I suppose the title is self-explanatory.
Welcome to a long journey where we explore the Romania of the 19th and early 20th century, if you want to follow in Keith Hitchins's footsteps and become an American historian specialized in Romania consider this you stepping stone, remember me when you get to the top!
If you want to use this for its intended purpose to gain some useful information about Romania that can be used for Victoria 3, I suppose that's also fair, use it as you see fit.
Take a cup of tea if you're civilized or coffe if you're feeling revolutionary, and prepare for the journey. It begins! (the good stuff is part 3, summarized history).
SPOIELR: This topic contains jokes. The historical information is accurate, I take great pride in that, but just know that when I make commentaries I may or may not be sarcastic, who knows.
1. Territory over the years
2. Culture/Ethnic Maps
Transylvania:
(see also the 1815 lingusitic map from the end of "3. Summarized History" for virtually all of Europe)
Is the 1910 census accurate for 1836? I would say accurate enough. We don't have a census for 1836, but we have a census for 1850 and Austrian statistics from 1787. While I couldn't find a map (nor do I think there is) for the 1787 Austrian statistics or the 1850 census, the numbers are as following:
As for Banat:
Bukovina:
And Bessarabia:
Romania was a lot like Poland in many ways. The population was split in different countries.
I don't understand why Paradox put Bukovina as predominantly Ukrainian in 1836, given that it was between 60%-85% Romanian in 1774 and 55% Romanian in 1848. It was only between 1850 - 1880 that the Ukrainians became a majority.
So the Romanians had ethnic majority in: Banat, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia.
The only questionable part is Northern Transylvania which in game is put has Hungarian culture. I think this is inaccurate but was partly made to represent the Hungarian minority in there.
I think it's inaccurate because the Hungarians were only the majority in the Szekelyland region. If we take all of Northern Transylvania as a region, as the developers does, the Romanians would be the majority.
It's a bit more complicated in Northern Transylvania but bear with me (mainly technicalities, but if you want to skip this part I completely understand, the conclusion is that North Transylvania was predominantly Romanian in 1836):
In Northern Transylvania:
- The Romanian census from 1930 counted 49% Romanians and 38% Hungarians.
The Hungarian census from 1941 counted 39.1% Romanians and 53.5% Hungarians.
- The Romanian estimations in 1940 prior to the Second Vienna Award, about 1,300,000 people or 50% Romanian and about 962,000 people or 37% Hungarian.
- The Hungarian estimations in 1940 shortly following the Second Vienna Award, about 1,150,000 people or 48% Romanian and about 910,000 or 38% Hungarian.
Apart from natural population growth, the differences between the censuses were caused by other complex reasons like migration, the assimilation of Jews and bilingual speakers. According to Hungarian registrations, 100,000 Hungarian refugees had arrived in Hungary from South Transylvania by January 1941. Most of them sought refuge in the north, and an additional 100.000 people arrived from Hungary in North Transylvania.
As a result of the migrations, the number of North Transylvanian Hungarians increased by almost 200,000. In contrast, many Romanians were obliged to leave North Transylvania. Some 100,000 had left by February 1941, according to the incomplete registration of North Transylvanian refugees that was carried out by the Romanian government. Also, a fall in the total population suggests that a further 40,000 to 50,000 Romanians moved from North Transylvania to South Transylvania, including refugees who were omitted from the official registration for various reasons.
Hungarian gains by assimilation were balanced further by losses for other groups of native speakers, such as Jews. The shift of languages was most typical among bilingual Romanians and Hungarians. However, in Maramures and Satu Mare counties, dozens of settlements had many people who had declared themselves as Romanian but now identified themselves as Hungarian although they had not spoken any Hungarian even in 1910.
So in WW2 it was predominantly Romanian.
This was the territory Romania took in 1918:
And this was the population census in 1930:
No population exchanges were made between 1918 and 1930. Out of 18 million people, 13 millions (72%) were Romanian.
The 1930 census in Translyvania shows 58% Romanians, 24% Hungarians and 10% Germans.
Árpád E. Varga wrote, "the census conducted in 1930 met international statistical requirements in every respect. In order to establish nationality, the compilers devised a complex criterion system, unique at the time, which covered citizenship, nationality, native language (i.e. the language spoken in the family) and religion".
However, there is some doubt about the accuracy of the 1910 census:
Several demographers (David W. Paul, Peter Hanak, László Katus) state that the outcome of the 1910 census is reasonably accurate, while others (Teich Mikuláš, Dušan Kováč, Martin D. Brown, Seton-Watson, Robert William, Owen Johnson, Kirk Dudley) believe that the 1910 census was manipulated by exaggerating the percentage of the speakers of Hungarian, pointing to the discrepancy between an improbably high growth of the Hungarian-speaking population and the decrease of percentual participation of speakers of other languages due to Magyarization in the Kingdom of Hungary in the late 19th century. For example, the 1921 census in Czechoslovakia (only one year after the Treaty of Trianon) shows 21% Hungarians in Slovakia, compared to 30% based on 1910 census. While the Romanian statistics (only one year before the Treaty of Trianon) shows 25% Hungarians in Transylvania complaed to 31% based on 1910 census.
If we take this as accurate, you'll find that there's not much differece between the 1784, 1850 and 1930 population in Transylvania:
1784: 63% Romanian, 24% Hungarians, 12% Germans
1850: 59% Romanian, 26% Hungarians, 10% Germans
1930: 58% Romanian, 24% Hungarians, 10% Germans (insert Tupac - I see no changes song)
So it stands to reason that if in 1930 North Transylvania was 50% Romanian and 37% Hungarian (bigger percentage than in all of Transylvania due to Szekelyland), most likely the ethnic background was the same in 1836.
Visual representation of 1784's Hungary:
I perfectly understand that they made Northern Transylvania Hungarian for representation of the Hungarian minority in Transylvania. But I think it would have been more historically accurate to make Szekelyland and the rest of Northern Transylvania separate regions.
In short: The only historical inaccuraties I see here as far as Romania is concerned are the Hungarian in North Transylvania and Ukrainian in Bukovina. All of Dobruja being mostly Turkish is historically accurate.
3. Summarized History
TL
R - In my opinion, Romania did everything right in the 19th century, is as if it was played by a player in Victoria 3. It went from a backwaters dump in 1821 to the strongest power after Turkey in the balkans in 1921.
I'll talk about history mainly from a political point of view.
1. Early History
The three regions of Wallachia, Transylvania, and Moldavia have a long history of foreign occupation going back to the Roman era. These territories, that formed the modern state of Romania, have sometimes been independent, but were more often fought over or occupied by more powerful nations.
However, the 19th century was truly a golden era for Romania, historians would describe Romania as a "Rising Star" in this period. Ever since Michael the Brave's short-lived union in 1600, the Romanian principalities of Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania would never be a threat to a foreign power again and would slowly lose territory.
The only somewhat exception to this being Transylvania, who as a state it managed to keep some form of autonomy and economic development, even within the Austrian Empire, however, socially, Transylvania had a Romanian majority but was ruled by the Hungarian minority. According to the Austrian statistics of 1730, the population was 57.9% Romanian, 26.2% Hungarian and 15.1% German. While according to the first population census of 1869 the population was 59.0% Romanian, 24.9% Hungarian and 11.9% German.
In fact, Romania's issue was that almost half of the Romanians in the world lived outside Wallachia and Moldavia, which led to the creation of the national ideal - to unite all Romanians under a single state, "A Romania for all Romanians".
This included the regions where the Romanians represented an ethnic majority: Wallachia (Oltenia, Muntenia, Northern Dobruja - Southern Dobruja was never considered part of this ideal), Moldavia (Moldavia proper, Bukovina, Bessarabia, Budjak), Transylvania (Transylvania proper, Banat (all of it, including West Banat), Crisana (all of it, including Alfold), Maramures (including Carpatho-Ruthenia).
2. Rise to Power
However, in spite of doing worse and worse ever since 1600, the 19th and early 20th century for Romania is known as a golden period full of unions, reforms, freedom and a kingdom. The rise of the "Rising Star" had 3 significant moments: 1821, 1848, 1859, 1877 and 1918.
1821 is outside the scope of the game but it's when Tudor Vladimirescu's revolution put an end to phanariot rulers (foreign rulers in Wallachia & Moldavia).
