Romania, for two decades, over 1920
\nand 1940, had to face the growing revisionist aggression coming from the country’s
\ntwo great powers lying nearby, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Revisionist
\nclaims also came from Romania’s neighboring countries, Hungary and Bulgaria.
\nNazi Germany occupied France in June 1940. At about the same time, the Soviet
\nUnion issued two ultimatums to the Romanian government whereby it demanded the
\nceding of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. On August 30, 1040, through the
\nVienna Treaty, Germany and Italy imposed on Romania the ceding of Northern
\nTransylvania to Hungary. On September 7, 1940, through the Craiova Treaty, Germany
\nand Italy again imposed the ceding of the Quadrilateral region or Southern
\nDobrogea to Bulgaria. The ensuing crisis made it possible for a certain government
\nto ascend to power, a government made of the Iron Guard and Marshal Antonescu. All things considered, King Carol II was the main character to be held to account
\nat that time. Shortly afterwards, King Carol II lost his throne.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The sovereign had an extremely
\npowerful personality. Clever and manipulative, in 1938 King Carol II instated a
\npersonal authority regime, dismantling the political parties and banning free
\npress. For his son, King Carol II was an abusive father, since he dethroned him
\nin 1930, when Michael was a still a minor. The name of King Carol and his camarilla
\nwere in many cases linked to corruption scandals. In his boundless vainglory, even
\nafter the deep crisis of 1940, Carol II refused to step down. Instead, he simply
\nleft the throne and the crown. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Notwithstanding, for his decade-long reign, between 1930 and 1940, the name of King Carol II is connected to Romania’s
\nmost prosperous period. Capital city Bucharest was systematized and the building
\nof the Colentina river lakes in northern Bucharest was initiated. As for culture,
\nat that time it benefitted from substantial support. The King’s contemporaries were
\nnot unanimous in stating that King carol II was a fated figurehead in Romania’s
\ncontemporary history. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gheorghe Barbul was
\nMarshal Antonescu’s personal secretary. In 1984, he was interviewed by then the
\nwell-known historian Vad Georgescu of Radio Free Europe. The interview, in 1993,
\nwas included in Radio Romania’s Oral History Center Heritage. According to
\nGheorghe Barbul, despite Carol II’s fraught relation with Antonescu, the latter’s
\nmindset was largely based on political stability, while in Antonescu’s opinion,
\nmonarchy and the King simply overlapped. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gheorghe Barbul:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Monarchy, Antonescu believed, was indispensable
\nto a country like Romania, a young country. It was only monarchy that could
\nguarantee the continuity of the state in a world of demagogues, where, in his own
\nwords, vote owners had replaced the land owners. He hinted at the gap between
\npre-1914 Romania and Romania after 1920. And he believed that, given the
\nimpending necessity for the country to have a monarchy, King Carol should in no
\nway be lambasted, whatever his sins may be. And that because a form of instability
\non Romania’s throne could have posed a danger for the country. The father had
\nalready dethroned the son and had ascended the throne, if what a certain part of
\nthe opposition intended to do, especially the National Peasant Party and the Iron
\nGuard, namely having Michael remove Carol from power and ascending the throne for
\nthe second time around, if all that meant instability. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For jurist and political detainee Radu
\nBoro\u0219 King Carol II was, just as he claimed in an interview dated 1995, one of Romania’s
\nmost important sovereigns who also gave an impetus to the development of
\naviation, a domain which at that time had been gaining ground in the country. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Radu Boros:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For me, as a Romanian,
\nKing Carol is still la great king. And, had Romanians been able to understand
\nhim, the progress that we would have made would have been a lot greater that it
\nactually was. All that was done from the end of World War One to the second
\nworld war, everything that was achieved at home, in industry, in administration
\nand such like was entirely his will, all that occurred under his patronage, it
\nwas imposed by him. When he came, he found out that in Romania, regarding
\naviation, we had nothing! We, in World War One, had very few pilots and captive
\nballoons. We dealt more with captive balloons than with fighter planes or strategic
\nbombing capabilities. We, during World War One, had not been what we subsequently
\nwere during the Second World War. Then he decided to give a fresh impetus to
\naviation and the impetus he gave military aviation was really great. As part of
\nmilitary aviation, he was the one who was dead set on founding Romanian
\nAeronautics Enterprise in Brasov, where we also built a fighter plane, I.A.R.
\n14, which at that time, in 1937-1938, was one of the best fighter planes. And
\nyet, apart from military aviation, he realized we also needed civil aviation. He
\nwas far-sighted and understood aviation was about to become an important means of
\ntransport. And then he decided to establish a Romanian air transport society. Before
\nthis Romanian company was created, Romania participated alongside France in the French-Romanian
\nSociety.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
King Carol II
\nis one of history’s controversial personality. Yet without such a personality,
\nexistence would have been quieter but duller. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The controversial King Carol II<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":123226,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41141],"tags":[34904,29822,32708,90887,36582],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-621320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-history-show","tag-aviation","tag-crisis","tag-king","tag-ultimatum","tag-war"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n