We Require no Protection - A Romania TL

[Richthofen]

Shouldn't that be a third term?

No. Cuza did publicly express his intent in running for a fourth time and it was widely believed by the populace that he will run and win a fourth term. The only difference between 1868 and 1864 is that this time Cuza was stopped.

 

[Richthofen]

INFO-CHAPTER I
THE FIRST ROMANIAN PARTY SYSTEM (1843-1868)​

The First Romanian Party System (rom. Primul sistem de partide din România), also known as the Liberal Domination Era (Perioada dominației liberale), the Early Republic (Republica timpurie) is a model used to define and periodize the political system that existed in Romania from the creation of the Partida Națională in 1843 and the subsequent creation of its rival, the Conservative Party (1844) until the Conservative Shift (1868), when a large part of the members and organizations of the Partida Națională moved to the conservatives. It was also a part of the much larger Revolutionary Era (Perioada revoluționară), the period of time when the artisans of the Second Revolution (1843) were active in and for a long time also dominated Romanian politics. The First Party system featured highly divided politics, initally between the two parties but also between rival factions within the parties, with most liberals supporting a form of constitutionalism, but clashing on what form of government should the new state take (republic or monarchy). On the other hand, most conservatives were supporters of boyar rights and of elitism in the new Romanian society, but clashed with each other on the degree of elitism that the new society should espouse with some reactionaries going as far as adovcating an elective boyar monarchy free from the Ottomans while the more moderate conservatives simply wanting a native monarchy with limited constitutionalism as a ruling principle. Elections were overwhelmingly dominated by the Partida Națională which won all legislative elections and most of the presidential elections in landslides while the Conservative Party, for the most part, remained at the fringe of national politics, essentially functioning as a regional party for most of the period. Both parties worked in similar ways internally for the first years, both being federations of political groups that aimed for singular objectives. As national politics changed and sophisticated over the years, the two parties also changed with both of them tightening their control over their members and the centralization of party power. Partida Națională’s centralization began with President Cuza’s attempt to make the party beholden to presidential power and the influence of the power struggle between him and the party organization continued to be felt even years after his presidency as the liberal party continued to be the more presidential party.

Partida Națională
Status: Active (1843-1868)
Ideology: Liberalism; Romanian Nationalism
Political ideals and values: constitutionalism; secularism; republicanism (divided); equality; humanism; democracy
Leaders: Gheorghe Magheru (1843-1844); Nicolae Bălcescu (1844-1851); Ion Ghica (1st: 1851-1852; 2nd: 1856-1864); Ionică Tăutu (1852-1856); Dimitrie Cornea (1864-1868)
Presidents of Romania: Gheorghe Magheru (1844-1852); Nicolae Bălcescu (1852-1855); Nicolae Crețulescu (1855-1856); Alexandru Ioan Cuza (1856-1868)
​

Partida Națională began as a federation of political groups created to draft the first constitution of the newly united country. In the early days of 1843 two major groups could be distinguished in the ranks of the liberals of Romania – first there were the original members of Frăția, a group created sometime during the reign of Prince Ioan Caradja (1806-1815) to promote the liberation of the Romanian principalities from the Ottoman yoke as well as a more meaningful union between the two principalities; second there were the members of the Cărvunarii, a pro-constitutionalist group that advocated representiative democracy in the principalities as well as a curbing of the Prince’s power. As the two organization dissolved within the party, new factions began to emerge as early as the Constitutional Convention. The radical republican core of the Frăția found new members in republican members of the Cărvunari, who were a majority in the organization and together they formed the radical faction of the party, with the most prominent members being Nicolae Bălcescu and Ionică Tăutu, both of them being one of the most ardent supporters of republicanism in Romania as well as the artisans of the more radical articles of the Constitution. The moderate faction was created by the loosely united monarchist wing of the Frăția and the moderately republican wing of the Cărvunari with Gheorghe Magheru being one of the most prominent members. Finally, the conservative liberal faction was created by most of the monarchy supporting members of the Frăția as well as those supporting a limited union between the countries and a more muscular approach to the relationship with the Ottomans. While the factions were rather united in their objectives at first, petty factionalism arose even within them. The radical faction was more prone to this as by the end of Gheorghe Magheru’s presidency several groups had appeared in the territorial organization of the party even if many of them did not hold seats in Parliament while the conservative liberal faction was the most unitary:

The Red Liberals (Liberalii Roșii) - Constantin Alexandru Rosetti’s faction was the most radical group in the Partida Națională. Influenced by socialist thought, the red liberals advocated universal male and female suffrage, social measures that would help the worker class and make industrialization work more in favour of the common man.

Bălciștii – The faction that formed around the personality of President Nicolae Bălcescu advocated a further democratization of the republic with electoral and land reform being its most important objectives supported by dovish foreign relations and a deep commitment to the political values of the Second Revolution. They were gradually replaced by supporters of President Alexandru Ioan Cuza after 1856, but maintained a small presence in the party even afterwards.

Cuziștii – Formed around President Cuza, this faction held the same radical agenda as their Bălcescu counterparts, but with a more hawkish stance in regards to foreign relations. Many supported a full scale invasion of Russia and annexation of Crimea during the Crimean War as well as a swift union with Transylvania, regardless of the position of the Habsburg Empire. President Cuza himself was convinced by his cabinet and parliamentary leaders to not occupy Transylvania during the tenures of Governors von Liechtenstein and Gabor.

Magheriștii – Formed around President Magheru, this faction was mostly active after his presidency as the radical wave that came after was seen as a threat to the achievements of the prudent but highly effective Magheru administration. During the presidencies of Magheru’s immediate successors, the faction supported a strong military along with a prudent foreign stance and further democratization of the country. By 1860, they formed the backbone of the moderate liberal faction.

Monarchists – a large part of the liberal party continued to support a constitutional monarchy even after the proclamation of the Romanian republic. Many supported the arrival of a foreign monarch on the Romanian throne in order to avoid the boyar or Ottoman influence of a native monarchy. As a large part of the population continued to support a potential monarchy, the faction survived well into the 1880s but gradually lost its influence. By the end of the 19th century most of the Romanian population was solidly republican.

Conservative liberals – During the last part of the First Party System the conservative liberal faction of the Partida Națională came to be the most coherent of groups that populated the party. Facing hostility from the Cuza administration, the conservative liberals were marginalized for a while within the party but resurfaced once President Cuza announced his bid for a third term but they could never return to their former stance. In the case of the monarchy versus republic debate, conservative liberals mostly favoured a constitutional monarchy but it was not an issue important enough for them to advocate it strongly. They mostly supported restraint in reforms and small government but at the same time argued for a strong army and a muscular approach in foreign relations.

Partidul Conservator
Status: Active (1844-1868)
Ideology: Conservatism; Monarchism
Political ideals and values: absolutism (divided); religious moralism; mercantilism; elitism
Leaders: Gheorghe Bibescu (1844-1845; 1847-1849); Lascăr Catargiu (1852-1856); Barbu Catargiu (1856-1868)
Presidents of Romania: none​

The Conservative Party was formed after the provisional government of the newly formed Romania started its works on the constitutional draft. Trying to salvage what was left of their status and privileges, members of the defunct assemblies of Moldavia and Wallachia went on to create the Conservative Party in order to influence the process of drafting the constitution. Members of the intellectual conservative circles also joined the party and advocated restraint in the face of the radical zeal of the revolutionaries. During most of the period that spanned the First Party System, the Conservative Party was seen as beholden to boyar interests and firmly anti-republican. As decades went by, however, the party, while still avowedly monarchist, nuanced it stance and by the time of the Conservative Shift it was already more moderate than before. It was plagued by violent factionalism in its early days as the reactionary faction made up mainly by former boyars that never accepted the loss of their privileges continuously warred the more moderate and philosophically conservative half of the party. As the local organizations of the party were dominated by former boyars, the party remained on the fringes of Romanian politics until a project of reform brought forward by the moderate half created the popular primary system in which conservative voters and sympathizers could elect their candidates themselves before any election started. This helped the party become more electable but could not break the liberal domination of national politics just yet. As the new system was made to reduce reactionary influence from the party, factionalism gradually died down and by the end of Cuza’s presidency, the party seemed more united than ever.