1848 is that big "WOW" in the history of Europe, revolution after revolution, and Romania was no exception.
- In 1848 Wallachia: The revolutionaries aimed to overthrow the administration imposed by the Russian Empire. A group of young intellectuals and military officers overthrow ruler Gheorge Bibescu and replace him with a regency government. They vote a series of progressive reforms first announcted by the "Proclamation of Islaz". In spite of their quick victory and massive popular support, the radical and conservative elements start fighting each other. The Russian government who never recognized the new Wallachian government requested the Ottomans to end it. Which they accepted and eventually the Russian & Ottoman armies overthrew the revolutionary government without armed ressistance. But their reforms stood in place.
- In 1848 Moldavia: Also know as "the Poets Revolt" it started with a petition in March 1848. Ruler Mihail Sturza agreed with their demands, but only moderately as the Russian troops were on the border. Although their reforms were only administrative and cultural, Mihail Sturza eventually arrested the leaders, including future ruler of Romania: Alexander Ioan-Cuza and sent them to the Ottoman Empire. But various political and social movements managed to buy their freedom: Maria Rosetti would walk the towns asking for coins to release the prisoners while Elena Cuza requested a pardon from British consul Cunningham. After their escape, they relocated in Cernauti (Northern Bukovina; then part of Austria, nowdays part of Ukraine) and published the 36 points as "The desires of the National Party of Moldavia". Amongst others, this doccumented requested the union of Moldavia with Wallachia. Eventually, Wallachia and Moldavia made a customs union in 1848.
- In 1848 Transylvania: The Hungarians revoted demanding freedom and equality from the Austrian Empire and started a revolt. The Transylvanian Romanians initially supported the Hungarians, until they realised that the Hungarians' desire for emancipation included only the emancipation of the Hungarians and they also wanted to incorporate Transylvania in Hungary. Then the Transylvanian Romanians turned to the Austrian Empire for support. They were initially ignored, but when the Hungarians declared independence the Austrian Empire opened itself to the Transylvanian Romanians demands in exchange for fighting the Hungarians. The Romanian serf Avram Iancu took command of the Transylvanian Romanian forces on the side of the Austrians. After Hungary was defeated, the Austrian Empire rejected the demand for creating a province for Romanians made out of Banat, Transylvania and Bukovina; out of fear of replacing Hungarian nationalism with Romanian nationalism. Yet the Austrian Empires wasn't hostile to the other demands and created Romanian administrative offices in Transylvania and granted the Romanians numerous liberties and rights.
3. The Beginning of the Union
The most important thing that the 1848 revolutions managed to achieve was a customs union between Wallachia and Moldavia 1848. Which facilitated ad-hoc meetings between Wallachians and Moldavians who pushed for union.
In 1856, following the end of the Crimean War. Moldavia is awarded the counties of Cahul, Bolgrad and Ismail. The Russian Empire losing access to the Danube. It was also in 1856 when unionists from Wallachia and Moldavia organized Ad hoc meetings where the populations of both Wallachia and Moldavia expressed their desire for union. And then the unionists faction sent a delegation to the great powers with the results of the ad hoc meetings. Stating that the people of Wallachia and Moldavia want union.
The Great Powers were divided (Austria and Ottoman Empire against, France and Germany and England in favor, Russia abstained for political reasons but really wanted to disagree) but ultimately decided to allow a weak mostly formal union and created a constitution known as the "Convention from Paris". They will be known as "the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia" but will have separate institutions, the thrones will remain separate and each will elect their own prince. The same convention stated that the army will keep its old flags, with the addition of a blue ribbon on each of them. Effectively, it was a union mostly in name. Even the army was separated, the only thing the Convention from Paris effectively did was have Moldavia and Wallachia defend each other if they are attacked, but other than that they funcioned like 2 separate states. It was designed to be fragile, as the moment the 2 rulers would disagree on something, it would almost certainly lead to separation. Apart from the semi-common army, the 2 states behaved like completely different countries.
However (and this is where the Romanians pulled in my opinion an amazing move using technicalities to win a great debate), the Moldavians elected Colonel Alexander Ioan Cuza as the prince of Moldavia on 5 January 1859 and then the Wallachians elected Colonel Alexander Ioan Cuza as prince of Wallachia on 24 January 1859. The Ottoman Empire strongly protested this, arguing that it violates the "Convention from Paris" but the Romanians argued that the "The Convention from Paris" stated the thrones of Moldavia and Wallachia had to be separated, but it didn't state that the same man can't be elected the prince of both separate thrones, the other Great Powers agreed with the Romanians thus the Romanians fulfilled the rules of the "The Convention from Paris" and "the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia" was officaly having one ruler, but it still did not work like a single country, yet.
However, this came with a came with a caveat. The Ottoman Empire agreed to recognise this double election and union, but only as long as Alexander Ioan Cuza was ruler. After his death, Wallachia and Moldavia were to have separate thrones again and a new stipulation would be made to the "Convention from Paris" that Wallachia and Moldavia would have to have separate rulers, not separate thrones.
4. Alexander Ioan Cuza's Reign
Alexander Ioan Cuza introduced sweeping reforms designed to modernize Romania and drag it into the 19th century. He abolished serfdom and started to unite the institutions one by one, in violation of the "Convention from Paris", again, using technicalities, keeping them separate in name but de facto working as one. With help from unionists, he unified the government and parliament, effectively merging Wallachia and Moldavia in a single country and the country's name was changed to "The United Principalities of Romania" in 1862. But this brought him into conflict with the conservative landed aristocracy, and he was forced to abdicate in 1866 at a gunpoint.
5. Chaos in Romania, Union under Threat and Request to Carol
Can you guess what happens now? The Ottoman Empire demanded that the thrones would break apart. Leading to a political crysis in Romania, it was uncertain if the new Romanian state will remain or split back into Wallachia and Moldavia. To solve this crysis and with the Ottoman Empire at the gates ready for war, Ion Bratianu (not the same from interwar years, his father), looked for a prince from a foreign dynasty with political power who would accept to become ruler of this fragile state depenent on the Ottoman Empire. He hoped that with this he will solve both internal problems, with Romanians fighting over the ruler, and external problems, a foreign ruler will bring presige and western experise to Romania as well as possible alliances that would keep the Ottoman Empire at bay.
The throne was offered Prince Karl (Carol) of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a Prussian prince with Bonaparte family ties (so they will be on good terms with both France and Prussia). To be a bit more persuasive (this is a mad move from him) and basically say "the people want you", before going to met Carol, Ion Bratianu organized a plebiscite where he asked the population whether they want Carol I to be their ruler, 99% responded with yes (it wasn't a Russian-style refferendum but peasants and women had no voting rights). Only 200 "No" out of 700.000 votes.
Carol I wanted to agree, his father had mixed opinions about this, Kaiser Wilhelm I told him that he will stay out of this, but Chancellor Otto von Bismarck went to Carol of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and told him he should accept the throne of Romania telling him that he'll convince his father to "Look the other way if you will go quickly to become ruler of Romania". And Romania became a hereditary constitutional monarchy, though still nominally under Ottoman control.
The Ottoman Empire still demanded separate thrones, but Carol I had the backing of France and Prussia and the Ottoman Empire would not risk a war with France and Prussia.
6. Carol I, Alexander Ioan Cuza 2.0
What did Carol I did when the became ruler of Romania? He doubled down on Alexander Ioan Cuza's reforms. He made a new constitution, this time the institutions were not de fact 1 but in name 2 separate ones but literally every trace of "of Wallachia" or "of Moldavia" was removed, every institution was "of Romania". And changed the country's name in simply "Romania" to make it clear that they were not some united principalities anymore but simply Romania.
Yeah, the Ottomans really hated Romanians from that point on. But as long as Carol I had support from France and Prussia there's nothing they could do (without starting a war that is).
Meanwhile in Transylvania, the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 was a disaster for Transylvanian Romanians, all their previous rights from 1848 were taken away, now the Hungarians had control over Transylvania as they tried in 1848. And the Hungarians started oppressing Transylvanian Romanians through a process of magyarization, an artificial attempt of cultural conversion. German Saxons were also subjects of the policy of magyarization. This backfired and made the Romanians in Transylvania even more Romanian.
