The Inter-War Kingdom
By the Rumanian elections of November, 1919, the old Kingdom of Rumania brought under one Liberal (de facto) Government Ministerial and Parliamentary representation both its antebellum territory and the territory of the "Reunion." At the peace conference Premier Bratianu claimed as the component parts of Greater Rumania: the Kingdom of Rumania as it was in 1914; the Province of Bessarabia, formerly belonging to Russia; the Austrian Province of Bukowina and the portions of Hungary known as Transylvania, the Maramouresh and Crishana regions, and the Banat of Temesvar. The greater part of the new frontiers claimed is clearly marked by great waterways, the Dniester, the Danube, and the Theiss.
The crushing defeat of Rumania by the Central powers and the Russian Revolution, calamities as they seemed to be at the time, were really blessings in disguise. There was no hope for the Kingdom of Rumania, much less of realizing the dream of Greater Rumania, unless radical changes were made in the political and economic organization of the kingdom. The people had to be given a big inducement to stand by the dynasty and the Government. The Rumanians of Hungary would never cast in their lot with the mother country that had failed to free them unless the land and suffrage questions were settled. Bessarabia was called by Petrograd to share in the land redistribution of new Russia. The Rumanian Parliament at Jassy voted the three reforms essential to the rehabilitation of Rumania. To keep the support of their own people and of the "unredeemed" Rumanians, constitutional changes were made establishing universal and equal suffrage and breaking up estates of over five hundred hectares. To conciliate public opinion outside of Rumania, citizenship was extended to native-born Jews.
In the acts of union, Transylvania, the Banat of Temesvar, Bukowina, and Bessarabia entered Greater Rumania on the basis of universal suffrage, land distribution, and citizenship to Jews and racial minorities; but they put the limit of estates at one hundred hectares, and stipulated that they should keep their local autonomy.
The population of the new state was nearly doubled. From about nine millions, Rumania found herself with over sixteen millions. The addition of Bessarabia has brought two million new citizens whose preponderant Rumanian element had never enjoyed political and economic conditions very different from those that prevailed in the old kingdom. But the five million Rumanians of Hungary have had a radically different background. Taken as a whole, they are far more advanced than the Rumanians of the kingdom. Having had to struggle for centuries against Magyarization, they have fought for a hold on the land and for control of industries. Their language, primary education, and the church have been weapons essential to their separate existence and the growth of national feeling.
The formation of the kingdom of Greater Rumania would seem on the face of it to have gone a long way toward solution of the Balkan questions by removing the age-long Balkan curse of irredentism. What cast the shadow of doubt on this solution was the characteristic incompetence, politically and economically speaking, of the Rumanians. The Rumanians had never been noted for ethical energy of character, for business or industrial efficiency, or for political organization and responsibility. They were a temperamental, easy-going, lighthearted, thriftless people, fond of music and of the gayeties of life, and had shown bigoted hostility to the superior thrift of the Armenians, Jews and Greeks, who controlled the retail business of Rumania; they had imposed ironclad legal handicaps upon these aliens, including a law forbidding their ownership of land.
From habit and the natural fertility of their soil they are good farmers and graziers; also, they were good horsemen and good individual fighters. But all the industrial and large business life of their country had been carried on by German, Russian and other foreign capital. Rumania was a successful stock-raising country also. Greater Rumania was potentially a great power in the hands of a people who may not know how to use it without danger to neighboring countries. Transylvania and the Banat are removed as a natural bulwark from the Hungarians, a fact that causes dangerous rancor. The loss of Bessarabia caused much bitterness in Ukraine.
The universal suffrage was introduced (1918), a radical reform was applied (1921), a new Constitution was adopted - one of the most democratic on the continent (1923) - and all this created a general-democratic framework and paved the way for a fast economic development (the industrial output doubled between 1923 and 1938). With its 7.2 million metric tons of produced oil in 1937, Romania was the second largest European producer and number seven in the world. The per capita national income reached $94 in 1938 as compared to Greece - $76, Portugal - $81, Czechoslovakia - $141, and France - $246.
In politics many parties competed with one another, so the government was controlled over the years by several of them: the People's Party (Alexandru Averescu), the National Liberal Party (Ion I.C. Bratianu, I.G. Duca, Gheorghe Tatarescu) and the National Peasant Party (Iuliu Maniu). The Romanian Communist Party, established in 1921, and which had an insignificant number of members, was banned in 1924. The Iron Guard, an extremist right-wing nationalist movement, established by Corneliu Zelea Codreanu in 1927, was equally banned. In 1930 Carol II changed his mind about his earlier decision to give up the throne, he dethroned his minor son, Michael (who had become king in 1927) and he took the throne. Eight years later he established his personal dictatorship (1938-1940).
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