 

[Richthofen]

CHAPTER XXI
NATIONALISM REBORN​

It was a difficult time to begin your presidency on 15 May 1868, when President Catargiu finally swore his oath and moved to the Hill to lead the government of Romania. The Austro-Prussian war had been raging for fifteen weeks and nobody expected the outcome that was beginning to take shape. Austria had been receiving a thorough pounding for the last months with Prussia occupying several key areas of the Habsburg Empire while in Hungary, revolutionaries were once again ready to take arms. As the Habsburg Empire was once again collapsing, for the second time in twenty years, the Great Powers had begun preparation for the inevitable end and the vacuum of power that was to be created by its disappearance. In Transylvania, Governor Gabor was convinced in a last ditch effort by the Austrian government to tip the scales, to enter the war on the Austrian side, with the promise of a return of Transylvania to Hungary in a future dual monarchy if the Habsburg Empire would manage to see the end of the war. This somewhat calmed the spirits in Hungary allowing Austria to tread on for a little more time. As the Transylvanian Army had been funded and equipped mainly by Romania and the bulk of its soldiers were ethnic Romanians this did not sit well with most of it. Nevertheless, both Transylvania’s entry into the war and its non-military support of Austria in an external conflict was in clear violation of the Romanian-Austrian Protocol of 1850 and the Catargiu administration, while initially reluctant to intervene, later found itself petitioning Parliament for support in the Transylvanian issue. While most members of Parliament did support an intervention in Transylvania, there were two major issues: first, Romania could not declare war on Transylvania since the latter was not a sovereign nation, and Romania herself was a protector of the Transylvanian autonomy, so Parliament could only vote on a declaration of war upon Austria, something most members of Parliament and even the Catargiu administration did not want to resort to as all other Great Powers except Italy had stayed neutral and an entry into the war by Romania would be seen as a free ticket for other powers to join in as well for a piece of Austria or to support the status-quo. Second, liberals in Parliament were not entirely ready to give the conservative administration such a major success so early in Catargiu’s presidency.

7th Parliament of Romania (1868-1872)
Speaker of the Assembly: Constantin Brăiloiu
Opposition Leader: Mihail Kogălniceanu
President of the Senate: Dimitrie Sturdza
Partida Națională

Red Liberals

Cuziști

Moderates
Partidul Conservator

New Conservatives

Old Conservatives​

This feature of Romanian politics, the big conflict between the conservatives and liberals, that was greatly enhanced by both the Conservative Shift and the “ousting” of President Cuza was to condemn both sides to sometimes acting against the bigger interests of the nation so that the other could not reap the benefits. For the liberals, they felt they were punished by the electorate for their working together with the conservatives to make sure Cuza would not run again, a move that many believed salvaged Romanian democracy, but forced the party out of power. The conservatives, on the other hand, essentially turned into a different party after 1868, as the new conservative liberal wing that joined was much more republican in thought and philosophy than what had previously constituted the party earlier. While President Catargiu was an old conservative, it was widely believed that he would not do anything to threaten the liberal nature of the republic and that the changes that the Romanian society had undergone were irreversible at this point. Nevertheless, the new conservatives who formed a majority of the Conservative group in parliament hoped they would be able to curb any excess of the Catargiu administration, however as the president’s cabinet composition showed, there was really no threat to the political system for that moment.

Barbu Catargiu, 5th President of Romania


Catargiu administration
President: Barbu Catargiu (OC)
Vice President: Dimitrie Sturdza (NC)
Minister of Internal Affairs: Lascăr Catargiu (OC)
Minister of Foreign Affairs: Vasile Boerescu (NC)
Minister of War: Ioan Grigore Ghica (Independent)
Minister of Finance: Petre Mavrogheni (NC)
Minister of Justice: Dimitrie Cornea (NC)
Minister of Education and Research: Alexandru C. Moruzzi (OC)
Minister of Culture and Public Works: Grigore Balș (OC)​

As Parliament proved unable to offer any institutional support to the administration, President Catargiu decided to act unilaterally before the situation in Transylvania erupted into full scale civil war between the Romanian elements of the Transylvanian Army and the largely Magyar and German Transylvanian government. A week after President Catargiu’s entry into office, the Romanian Army marched into Transylvania and assumed administration of the territory. Former Governor Gabor fled to Hungary proper immediately afterwards and the Transylvanian Army was joined with the Romanian one. Hoping for a fait accompli treatment of the annexation by the international community, Catargiu argued that the Austrian violation of the 1850 protocol meant Romanian intervention was permissible even though nothing was stipulated neither in the protocol or the Treaty of London. Without the support it so desperately needed from Transylvania, the Habsburg Empire was beginning to crumble under its own weight and the Great Powers finally decided it was time for another large European conference as German pan-nationalists were strongly pressuring the government in Berlin to proclaim a greater Empire of Germany including Austria proper and Bohemia.

In the beginning of June, the Great Powers, at the invitation of the Romanian and British governments convened in Bucharest to discuss the fate of the Habsburg Empire and what was to be done regarding the situation in Germany, although, at this point, German Unification was an event that could not be stopped. The days of the 1845-1848 revolutions when conservative and reactionary forces could simply ignore and wait out the revolutions was long gone and German nationalists would not be denied a second time. The more relevant question at this point in time was not if the German unification were to happen but whether, in what capacity it would be achieved. Of course, with the demise of the Habsburg Empire it felt appropriate that the new German state should include Austria proper and Bohemia, both to be admitted as kingdoms in a federal Empire of Germany that would elect an emperor from among its princes. If that were to happen, there was the problem of Russia and the inevitable pound of flesh that the Tsar would ask for, Galicia, that would fully unite the Polish “Kingdom” within the Russian Empire, while Hohenzollern Serbia was also expected to grab something in the north as the Germans were looking to prop up a potential friendly government in the Balkans. Many believed that the Austrian Emperor would never accept such a resolution and that hoping for a Habsburg to renounce his imperial crown to become a mere king was madness. Franz Joseph, however, understood the gravity of this situation and he had two choices: resist German unification and lose his crown permanently, or ride the wave of nationalism and take the chance to political relevancy once the Prussian effervescence would be over. It most definitely did not help that the populace of Austria proper was hugely in favour of the Greater Germany answer to the German question and many saw the Habsburg Empire with its many nationalities as a burden, an artefact of long times that had long since outlived its usefulness. A newspaper in Vienna read on its front page “Today a Hohenzollern, tomorrow a Habsburg. The brothers must lay down their arms and work together!” alluding to an elective federal and liberal monarchy as well as a cessation of the Fraternal War in Germany.

 

[Count of Crisco]

Very good update as always. I love tos as detailed as this. Really makes it seem real. Keep it up can't wait for more.

