Romania at 1900

The political revolution and civilization constitute the true pride of the Romanians of 1900: the country’s transformation from Turkey’s humble vassal and Russia’s client to an independent and respected state that was rapidly modernizing. “The National Renaissance” had been inaugurated by the revolt (or revolution) of Tudor Vladimirescu in 1821 and the revolution of 1848, completed by the union of the principalities in 1859 and the proclamation of the Romanian state (1862), crowned with independence won on the battle field in 1877 and the proclamation of the kingdom in 1881. The path taken in only three generations was important and emotionally justified by the self-sufficiency of the Romanian political class: the organization of the legal state on the basis of the Constitution of 1866, the separation of the state’s powers, and the creation of the principles for a modern state’s institutions; educational, banking, and financial systems (the National Bank of Romania was established in 1880) etc.

Around the year 1900, the Romanian Kingdom revealed itself as a fortunate exception in the Balkans where indigenous or Germanic dynasties (as in Serbia or Bulgaria and Greece respectively) were shaken or eliminated due to either foreign conflict or internal tumult: there was only a single political assassination in the kingdom between 1831 and 1918, and a single strike on the palace (1866), and even that without the spilling of blood.