In 1877, The Russian Empire declared war to the Ottoman Empire. Romania requested to join the war, but the Russian Empire didn't want Romania to be part of the winners at the negociating table as Russia wanted access to the Danube again, so the Russians refused, but Romania allowed the Russian troops to cross through Romania nonetheless, as long as they avoid the cities. But the Russian Empire couldn't defeat the Ottman forces at Pleven so he asked the Romanians for help. It was then that Carol I, already having military expertise, crossed the Dauble with the Romanian forces. At Pleven, Carol I took control of the Russo-Romanian forces and eventually took the fortress. The Romanian troops stopped there but the Russian troops continued further. On 9th of May 1877 Romania gained Northern Dobruja and finally became free of the Ottoman Empire, but the Russian Empire still took the counties of Cahul, Bolgrad and Ismail to gain access to the Danube nonetheless. This was seen as a violation of the treaty and criticized by France and Prussia, but none would risk a war with the Russian Empire.
In 1881, Romania became the Kingdom of Romania under King Carol I. The late 19th century represented a period of freedom and rebirth for the Kingdom of Romania. A lot of cultural and economic progress was made. A lot of intellectuals emerged: writers, poets, scientists and artists such as Mihai Eminescu, Constantin Brancusi, Ion Creanga, Nicolae Iorga and George Enescu.
In 1892, when the Romanian National Party of Transylvania petitioned Emperor Franz Josef for equal rights and treatment, the petition was sent unopened from Vienna to Budapest and the signatories were all arrested and sentenced to prison terms of up to five years. (insert Tupac - I see no changes, song)
7. The Balkan Wars
If we fast forward to 1912, we see that Romania was still mostly agricultural, but industrialization of the Prahova valley had spurred new growth, and each year Romania had an economic surplus of around 5% of its GDP. (ok, I take that back, a Victora 3 player would have a GDP increase of about 30%)
Now, Romania did not fight in the First Balkan War of 1912, but had only really remained neutral because Russia had organized a deal between Bulgaria and Romania offering Romania the fortress town of Silistra for remaining neutral. After the war, Bulgaria refused to go through with the deal, and this - as you may imagine - royally upset Romania, who threatened to take Silistra by force, but were stopped by Russian diplomatic intervention.
Bulgarian relations with Russia cooled off now because of all of this and the Bulgarian-Russian alliance was cancelled June 9th, 1913. A week later, Bulgaria launched a surprise attack on Serbia and Greece without declaring war. This royally upset Russia. The goal was to grab as much land as possible before the Great Powers could end the conflict, and so the entire Bulgarian army was committed to the invasion, despite the threat of a possible Romanian invasion from behind.
Well, on the 28th, Romania got assurances from Austria-Hungary that the latter would not intervene if Romania went into Bulgaria; the Romanian army mobilized June 3rd, and on June 10th invaded a totally undefended Bulgaria. Romania invaded with 330,000 men, and Bulgaria had an army of close to twice that, but all were engaged in fighting Serbia and Greece. By the 22nd, the Romanians had linked up with the Serbs at the Bulgarian rear, and this, coupled with an Ottoman advance into Bulgaria, forced Bulgaria to sue for peace.
The Peace talks concluded with the Treaty of Bucharest in August, which stripped Bulgaria of much of the territory they’d gained in the First Balkan War. Romania got not only Silistra, but also the whole of Southern Dobrogea, but the campaign highlighted the shortcomings of the Romanian army, particularly the lack of equipment and ammunition, the quality of the officers, the disorganization of supply lines, and the inefficiency of the medical corps.
Combat casualties had been virtually zero, but 6,000 Romanian soldiers had died of cholera during the brief campaign. It’s nice to recognize your shortcomings, but most of the same problems would still beset Romania in World War One.
The Second Balkan War had brought Russia and Romania closer together, with the Tsar even making a state visit and a planned royal wedding between the future Romanian King Carol II, King Carol’s grand nephew, and Russian Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna. This fell through because the prospective spouses detested each other. Another effect of that war was to turn Bulgaria into a retributionist state, seeking revenge on Serbia and Romania, which would help propel Bulgaria into joining the Central Powers.
8. The Great War
So the First World War began in 1914 and what would Romania do? King Carol revealed the existence of the secret treaty and proposed to join the Central Powers in the war.
BACKSTORY TIME:
As you know (since you did read all this bulk of a text, am I right?) the Russian Empire still took the counties of Cahul, Bolgrad and Ismail to gain access to the Danube from Romania in 1877 despite being on the same side as Romania (well, to be fair, it wasn't all that bad: Russia demanded Southern Bessarabia, which had passed back and forth between the Russians and the Ottomans over the years, and offered Romania impoverished Dobrogea, which had last been under Wallachian control in the 1400s, but taking land from an ally still sucks #JustRussianThings).
This forced exchange inflamed public opinion in Romania, and culminated in the signing, in 1883, of a secret treaty that bound Romania to the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, and the construction of defensive works aimed at stopping a future Russian invasion. That treaty was sort of a double-edged sword for Romania, though, since it also stopped Romania from any sort of intervention into Austro-Hungarian affairs, most particularly those in Transylvania, which was 54% ethnic Romanian and only 30% Hungarian, but ruled by the Hungarian minority.
But the treaty was a defensive one and Romania was not actually required to go to war since Austria-Hungary was the aggressor. Remember, the King was of Prussian origin too, and a cousin to the Kaiser. Public opinion however, was staunchly Francophile, and that included most of the Crown Council, who opted for armed neutrality as a compromise between the king and the government, who wanted to join the Entente.
And then on October 10th, 1914, King Carol died with no male heir. He was succeeded by his nephew, who became King Ferdinand I. Unlike his uncle, who never forgot his Germanic roots, Ferdinand declared instantly that he would follow his country over his family, and said during his coronation "I will reign as a true Romanian". His wife was the very British Princess Marie of Edinburgh, granddaughter of Queen Victoria, but also daughter to the Russian Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, who strongly - and kind of obviously - urged joining the Entente.
Prime Minister Ion Bratianu (I'll let you guess which one is it, the father or the son?) carefully negotiated the Romanian entry into the war, because the last thing he wanted was a repeat of the 1870s, when Romania had to cede land to Russia, so the treaty formally bound the Allies to recognize Romania’s right to annex Austro-Hungarian territory that was inhabited by Romanians: Transylvania, Bukovina and Banat.
WW1 happens. You know the story. Fast-forward to the end of the war.
9. Romanians Outside Romania Vote for Union
In the aftermath of World War I the regions of Austria-Hungary were allowed to choose their own fate because self-determination was the new talk of the town that every cool kid wanted. Being mostly Romanian, Bukovina, Banat and Transylvania voted for union with Romania. Although Banat voted for union with Romania, only 2/3 of Banat was given to Romania while 1/3 was given to Serbia because the Kingdom of Serbia claimed 250,000 Serbians live there and it's close to his capital Belgrade. There was a small diplomatic conflict over it, but after a while, Romania accepted the partition and was still happy as it gained a lot of land.
This event came to be known as "The Great Union" where the Romanian provinces of Bessarabia, Bukovina, Banat and Transylvania all united with Romania in the same year, with the last being Transylvania on 1st of December 1918. All provinces with a Romanian majority were now under a Romanian state, as a result, Romania had more than twice the territory it had before.
Although the Entente ultimately decided what Romania does and doesn't get, as Romania didn't had the military power to rival the Entente's decision, the Great Union of 1918 wasn't merely the Entente giving this territory to Romania, the taken territories were actually unions where the people of those territories formed their own governments that expressed their own desires to both the Entente and their old oppressors on their own initiative, and came forward with terms and conditions to the Romanian government for the unification with Romania. The de facto unions happened in 1918, the recognition of these unions was made in 1920.
The unions were based on Woodrow Wilson's self-determination principle:
- When the February Revolution started in Russia, the region of Bessarabia created the Sfatul Tarii (a government) and declared autonomy, stating that they wish to become a Federal State within the new Russia, after the October Revolution they gave up any plans for autonomy and declared union with Romania. Originally, it was a conditional union and Bessarabia would become a autonomus region within Romania, but after Bukovina and Transylvania also united with Romania, they modified the 27 March act and changed the union to an unconditional one.
- The Romanians of Bukovina formed the General Congress of Bukovina (a govnerment) and shortly after declared unconditional union with Romania.