 

[Richthofen]

CHAPTER XXII
THE NEW EUROPEAN ORDER​

As the Conference of Bucharest began in the early days of the summer of 1868, many believed that German unification under Prussia and including Austria was a fait accompli and that the only thing that needed to be done was to put the de facto state of affairs into international law. France and Russia, however, were very reluctant to allow a power of the caliber of a unified Germany to threaten the balance of power that had been created after the Treaty of London. The initial plan of dismemberment of the Habsburg Empire was drafted during the first session of the conference and it included an independent Galicia to act as a buffer to Russian might in Eastern Europe as well as a stronger Hungary sandwiched between the new Empire of Germany and the unified Romania in order to serve as a mild check to both of them. While Chancellor Bismarck himself favoured a smaller Germany, untainted by what he believed to be Habsburg interests, found himself trapped between the demands of the German nationalists and the Prussian King’s wish to fully dismantle the Habsburg realm. He decided that a pursuit of the small Germany idea would indeed mean his political demise in the current state of affairs and decided to start looking for allies. In the meantime, President Catargiu had more plans of his own. While the annexation of Transylvania was to become a done deal, and he knew that regardless of what may happen further during his presidency, this would be its high point, he wanted more. He wanted the treaty that was to be signed to be such a success for Romania that it would annihilate any mistake or wrongdoing that he were to do in the following years, so that the stamp of his presidency would be the unification of the country and its truthful transition to a Great Power. As such, the Catargiu administration pushed for a variant of the borders proposed by the Transylvanian Romanian nationalists back in 1850, that included part of the northern Maramureș as well as an enlargement of the border on the Tisza river in the west. At the conference, the Romanian diplomats and President Catargiu argued that a stronger Romania would serve as both a check to the greater Germany that was to be created as well as fill the power vacuum created by the disappearance of the Habsburg Empire, a role Hungary could not serve because of its continued feud with the other nationalities within its kingdom as well as the fact that it was a newly created state.

Spoiler

Original plan for the dismemberment of Austria

The Romanian administration’s plan found opponents not only externally, as the Hungarian lobby at the conference protested incessantly that the Romanians had already violated Transylvanian autonomy and were now looking to fully destroy the Hungarian people’s ideals, but also internally. The liberals greatly opposed an inclusion of territories that were overwhelmingly populated by Magyars as this would mean that a future Parliament would include a large number of non-Romanians, something they believed would harm the legislative functioning of the country in the years to come. Furthermore, they argued that the push into territory that was not part of the Romanian core would only serve to further alienate the international community. While the liberal opposition and criticism was disregarded by the president as demagogy in the face of a successful conservative presidency, he desperately needed the support of his own party’s members of Parliament. While the generally hawkish new conservatives were open to the idea of a further enlargement of Romanian borders, most of the old conservatives were reluctant to support their president. While they didn’t throw their support for the idea, however, they generally refrained opposing it on principle and simply allowed Catargiu to do as he pleased if it meant they would stay in power for the next term as well.

Spoiler

European borders as drawn by the Treaty of Bucharest (1868)

Finally, after many rounds of discussion and bargaining, the Great Powers arrived at a conclusion at the end of August 1868. Chancellor Bismarck managed to obtain Russian support of German Unification by allowing the Russians to annex Galicia. Napoleon III ran a hard bargain with both Bismarck and the Italian government and allowed German Unification to go through after the internal workings of the new Germany was decided – a federal elective monarchy with an elected Parliament and separation of powers akin to the British model. For French support in the Italian annexation of Dalmatia and other south Slavic territories of the former Habsburg Empire, Napoleon demanded of Italy the annexation of Nice and Savoy. While initially reluctant to accept a weak Hungary, the French accepted a redrawing of Romania’s western border in order to create a more powerful check to Bismarck’s Germany. Former Emperor Franz Joseph was to become Archduke of Austria inside the new Empire of Germany and would also hold elector status. Bohemia would also receive a Habsburg King that was to become an elector as well. King Wilhelm I of Prussia was later elected Emperor of Germany by the elector-princes. Slovenia and Hungary were to be created as buffer states, and both were to elect a king of their own from the noble houses of Europe, while Hohenzollern Serbia would receive the northern part of Slavonia that was to be initially part of Hungary. While greatly reduced from its historical borders as well as its irredentist claims, Hungary was allowed to control Croatia as a gesture of good will from the Great Powers after the loss of the territory east of the Tisza river.



As the Conference of Bucharest was finally ended in September and the subsequent Treaty of Bucharest was signed, the Romanian army pushed beyond Transylvania and the Romanian government assumed the administration of its new territories beyond. While Romanian nationalists acclaimed President Catargiu as a hero of the Romanian nation, the administration of the territories populated by Magyar majorities proved a challenge for the Romanian authorities as civil disobedience and anti-Romanian groups emerged in the territories. After the difficult process of settling in, the Catargiu administration decided it was time for a new census to be conducted, in order to have a clearer image of the ethnic realities the enlarged Romanian polity now faced as well as to decide a plan for what was to be done administratively with the unruly territory. The preparation for the census commenced in the beginning of 1869 and the census itself was completed by March 1870. The population of the original Romanian territories did not see a significant growth, as the resettlement of Dobrogea, Timoc and Vidin meant the growth was spread evenly to the new territories, as such they stood at around 21.5 million. Transylvania under its Governorate borders stood at 4.8 million, with 60% of the being ethnic Romanians, 21% Magyars, 11% Germans, 6% Serbs and around 2% other ethnicities, with the largest being Roma and Jews. In the newly acquired territory, with a population of 1.6 million, Magyars were an overwhelming 92%, Germans were another 4%, while the rest was a combination of dispersed Romanian, Serb and Ukrainian settlements.

Spoiler

Ethnic map of Romania, majorities by electoral districts (1870)
Yellow - Romanians
Green - Magyars
Grey - Germans
Purple - Serbs
Orange - Ukrainians
Brown - Bulgarians
Red - Turks

Population density map (1870)

 

[rommel12]

As will be the German army, several armies of the united kingdoms. Or a single army of the different armed forces combined. The position of the kaiser will have less power and generally the chosen ones will be of prusia, bavaria, austria and perhaps hanover.

 

[Damian0358]

So, Hohenzollern (still can't get over that) Serbia got some of Syrmia and Bačka! The country's shape is like a mirrored version of OTL Axis puppet Serbia, which I think is kinda adorable. Seeing a quasi-Greater Slovenia is also quite dandy, though I'd wonder who will be their monarch! And, in the midst of all this, Montenegro continues its wait to gain de jure independence, not just de facto which they have right now.

 

[Grammar Kaiser]

Such a beautiful, unfragmented Europe.....

 

[Richthofen]

CHAPTER XXIII
DE LA NISTRU PÂN' LA TISA*​

The 1870 census revealed that Romania was now a multi-ethnic state and if it wanted to survive, it needed to do much better than the now defunct Habsburg Empire. President Catargiu and his administration were hard pressed to now fix a situation that had been entirely their decision. Several plans were discussed, including a negotiated depopulation of the Western Plain, an extreme solution that most members of the cabinet agreed neither Hungary nor the Magyar population of the Western Plain would ever sanction. Finally, it was decided that a colonization plan was to be devised and put in motion as early as 1871 once everything was ready – it would run similarly to former VP Mihail Kogălniceanu’s plan of colonization of Dobrogea, a plan that was still in function and that had proved largely successful – incentives would be created in the new territory, including work in factories, schools and universities as well as government tax cuts to whomever (of Romanian descent) would move from the Romanian core territory into the Western Plain. President Catargiu had to convince many of his former boyar contacts, people that had now converted to capitalists using the wealth they had remaining after the confiscation of their lands to open factories to make investments in the new territory and build the economic infrastructure it needed to prosper. While initially believed to be a sound plan, voices in the cabinet soon brought forward a fatal flaw of the plan: The Western Plain was not nearly as sparsely populated as Dobrogea was at the time of its colonization and it was not nearly as small a territory. Nevertheless, the plan was put into motion and by the middle of 1871 there were already families of Romanians moving into the territory as the first factories and schools were opened as part of a larger state and private investment.

