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From 1859 to 1877, Romania evolved from a personal union of two vassal principalities (Moldavia and Wallachia) under a single prince to a full-fledged independent kingdom with a Hohenzollern monarchy. In 1918, at the end of World War I, Transylvania, Eastern Moldavia (Bessarabia), and Bukovina united with the Kingdom of Romania, resulting in a "Greater Romania". In 1940, at the beginning of World War II, Northern Transylvania, Basarabia and Cadrilater were ceded to Hungary, Soviet Union and Bulgaria respectively, only Northern Transylvania being recovered after World War II ended. In 1947 the Monarchy was replaced by a Communist regime.
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Contents

Unification and monarchy

The interregnum years

Timeline (1859 - 1939)

See also

References and footnotes

Unification and monarchy

The 1859 ascendancy of Alexander John Cuza as prince of both Moldavia and Wallachia under the nominal suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire united an identifiably Romanian nation under a single ruler. On February 5, 1862 (January 24 Old Style) the two principalities were formally united to form Romania, with Bucharest as its capital.
On February 23, 1866 a so-called ''Monstrous coalition'', composed of Conservatives and radical Liberals, forced Cuza to abdicate. The German prince Carol (Charles) of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was appointed as Prince of Romania, in a move to assure German backing to unity and future independence. His descendants were to rule as the kings of Romania until the rise of the communists in 1947.
In 1877, following a Russian-Romanian-Turkish war, Romania was recognized as independent by the Treaty of Berlin, 1878, and acquired Dobruja, although she was forced to surrender southern Bessarabia (Budjak) to Russia. Charles was crowned as Carol, the first King of Romania, in 1881.
The new state, squeezed between the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian empires, with Slavic populations on its southwestern, southern and northeastern borders, the Black Sea due east, and Magyar neighbors on its western and northwestern borders, looked to the West, particularly France, for its cultural, educational and administrative models.
Abstaining from the Initial Balkan War against the Ottoman Empire, Romania entered the Second Balkan War in June 1913 against Bulgaria. 330,000 Romanian troops moved across the Danube and into Bulgaria. One army occupied Southern Dobrudja and another moved into northern Bulgaria to threaten Sofia, helping to bring an end to the war. Romania thus acquired the ethnically-mixed territory of Southern Dobrudja, which it had desired for years.
In 1916 Romania entered World War I on the Entente side, but was quickly defeated and occupied by German and Austro-Hungarian forces. Although the Romanian forces did not fare well militarily, by the end of the war the Austrian and Russian empires were gone; governing bodies created in Transylvania, Bessarabia and Bukovina chose union with Romania, upheld in 1919 the Treaty of Saint-Germain and in 1920 by the Treaty of Trianon.

The interregnum years

The resulting "Greater Romania" did not survive World War II. Until 1938, Romania's governments maintained the form, if not always the substance, of a liberal constitutional monarchy. The National Liberal Party, dominant in the years immediately after WWI, became increasingly clientelist and nationalist, and in 1927 was supplanted in power by the National Peasant Party. Between 1930 and 1940 there were over 25 separate governments; on several occasions in the last few years before World War II, conflict between the Iron Guard and other political groupings approached the level of a civil war.
Upon the death in 1927 of his father Ferdinand, Prince Carol was prevented from succeeding him because of previous marital scandals that had resulted in his renunciation of rights to the throne. After serving 3 years in exile, with his brother Nicolae serving as regent and his young son Michael as king, Carol changed his mind and with the support of the ruling National Peasant Party he returned and proclaimed himself king.
Iuliu Maniu, leader of the National Peasant Party, engineered Carol's return on the understanding that he would forsake his mistress Magda Lupescu, and Lupescu herself had agreed to the arrangement. However, it became clear upon Carol's first re-encounter with Elena that she had no interest in a reconciliation, and Carol soon arranged for Lupescu's return to his side. Her unpopularity in Romania, no doubt due in large part to her having a Jewish father, was to be a millstone around Carol's neck for the rest of his reign, particularly because she was widely viewed as his closest advisor and confidante.
The 1929 crisis greatly affected Romania and the early 1930s were marked by social unrest, high unemployment, and strikes. In several instances, the Romanian government violently repressed strikes and riots, notably the 1929 miners' strike in Valea Jiului and the strike in the Griviţa railroad workshops. In the mid-1930s, the Romanian economy recovered and the industry grew significantly, although about 80% of Romanians were still employed in agriculture.
As the 1930s progressed, Romania's already shaky democracy slowly deteriorated toward fascist dictatorship. The constititution of 1923 gave the king free rein to dissolve parliament and call elections at will; as a result, Romania was to experience over 25 governments in a decade.
Increasingly, these governments were dominated by any of a number of anti-Semitic, ultra-nationalist, and mostly at least quasi-fascist parties. The National Liberal Party steadily became more nationalistic than liberal, and, in any case, lost its dominance over Romanian politics. Increasingly it was eclipsed by parties like the (relatively moderate) National Peasant Party and its more radical Romanian Front offshoot, the League of National-Christian Defense (LANC) - which in 1935 fused with the National Agrarian Party to form the National Christian Party (NCP) - and, most notably, the quasi-mystical fascist Iron Guard, an earlier LANC offshoot that, even more than these other parties, exploited nationalism, fear of communism, and resentment of alleged foreign and Jewish domination of the economy.
Already, the Iron Guard had embraced the politics of assassination and various governments had reacted more or less in kind. On December 10, 1933, Liberal prime minister Ion Duca "dissolved" the Iron Guard, arresting thousands; 19 days later he was assassinated by Iron Guard legionnaires.
Throughout the 1930s, these nationalist parties had a mutually distrustful relationship with King Carol II. Nonetheless, in December 1937, the king appointed LANC leader (and poet) Octavian Goga as prime minister. Around this time, Carol met with Adolf Hitler, who expressed his wish to see a Romanian government headed by the Iron Guard. Instead, on February 10, 1938 King Carol II used the occasion of a public insult by Goga to toward Lupescu as a reason to dismiss the government and institute a short-lived royal dictatorship, sanctioned seventeen days later by a new constitution under which the king named not only the prime minister but ''all'' ministers.
On February 10, 1938, in order to prevent the formation of a government that would have included Iron Guard ministers, and in direct confrontation to Adolf Hitler's expressed support of the Iron Guard, King Carol II dismissed the government and instituted a short-lived royal dictatorship, raising the stakes on both sides. In April 1938, Carol had Iron Guard leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu arrested and imprisoned; on the night of November 29-30, 1938, presumably in retaliation for a series of assassinations by Iron Guard commandos, Codreanu and several other legionnaires were killed while purportedly attempting to escape from prison. It is generally agreed that there was no such escape attempt.
The royal dictatorship was brief. On March 7, 1939 a new government was formed with Armand Călinescu as prime minister; on September 21, 1939, three weeks after the start of World War II, Călinescu, in turn, was assassinated by legionnaires avenging Codreanu.
In 1939 Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which stipulated, among other things, the Soviet "interest" in Bessarabia.

