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Romania The Crimean War and Unification
Russia withdrew from Walachia and Moldavia in 1851 but
returned
yet again in the summer of 1853, thus precipitating the
Crimean
War. In 1854 Franz Joseph and the sultan forced Tsar
Nicholas I to
withdraw his troops from the principalities, and imperial
and
Ottoman soldiers soon occupied them. Russia's defeat in
the Crimea
forced the tsar to seek peace, affirmed in 1856 by the
Treaty of
Paris. De jure Ottoman suzerainty over the principalities
continued
after the treaty, which abolished the Russian protectorate
and
replaced it with a joint European guarantee. The treaty
also freed
navigation on the Danube and forced Russia to cede part of
southern
Bessarabia, which included control of the river's mouth,
to
Moldavia.
The year 1856 began the active campaign for union of
Walachia
and Moldavia. The movement had the support of France,
because many
Romanian revolutionaries took refuge there after 1848 and
lobbied
Napoleon III to press for unification; Austria, Britain,
and the
Ottomans, however, opposed the unification effort, while
Russia
opted to let the Romanians decide. In 1857 the Porte
manipulated an
election of delegates to special assemblies charged with
discussing
unification; the few voters casting ballots elected
representatives
opposing union. An international crisis followed, and
Napoleon III,
with Russian and British support, finally pressured the
Ottomans to
nullify the results and hold new, untainted elections,
which
returned a huge majority of delegates in favor of
unification.
These delegates immediately called for autonomy, a
constitutional
government, and a foreign prince to rule the unified
principalities. Despite the election results, an
international
conference in Paris in 1858 reaffirmed separation of
Walachia and
Moldavia under Ottoman sovereignty, but it allowed for a
common
coinage and uniform laws and titled the two states the
"United
Principalities." The Romanians themselves overcame the
imposed
separation in 1859 when the separate assemblies at
Bucharest and
Iasi unanimously elected the same man, Alexandru Ioan
Cuza,
governor of both principalities. Distracted by war in
Italy, the
leading European nations yielded to a fait accompli and
accepted
unification, and Cuza (1859-66) became prince.
Data as of July 1989
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