As President Catargiu’s first term in office was nearing its end, there two more pressing issues he wanted to address before his re-election campaign: first, it was high time the petroleum reserves in Ploiești was properly extracted and used to power the accelerating industrialization of the country as well as the booming economy that Romania now faced after it almost doubled its territory and added many other different resources to its economic input; second, electoral districts had to be drawn for the new territories and the large population that had become citizens of Romania overnight were to be enfranchised. While all this was in the works, behind the scenes of the administration more drama unfolded. Vice President Sturdza, a former liberal was growing increasingly discontent with his position in the administration. A man of great ambition and looking to greatly influence Romanian policy as a man in the shadows for Catargiu’s term and then as a president in his own right in the years after, Sturdza found himself unable to influence much of anything, as the president’s method of governing greatly resembled former President Cuza’s. As the vice president’s office did not hold much legal authority, it was mainly up to the outgoing president how much the former could do or, in case of stronger personalities, such as Mihail Kogălniceanu, how much they could leverage from the latter. Nevertheless, Vice President Sturdza voiced his discontent with the workings of the administration but his criticism fell on deaf ears as the president could not find time to deal with something he believed were simply petty grievances.

Dimitrie Sturdza, 6th Vice President of Romania​

As President Catargiu broke with his vice president, the electoral inclusion of the new territories faced several new hurdles. Parliament was unwilling to draw districts in the territories mainly populated by minorities as they felt it was legislative suicide to have such a large number of Magyar members of Parliament in the 1872 legislative. At the same time, several political groups were forming in both Transylvania and the Western Plain looking to form minority parties that could better represent their interests. Both the Catargiu administration and the conservative-majority parliament tried to delay the creation of such parties. In October 1871, the electoral lists and districts were finally finished and were swiftly passed by Parliament and promulgated by the president. The election of 1872 would exclude the Western Plain, part of northern Maramureș and the Szekler Land as Parliament deliberately refused to pass the law that would make them core administrative territories. Instead they were to remain under unorganized territory status, which meant they would essentially function as colonies for the time being. This move brought great hostility from both the Magyar, Ukrainian and Serb minorities that were directly affected by this legal artifice as they were left essentially disenfranchised. Turk and Bulgarian caucuses of the Conservative Party were also outraged by the move and began distancing themselves from the party as well and soon after they began a more direct cooperation with the Partida Națională. Regardless, President Catargiu remained wildly popular with Romanians in Transylvania while his popularity in the rest of the country grew exponentially after the success of the Transylvanian annexation and his decisive leadership at the Conference of Bucharest. Two senator lists were created for Transylvania, one for Transylvania proper and another for Banat that included the Serbian part as well, as a gesture of goodwill for the Serb population.

At the start of the 1872 election season, President Catargiu was promptly re-nominated by the Conservative Party, but the rift between him and Vice President Sturdza remained as big as ever, and the president decided to start looking for a different candidate. As the compromise between the old and new conservatives regarding an equal distribution of government positions was still in place, a new conservative had to fill the spot of the vice presidency. Finally, Catargiu chose jurist Emanoil Costache Epureanu to become his running mate as he was a new conservative that was also well liked within old conservative circles. The liberals on the other hand were still in disarray in terms of presidential politics and most of the high ranking members decided not to run so they would not turn their career on its ahead against a president so popular among Romanians. Former cuzist minister Anton Arion, Minister of Justice during Cuza’s infamous 3rd cabinet was the only candidate for the nomination and was, thus, nominated unanimously by the party’s local organizations. The elections ended with little drama and the result was the one everyone expected. Barbu Catargiu was re-elected with 78% of the vote. In Parliament, the conservatives maintained a modest majority, winning 180 deputy seats and 80 senatorial seats, as the party was decidedly less popular than its president. Transylvanian Romanians voted overwhelmingly for the conservatives as they looked like the party that had finally managed to bring Transylvania to the mother country, while President Catargiu was revered among Romanians in the province as a hero. German political organizations generally caucused together with the Partida Națională and most ethnic Germans voted for the liberal candidates while Magyars, generally shunned by both parties either abstained or voted for the liberal candidates just to spite the conservative establishment. Dobrogea switched to the liberals legislatively, with the tipping point being the remaining Turks and Bulgarians that hadn’t left for Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire that voted against the conservatives for the first time. As it looked, the 1872 election was also one of shifting politics, as the role of the minorities party flipped to the Partida Națională who welcomed most of the ethnic minority politicians and switched its view of nationalism, opting for civic instead of ethnic nationalism. Partida Națională would continue to change in the following years, as its second defeat proved pivotal in the reformation of the party. Ion C. Brătianu, one of the less known revolutionaries of 1843 began a campaign of reform within the party and even though he never held any official leadership position, starting 1872 he became the main liberal influencer and strategist essentially ruling the party from the shadows.

Spoiler

Result of the Presidential Election of 1872 - majority by parliamentary electoral district

Result of the Legislative Election of 1872 - deputy electoral districts

*Verse from a Romanian nationalist poem regarding Greater Romania's borders and heartland (eng. From the Dniester to the Tisza)

 

[Sceonn]

Interesting. A more Liberal, more populous and maybe a bit more fragile Germany.

 

[Richthofen]

CHAPTER XXIV
NEW BLOOD
​

Since it became the presidential party in 1868, the Conservative Party had undergone several key changes. The initial conservative liberal migration from the Partida Națională heavily pushed the party to the left to reach a more centre position in regards to the electorate. While old conservatives remained on the right of spectrum and continued to support privileges for the new capitalist class, many of whom had also been boyars during the old regime, the new core of the party was formed around the new conservatives. At the same time, the brand of conservatism advocated by the old conservatives was getting pushed to the fringes of the party itself as a new group emerged in the election of 1872. While they were previously marginalized inside the party for their more nationalist and belligerent stance, the organization of the Junimea (eng. The Young Ones) grew stronger and stronger with each passing year. Initially, Junimea was a literary society founded by Petre P. Carp, Titu Maiorescu and Vasile Pogor in 1860 but soon evolved into a political club loosely affiliated with the Conservative Party. As it evolved, its political programme became one of nationalist conservatism as opposed to the „conservatism of privilege” (as described mockingly by members of the society) of the old conservatives. They also advocated for a strong military, as opposed to their old conservative counterparts which brought them closer to the new conservatives but they also clashed with them on issues such as enfranchisement of minorities and other reforms. The legislative election of 1872 made Junimea the strongest faction within the Conservative Party in Parliament which meant the president could no longer effectively ignore them. After several rounds of negotiation and bargaining it was finally decided that Carp and Maiorescu would join Catargiu’s cabinet on the ministries of Education and Culture, as they were both competent in the fields and expected to have a large influence on them in the years to come. As their influence grew, the Speaker of the House was elected from among them, the young Vasile Conta occupying the position during the 8th Parliament.

8th Parliament of Romania (1872-1876)
Speaker of the Assembly: Vasile Conta
Opposition Leader: Mihail Kogălniceanu
President of the Senate: Emanuel Costache Epureanu (1872-1875); Alexandru Orăscu (1875-1876)
Partida Națională (before 1875)
Partidul Național Liberal (after 1875)

Red Liberals

Cuziști

Moderates
Partidul Conservator

New Conservatives

Junimea

Old Conservatives​

At the same time, Partida Națională was experiencing radical changes of its own. As of 1872, Ion C. Brătianu, of what would be later known as the prestigious, famous and infamous Brătianu political dynasty had begun his takeover of the party which resulted in him effectively controlling the liberal party from the shadows without holding any official leadership position within it. The process that former President Cuza had begun at the start of his presidency was continued and refined by Brătianu whose objective was the rooting out of factionalism within the party as well as making it more cohesive and united under a more personal leadership. As the party was trying to find its way after two consecutive defeats, its outlook on many issues changed or were revised. While the liberal infusion and the rise to prominence of the Junimea in the Conservative Party turned it decidedly to Romanian nationalism, Partida Națională was slowly evolving into a more civic brand of nationalism. By 1875, Brătianu reigned supreme in the party and it was finally decided that its name was to be changed to Partidul Național Liberal (eng. National Liberal Party), because its national mission had already been achieved after the Second Revolution and it was time for it to assume more explicitly its liberal mission.

