The Union of Bessarabia.—On the break-up of the Russian empire, a "National Moldavian Committee" formed itself out of the Rumanian elements in Bessarabia (May 1917) ; in August the Ukrainian National Rada recognized Bessarabia as a separate unit. In Oct. a Supreme Council (Sfat Tarii) for Bessarabia was set up, the various nationalities being represented on it pro portionately. On Dec. 17 this body proclaimed an independent Moldavian Republic, and invited Rumania to send troops into the country for its defence. Russia protested, and a state of war existed between Russia and Rumania from Jan. 28, 1918 till March 9, when an agreement was reached that the Rumanian troops should withdraw. On April 8, the Sfat Tarii voted for political union with Rumania ; Bessarabia to retain a large degree of autonomy. The Central Powers sanctioned this arrange ment by the Treaty of Bucharest to compensate Rumania for her other losses. No Russian Government, however, admitted the validity of these arrangements, as the Rumanian troops had not been withdrawn as agreed, and the Ukrainian representatives of the Sfat had abstained from voting.
The Treaty of Bucharest.—Bratianu having resigned on Feb. 9, 1918, General Averescu was charged with the peace negotia tions at Buf tea, near Bucharest. The Dobruja was ceded as far as the Danube, Bulgaria taking over the southern half which she had lost in 1913, while the Quadruple Alliance administered the northern half conjointly. Rumania was to have a trade route to the Black Sea via Constanta. The frontier of Hungary was ad vanced in the Carpathians. The Central Powers secured such terms on the Danube, in the Rumanian oilfields and over the rail ways, as would have placed Rumania in a state of economic slavery to them for many years. Averescu's Cabinet hesitated to sign and resigned on March 12, in favour of the Germanophile Marghiloman Ministry, which signed the treaty at Bucharest on May 7, 1918.
Marghiloman's Ministry struggled against almost unsurmount able difficulties throughout the succeeding months. In the occupied territory everyone was snatching greedily at the remnants of national prosperity; the Central Powers forced the Banque Generale to issue no less than 2,500,000,000 lei in paper money, and disorganized the finance of the kingdom ; while economic ruin was ensured by the exportation of sheep and cattle, the cutting down of forests and the dismantling of factories. The popula tion meanwhile was starving, reduced to famine rations, and the moral of its working-class was being perverted by revolutionary propaganda.
Peace: the Formation of Greater Rumania.—On Nov. 8, 1918, when the defeat of the Central Powers was assured, the King called to power General Coanda, who repealed all laws intro duced by the Marghiloman Ministry and decreed universal, obligatory and secret suffrage for all male voters over 21. The King re-entered Bucharest (Nov. 3o) after the German troops
had evacuated Rumania under the terms of the Armistice. Bratianu again became Minister on Dec. 14.
The new Liberal Government had the difficult task of reuniting provinces which had been under the domination of different alien States. Bessarabia was already incorporated in the ancient king dom, having abandoned the idea of autonomy. Her council voted for unconditional incorporation on Dec. 9, 1918. The incorpora tion of Transylvania (q.v.) followed in virtue of a resolution passed by a Rumanian assembly at Alba Iulia on Dec. 1, and that of Bukovina (q.v.) on Nov. 28. The Government had also to carry on difficult diplomatic negotiations for the recognition by the Allies of the new frontiers. Those fixed by the Agreement of Aug. 1916 were drawn back in places to give the Hungarians a part of the hinterland of Oradea Mare, and the Yugoslays the western half of the Banat. A line of demarcation was fixed in Hungary, and Rumanian troops occupied the country up to this line, pending final settlement by treaty. In March 1919 a further "neutral zone" was established and Rumania was given the right of occupying it. Bela Kun's Government which now came into power in Hungary, started a campaign, as a result of which the Rumanians advanced to the Tisza (Theiss), where they were stopped by the Allies on May 9. On July 22 Kun started a new offensive; but the Rumanian army defeated his troops, crossed the Tisza—despite the interdiction of the Allies—and occupied Budapest on Aug. 4. Here they remained in the face of numerous protests until Nov. 14. The Treaties of St. Germain and Trianon recognized as Rumanian the predominantly Rumanian territories of the old Dual Monarchy.
Vaida Voivod and Averescu Governments.—The Bratianu Government resigned on Sept. 13, 1919, as a protest against Art. 6o of the Treaty of Trianon (Minorities Clause). New elections held on Oct. 3 gave a large majority for the Peasant party and the Nationalist Democrats, which coalesced as a bloc parlemen taire, and on Dec. 9, 1919, formed a democratic Government of advanced tendencies. The President was the Transylvanian Alex ander Vaida Voivod, who at once visited Paris and London and obtained the formal recognition of a Rumanian Bessarabia. During his absence, however, the landowners agitated against proposed expropriation, and the court and society felt alarmed at the Bolshevik propaganda. The Cabinet was forced to resign and General Averescu became Premier (March 19, 192o) with the support of the "League of the People" which he had founded in April 1917, an organization which included many Conserva tives and some new men. He also concluded a pact with Take Jonescu's Conservative Democrats. Elections were held early in June. Averescu's party won by a large majority even in Transyl vania. Take Jonescu became Minister for Foreign Affairs in his Government (June 21, 1920).