- The Romanians of Transylvania and Banat formed the General Assembly and voted for a conditional union with Romania, the Germans of Transylvania were also in favor of union with Romania. Unlike Bessarabia's conditional union, Transylvania was not to become an autonomus region for 5 years, as they requested temporary autonomy until the new Romanian state is ogranized and that they will have a say in the constitution of the new Romanian state. But then the Hungarians tried to use that request as evidence that the Transylvanian Romanians don't really want union with Romania so the National Party of Transylvania dropped the 5 years autonomy request.
10. Hungary Proposes Union to Romania, and Austria-Hun... Romania-Hungary
Hungarian counts Istvan Bethlen, Pal Teleki and Myklos Banfy proposed a union with Romania following the Transylvanian declaration of union with Romania. King Ferdinand would be offered the Crown of Saint Stephen and become King of both Romania and Hungary, the capital would be Bucharest but Romania and Hungary would only have mutual Finance, Foreign Affairs and Defense Ministry. Effectively, instead of Austria-Hungary they proposed a Romania-Hungary.
The reason the Hungarian counts came with this proposal was to ensure the existence of Hungary as a state after World War I, since they were part of the losing powers and in Hungary only 47% of the total population was Hungarian, it was unclear how the situation would develop but it was clear that it's going to be very bad for Hungary, given that the principle of self-determination was the next talk of the town. It was clear that Hungary was going to lose a lot of land due to the high numbers of non-Hungarians in Hungary. By becoming a junior partner in a Romanian-Hungarian union, Hungary hoped to gain Romania's support at the peace conference and by extension of some of the allies, and mitigate the territorial losses they were going to suffer. In addition, the mitigation of territorial losses would include Transylvania which could either belong to Romania or as a 3rd independent entity entity with its own parliment and King Ferdinand as king. Additionally, there was the hope that in the probable eventuality of the subsequent rupture of this alliance, the Hungarians could do so in such a way as to leave them with Transylvania.
Hungary had a history of making alliances with a monarchy to ensure its existence. With the Empress Maria Teresa in 1741, then the Austro-Hungarian compromise of 1867. Now they were probably trying a new alliance, this time with the steel crown of Romania.
11. The Romanian-Hungarian War of 1919
Shortly after the union was proposed, war broke out. (history is funny sometimes)
- While Romania was to gain a lot of land, Hungary was to lose a lot of land and was dissatisfied with this. Until the treaty and the official loss of the land were signed, the First Hungarian Republic offered cultural and administrative autonomy to the minorities, but they refused, stating that they desire to be separated from Hungary.
- At this time the actual borders with Romania were uncertain. Hungary wanted as little as possible, Romania wanted all the land up to Tisza river, but France was against it. After some discussion, France agreed and the First Hungarian Republic was asked to accept the new borders of Romania. However, the First Hungarian Republic didn't accept the new borders and the government resigned as an act of protest.
- The next day, the communists take power turning into the Hungarian Soviet Republic and attack Romania, starting the Hungarian-Romanian War. Initially, the attack is succesful but the next day Romania counter-attacks and stops at the Tisza river. The Hungarian Soviete Republic attacks Czechoslovakia instead, they are winning and France promises that if Hungary leaves Czechoslovakia alone they will given them the land east of Tisza from Romania. Hungary agrees, retreats from Czechoslovakia, France asks Romania to retreat to the new proposed borders basded on ethnic lines and railways lines around the cities Arad, Oradea and Satu Mare (spoiler alert: this is the current border of Romania & Hungary). But Romania refuses.
- Hungary attacks Romania again. They have a quick breakthrough again, but Romania pushes back and this time they didn't stop at the Tisza river. This time the Romanian army occupied all of Hungary, including its capital Budapest. Removed the communist party and looted the Second Hungarian Republic. Under pressure from France, Romania left Hungary including the territory east of the Tisza river to the current borders at Trianon in 1920 and left them alone.
- Before leaving, the Romanian government gave weapons to a certain Miklos Horthy in order not to leave Hungary as a ruined state after they leave. It was expected that he would stage a coup using the weapons from the Romanains as soon as the Romanians are gone. Certainly a decision that won't come back to bite Romanians in 1940s. (Just like the Bled Agreement, insert "you damn fools" meme)
12. Greater Romania
The Greater Romania that was formed at the end of World War 1 was not the maximum extent of Romanian territorial ambitions, but rather the maximum extent of ethnic Romanians' outside Romania. Due to Bessarabia's declaration of independence from USSR in 1917 and declaration of Union with Romania in 1918 and later Bukovina and Transylvania's declarations of union with Romania in 1918 combined with President Woodrow Willson's 14 points, one of which included Austria being divided by ethnic lines, the Romanians only got the parts of Transylvania that included an ethnic Romanian majority. But they wanted all of it: West Banat, Alfold and Carpatho-Ruthenia included, why?
There was no significant Romanian population in West Banat, Alfold and Carpatho-Ruthenia, but Romania argued it had a "historical right" in those regions. West Banat, Arfold and Carpathian Ruthenia used to be part of the Kingdom of Dacia before the Roman invasion, and more recently one debated source from the Middle Ages called Gesta Hungarorum describes how when the Hungarians arrived in Transylvania there were 3 Romanian counties/voivodships that were conquered: of Gelou, Glad and Menumorut. Gelou's domain included Carpathian Ruthenia, Glad's domain included West Banat and Menumorut's domain included Arfold.
Romania's national ideal in the 19th century and early 20th was "A Romania for all Romanians", which was not limited to the regions where Romanians were the ethnic majority that it got in World War I, but also included West Banat, Arfold and Carpathian Ruthenia for historical reasons.
The territorial extent of this national ideal "A Romania for all Romanians" was "From Dniester to Tisza". Effectively, the borders of an ideal Romania would be: the Tisza river in the west, the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the south-east and the Dniester River in east and north.
And that's where the story stops. Because WW2 comes in 20 years and then bad things happen.
4. Photos!
Bucharest - 1843
Feels like playing Red Dead Redemption 2.
This must be van der Linde gang.
(Trivia: Back then there were Hajduks, which was basically what the van der Linde gang was trying to do in Red Dead Redemption 2. They took money from the rich and gave them to the poor, while also fighting actual bandits. The word most likely comes from Turkish word haidut or haydut 'bandit'. Because to the Turks they were bandits. If anyone is interested I will tell you the story of the Bosnian bandit Osman Pazvantoğlu and his battle with Wallachian hajduk Iancu Jianu - come to think of it, the story is really similar to Red Dead Redemption 2)
No, it's not Saint Denis, it's even worse, Bucharest.
Ruins of the old palace in Targoviste in 1843:
Bucharest 1878 (independence celebrations):
Bucharest 1891:
Tell me this is not Saint Denis? Except Saint Denis was a backwater place in Wild West America, Bucharest was the capital of a country.
Bucharest 1892:
Bucharest 1900:
I should grow a mustache.
Bucharest 1909:
The wild west is gone.
I hope you enjoyed this journey. We are now closing the book. Let me know if you want to hear the story of the Bosnian bandit Osman Pazvantoğlu and his battle with Wallachian hajduk Iancu Jianu. It's going to be like Red Dead Redemption 2 except more backwater.
Let's finish off with a banger from the 19th century:
Welcome to a long journey where we explore the Romania of the 19th and early 20th century, if you want to follow in Keith Hitchins's footsteps and become an American historian specialized in Romania consider this you stepping stone, remember me when you get to the top!
If you want to use this for its intended purpose to gain some useful information about Romania that can be used for Victoria 3, I suppose that's also fair, use it as you see fit.
Take a cup of tea if you're civilized or coffe if you're feeling revolutionary, and prepare for the journey. It begins! (the good stuff is part 3, summarized history).
SPOIELR: This topic contains jokes. The historical information is accurate, I take great pride in that, but just know that when I make commentaries I may or may not be sarcastic, who knows.
