Was Romania invented in Paris?

Chapter

1856

Signed

30 March 1856

The articles

XX–XXVII

Counties ceded

Cahul, Bolgrad, Ismail

On 30 March 1856, in the Salon des Ambassadeurs on the Quai d'Orsay, Count Walewski rose to close the Congress of Paris: the Crimean War was ending, and articles XX–XXVII of the treaty rewrote the Principalities' place in Europe. Moldavia and Wallachia stayed separate, under the Sultan's suzerainty – but under the guarantee of all the contracting powers, with “no exclusive protection” by any one of them. The Russian protectorate had ended at that table.

Russia also gave ground: the frontier was rectified in Southern Bessarabia, and the ceded land – organised as the counties of Cahul, Bolgrad and Ismail – was annexed to Moldavia. A European commission sat at Bucharest to work with what the treaty ordered next: in each province, an ad hoc Divan, 'to express the wishes of the people'.

The men who would use these articles were already in Paris. Ion C. Brătianu, exiled since 1848, lobbied French opinion for union and autonomy and published his pamphlets in French; C. A. Rosetti, in Paris since December 1848, campaigned in exile papers for unification. Both had sat at the feet of Michelet and Quinet; both would sit in the Divans.

The Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia shall continue to enjoy under the Suzerainty of the Porte, and under the Guarantee of the Contracting Powers, the Privileges and Immunities of which they are in possession. No exclusive Protection shall be exercised over them by any of the guaranteeing Powers.

Treaty of Paris, 30 March 1856, art. XXII

His Majesty the Sultan promises to convoke immediately in each of the two Provinces a Divan ad hoc, composed in such a manner as to represent most closely the interests of all classes of society.

Treaty of Paris, art. XXIV

Meanwhile The treaty was signed in the Salon des Ambassadeurs, on the Quai d'Orsay.

Chapter

1857

Osborne

6–10 August 1857

The four wishes

7/19 October 1857

One law for all

73 of 77

At Iași, in the summer of 1857, the ballot boxes filled before the voters arrived: the Moldavian caimacam Nicolae Vogoride, working with the Austrian-Turkish anti-unionists, falsified the elections, and France, Russia, Prussia and Sardinia broke with the Porte over it. The Divans almost never met freely. At Osborne, on 6–10 August 1857, Victoria and Napoleon III agreed, after “reciprocal concessions” and with no document signed, to cancel the Moldavian vote.

The re-run elections gave unionist Divans at Iași and Bucharest, sitting from September to December 1857. On 7/19 October the Moldavian Divan adopted the four wishes – autonomy, union, a foreign hereditary prince, constitutional government; on 29 October, on a commission including Kogălniceanu, it voted one law for all, conscription for all and the end of rank exemptions, 73 of 77, with 4 abstentions.

The ninth edition of Britannica describes the Divans’ vote for union and a foreign prince as unanimous. This is a different vote from the 29 October measure on equality before the law, for which 73 votes and four abstentions are reported. The assemblies asked to express wishes had demanded a single state.

They at once proceeded to vote with unanimity the union of the two principalities into a single state under the name of Romania... to be governed by a foreign prince.

Encyclopaedia Britannica, ninth ed., vol. 21

Meanwhile No document was signed at Osborne – the deal was sealed by conciliation alone.

Chapter

1858 – 1862

The Convention

7/19 August 1858

Double election

5 and 24 January 1859

The merger

5 February 1862

At Paris, on 7/19 August 1858, the powers answered the four wishes with a Convention that halved them: the “United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia” – but no full union and no foreign prince. Two native hospodars for life, two governments, two assemblies, two capitals; only a Central Commission at Focșani, a High Court and a common army organisation were shared.

The Convention forbade one throne but not one man on two thrones. On 5 January 1859 Iași elected Alexandru Ioan Cuza; on 24 January Bucharest elected him too – nineteen days apart, a personal union the powers had to swallow. The Sultan's 1861 firman recognised the administrative union for Cuza's lifetime only.

The merger was proclaimed on 24 January/5 February 1862, Bucharest the capital, under the name 'Romanian United Principalities' – Romania, informally. The first all-Romanian government, Barbu Catargiu's, lasted from 22 January to June 1862; Catargiu was assassinated on 8 June.

Meanwhile 24 January is still celebrated as Union Day – the Mica Unire.

Chapter

1866 – 1958

Carol I

10 May 1866

Independence

9 May 1877

The museum

1958

On 10/22 May 1866 Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen entered Bucharest as prince, called by plebiscite after Cuza's fall in February: native rule had ended, foreign rule begun. Independence was proclaimed on 9/21 May 1877 and sanctioned the next day; at Berlin in 1878 Romania kept its crown but gave back Southern Bessarabia – for Northern Dobruja.

The traces are visitable. The Union Museum in Iași, Cuza's residence of 1859–62, has been a museum since 1958; the Kogălniceanu memorial and the Ruginoasa palace stand in the same museum family. In Paris the signing room, the Salon des Ambassadeurs, still belongs to the Quai d'Orsay – but no plaque to 1856's Romanian hour has been found.

So was Romania invented in Paris? The treaty kept the Principalities separate and suzerain; the union was voted in Iași and Bucharest, seized by Cuza's double election, and paid for in wars. Paris supplied the paper and the pressure – and the French half of the story, 1848–1859, belongs to the catalogue's companion page.

Meanwhile The companion page covers 1848–1859 from the French side.