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Romania was one of the new European countries carved out of the Ottoman Empire. The boundaries were quite different than modern Romania. The country was ruled by a German monarchy. Romania at the time of World War I
had three main provinces (Valachia, Moldovia, and the Dobrudja). The first two of these provinces had a largely homogenious population of ethnic Romanians, speaking Romanian and the Orthodox faith. The Dobrudja was, however, ethnically diverse. As a result of Ottomon rule, there were Muslim Turks as well as various neighboring national groups. Ethnic Romanians were a minority. There were also Romanian minorities in neighboring countries. To the east was Bessarabia (between the Pruth and Dnjestr Rivers). This was once the the eastern half of the principality of Moldovia. Russia acquired the area from the Turks (1812). Other Romanians lived in Southern Bukovina (an Austrian province) and Transylvania (an Hungarian province). Similar circumstances involved all the Balkan states. Romanian nationalists as did nationalists in other countries desired an expanded state emcompassing all the territories with important Romanian populations. Such irredentist desires had fueled the Balkan Wars that preceeded World war I. Romania at first declared itself neutral. The country finally decided to enter the war on the Allied side (August 1916). Given the weakening situation on the Eastern front this seems an unwise decession. Romania coveted Transylvania which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but had a substantial Romanian ethnic popultion. Romania launched asurorise offensive into Transylvania. This achived some success and occupied much of Transylvania. The Central Powers launched a counter-offensive made up of both German and Austrian-Hungarian forces (September) The Central Powers suceeded in occupying much of Romania, including all of Valachia and a major proprtion of Moldova (late 1916). Bulgarian forces pressed forward into the Dobrudja. The Romanians managed to stop the Central Powers offensive and set up a defensive perimiter around the area of Romania they still controlled in Moldava., Revolution occurred in Russia and the Russians finally quit the War (1917). This freed up forces for the Central Powers. As a result of the Revolution in Russia, the Tsarist Empire began to desintegrate. Bessarabia as a result of the substantial Romanian ethnic population voted to join Romania (April 9, 1918). The Central Powers soon afterwards launched their spring offensive and succeeded in occupying all of Romania, including Bessarabia. The defeated Romanians were forced to sign the Treaty of Bucharest (May 7, 1918). The Germans were later to complain bitterly about the harsh conditions in the Versailles Treaty. Rarely mentioned were the very severe treaties they forced on the Romanians and Russians. The Allied victory in the West, however rescued the Romanians. The Treaty of Bucharest was declared null and void under the conditions of the Armistice (November 11).
Romania was one of the new European countries carved out of the Ottoman Empire. The boundaries were quite different than modern Romania. The country was ruled by a German monarchy. Romania at the time of World War I had three main provinces (Valachia, Moldovia, and the Dobrudja). The first two of these provinces had a largely homogenious population of ethnic Romanians, speaking Romanian and the Orthodox faith. The Dobrudja was, howver, ethnically diverse. As a result of Ottomon rule, there were Muslim Turks as well as various neighboring national groups. Ethnic Romanians were a minority. There were also Romanian minorities in neighboring countries. To the east was Bessarabia (between the Pruth and Dnjestr Rivers). This was once the the eastern half of the principality of Moldovia. Russia acquired the area from the Turks (1812). Other Romanians lived in Southern Bukovina (an Austrian province) and Transylvania (an Hungarian province). Similar circumstances involved all the Balkan states.
Romanian nationalists as did nationalists in other countries desired an expanded state emcompassing all the territories with important Romanian populations. Such irredentist desires had fueled the Balkan Wars (1912-13) that preceeded World War I.
Prince Ferdinand was born in Prussia (1865). His father was Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern (King Carol's brother). He grew up in Prussia and did not first go to Romania until he was a young man (1884). It was just a short visit. He returned to Germany to complete his studies. He graduated from the University of Lipsca (1889). He then moved to permanently to Bucharest as heir to the Romanian throne. Ferdinand also had connections with the British royal family. He married Princess Marie, daughter of the Duke of Edinburgh (and grand-daughter of Queen Victoria) (1893). His very British wife meant that his outlook was not entirely German. Although by all accounts he was a close friend of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz-Josef. Romania declared itself neutral when World war I broke out (August 1914). At the time, the intense fighting was far away, although there was some gihting to the north between Austria-Hungary and Russia. King Carol died shortly after the War began and Ferdinand became king (October 1914). Despite the familial relationship between the Romanian royal family and the German royal family as wll as his German youth and education, King Ferdinand I continued the policy of neutrality. Ferdinand's German relatives as well as Emperor Franz Josef were outraged at the refusal to join the Central Powers and the Romanian government's known Allied sympathies. The King himself was imbued with pro-German sympathies and a belief in German military prowess. Thiswas tempered by the failure of the German;s to defeat the French and the enormous strenhth of Russia. His wife was stringly pro-Allied as was Prime Minister Ion Bratianu who the King respected. As a result King Ferdinand came to agree with the policy of remaining neutral and joining the War when it looked like Romania was most likely to achieve the territorial gains that Romanian nationalists had long coveted.