1. Territory over the years
2. Culture/Ethnic Maps
Transylvania:
(see also the 1815 lingusitic map from the end of "3. Summarized History" for virtually all of Europe)
Is the 1910 census accurate for 1836? I would say accurate enough. We don't have a census for 1836, but we have a census for 1850 and Austrian statistics from 1787. While I couldn't find a map (nor do I think there is) for the 1787 Austrian statistics or the 1850 census, the numbers are as following:
| Transylvania: Ethnicity\Year | 1787 Austrian Statistics | 1850 Population Census | 1910 Population Census |
| Romanian | 63.5% | 59.1% | 53.8% |
| Hungarian | 24.1% | 25.9% | 31.6% |
| German | 12.4% | 9.3% | 10.7% |
As for Banat:
| Whole Banat: Ethnicity\Year | 1774 | 1840 | 1900 |
| Romanians | 58.5% | 55.3% | 40.4% |
| Slavs (Mainly Serbs & Croats) | 26.6% | 19.4% | 17.6% |
| Germans | 14.1% | 19.4% | 25.3% |
| Hungarians | 0.6% | 5.8% | 11.9% |
Bukovina:
| Year | Romanians | Ukrainians | Others (Germans, Jews, and Poles) | Total | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1774 | 40,920 – 64,000 | 59.6% – 85.33% | 8,000 – 22,810 | 10.6% – 33.2% | 3,000 – 4,970 | 4.0% – 7.2% | 51,920 – 91,780 |
| 1848 | 209,293 | 55.4% | 108,907 | 28.8% | 59,381 | 15.8% | 377,581 |
| 1851 | 184,718 | 48.5% | 144,982 | 38.1% | 51,126 | 13.4% | 380,826 |
| 1880 | 190,005 | 33.4% | 239,960 | 42.2% | 138,758 | 24.4% | 568,723 |
And Bessarabia:
| Year: | Romanians: | Ukrainians: | Russians: |
| 1843 | 59.4% | 17.2% | 2.2% |
| 1850 | 51.4% | 21.3% | 4.2% |
| 1919 | 64.0% | 9.7% | 2.8% |
Romania was a lot like Poland in many ways. The population was split in different countries.
I don't understand why Paradox put Bukovina as predominantly Ukrainian in 1836, given that it was between 60%-85% Romanian in 1774 and 55% Romanian in 1848. It was only between 1850 - 1880 that the Ukrainians became a majority.
So the Romanians had ethnic majority in: Banat, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia.
The only questionable part is Northern Transylvania which in game is put has Hungarian culture. I think this is inaccurate but was partly made to represent the Hungarian minority in there.
I think it's inaccurate because the Hungarians were only the majority in the Szekelyland region. If we take all of Northern Transylvania as a region, as the developers does, the Romanians would be the majority.
It's a bit more complicated in Northern Transylvania but bear with me (mainly technicalities, but if you want to skip this part I completely understand, the conclusion is that North Transylvania was predominantly Romanian in 1836):
In Northern Transylvania:
- The Romanian census from 1930 counted 49% Romanians and 38% Hungarians.
The Hungarian census from 1941 counted 39.1% Romanians and 53.5% Hungarians.
- The Romanian estimations in 1940 prior to the Second Vienna Award, about 1,300,000 people or 50% Romanian and about 962,000 people or 37% Hungarian.
- The Hungarian estimations in 1940 shortly following the Second Vienna Award, about 1,150,000 people or 48% Romanian and about 910,000 or 38% Hungarian.
Why the sudden change from 1940 to 1941?
Apart from natural population growth, the differences between the censuses were caused by other complex reasons like migration, the assimilation of Jews and bilingual speakers. According to Hungarian registrations, 100,000 Hungarian refugees had arrived in Hungary from South Transylvania by January 1941. Most of them sought refuge in the north, and an additional 100.000 people arrived from Hungary in North Transylvania.
As a result of the migrations, the number of North Transylvanian Hungarians increased by almost 200,000. In contrast, many Romanians were obliged to leave North Transylvania. Some 100,000 had left by February 1941, according to the incomplete registration of North Transylvanian refugees that was carried out by the Romanian government. Also, a fall in the total population suggests that a further 40,000 to 50,000 Romanians moved from North Transylvania to South Transylvania, including refugees who were omitted from the official registration for various reasons.
Hungarian gains by assimilation were balanced further by losses for other groups of native speakers, such as Jews. The shift of languages was most typical among bilingual Romanians and Hungarians. However, in Maramures and Satu Mare counties, dozens of settlements had many people who had declared themselves as Romanian but now identified themselves as Hungarian although they had not spoken any Hungarian even in 1910.
So in WW2 it was predominantly Romanian.
This was the territory Romania took in 1918:
And this was the population census in 1930:
No population exchanges were made between 1918 and 1930. Out of 18 million people, 13 millions (72%) were Romanian.
The 1930 census in Translyvania shows 58% Romanians, 24% Hungarians and 10% Germans.
Árpád E. Varga wrote, "the census conducted in 1930 met international statistical requirements in every respect. In order to establish nationality, the compilers devised a complex criterion system, unique at the time, which covered citizenship, nationality, native language (i.e. the language spoken in the family) and religion".
However, there is some doubt about the accuracy of the 1910 census:
Several demographers (David W. Paul, Peter Hanak, László Katus) state that the outcome of the 1910 census is reasonably accurate, while others (Teich Mikuláš, Dušan Kováč, Martin D. Brown, Seton-Watson, Robert William, Owen Johnson, Kirk Dudley) believe that the 1910 census was manipulated by exaggerating the percentage of the speakers of Hungarian, pointing to the discrepancy between an improbably high growth of the Hungarian-speaking population and the decrease of percentual participation of speakers of other languages due to Magyarization in the Kingdom of Hungary in the late 19th century. For example, the 1921 census in Czechoslovakia (only one year after the Treaty of Trianon) shows 21% Hungarians in Slovakia, compared to 30% based on 1910 census. While the Romanian statistics (only one year before the Treaty of Trianon) shows 25% Hungarians in Transylvania complaed to 31% based on 1910 census.
If we take this as accurate, you'll find that there's not much differece between the 1784, 1850 and 1930 population in Transylvania:
1784: 63% Romanian, 24% Hungarians, 12% Germans
1850: 59% Romanian, 26% Hungarians, 10% Germans
1930: 58% Romanian, 24% Hungarians, 10% Germans (insert Tupac - I see no changes song)
So it stands to reason that if in 1930 North Transylvania was 50% Romanian and 37% Hungarian (bigger percentage than in all of Transylvania due to Szekelyland), most likely the ethnic background was the same in 1836.
Visual representation of 1784's Hungary:
I perfectly understand that they made Northern Transylvania Hungarian for representation of the Hungarian minority in Transylvania. But I think it would have been more historically accurate to make Szekelyland and the rest of Northern Transylvania separate regions.
In short: The only historical inaccuraties I see here as far as Romania is concerned are the Hungarian in North Transylvania and Ukrainian in Bukovina. All of Dobruja being mostly Turkish is historically accurate.
3. Summarized History
TL
R - In my opinion, Romania did everything right in the 19th century, is as if it was played by a player in Victoria 3. It went from a backwaters dump in 1821 to the strongest power after Turkey in the balkans in 1921.I'll talk about history mainly from a political point of view.
1. Early History
The three regions of Wallachia, Transylvania, and Moldavia have a long history of foreign occupation going back to the Roman era. These territories, that formed the modern state of Romania, have sometimes been independent, but were more often fought over or occupied by more powerful nations.
However, the 19th century was truly a golden era for Romania, historians would describe Romania as a "Rising Star" in this period. Ever since Michael the Brave's short-lived union in 1600, the Romanian principalities of Wallachia, Moldavia and Transylvania would never be a threat to a foreign power again and would slowly lose territory.
The only somewhat exception to this being Transylvania, who as a state it managed to keep some form of autonomy and economic development, even within the Austrian Empire, however, socially, Transylvania had a Romanian majority but was ruled by the Hungarian minority. According to the Austrian statistics of 1730, the population was 57.9% Romanian, 26.2% Hungarian and 15.1% German. While according to the first population census of 1869 the population was 59.0% Romanian, 24.9% Hungarian and 11.9% German.
In fact, Romania's issue was that almost half of the Romanians in the world lived outside Wallachia and Moldavia, which led to the creation of the national ideal - to unite all Romanians under a single state, "A Romania for all Romanians".
