In order to understand the changes
\nin borders and state structures that the year 1918 brought to the map of
\nEurope, two realities, one physical and the other utopian, must be considered.
\nThe first was that of World War I, with over 20 million military and civilian
\ndeaths and approximately 23 million wounded. The two opposing military blocs,
\nthe Entente, consisting of France, Great Britain, Russia, Japan, Italy, and the
\nUnited States, and the Central Power bloc, consisting of Germany,
\nAustria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria, engaged in an unprecedented struggle to
\nfulfill their interests. The Great War, as it was called, was the
\none that decided the new frontiers, like almost any war in modern history. The
\nsecond reality, the utopian one, was also experienced during the war, but one
\nagainst it, namely the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. Lenin’s great victory
\nstrongly motivated all those who wanted the profound change of the world, not
\njust the borders, and who believed that the time had come to build a better
\nworld on the ruins of the old one.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Romania paid a heavy tribute in
\nblood during the years of the Great War. Although it entered the conflict in
\n1916, two years after its beginning, Romanians paid a heavy toll. Estimates of
\nRomanian human sacrifices, in percentages, stand between 7.5 and 9% of the
\nentire population, i.e. between 580,000 and 665,000 dead, half due to the
\nepidemic of exanthematic typhus. The sacrifice was rewarded with the union of
\nthe provinces of Bessarabia, on March 27, 1918, Bucovina, on November 28, 1918,
\nBanat, Maramure\u0219 and Transylvania, on December 1, 1918, with the Kingdom of
\nRomania. It was the price paid by all Romanians, and the King and Queen of
\nRomania, Ferdinand and Maria, as well as the Romanian political class rose to
\nthe occasion, as the historian Ioan Scurtu says:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ion I. C. Br\u0103tianu, the
<\/p>\n On the day of December 1st,
<\/p>\n The voting that sealed
<\/p>\n Were
<\/p>\n Greater Romania
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Great Union of 1918, revisited<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":79743,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41141],"tags":[33282,35057,116673,42735,31489],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-621330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-history-show","tag-annexation","tag-assembly","tag-backdrop","tag-entente","tag-union"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\npresident of the National Liberal Party, was involved in the events and had an
\nimportant role in the realization of the Great Union. Both the Bessarabians,
\nthe Bukovinians and the Transylvanians came to Iasi with emissaries, before the
\nproclamation of the Union, they discussed with King Ferdinand and Ion I. C.
\nBr\u0103tianu and other politicians regarding the ways to proceed in the
\nmobilization for the union. Br\u0103tianu led the Romanian delegation to the Paris
\nPeace Conference and there he met with the great politicians of the time, from
\nAmerican President Wilson to the Prime Minister of Great Britain. King
\nFerdinand was German, he had been an officer in the German army. When, in the Crown Council, the
\nopinion was voiced, for Romania to take sides in the war against his own country,
\nagainst his family, his was a deed of personal sacrifice and at once an act of
\ngreat importance for Romania. Queen Marie was, right from the start, an
\nadvocate of Romania taking sides with the Entente, in the war. She was English
\nby birth and played a crucial role, talking King Ferdinand into making that
\npersonal sacrifice for the greater good of the Romanian people. All along, the
\nking and the queen permanently stood with the Romanians, with the army, with the
\nmain political leaders. <\/span><\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\n1918, the National Assembly of the Romanians from Transylvania was summoned in
\nAlba Iulia. The Great National Romanian Assembly, a representative body having
\nthe role of legislative power, called for 1,228 delegates to convene, with
\nthe purpose of composing the resolution of annexation of then the Kingdom of
\nRomania. Jointly with the National Romanian Council, holding the executive
\nposition, the Great National Assembly ruled that they could not possible have a new beginning unless the universal suffrage was implemented. The time had come for the
\nRomanians to fully use their right for universal suffrage, a system of voting that
\ngenerated the largest electoral representation. It was a voting system for
\nwhich the Romanian parties and the national organizations in Transylvania had
\nbeen taking affirmative action beginning 1881. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nTransylvania’s union with Romania was a voting of the national will. However,
\nit was also an emergency voting. The end of World War One had sparked the
\ntransformative utopias. According to historian and political science pundit
\nDaniel Barbu, the democratic practice of the universal suffrage must be seen
\nthrough the eyes of those who back then were witnessing the Bolshevik
\nrevolutions and the anarchy that was taking shape, after four years of war.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nthe participants in the Alba Iulia Assembly democrats, or at least those who actually composed the
\nresolution and proposed it to the grassroots acclamation? They were, by all
\nmeans, Romanian patriots. They were people with a long-standing parliamentary
\nexperience, they possessed the science and practice of politics. What would
\nhappen on December 6? The Romanian army occupied Transylvania. It was extremely
\ninstrumental in the demarcation of borders, furthermore, it once again restored
\npeace around the country. The testimonies of that are very clear. Ion Lapedatu,
\nin his memoirs, in the pages of the diary he wrote those very days, actually mentioned the villages were stirring. When we speak about the Soviet commune what we have in mind are Budapest and the Hungary
\nbeyond Tisa alone. Yet the whole Europe, England included, was galvanized by a
\nrevolutionary throb.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nwas formed in the year 1918, as the outcome of Romanians’ will and against an auspicious
\ninternational backdrop. And in the New Romania, all those people found their
\nplace, who thought the new Romania met their expectations. <\/p>\n