Catargiu administration (2nd Cabinet)
President: Barbu Catargiu (OC)
Vice President: Emanuel Costache Epureanu (NC)
Minister of Internal Affairs: Grigore Cantacuzino (NC)
Minister of Foreign Affairs: Vasile Boerescu (NC)
Minister of War: Gheorghe Manu (Independent)
Minister of Finance: Constantin Grădișteanu (OC)
Minister of Justice: Dimitrie Cornea (NC)
Minister of Education and Research: Petre P. Carp (J)
Minister of Culture and Public Works: Titu Maiorescu (J)​

During his second term, Barbu Catargiu presided over the slow but steady colonization of the Western Plain, northern Maramureș and the Serbian Banat and tensions between the compact Magyar minority in the Plain were growing ever more intense. In the Szekler Land, at the same time, the colonization plan failed decisively as Romanians were reluctant to move into the area as it was poor and opportunities were few. Nevertheless, the only Magyars enfranchised in the Romanian republic during the first years after the annexation were those that lived in counties in Transylvania proper except the Szekler Land, a situation the minority found appalling and political organizations were constantly organizing protests. Magyar resistance to Romanian rule intensified as President Catargiu’s second term was almost over as it seemed there was no intention by the administration to halt the heavy process of colonization and assimilation. Symbolic executions of Conservative leaders were carried out constantly in Magyar majority cities and towns. In August 1875, the president was invited to hold a speech at the inauguration of the University in Corona (previously Brașov), a city that had been renamed to its Roman name to signify the Latin heritage of the Romanians. Accompanied by Ministers Carp and Maiorescu, President Catargiu had been strongly advised by his cabinet as well as his political allies to not make the trip as the tensions in Transylvania had reached an all out high between Romanians and Magyars and Corona held a sizeable Magyar population. Nevertheless, the president refused to heed the warnings and at the same time wished to give a signal that Romanian rule over the territories annexed after 1868 was absolute and that as president he was free to visit any kind of Romanian city or town. Everything seemed normal for the first half hour of the president’s speech and it was rather clear that Catargiu had not lost his oratorical abilities as the crowd was absorbed by his words. Drama struck when someone in the crowd raised his hand and the president paused for a second and then tried to duck as a bullet flew in his direction and struck his collarbone. A second shot hit the president’s neck as the crowd dispersed and panicked for a second. After the realization of what happened came, part of the crowd attacked the assailant and he was soon crushed by the angry mob as he was trying to escape. The police later dispersed the angry crowd and the assailant was discovered to have been crushed by the mob. On the stage, doctors rushed to Catargiu’s help but the president was bleeding profusely from his neck wound, was conscious, but unable to speak. As the doctors attempted to stop the bleeding and carry him to safety, Catargiu slipped into unconsciousness and was soon pronounced dead. A few hours later, in Bucharest, Epureanu was notified of his elevation to the presidency.

 

[Richthofen]

CHAPTER XXV
THE PRESIDENT IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE PRESIDENT​

There was an eerie feeling all over Romania in late 1875 as the unexpected assassination of President Catargiu had put the nation into a state of lethargy. It soon wore out after the new president explained the situation in a speech in front of the Hill and vowed to maintain the general lines of the late president’s act of governance intact in the short time until the election of 1876. The funeral was attended by thousands of people in Bucharest and for a while it seemed that the proceedings would go on without incidents. Former presidents Magheru, Cuza and Crețulescu all delivered eulogies along with several other high ranking conservative and liberal members of Parliament and dignitaries. Later in the evening, however, several riots erupted all over Transylvania and the Western Plain in territories with consistent Magyar population. As the Romanian police struggled to contain the conflict, the identity of the president’s assassin was leaked to the public by an overzealous police captain. The Romanian authorities had hoped to keep both the identity of the assassin as well as the context of his decision to murder the president secret in order to avoid a heavy backlash of the Romanian population against the Magyar minority. Nevertheless, it was revealed that Sandor Halasz was the perpetrator, the member of a secret military society with ties to the Hungarian government. The Romanian public’s response to the revelation was not nearly as aggressive as the authorities had expected, with the majority only being in support of a strengthening of the police force in order to contain further extremist attacks. A vocal minority, however, advocated an invasion of Hungary to contain the nationalist tendencies of its provisional government as well as to decapitate the secret military organization that was covertly working against the Romanian government.

Emanoil Costache Epureanu, 6th President of Romania
Vice presidential drawn portrait, 1872​

President Epureanu, however, took a more nuanced stance and simply sent an envoy to the Hungarian provisional government, making use of soft power, and requesting information on any paramilitary organization that they thought were operating on Hungarian territory subtly threatening them but not implicating them outright. The Epureanu administration also made it subtly clear that the Hungarian government should speed the process of electing a monarch and even provided a shortlist of the candidates that would be most appropriate for the Romanian government, lest an invasion would be imminent. After discussions with Emperor Wilhelm and with President Epureanu, the provisional government of Hungary decided on Prince Arnulf of Bavaria to become the King of Hungary. Arnulf accepted the Hungarian crown and used his first name as a regnal name so that he could have a more familiar name for his new subjects. Francis II began his reign on 12 September 1875, but the Hungarian people had little love for him. Seen more as an agent of the Great Powers so that they could more easily contain Hungary, Francis had a tumultuous reign, marred by conflicts with the political elite, but managed to keep his throne by playing the political movements in Hungary against one another.

King Francis II of Hungary
​

Later in 1875, Emperor Napoleon III died of a gallbladder infection and was succeeded by his son, Louis-Napoleon as Napoleon IV. The young emperor was seen by many as the new hope of French liberalism and it was widely believed that France would evolve to a more liberal and constitutional regime under his rule.

As the situation in Romania calmed down and the anger produced by President Catargiu’s assassination subsided, the politicking resumed as the election of 1876 was nearing. Many believed that the conservatives had the presidential election essentially won as they believed the Romanians would overwhelmingly support a conservative candidate for two reasons: first, as a way to spite the Magyar extremists and Hungarian nationalists and to offer them a show of strength and second, the late president’s popularity skyrocketed after his death with many seeing him as a martyr of the Romanian nation, a great unifier that was struck down by the enemies of Romania. Busts and statues of President Catargiu were erected all over the country, streets were named after him and he was honoured in stamps and a special coin bearing his portrait was minted. President Epureanu, however, lacked both the charisma and the popularity of the former president but the party was ready to stand behind him at the election with many high ranking conservative politicians offering to campaign or run with him. The president surprised everyone, however, when at the beginning of the primary season in January 1876 he announced that he would not pursue the party’s nomination for the presidency but would instead like to run, once again, as vice president as his experience in his few months as president would offer the new administration new ways to tackle the issues that faced the Romanian society in the years to come. As the conservative nomination was up for grabs, a large numbers of contenders announced their candidacy: at the forefront and favourite to win the nomination, Dimitrie Cornea launched what he called a conservative liberal platform, advocating a more muscular approach to the colonization of the Western Plain and the Szekler Land as well as the deportation of the members of the Magyar minority that were found to have colluded with anti-state organizations, the creation of a Romanian Oil Company, a plan that was already in the works of the Catargiu administration, but which had been halted following the president’s death as well as a renewal of the alliance with the United Kingdom. The second most popular candidate was Junimea front-man Petre P. Carp one of the young hopes of the conservative movement and one of the more philosophical conservatives. While many believed Cornea would easily clinch the nomination as he was more experienced and had the allure of an elder statesman, the conservative electorate rejected his platform and instead nominated Carp for the presidency. Carp’s upset came unexpected for the liberals which had hoped to reach an agreement with Cornea, who was a former liberal, in order to run a national union platform in order to have the Romanian people united in times of strife. Regardless, Carp rejected any offer from the liberals and kept the party’s promise to President Epureanu and selected him as his vice presidential running mate. As the liberals were wary of their chances to win in the face of the conservatives running on the dead president’s coattails, they nominated little known Dobrogea Senator Iuliu Popa as a sacrificial lamb for the 1876 election.