This included the regions where the Romanians represented an ethnic majority: Wallachia (Oltenia, Muntenia, Northern Dobruja - Southern Dobruja was never considered part of this ideal), Moldavia (Moldavia proper, Bukovina, Bessarabia, Budjak), Transylvania (Transylvania proper, Banat (all of it, including West Banat), Crisana (all of it, including Alfold), Maramures (including Carpatho-Ruthenia).
2. Rise to Power
However, in spite of doing worse and worse ever since 1600, the 19th and early 20th century for Romania is known as a golden period full of unions, reforms, freedom and a kingdom. The rise of the "Rising Star" had 3 significant moments: 1821, 1848, 1859, 1877 and 1918.
1821 is outside the scope of the game but it's when Tudor Vladimirescu's revolution put an end to phanariot rulers (foreign rulers in Wallachia & Moldavia).
1848 is that big "WOW" in the history of Europe, revolution after revolution, and Romania was no exception.
- In 1848 Wallachia: The revolutionaries aimed to overthrow the administration imposed by the Russian Empire. A group of young intellectuals and military officers overthrow ruler Gheorge Bibescu and replace him with a regency government. They vote a series of progressive reforms first announcted by the "Proclamation of Islaz". In spite of their quick victory and massive popular support, the radical and conservative elements start fighting each other. The Russian government who never recognized the new Wallachian government requested the Ottomans to end it. Which they accepted and eventually the Russian & Ottoman armies overthrew the revolutionary government without armed ressistance. But their reforms stood in place.
- In 1848 Moldavia: Also know as "the Poets Revolt" it started with a petition in March 1848. Ruler Mihail Sturza agreed with their demands, but only moderately as the Russian troops were on the border. Although their reforms were only administrative and cultural, Mihail Sturza eventually arrested the leaders, including future ruler of Romania: Alexander Ioan-Cuza and sent them to the Ottoman Empire. But various political and social movements managed to buy their freedom: Maria Rosetti would walk the towns asking for coins to release the prisoners while Elena Cuza requested a pardon from British consul Cunningham. After their escape, they relocated in Cernauti (Northern Bukovina; then part of Austria, nowdays part of Ukraine) and published the 36 points as "The desires of the National Party of Moldavia". Amongst others, this doccumented requested the union of Moldavia with Wallachia. Eventually, Wallachia and Moldavia made a customs union in 1848.
- In 1848 Transylvania: The Hungarians revoted demanding freedom and equality from the Austrian Empire and started a revolt. The Transylvanian Romanians initially supported the Hungarians, until they realised that the Hungarians' desire for emancipation included only the emancipation of the Hungarians and they also wanted to incorporate Transylvania in Hungary. Then the Transylvanian Romanians turned to the Austrian Empire for support. They were initially ignored, but when the Hungarians declared independence the Austrian Empire opened itself to the Transylvanian Romanians demands in exchange for fighting the Hungarians. The Romanian serf Avram Iancu took command of the Transylvanian Romanian forces on the side of the Austrians. After Hungary was defeated, the Austrian Empire rejected the demand for creating a province for Romanians made out of Banat, Transylvania and Bukovina; out of fear of replacing Hungarian nationalism with Romanian nationalism. Yet the Austrian Empires wasn't hostile to the other demands and created Romanian administrative offices in Transylvania and granted the Romanians numerous liberties and rights.
3. The Beginning of the Union
The most important thing that the 1848 revolutions managed to achieve was a customs union between Wallachia and Moldavia 1848. Which facilitated ad-hoc meetings between Wallachians and Moldavians who pushed for union.
In 1856, following the end of the Crimean War. Moldavia is awarded the counties of Cahul, Bolgrad and Ismail. The Russian Empire losing access to the Danube. It was also in 1856 when unionists from Wallachia and Moldavia organized Ad hoc meetings where the populations of both Wallachia and Moldavia expressed their desire for union. And then the unionists faction sent a delegation to the great powers with the results of the ad hoc meetings. Stating that the people of Wallachia and Moldavia want union.
The Great Powers were divided (Austria and Ottoman Empire against, France and Germany and England in favor, Russia abstained for political reasons but really wanted to disagree) but ultimately decided to allow a weak mostly formal union and created a constitution known as the "Convention from Paris". They will be known as "the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia" but will have separate institutions, the thrones will remain separate and each will elect their own prince. The same convention stated that the army will keep its old flags, with the addition of a blue ribbon on each of them. Effectively, it was a union mostly in name. Even the army was separated, the only thing the Convention from Paris effectively did was have Moldavia and Wallachia defend each other if they are attacked, but other than that they funcioned like 2 separate states. It was designed to be fragile, as the moment the 2 rulers would disagree on something, it would almost certainly lead to separation. Apart from the semi-common army, the 2 states behaved like completely different countries.
However (and this is where the Romanians pulled in my opinion an amazing move using technicalities to win a great debate), the Moldavians elected Colonel Alexander Ioan Cuza as the prince of Moldavia on 5 January 1859 and then the Wallachians elected Colonel Alexander Ioan Cuza as prince of Wallachia on 24 January 1859. The Ottoman Empire strongly protested this, arguing that it violates the "Convention from Paris" but the Romanians argued that the "The Convention from Paris" stated the thrones of Moldavia and Wallachia had to be separated, but it didn't state that the same man can't be elected the prince of both separate thrones, the other Great Powers agreed with the Romanians thus the Romanians fulfilled the rules of the "The Convention from Paris" and "the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia" was officaly having one ruler, but it still did not work like a single country, yet.
However, this came with a came with a caveat. The Ottoman Empire agreed to recognise this double election and union, but only as long as Alexander Ioan Cuza was ruler. After his death, Wallachia and Moldavia were to have separate thrones again and a new stipulation would be made to the "Convention from Paris" that Wallachia and Moldavia would have to have separate rulers, not separate thrones.
4. Alexander Ioan Cuza's Reign
Alexander Ioan Cuza introduced sweeping reforms designed to modernize Romania and drag it into the 19th century. He abolished serfdom and started to unite the institutions one by one, in violation of the "Convention from Paris", again, using technicalities, keeping them separate in name but de facto working as one. With help from unionists, he unified the government and parliament, effectively merging Wallachia and Moldavia in a single country and the country's name was changed to "The United Principalities of Romania" in 1862. But this brought him into conflict with the conservative landed aristocracy, and he was forced to abdicate in 1866 at a gunpoint.
5. Chaos in Romania, Union under Threat and Request to Carol
Can you guess what happens now? The Ottoman Empire demanded that the thrones would break apart. Leading to a political crysis in Romania, it was uncertain if the new Romanian state will remain or split back into Wallachia and Moldavia. To solve this crysis and with the Ottoman Empire at the gates ready for war, Ion Bratianu (not the same from interwar years, his father), looked for a prince from a foreign dynasty with political power who would accept to become ruler of this fragile state depenent on the Ottoman Empire. He hoped that with this he will solve both internal problems, with Romanians fighting over the ruler, and external problems, a foreign ruler will bring presige and western experise to Romania as well as possible alliances that would keep the Ottoman Empire at bay.
The throne was offered Prince Karl (Carol) of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, a Prussian prince with Bonaparte family ties (so they will be on good terms with both France and Prussia). To be a bit more persuasive (this is a mad move from him) and basically say "the people want you", before going to met Carol, Ion Bratianu organized a plebiscite where he asked the population whether they want Carol I to be their ruler, 99% responded with yes (it wasn't a Russian-style refferendum but peasants and women had no voting rights). Only 200 "No" out of 700.000 votes.
Carol I wanted to agree, his father had mixed opinions about this, Kaiser Wilhelm I told him that he will stay out of this, but Chancellor Otto von Bismarck went to Carol of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and told him he should accept the throne of Romania telling him that he'll convince his father to "Look the other way if you will go quickly to become ruler of Romania". And Romania became a hereditary constitutional monarchy, though still nominally under Ottoman control.
The Ottoman Empire still demanded separate thrones, but Carol I had the backing of France and Prussia and the Ottoman Empire would not risk a war with France and Prussia.
6. Carol I, Alexander Ioan Cuza 2.0
What did Carol I did when the became ruler of Romania? He doubled down on Alexander Ioan Cuza's reforms. He made a new constitution, this time the institutions were not de fact 1 but in name 2 separate ones but literally every trace of "of Wallachia" or "of Moldavia" was removed, every institution was "of Romania". And changed the country's name in simply "Romania" to make it clear that they were not some united principalities anymore but simply Romania.
