
Petrograd. In an effort to preempt the appeal of Bolshevik
propaganda, the Romanian government in July 1917 enacted a
land
reform program and an election law providing for universal
suffrage, proportional representation, and obligatory
participation
in elections. By late summer, Russia's defenses had
collapsed, and
its soldiers were openly fraternizing with the enemy. In
November
the Bolsheviks staged a coup d'état that overthrew
Russia's
provisional government. Romania's leaders refused to
participate in
the subsequent German-Soviet armistice negotiations; once
the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed, however, Romania had
little
choice but to agree to a preliminary armistice. In
December
Romanian nationalists in Bessarabia convened a
representative
national assembly that proclaimed the creation of the
Democratic
Federative Moldavian Republic and appealed to the Iasi
government
and Entente countries for help in repulsing Bolshevik
forces. In
April 1918, the Bessarabian assembly requested annexation
to
Romania, and Romanian troops entered the province.
A new Romanian premier, the pro-German Alexandru
Marghiloman,
signed the Treaty of Bucharest with the Central Powers on
May 7,
1918. Under the treaty, Romania lost all of Dobruja to
Bulgaria and
a joint administration of the Central Powers; Hungary
gained
territory in the Carpathians; Romania had to compensate
the Central
Powers for debts and damages; and the Central Powers
claimed a
nine-year monopoly on Romania's agricultural output and
assumed
control of the Danube and Romania's oilfields, railroads,
wharves,
and other economic assets. The Central Powers intended to
ruin
Romania's economy, and Hungary launched an all-out effort
to create
a wholly Magyarized zone along Transylvania's Romanian
border and
undermine the Orthodox and Uniate churches.
By mid-1918 the tide of the war had turned and engulfed
the
Central Powers. Bulgaria soon capitulated, Austria-Hungary
was
disintegrating, and Germany was retreating on the Western
Front.
The leaders of Transylvania's National Party met and
drafted a
resolution invoking the right of self-determination, and a
movement
began for the unification of Transylvania with Romania. In
November
near-anarchy gripped Hungary, and the Romanian National
Central
Council, which represented all the Romanians of
Transylvania,
notified the Budapest government that it had assumed
control of
twenty-three Transylvanian counties and parts of three
others. A
similar Romanian national council in northern Bukovina
announced
its union with Romania, and Bessarabia's government also
voted for
unification. In Romania itself, King Ferdinand appointed a
new
government that repealed all laws enacted under
Marghiloman's
administration. On November 8, Romania declared war on
Germany and
forced enemy troops from Walachia. The king returned to
Bucharest
on November 30, and Romanian units occupied most of
Transylvania by
December 1. A mass assembly later that month in Alba Iulia
(southern Transylvania), passed a resolution calling for
unification of all Romanians in a single state.
Data as of July 1989
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