 

[Sceonn]

I am truly enjoying this TL. Are there still any Turks in Romania?

 

[Richthofen]

I am truly enjoying this TL.

I'm glad you do! I will try to keep updating as frequently as I can since my time is a bit more limited nowadays.

Are there still any Turks in Romania?

Yes, there are some pockets of Turkish population in Dobrogea. Most of them have started leaving after 1824 with only half of their initial numbers remaining by the Second Revolution and they have been steadily declining since. After the colonization of Dobrogea they have been overwhelmed by the large number of Romanians that have moved into the province so they sit at around 7-8% and have slight majorities in one or two counties. It is expected Romanians will form an absolute majority in all counties of the province by 1900.

 

[Richthofen]

INFO-CHAPTER II
PRESIDENT GHEORGHE MAGHERU​

Gheorghe Magheru (3 September 1802 – 23 March 1880) was a Romanian revolutionary, politician, statesman and soldier who served as the first President of Romania from 1844 to 1852. He served as a soldier in the Retinue of Wallachia for most of his youth, reaching the rank of Colonel as part of the Panduri division in 1841. He was recruited into the secret society Frăția as early as 1825 and was one of the artisans of the creation of the armed fist of the organization (members of the Wallachian Retinue that were also part of Frăția) and actively worked to undermine the absolutist governments of the two Principalities. He led the Second Revolution in Wallachia (along with his fellow revolutionary Gheorghe Asachi in Moldavia) and was one of the staunch supporters of the unification of the two Romanian principalities. He presided seven of the twelve sessions of the Constitutional Convention (1843-1844) and was one of the signatories of the Constitutional Act by which the Constitution of Romania came into force in 1844. Being at the forefront of the liberal movement and a respected revolutionary figure, Magheru was elected president twice and led the nascent Romanian republic through its war for independence against the Ottoman Empire (known as the War for Dignity), the creation of the Transylvanian client-state and laid the foundations of its ascension to the Great Power status. Deeply committed to the ideal of democracy, Magheru refused to run for a third term even though his liberal peers were in favour of a “lifetime presidency” for him. Following his presidency, Magheru remained a supporter of liberal candidates but did not re-enter politics himself. For a few years he led a diplomatic activity in favour of Romania, working together with British diplomats during the Crimean War to further Romanian interests and provided advice and help for Presidents Bălcescu and Crețulescu. In 1855 he was offered a position of professor at the Romanian Military Academy in Bucharest a position he held until 1868. Sometime after he retired from public life completely, returning to his home in Gorj and spending the remainder of his life in the company of his family and childhood friends. Magheru died in his sleep on 23 March 1880 at the age of 77 and was given a state funeral. Magheru is featured on the highly circulated 100 lei bill.

Early life

Gheorghe Magheru was born on 3 September 1802 to priest Ion Magheru and his wife Bălașa in Bârzeiul de Gilort, Gorj County, Principality of Wallachia. Magheru was the second child of the couple having one older brother, Ion (referred to as Ioniță by his acquaintaces to distinguish him from his father) and six younger sisters. Ion Magheru Sr. was an Orthodox priest in his native village and led an austere life, he and his family living mostly on subsistence farming and church donations. During his early days, young Gheorghe experienced the poverty and insecurity that pervaded the rural areas in Romania, as the lack of opportunities forced many to flee to the cities where commerce and trade flourished and people could lead decent lives by learning a craft. Before he turned 8, a rogue Ottoman regiment plundered and pillaged his home village forcing his family to flee to the nearby town of Prunești where the children were belatedly sent to school. His father died soon after from an infected wound. The rogue Turkish militia that plundered the county was soon captured by a Panduri regiment and most of the perpetrators were publicly executed in Prunești, a scene the young Magheru witnessed. This contributed to his deep distrust of Turks in general as well as his respect and fascination of the Panduri whom he deemed as saviours of the poor and the downtrodden. His older brother left school early to join the Panduri and he became the bread winner for the family and by 1810 managed to put together enough money to allow for his brother to have a better education. As a schoolboy, Magheru was personally tutored by Italian professor Amedeo Croscelli who later reported that the „boy had an inclination for learning, was very astute and aware for his age, but most of the time he preferred to ride and fight rather than read philosophy and history”. Magheru learned Italian and Latin from his tutor and was introduced to the classics of philosophy and literature. Magheru greatly respected and admired Croscelli and he later wrote in his biography that Croscelli served as a father figure for him. After he finished his education, Magheru joined his brother in the Panduri as a soldier and quickly climbed the ranks of the paramilitary organization as they were both competent fighters and held the same conception of justice that the Panduri preached.

First Revolution

By 1818, Magheru and his brother were both captains in the Panduri troops and they wholeheartedly joined Tudor Vladimirescu’s uprising against the Phanariote rule that later turned into a full-blown revolution. Magheru became a friend of Vladimirescu and was one of the people that advised him to declare himself Prince and declare independence from the Ottomans. He later commanded the Panduri troops at the Battle of Hârșova (26-29 January 1823), a decisive victory against Ottoman troops that placed control of the Dobrogea province firmly in the hands of the Wallachian Prince and forced the Ottomans to regroup behind the Silistra line. The victory at Hârșova and the subsequent battle of Megidia in March are seen as the turning point of the First Revolution, the point where the Ottomans were no longer able to militarily dominate the Principalities and the later renunciation of Dobrogea proved the might of the combined forces of the Panduri and the Princely retinue. Magheru and the troops commanded by him returned in Bucharest in 1824 as the Romanian forces clashed with their former Greek allies of the Eteria. Magheru proved instrumental in the removal of the last elements of the Greek influence on the Principalities’ politics. When the Ottomans sued for peace later during that year, Magheru was one of the few members of the Panduri that held the same opinion as Prince Tudor – that the fight with the Ottomans must be continued until they accepted the independence of the Principalities. As such, Magheru was marginalized politically after Vladimirescu was deposed and sent into exile but remained a high rank member of the Panduri, even after the regiments were incorporated into the Princely Retinue. After Vladimirescu’s departure, several of his proposed constitutional reforms were discovered in his written memoirs – the personal union was to be transformed into a confederal union and a united government was to be created, led by a First Minister that would govern with and in the Prince’s name. Many believe Vladimirescu planned to make Magheru his First Minister after the war had been won.