Yeah, the Ottomans really hated Romanians from that point on. But as long as Carol I had support from France and Prussia there's nothing they could do (without starting a war that is).
Meanwhile in Transylvania, the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 was a disaster for Transylvanian Romanians, all their previous rights from 1848 were taken away, now the Hungarians had control over Transylvania as they tried in 1848. And the Hungarians started oppressing Transylvanian Romanians through a process of magyarization, an artificial attempt of cultural conversion. German Saxons were also subjects of the policy of magyarization. This backfired and made the Romanians in Transylvania even more Romanian.
There was a small movement in Hungary who pushed for equal rights, but this is another story for a topic about Hungary.
Back to Wallachia and Moldavia.
In 1877, The Russian Empire declared war to the Ottoman Empire. Romania requested to join the war, but the Russian Empire didn't want Romania to be part of the winners at the negociating table as Russia wanted access to the Danube again, so the Russians refused, but Romania allowed the Russian troops to cross through Romania nonetheless, as long as they avoid the cities. But the Russian Empire couldn't defeat the Ottman forces at Pleven so he asked the Romanians for help. It was then that Carol I, already having military expertise, crossed the Dauble with the Romanian forces. At Pleven, Carol I took control of the Russo-Romanian forces and eventually took the fortress. The Romanian troops stopped there but the Russian troops continued further. On 9th of May 1877 Romania gained Northern Dobruja and finally became free of the Ottoman Empire, but the Russian Empire still took the counties of Cahul, Bolgrad and Ismail to gain access to the Danube nonetheless. This was seen as a violation of the treaty and criticized by France and Prussia, but none would risk a war with the Russian Empire.
In 1881, Romania became the Kingdom of Romania under King Carol I. The late 19th century represented a period of freedom and rebirth for the Kingdom of Romania. A lot of cultural and economic progress was made. A lot of intellectuals emerged: writers, poets, scientists and artists such as Mihai Eminescu, Constantin Brancusi, Ion Creanga, Nicolae Iorga and George Enescu.
In 1892, when the Romanian National Party of Transylvania petitioned Emperor Franz Josef for equal rights and treatment, the petition was sent unopened from Vienna to Budapest and the signatories were all arrested and sentenced to prison terms of up to five years. (insert Tupac - I see no changes, song)
7. The Balkan Wars
If we fast forward to 1912, we see that Romania was still mostly agricultural, but industrialization of the Prahova valley had spurred new growth, and each year Romania had an economic surplus of around 5% of its GDP. (ok, I take that back, a Victora 3 player would have a GDP increase of about 30%)
Now, Romania did not fight in the First Balkan War of 1912, but had only really remained neutral because Russia had organized a deal between Bulgaria and Romania offering Romania the fortress town of Silistra for remaining neutral. After the war, Bulgaria refused to go through with the deal, and this - as you may imagine - royally upset Romania, who threatened to take Silistra by force, but were stopped by Russian diplomatic intervention.
Bulgarian relations with Russia cooled off now because of all of this and the Bulgarian-Russian alliance was cancelled June 9th, 1913. A week later, Bulgaria launched a surprise attack on Serbia and Greece without declaring war. This royally upset Russia. The goal was to grab as much land as possible before the Great Powers could end the conflict, and so the entire Bulgarian army was committed to the invasion, despite the threat of a possible Romanian invasion from behind.
Well, on the 28th, Romania got assurances from Austria-Hungary that the latter would not intervene if Romania went into Bulgaria; the Romanian army mobilized June 3rd, and on June 10th invaded a totally undefended Bulgaria. Romania invaded with 330,000 men, and Bulgaria had an army of close to twice that, but all were engaged in fighting Serbia and Greece. By the 22nd, the Romanians had linked up with the Serbs at the Bulgarian rear, and this, coupled with an Ottoman advance into Bulgaria, forced Bulgaria to sue for peace.
The Peace talks concluded with the Treaty of Bucharest in August, which stripped Bulgaria of much of the territory they’d gained in the First Balkan War. Romania got not only Silistra, but also the whole of Southern Dobrogea, but the campaign highlighted the shortcomings of the Romanian army, particularly the lack of equipment and ammunition, the quality of the officers, the disorganization of supply lines, and the inefficiency of the medical corps.
Combat casualties had been virtually zero, but 6,000 Romanian soldiers had died of cholera during the brief campaign. It’s nice to recognize your shortcomings, but most of the same problems would still beset Romania in World War One.
The Second Balkan War had brought Russia and Romania closer together, with the Tsar even making a state visit and a planned royal wedding between the future Romanian King Carol II, King Carol’s grand nephew, and Russian Grand Duchess Olga Nikolaevna. This fell through because the prospective spouses detested each other. Another effect of that war was to turn Bulgaria into a retributionist state, seeking revenge on Serbia and Romania, which would help propel Bulgaria into joining the Central Powers.
8. The Great War
So the First World War began in 1914 and what would Romania do? King Carol revealed the existence of the secret treaty and proposed to join the Central Powers in the war.
BACKSTORY TIME:
As you know (since you did read all this bulk of a text, am I right?) the Russian Empire still took the counties of Cahul, Bolgrad and Ismail to gain access to the Danube from Romania in 1877 despite being on the same side as Romania (well, to be fair, it wasn't all that bad: Russia demanded Southern Bessarabia, which had passed back and forth between the Russians and the Ottomans over the years, and offered Romania impoverished Dobrogea, which had last been under Wallachian control in the 1400s, but taking land from an ally still sucks #JustRussianThings).
This forced exchange inflamed public opinion in Romania, and culminated in the signing, in 1883, of a secret treaty that bound Romania to the Triple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, and the construction of defensive works aimed at stopping a future Russian invasion. That treaty was sort of a double-edged sword for Romania, though, since it also stopped Romania from any sort of intervention into Austro-Hungarian affairs, most particularly those in Transylvania, which was 54% ethnic Romanian and only 30% Hungarian, but ruled by the Hungarian minority.
But the treaty was a defensive one and Romania was not actually required to go to war since Austria-Hungary was the aggressor. Remember, the King was of Prussian origin too, and a cousin to the Kaiser. Public opinion however, was staunchly Francophile, and that included most of the Crown Council, who opted for armed neutrality as a compromise between the king and the government, who wanted to join the Entente.
And then on October 10th, 1914, King Carol died with no male heir. He was succeeded by his nephew, who became King Ferdinand I. Unlike his uncle, who never forgot his Germanic roots, Ferdinand declared instantly that he would follow his country over his family, and said during his coronation "I will reign as a true Romanian". His wife was the very British Princess Marie of Edinburgh, granddaughter of Queen Victoria, but also daughter to the Russian Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, who strongly - and kind of obviously - urged joining the Entente.
Prime Minister Ion Bratianu (I'll let you guess which one is it, the father or the son?) carefully negotiated the Romanian entry into the war, because the last thing he wanted was a repeat of the 1870s, when Romania had to cede land to Russia, so the treaty formally bound the Allies to recognize Romania’s right to annex Austro-Hungarian territory that was inhabited by Romanians: Transylvania, Bukovina and Banat.
WW1 happens. You know the story. Fast-forward to the end of the war.
9. Romanians Outside Romania Vote for Union
In the aftermath of World War I the regions of Austria-Hungary were allowed to choose their own fate because self-determination was the new talk of the town that every cool kid wanted. Being mostly Romanian, Bukovina, Banat and Transylvania voted for union with Romania. Although Banat voted for union with Romania, only 2/3 of Banat was given to Romania while 1/3 was given to Serbia because the Kingdom of Serbia claimed 250,000 Serbians live there and it's close to his capital Belgrade. There was a small diplomatic conflict over it, but after a while, Romania accepted the partition and was still happy as it gained a lot of land.
This event came to be known as "The Great Union" where the Romanian provinces of Bessarabia, Bukovina, Banat and Transylvania all united with Romania in the same year, with the last being Transylvania on 1st of December 1918. All provinces with a Romanian majority were now under a Romanian state, as a result, Romania had more than twice the territory it had before.
