The Final Unification of the Romanian Nation

When the 1 st World War began, in 1914, Romania chose to remain neutral and wait for further development on the front in order to decide its policy towards the war so that it would best serve the nation's top intereset: that of unification.

In 1916, Romania signed a treaty with the Antant (a coallition formed by France, England, Russia and later on the U.S.A), according to which the Western powers aknowledged the right the country had over the Transylvania, Banat and Bucovina territories. Consequently, in august 1916, Romania joined the war against the German, Austrian and Hungarian forces by invading Transylvania , where the Romanian community would receive its brethren with open arms. As the War came to an end, so did the integrity of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The favourable moment for the Romanian nation's unification had come. One by one, the territories that were occupied by large Romanian communities proclaimed their independence, either from Russia, as the case was with Basarabia (present-day Moldavian Republic), or from Hungary, in the case of Bucovina and, at last, Transylvania and Banat. All of these continued by organising democratic scrutinies which established the wide-spread wish of unification with Romania . Therefore, on the 1 st December 1918 , along with the unification with Transylvania , the country's body would become complete.

It took a while for the unification to be internationally accepted, but by the end of 1920, Romania had become an independent, democratic, internationally recognised country.

The Resolution which proclaimed the unification, unanimously voted on the 1 st December 1918 , was written in the purest democratic spirit, settling most of the basic human rights, including: right to an education, freedom of thought, speech, press and assembly, equality of rights regardless of nationality, religion or gender and suffrage rights. The Great National Assembly that voted the resolution was formed by representatives of every social class and religion, proving the unification had been completed in a trully democratic spirit.

After the unification, all national minorities were granted equal rights and access to education in their mother language and they formed their own parties, such as the Jewish, the German or the Hungarian Party, their situation being carefully handled. The political context also allowed some extremist ideologies represented by the communist party and the legionary movement to take form.   [UP]