Every year on the 24th of
\nJanuary, Romanians celebrate the Union of the Romanian Principalities. This
\nyear it’s 161 years since this event that paved the way for the creation of the
\nRomanian nation state. The anniversary is marked these days by a series of events.
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The National History Museum, for
\nexample, plays host to an exhibition entitled Small traces of big ambitions.
\nSymbols of the Union of the Principalities in stamps and coins. The exhibits include
\na letter with a special United Principalities postmark from 1862, a stamp
\nshowing the effigy of the ruler Alexander Ioan Cuza from 1865 and two small
\ncoins from 1864 featuring the inscription the United Principalities. The
\nCotroceni National Museum is also open on the 24th of January. The
\ntour takes visitors to the apartments occupied by the ruler, where they can see
\nsome of the personal objects belonging to the Cuza family, as well as original
\ndocuments and a ceremonial sword gifted to Cuza by the Serbian prince Michael
\nObrenovic. <\/p>\n
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On the 24th of January 1859,
\nAlexander Ioan Cuza, who, a week earlier, had been elected ruler of Moldavia,
\nwas voted unanimously by the Electoral Assembly in Bucharest as the sovereign
\nWallachia and thus proclaimed ruler of the United Principalities. This de facto
\nmeant the union of the two principalities inhabited by Romanians. Three years
\nlater, on the 24th of January 1864, with the decisive support of the
\nFrench emperor Napoleon III, the Union was also recognised internationally, and
\nthe new state received the name Romania. <\/p>\n
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In his 7-year reign, Alexander Ioan
\nCuza built the institutional foundations of modern Romania through a number of
\nradical reforms. The civil and criminal codes were adopted, both inspired by
\nthe French model, a national army was created, primary education became
\nobligatory and the first universities were established: that in Iasi in 1860,
\nwhich is today named after Cuza, and that in Bucharest four years later. The
\nland reform saw half a million peasant families acquire land resulting from the
\nseizure of monastery property. Adored by peasants but disliked by the political
\nparties because of his authoritarian excesses, the ruler was forced to abdicate
\nand go into exile in 1866. <\/p>\n
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He was followed by the future King
\nCarol I from the German princely family of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen. Carol’s
\nlong reign would see Romania obtain its state independence from the Ottoman
\nEmpire and regain the south-eastern, Black Sea province of Dobrudja following
\nthe Russo-Romanian-Turkish war of 1877. In 1918, under King Ferdinand, aka The
\nUnifier, the creation of the Romanian nation state became complete as
\nTransylvania, Banat, Crisana, Maramures, Bukovina and Bessarabia, historical
\nprovinces with a majority ethnic Romanian population and which had until then
\nbeen under the occupation of the neighbouring multinational empires, became
\nunited with Romania.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Events are held across the country to celebrate the Union of the Romanian Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1859.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":84392,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[36522,31489],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-84391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-principalities","tag-union"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n