Timeline (1859 - 1939)

1859	Alexander John Cuza unites Moldavia and Wallachia under his personal rule.
1862	Formal union of Moldavia and Wallachia to form principality of Romania.
1866	Cuza forced to abdicate and a foreign dynasty is established. Carol I signed the first modern Constitution.
1877	16 April. Treaty by which the Russian troops are allowed to pass through Romanian territory 24 April. Russia declares war to the Ottoman Empire and its troops enter Romania 9 May. Romanian independence declared by the Romanian parliament, start of Romanian War of Independence 10 May. Carol I ratifies independence declaration
1878	Under Treaty of Berlin, Ottoman Empire recognizes Romanian independence. Romania ceded southern Bessarabia to Russia.
1881	Carol I was proclaimed King of Romania on March 26.
1894	Leaders of the Transylvanian Romanians who sent a Memorandum to the Austrian Emperor demanding national rights for the Romanians are found guilty of treason.
1907	Violent peasant revolts crushed throughout Romania, thousands of persons killed.
1914	Death of Carol I, succeeded by his nephew Ferdinand.
1916	(August) Romania enters World War I on the Entente side. (December) Romanian Treasure sent to Russia for safekeeping, but was not returned after the war.
1918	Greater Romania is created.
	By the Treaty of Versailles, Romania agreed to grant citizenship to the former citizens of Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires living in the new Romanian territories.
1919	A military conflict occurs between Romania and Hungarian Soviet led by Béla Kun. The Romanian Army takes over Budapest on August 4, 1919. The city is ruled by a military administration until November 16, 1919.
1920	The Treaty of Trianon upholds Romanian unification.
1921	A major and radical agrarian reform.
1923	The 1923 Constitution is adopted based on a National Liberal Party project. Christian National Defense League (LANC) founded.
1924	LANC member (later Iron Guard founder) Corneliu Zelea Codreanu assassinates the Prefect of Police in Iaşi, but is acquitted.
1926	Liberal Electoral Law adopted. "Little Entente" with Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia and Franco-Romanian Treaty.
1927	The National Peasant Party takes over the government from the National Liberal Party. The Legion of the Archangel Michael, later the Iron Guard, splits off from LANC. Michael (Mihai) become king under a regency regime.
1929	Beginning of the Great Depression.
1930	Carol II crowned King.
1931	First ban on Iron Guard.
1933	(February 16) Griviţa Railcar Workshops strike violently put down by police. (December 10) Prime Minister Ion Duca "dissolves" the Iron Guard, arresting thousands; 19 days later he is assassinated by Iron Guard legionnaires.
1935	LANC and National Agrarian Party merge to form the fascist National Christian Party (NCP).
1937	Electoral "non-aggression pact" between National Peasant Party and Iron Guard, later adding the Agrarian Union. Romanian Communist Party denounces pact, but, in practice, supports the National-Peasants. LANC forms government, but is rapidly in conflict with Carol II over his Jewish mistress.
1938	February 10. Royal dictatorship declared. New constitution adopted February 27. (November 29-30) Iron Guard leader Codreanu and other legionnaires shot on the King's orders.
1939	March 7. Armand Călinescu forms government. August 23. Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact stipulates Soviet "interest" in Bessarabia. September 1. Germany invades Poland. Start of World War II. September 21. Călinescu assassinated by Iron Guard legionnaires.

See also

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< 'National Awakening | History of Romania | Greater Romania ' >

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References and footnotes