Coat-of-arms of the Magheru Family, used by Ioniță and Gheorghe Magheru during their time as Panduri commanders in the First Revolution (1818-1824)​

Frăția, Second Revolution, Constitutional Convention and presidency*

Magheru continued his military career and in 1825 he was inducted into the political secret society Frăția by its contacts in the Retinue. Together with Nicolae Bălcescu and Christian Tell he formed the radical core of the Wallachian organization and attempted several subversive acts against the state. The scandal-ridden rule of the new Prince Grigore IV turned public opinion decidedly against the boyar government and Magheru and his Frăția peers greatly exploited the government’s blunders by manipulating public opinion through leaflets and their newspaper, the Republican Gazette. In 1830, after the Orleanist revolution in France, Magheru pressured his Frăția peers to start a similar movement in Romania, preparing a local noble with liberal sympathies to replace Grigore IV but had to abandon the plan when Victor Mușat, the prince-to-be got scared and refused to further participate in the ploy. Magheru would later write that in retrospect, the fact that their ill-conceived plan was aborted during its early stages proved a blessing in disguise, as a failed coup d’etat would have likely meant a dissolution of the Frăția and the imprisonment of most of its members, strangling the future of the Romanian republic in its cradle. In 1842, with 12 more years to solidify its position, the Frăția was now a force to be reckoned when Prince Alexandru II forced his hand and tried to outright ban the society’s newspaper. At this point, the society started a process of political organization and elected regional leaders to lead the budding uprising that was forming in Bucharest. Magheru was voted the society’s leader in Bucharest, while Gheorghe Asachi was elected as the leader in Iași. While the two men held vastly different outlooks on politics, they tried to work together in order to offer a coherent and unified voice against the boyar governments of the two Principalities. At the same time, Magheru resigned his position in the Retinue so that he could claim civilian status in case a civil war erupted between the loyalist elements of the Retinue and the potential revolutionaries. When Prince Alexandru abdicated in May 1843, Magheru was the first to oppose the elevation of Gheorghe Bibescu to the two thrones, while Asachi was initially in favour, but moderated his stance after Magheru’s staunch rejection of another Ottoman-backed Prince.

President Magheru - presidential portrait, 1847​

In June 1843, the Retinue was ordered by the provisional Lieutenancy to open fire against the protesters in Bucharest and upon hearing the order, Magheru prepared for the imminent civil war. The entirety of the Retinue commanders refused to obey the order, however, and joined together with the revolutionary, thus essentially toppling the boyar governments and putting the two principalities firmly into the hands of the Frăția. Magheru created a provisional “small government” (rom. Guvernul mic) to provide limited governance until the political factions in the country could settle on a constitutional act, which he joined himself. His first act was to eliminate the border between the two principalities, thus de facto unifying the country. On 11 September 1843, Magheru and his small government effectively announced the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia to be dissolved and any act adopted by their assemblies to be null and void, his small government ruling in the name of the Romanian people. Until the adoption of the Constitution on 25 February 1844, the Romanian state that was created by Magheru’s acts had no official name or state designation. During the Constitutional Convention, Magheru initially supported a constitutional monarchy, making the case that the Great Powers would not accept a republic sandwiched between empires but later acquiesced to Bălcescu’s faction and accepted a republican constitution, voting positively on all articles. He was the first signatory on the Constitutional Act.

Page of local pro-liberal daily newspaper, Cronica Moldovei (eng. Chronicle of Moldavia) in the early months of Magheru's presidency, 1844
The title reads: "President Magheru wishes for war with the Porte"​

Feeling a strong sense of duty to his country due to perceiving the revolution as make it or break it situation for the young Romanian state, Magheru decided to continue his de facto rule of Romania by running for the presidency of the republic. Facing little opposition from the conservatives, Magheru was elected the first President of Romania with 61% of the vote against the former candidate for the two thrones, boyar Gheorghe Bibescu. Magheru’s tenure as president created precedents and laid the groundworks of future presidents. His refusal to run for a third term in 1852 cemented a tradition of democratic transfer of power. The tradition become so strong that its breaking by his successor, Alexandru Ioan Cuza diminished the latter's reputation with both his liberal peers and his conservative rivals, with most of the political elite in Bucharest choosing to resist him. Early in Magheru’s presidency, General Kiseleff, sent by the Russian Emperor to negotiate a form of vassalage with Romania, tried to persuade him to dissolve the republic and crown himself King with the support of Russia, but the president swiftly refused which brought him hostility from the Russians.

Post-presidency and later life

Magheru’s presidential term ended on 15 May 1852 and he left Bucharest for a time to return to his hometown of Bârzeiul de Gilort which was rebuilt and developed during his presidency. He supported his successor, President Bălcescu’s reforms and at the latter’s request returned to Bucharest to offer him advice and political support in 1853.

Stamp issued by the Romanian Postal Office (1912) honouring President Magheru​

When Bălcescu died unexpectedly in 1855, Magheru continued to provide help and support to his successor, President Crețulescu but when the primaries of 1856 started, he supported his opponent, Alexandru Ioan Cuza as he believed Cuza was better suited to face Romania’s issues at the time. He later regretted his choice when President Cuza started his plan of party centralization and marginalization of the conservative liberal faction and he soon became one of his most outspoken critics. After teaching at the Romanian Military Academy for 13 years, he finally left public life and returned to his hometown where he lived the remainder of his life outside of politics. He died on 23 March 1880, aged 77, and was survived by his second wife Maria Caramalău and his two sons by her, Gheorghe and Romulus.

Last known photo of President Magheru, (cca. 1878)​

*More details about his presidency can be found in the dedicated chapters

 

[Zagan]

Page of local pro-liberal daily newspaper, Cronica Moldovei (eng. Chronicle of Moldavia) in the early months of Magheru's presidency, 1844
The title reads: "President Magheru wishes for war with the Porte"

The newspaper page is superb. Congratulations!

 

[Richthofen]

CHAPTER XXVI
​

Ion Brătianu understood politics in a way few of his contemporaries did. He knew that the presidential election of 1876 was a done deal ever since Catargu’s assassination and he decided that the party should not expend resources to try and win it. At best, they could achieve a moderate 60-40 loss and all of the resources would be sunk. Many inside the party protested, along with the nominee himself, who found himself unable to campaign effectively and was barely known even on election day. Instead, Brătianu decided to channel the resources and energies of the party into the legislative election, since the conservatives still had a shaky hold of the Parliament. With a paper thin 39 MPs majority, the conservatives were expected to once again win their safe seats in Transylvania and eastern Moldavia but had trouble mobilizing independents in the highly competitive seats in the north and Oltenia. Brătianu knew that even if they lost the presidency, the liberals could mount a much more effective opposition if they held Parliament and in 1880, after the rage from President Catargiu’s death would be dissipated they would have a real chance to snatch the Hill back after a conservative term blocked at every turn by a liberal majority in Parliament. The presidential election of 1876 was indeed a huge landslide for the conservative, one only rivaled by the liberal landslide of 1852. Carp won all Wallachian and Moldavian circumscriptions and the majority of those in Dobrogea, losing only the circumscriptions where the liberal senator was more known and where his campaign had been largely successful. In Transylvania, Carp only lost majority Magyar circumscriptions and swept everything else, including regions where Germans were the most sizeable ethnic group. Even circumscriptions that were still heavily dominated in local politics by former Governor Avram Iancu’s wing of the liberal party could not resist voting for the conservative candidate. Brătianu’s strategy, however, did pay off in the legislative election. In the election that happened a week after the presidential landslide of Carp, the liberals managed to take back Parliament with an extremely thin majority of 19 MPs, but one that could very well challenge the conservative agenda for the next 4 years. It was widely believed at the time that the stark contrast between the two elections was an anomaly, it was impossible for a conservative candidate to win the presidency so decisively, yet his party to be unable to maintain a clear majority. Nevertheless, the election of 1876 was special and what awaited President Carp starting on 15 May when he swore his oath was a very difficult term.

Spoiler

Result of the Presidential Election of 1876 - majority by parliamentary electoral district

Result of the Legislative Election of 1876 - deputy electoral districts

Even if they now controlled Parliament and could block President Carp’s legislative agenda, the liberals were still not very united themselves. The glue that held the Red Liberal and Moderate factions inside the National Liberal Party together was Brătianu’s personality who had tactfully managed to appease both sides into co-existing and cooperating. Rosetti’s social liberals were championing the rights of the workers in a country that was industrializing very fast and Brătianu knew that the faction would only grow more popular in the future. The moderate liberals, on the other hand, believed in the more classical version of liberalism, a freer market and a much smaller state as well as more limited, gradual reforms in terms of civil and political rights. The smaller faction of the dishonored Cuzists kept their agenda of radical civil rights reform, infrastructure and economic development but idled on whether worker’s rights were a priority. Nevertheless, the liberal party was still a very diverse bunch, including both the German Voters’ caucus and other Serbian and Ukrainian minority organzations.