Romania at first declared itself neutral. The Germans expected King Ferdinand as he was of German origins would join them in the War. His neutrality came as a shock. Allied diplomacy tried to convince the King and his ministers to join the War. They promissed support for all Romanian provinces reunification. The CentralmPowers could not make the same offers because the territory Romania coveted was primarily possessed by the Central Powers (Austia-Hungary and Bulgaria).
The country finally decided to enter the war on the Allied side (August 1916). The goal was Transylvania. Given the weakening situation on the Eastern front with Russian defearts, this seems an unwise decession. ThevKing and his ministers were influenced by the impressive Russian Brusilov offensive which scored important victories over the Austro-Hungarian Army.
Initially the Romanian Army scored some success. The Romanians attacked Hungarian Transylvania and occupied much of it. Romania wasn't strong enough or well enough equipped to face a modern army. And Russia was unable to sustain the Brusilov offensive
The Central Powers launched a counter-offensive made up of both German and Austrian-Hungarian forces (September) In sharop contaast to the trench warfare of the Western Front, the campaign in the East was a war of movement. Thus is in part because the combattant forces in the East were not evenly matched. This was especially rrue of the poorly armed and prepared Romanian forces. Romania found herself rapidly invaded and occupied by not one but two German armies. The Germans with the Austrians unleased an offensive of bold, rapid infantry movements. Although the Germans were not mechanized, the campaign in Ron=mania fioresghaddiwed the Blitzkrieg offensives of World War II. The Germans struck the Romanians where they leasr expected it and advanced into the breches in the Romanaian lines before they could be closed. The Germans and Austrians thus managed to breech the formidable obstacle of the Transylvanian Alps and on to the plains of Walachia. They rolled over Ronanian divisions from west to east. The surviving remanents of the Romanian Army retreated into Russia. Bucharest fell (December 1916). The Central Powers thus suceeded in occupying much of Romania, including all of Walachia and a major portion of Moldovia (late-1916).
Bulgarian forces advanced into the Dobrudja. [Barrett] The Romanian camoaign was one of several victories the Germans achieved in the East and Balkans and led the German people to thuink thjat they were winning the War. This is part of the reason gthat the final German defeat was so shiocking to miost Germans.
Most of Moldova had historucl roots as part of the Principality of Moldavia from (14th century). Moldava became a vassal state of the Ottoman empire, becoming known as Bessarabia. The Ottomans ceeded it to the Tsarist Empire (1856). Southern Bessarabia was returned to Moldavia, which 3 years later united with Wallachia to form Romania. As a result of the Russo-Turkish War, Romani vcne fully bindepoendent of the Ottomn Empire (1878).
King Ferdinand and the battered Romanian Army was forced to retreat northwest into Moldavia. There with Allied Russian troops they were able to organize a defense. At Marasesti and Oituz the Romanians and Russians were able to hold back the Germans under the command of Marshal Von Mackensen. The Allies tried to send arms and supplies to the Romanians, but it proved very difficult as the Romanians were virtually surronded and the situation in Russia was becoming chaotic.
The Austrians stiffened with German units occupied most of Romania (Sepember-October 1916) snd held it for the rest of the War. Romania's declaration of war thus benefited neither the Romanians or the Allies. Onlt the Central Powers benefitted. The Germans were able to exploit Romanian resources. The Allied naval blockade by 1917 was having an increasingly serious impact on the Central Powers, especially industrialized Germany where serious food shortages were beginning to develop. Romanian was an agricultural country and thus control over agricultural harvests were especially welcome. Most of the Romanian food, food, went to the military rather than the Austrian.German civilian population. The major German interest in Romania was oil. Germany produced virtually no oil and Austria-Hungary only very limited amounts, One of the reasons that the Germans pursued the Berlin to Bagdad ralway was to gain access to oil. The use of oil was still limited, but growing. The German surface fleet was still coal fired, but they were expeimentng with oil. The Germans had some trucks but relatvely few. Nor did they have tanks, except for some experimental attempts. But the German needed avition fuel for the air war on the Western Front and the U-boats which used petroleum based fuels. The British, however, managed to blow up the infrastructure at Ploesti before the Germans reached it. It took 5 months to repair the damage, but only partially. Production was only a third of what it had been.