Although the Entente ultimately decided what Romania does and doesn't get, as Romania didn't had the military power to rival the Entente's decision, the Great Union of 1918 wasn't merely the Entente giving this territory to Romania, the taken territories were actually unions where the people of those territories formed their own governments that expressed their own desires to both the Entente and their old oppressors on their own initiative, and came forward with terms and conditions to the Romanian government for the unification with Romania. The de facto unions happened in 1918, the recognition of these unions was made in 1920.
The unions were based on Woodrow Wilson's self-determination principle:
- When the February Revolution started in Russia, the region of Bessarabia created the Sfatul Tarii (a government) and declared autonomy, stating that they wish to become a Federal State within the new Russia, after the October Revolution they gave up any plans for autonomy and declared union with Romania. Originally, it was a conditional union and Bessarabia would become a autonomus region within Romania, but after Bukovina and Transylvania also united with Romania, they modified the 27 March act and changed the union to an unconditional one.
- The Romanians of Bukovina formed the General Congress of Bukovina (a govnerment) and shortly after declared unconditional union with Romania.
- The Romanians of Transylvania and Banat formed the General Assembly and voted for a conditional union with Romania, the Germans of Transylvania were also in favor of union with Romania. Unlike Bessarabia's conditional union, Transylvania was not to become an autonomus region for 5 years, as they requested temporary autonomy until the new Romanian state is ogranized and that they will have a say in the constitution of the new Romanian state. But then the Hungarians tried to use that request as evidence that the Transylvanian Romanians don't really want union with Romania so the National Party of Transylvania dropped the 5 years autonomy request.
10. Hungary Proposes Union to Romania, and Austria-Hun... Romania-Hungary
Hungarian counts Istvan Bethlen, Pal Teleki and Myklos Banfy proposed a union with Romania following the Transylvanian declaration of union with Romania. King Ferdinand would be offered the Crown of Saint Stephen and become King of both Romania and Hungary, the capital would be Bucharest but Romania and Hungary would only have mutual Finance, Foreign Affairs and Defense Ministry. Effectively, instead of Austria-Hungary they proposed a Romania-Hungary.
The reason the Hungarian counts came with this proposal was to ensure the existence of Hungary as a state after World War I, since they were part of the losing powers and in Hungary only 47% of the total population was Hungarian, it was unclear how the situation would develop but it was clear that it's going to be very bad for Hungary, given that the principle of self-determination was the next talk of the town. It was clear that Hungary was going to lose a lot of land due to the high numbers of non-Hungarians in Hungary. By becoming a junior partner in a Romanian-Hungarian union, Hungary hoped to gain Romania's support at the peace conference and by extension of some of the allies, and mitigate the territorial losses they were going to suffer. In addition, the mitigation of territorial losses would include Transylvania which could either belong to Romania or as a 3rd independent entity entity with its own parliment and King Ferdinand as king. Additionally, there was the hope that in the probable eventuality of the subsequent rupture of this alliance, the Hungarians could do so in such a way as to leave them with Transylvania.
Hungary had a history of making alliances with a monarchy to ensure its existence. With the Empress Maria Teresa in 1741, then the Austro-Hungarian compromise of 1867. Now they were probably trying a new alliance, this time with the steel crown of Romania.
This never happened because Romania refused.
However, in my opinion, It was not a genuine desire for union, it was a last ditch attempt to save some land and possibly sway the King of Romania to their side.
11. The Romanian-Hungarian War of 1919
Shortly after the union was proposed, war broke out. (history is funny sometimes)
- While Romania was to gain a lot of land, Hungary was to lose a lot of land and was dissatisfied with this. Until the treaty and the official loss of the land were signed, the First Hungarian Republic offered cultural and administrative autonomy to the minorities, but they refused, stating that they desire to be separated from Hungary.
- At this time the actual borders with Romania were uncertain. Hungary wanted as little as possible, Romania wanted all the land up to Tisza river, but France was against it. After some discussion, France agreed and the First Hungarian Republic was asked to accept the new borders of Romania. However, the First Hungarian Republic didn't accept the new borders and the government resigned as an act of protest.
- The next day, the communists take power turning into the Hungarian Soviet Republic and attack Romania, starting the Hungarian-Romanian War. Initially, the attack is succesful but the next day Romania counter-attacks and stops at the Tisza river. The Hungarian Soviete Republic attacks Czechoslovakia instead, they are winning and France promises that if Hungary leaves Czechoslovakia alone they will given them the land east of Tisza from Romania. Hungary agrees, retreats from Czechoslovakia, France asks Romania to retreat to the new proposed borders basded on ethnic lines and railways lines around the cities Arad, Oradea and Satu Mare (spoiler alert: this is the current border of Romania & Hungary). But Romania refuses.
- Hungary attacks Romania again. They have a quick breakthrough again, but Romania pushes back and this time they didn't stop at the Tisza river. This time the Romanian army occupied all of Hungary, including its capital Budapest. Removed the communist party and looted the Second Hungarian Republic. Under pressure from France, Romania left Hungary including the territory east of the Tisza river to the current borders at Trianon in 1920 and left them alone.
- Before leaving, the Romanian government gave weapons to a certain Miklos Horthy in order not to leave Hungary as a ruined state after they leave. It was expected that he would stage a coup using the weapons from the Romanains as soon as the Romanians are gone. Certainly a decision that won't come back to bite Romanians in 1940s. (Just like the Bled Agreement, insert "you damn fools" meme)
12. Greater Romania
The Greater Romania that was formed at the end of World War 1 was not the maximum extent of Romanian territorial ambitions, but rather the maximum extent of ethnic Romanians' outside Romania. Due to Bessarabia's declaration of independence from USSR in 1917 and declaration of Union with Romania in 1918 and later Bukovina and Transylvania's declarations of union with Romania in 1918 combined with President Woodrow Willson's 14 points, one of which included Austria being divided by ethnic lines, the Romanians only got the parts of Transylvania that included an ethnic Romanian majority. But they wanted all of it: West Banat, Alfold and Carpatho-Ruthenia included, why?
There was no significant Romanian population in West Banat, Alfold and Carpatho-Ruthenia, but Romania argued it had a "historical right" in those regions. West Banat, Arfold and Carpathian Ruthenia used to be part of the Kingdom of Dacia before the Roman invasion, and more recently one debated source from the Middle Ages called Gesta Hungarorum describes how when the Hungarians arrived in Transylvania there were 3 Romanian counties/voivodships that were conquered: of Gelou, Glad and Menumorut. Gelou's domain included Carpathian Ruthenia, Glad's domain included West Banat and Menumorut's domain included Arfold.
Romania's national ideal in the 19th century and early 20th was "A Romania for all Romanians", which was not limited to the regions where Romanians were the ethnic majority that it got in World War I, but also included West Banat, Arfold and Carpathian Ruthenia for historical reasons.
The territorial extent of this national ideal "A Romania for all Romanians" was "From Dniester to Tisza". Effectively, the borders of an ideal Romania would be: the Tisza river in the west, the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the south-east and the Dniester River in east and north.
And that's where the story stops. Because WW2 comes in 20 years and then bad things happen.
4. Photos!
Bucharest - 1843
Feels like playing Red Dead Redemption 2.
This must be van der Linde gang.
(Trivia: Back then there were Hajduks, which was basically what the van der Linde gang was trying to do in Red Dead Redemption 2. They took money from the rich and gave them to the poor, while also fighting actual bandits. The word most likely comes from Turkish word haidut or haydut 'bandit'. Because to the Turks they were bandits. If anyone is interested I will tell you the story of the Bosnian bandit Osman Pazvantoğlu and his battle with Wallachian hajduk Iancu Jianu - come to think of it, the story is really similar to Red Dead Redemption 2)
No, it's not Saint Denis, it's even worse, Bucharest.
Ruins of the old palace in Targoviste in 1843:
Bucharest 1878 (independence celebrations):
Bucharest 1891:
Tell me this is not Saint Denis? Except Saint Denis was a backwater place in Wild West America, Bucharest was the capital of a country.
Bucharest 1892:
Bucharest 1900:
I should grow a mustache.
Bucharest 1909:
The wild west is gone.
I hope you enjoyed this journey. We are now closing the book. Let me know if you want to hear the story of the Bosnian bandit Osman Pazvantoğlu and his battle with Wallachian hajduk Iancu Jianu. It's going to be like Red Dead Redemption 2 except more backwater.
Let's finish off with a banger from the 19th century:
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