9th Parliament of Romania (1876-1880)
Speaker of the Assembly: Mihail Kogălniceanu
Minority Leader: Augustin Trifan
President of the Senate: Emanoil Costache Epureanu
Partidul Național Liberal

Red Liberals

Cuziști

Moderates
Partidul Conservator

New Conservatives

Junimea

Old Conservatives

Spoiler

Composition of the 9th Parliament by party membership (no factions)

​

President Carp encountered his first hurdle during the first few weeks of his administration when it became clear that the liberals would oppose his agenda at every turn – his initial nomination for the War portfolio, the young Junimist lieutenant-colonel Viorel Holban was rejected, with the liberals citing his lack of experience for such an important ministry. While the president attempted to force the liberals’ hand by pushing one time for Holban, he was advised to extend an olive branch in order to not hurt the party’s reputation and also to paint the liberals as obstructionists of an administration that was elected in a historic landslide. Old conservative General Florescu was instead nominated and he was approved by Parliament, being the last minister to take office.

Carp Administration
President: Petre P. Carp (J)
Vice President: Emanoil Costache Epureanu (NC)
Minister of Internal Affairs: Titu Maiorescu (J)
Minister of Foreign Affairs: Ion Bălăceanu (NC)
Minister of War: Ion Emanoil Florescu (OC)
Minister of Finance: Alexandru Orăscu (J)
Minister of Justice: Dimitrie Vioreanu (NC)
Minister of Education and Research: Vasile Pogor (J)
Minister of Culture and Public Works: George Iacobescu (J)

Petre P. Carp, 7th President of Romania​

In August 1876, the Romanian Oil Company was finally created by executive order as a state-owned company with a plan of partial privatisation that was to be gradually implemented until 1900. With this move, President Carp wanted to make sure that the company would develop under several other administrations, thus making it a bi-partisan issue, preventing the liberals from scraping it all and giving the hand to other private ventures when they took hold of the presidency in later years. Using his influence with the conservative members of Parliament, the president brought forward a plan to amend the constitution to include a hard limit on presidential terms, something that was in the plan of the so called „Monstrous Coalition” of 1868 but was forgotten once conflicts arose once again between the two parties. The amendment would not allow for more than two terms, consecutive or not, for a single individual, but did not provision anything for vice presidents that had served part of a term of a different president. The amendment found opponents in both parties: a smaller part of the old conservatives, favouring a stronger presidency refused to support the bill, while some liberals wanted to block the bill just to spite the Carp administration. Nevertheless, the bill received bi-partisan support once the liberals modified the original text to also include a limit of one additional term for a vice president that served for at least one year of a previous president’s term.

 

[Sceonn]

Great update again.
I have no idea why nothing in the thread shows up on my update.

 

[Sir Omega]

Great update again.
I have no idea why nothing in the thread shows up on my update.

Watch the Watched Threads in parallel with the Latest Alerts. It seems that the Alerts lets quite a lot slip by, even posts by the OP.

 

[Richthofen]

CHAPTER XXVII​

During his election campaign, President Carp had promised a reform in education, by directing funds that were now sent equally to all the schools in the public system to schools and high schools with better performance and a more elite status. This, he hoped would bolster Romanian education and create an intellectual elite that would produce a Romanian golden age of culture, of which he would be considered the main artisan. Basically, what many of his opponents on the left also noted, the president hoped to make the Crețulescu chain an even stronger part of the Romanian educational system. The group of high schools (most of them using the title of National College) originally founded through an executive order by former President Crețulescu in 1855 had become a hub of excellence and many of their students and teachers espoused an elitism that brought them closer to the conservative movement than to the liberal one that was the driving force behind their creation. By 1870, the Chain had created its own organizational structure which organized competitions and events between the schools thus creating specific rivalries and an educational culture unique within the Romanian educational system. The graduates of the high schools that were part of the Chain were generally very sought after by the Universities in Romania and even in the West. The president’s plan for privileged funding for the Chain made him generally unpopular with the teachers and professors in the rest of the country while his popularity in the intellectual circles of Bucharest grew. While the president did not have a friendly majority in Parliament, he believed he could convince enough moderate liberals to vote for the plan that the Junimist majority in the Conservative Party brought forward, an educational plan that was drafted by Carp himself, along with his friend Titu Maiorescu and the education minister, Vasile Pogor. The liberals in turn, amended the plan by parliamentary procedure, almost completely modifying its intended objectives and making it look largely similar to the educational law that was in effect at the time, brought into law by former President Cuza’s administration. As such, the bill in its revised form did not receive support from either party and was thus deemed a failure. After a while, another attempt was made by the conservatives to pass a similar law and the president once again pushed hard for it, while liberals deemed friendly by the conservatives were the target of persuasion attempts in order to see the bill passed. This time around, however, the bill saw even stronger opposition in the form of Rosetti’s Red Liberals who went even further and notified the Constitutional Court attempting to block the bill as unconstitutional because it allowed for unequal education. The Constitution, while not explicitly making any provisions regarding the equality of education, did provide for “free” education, which the Red Liberals interpreted as “the same”. Nevertheless, the Constitutional Court was still populated by justices appointed by former President Magheru, who made sure the Court would be liberal for a long time, by appointing young liberal lawyers, in order to prevent a potential rollback of liberal institutions in case reactionary forces would ever be elected during his lifetime. As such, the bill was declared unconstitutional unanimously by the Court and the organic act that came as a consequence of the ruling blocked further attempts by conservative legislators for the foreseeable future.

Robbed of an early legislative success and only having the term limits amendment to his name, President Carp decided that it was futile to negotiate with the PNL dominated Parliament and instead resorted to governing by executive order. The effects of Catargiu’s assassination were still felt during the early days of Carp’s presidency, and it seemed imperative at the time that the president, who at the time had no kind of protection from potential threats, would be given some kind of formal agency to look after his physical well-being. At the same time, Romania still lacked a unified intelligence agency, resorting to the use of secret regional organizations to collect information and intelligence. In 1877 an executive order was signed by Carp which created the Romanian Intelligence Agency (Agenția Română de Informații, abbreviated ARI). The ARI was tasked with collecting intelligence in and out of the country and had one smaller subordinated organization, the Department for the Protection of the President (Departamentul de Protecție a Președintelui, abbreviated DPP), tasked with offering protection to the president, the vice president and their immediate families as well as limited protection to other Cabinet members that the service had reason to believe were being targeted. In order to bypass parliamentary approval, the president made ARI a governmental agency, thus it was only answerable to the executive. This produced feelings of uneasiness to the liberal opposition who feared the president created a paramilitary organization in order to hunt down his political adversaries. As ARI extended its reach inside and outside the borders few months after its creation, tensions between conservatives and liberals grew even stronger as the liberals began contemplating a potential impeachment of President Carp on the grounds of the latter attempting to subvert Romanian democracy. Impeachment, however, required a large part of the Conservative Party’s consent and removal from office consent from a large part of the conservative group in the Senate. Brătianu and his group at the head of the PNL knew impeachment had few chances of success, but decided to push for it in order to make Carp’s fading approval sink even lower. Impeachment proceedings were started in January 1878 at the start of a new parliamentary session and the president was invited to participate in the debate and offer a short defence. Constitutionally, the president was only required to participate in the trial that was to take place after his impeachment in order to defend himself, thus Carp refused to participate in what he deemed a mockery of democracy orchestrated by Brătianu and his lackeys and argued that for the time being, he only answered to the Romanian electorate for his actions. While impeachment ultimately failed, Carp’s refusal to parlay with the opposition and his shady, unexplained actions made his popularity dwindle even though no ill-motives had been behind his creation of the ARI.