The War was a disaster for Russia. The country was unprepared and the result was huge casualties. Russia suffered more casualties than any other country. Dusruptions in the economy and the advance of German forces resulted in shortages including severe shortages and bread lines in the major cities. As a result, the Tsarist Government collapsed with relatively little resistance when riots broke out in St. Persburg. Army revolts forced the Tsar to abdicate. Nicholas II abdicated on March 2, 1917, in favor of his brother Michael. No fool, Michael renounced his claim the next day. The abdication of the Tsar left the Duma in control of Russia. The Duma was dominated by liberal politicans. Defense Minister Alexander Kerensky formnmed a provisional government. The Provisional Government, however, was hampered by thev Petrograd Council (Soviet) of Soldiers and Workers's Deputies. And here radical elements including the Bolshevils had considerable influence. The Provisional Government also honored commitments to the Allies. Kerensky tried to keep Russia in the War. He gave Brusilov command of another offensive against the German Southern Army in Galicia. This time Brusilov made little progress. He drove through mutinous Austrian units, but was stopped at great cost by German units commanded by Hoffman and Hutier. The Germans after stopping the Russians, launched a major offensive. This was the stroke that shattered the Russian Army. It's collapse paved the way for the Bolsheviks to seize power. The first Communist state was of course the Soviet Union. The Revolution was a reaction to the huge losses, government incompetence, and privations of World War I (1914-18), in which the Russian people, suffered greviously. The Bolsheviks emerged victorious against a democratic Provisional Government (1917). The Russian Revolution is often described as a result of social forces that had been developing for centuries. A strong case can be made for the Revolution as a coupd'état that may have never occurred without the leadership of Lenin. [Pipes] The Germans allowed Lenin who was in Switzerland to cross their territory in a sealed railway car. Hecarrived in Petrograd (April 1917). His demands for "peace, land, and bread" resonated with the Russian people, especially the Petrigrad Soviet with was not faorably disposed toward the liberal duma and Kerensky Government. Lenin and his allies demanded "all power to the Soviets". As the situation in Petrograd deteriorated, General Kornilov attempted to seize power. This backfired when his troops mutinied. The Bolsheviks then moved on the Provisional Government (November 7). They arrested members if the Provisional Government theu could find and seized power in the name of the Soviets.
The final straw for the Romanians was the separate Brest-Litovsk peace treaty the Bolsheviks signed with the Central Powers (March 1918). Without the Russians, there was no way the Romanians could hold out. The Russian Revolution and Bolshevik decesion to quit the War, removed the vast Russoan Army from the Allied side, leaving Romania isolated and cfacing the Central Powers by itself. This freed up forces for the Central Powers. As a result of the Revolution in Russia, the Tsarist Empire began to desintegrate. Bessarabia as a result of the substantial Romanian ethnic population voted to join Romania (April 9, 1918). The Central Powers soon afterwards launched their spring offensive and succeeded in occupying all of Romania, including Bessarabia.
The defeated Romanians were forced to sign the Treaty of Bucharest (May 7, 1918). The Germans were later to complain bitterly about the harsh conditions in the Versailles Treaty. Rarely mentioned by the Germans were the very severe treaties they forced on the Romanians and Russians--much more severe than the Versailles Treaty.
In addition the loss of territory nd occupation, Romania ceased being an independent country. German officials were appointed to oversee the various ministries. Thery had veto power and the authority to dismiss any Romnian official. On addition, Romania's 'surplus agriculture had to be turned iver to Austria-Hungary and Germany with an Austro-German commission deciding what was 'surplus' and the price to be paid. [Kitchen, p. 223.] The earlier victory over the Serbs and the victory over the Russians anbd Romanians convinced many Germans tht yhey had won the War. The Allied victory in the West, however rescued the Romanians. At the time, however, the great German Spring Offensive on the Western Front was coming to an end having failed to break the Allies.
After 4-long years of bitter combat, the Allied war-winning Hundered Days Campaign broke the Western Front wide open (August-November 1918). The German defeats in the West enabled the Romanians to reenter the the War (October 1918). The Romanians were thus able to participate in the final Allied victory. The Germans were forced to ask for a Armistice (November 1918). As part of the Armistice, the Treaty of Bucharest was declared null and void.
Romania was in a desperate condition as a result of the War. There were serious food sgortages and the economy was near collapse. We have been able to find information on many of the countries assisdted by the American ARA after the War. For some reason, we have been able to find very little on Romania. We know that W.N. Haskell headed the ARA unit in Romania (1919). As in other countries, the ZRA reloed heavily on Anerican Red Cross volunteers. And we have found a Red Cross photograph with this caption. "Economy on Roumania is practiced by the women of the country to an alarming degree. So prohibitive, for example, are the prices of clothes that they are far beyond the means of the poor. To save what few clothes the members of their families possess the children are sometimes sent out nude in the summer weather. In this way their mothers expect to save them warm garments for the winter months. A report sent to the Paris headquarters of the American Red Cross from Roumania representatives states that naked children are common sights in the streets of Bucharest. Several trainloads of clothing were sent out to better the condition of these people, who but for the aid of the Red Cross would be compelled to face the coming winter with little protection from exposure."
Romania was able to achieve the nationalidtd dream of reunifiying all Romanian Provinces into a single independent state. The Country Council of Bassarabia voted to join Romania (April 9, 1918). The National Council of Bukovina also voted to join Romania (November 28,). Transylvania voted for union at Cimpia Islaz (December 1918). As the nationalists regjoiced, they were united for the first time since Michael the Brave.
Barett, Michael B. Prelude to Blitzkrieg: The 1916 Austro-German Campaign in Romania (2014), 420p.
Kitchen, Martin "Hindenburg, Ludendorff and Rumania," The Slavonic and East European Review Vol. 54, Issue No. 2 (April 1976), pp. 214-22.
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