Carol I, State Independence and the Kingdom of Romania
Charles of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen arrived in Bucharest on 10 May 1866, at the age of 27, and became Prince of Romania under the name Carol I. He reigned for 48 years, until 1914, the longest reign in the country’s history. The Constitution of 1866, inspired by the Belgian Constitution, established constitutional monarchy, the separation of powers, civil rights and private property. The same year saw the founding in Bucharest of the Literary Society, later the Romanian Academy, the supreme institution of Romanian culture. Romania embarked on a process of accelerated modernization.
The Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878 gave Romania the opportunity to win its independence. On 9 May 1877 Mihail Kogălniceanu, the foreign minister, proclaimed state independence in Parliament, and Romania stood alongside Russia in the conflict. The Romanian army crossed the Danube and took part in the siege of Plevna, where the Romanian soldiers showed great valour at Grivița and Rahova. Osman Pasha capitulated on 28 November 1877. The Romanian army, led by Carol I, lost about 10,000 men, and the feats of arms at Grivița and Rahova passed into legend.
Through the Treaty of San Stefano and then the Congress of Berlin (1878), Romania’s independence was recognized by the Great Powers, on condition that citizenship be granted to the Jewish inhabitants. Romania received Dobruja, together with the Danube Delta and Snake Island, but was forced to cede to Russia the three counties of southern Bessarabia (Cahul, Bolgrad and Ismail). This loss created tensions with Russia. In 1883 Romania secretly concluded an alliance treaty with Austria-Hungary and Germany, out of a desire for security in the face of its eastern neighbour.
On 14/26 March 1881 Parliament proclaimed Romania a kingdom, and Carol I became the country’s first king. The coronation took place on 10 May 1881, with a crown made from the steel of a Turkish cannon captured at Plevna, a symbol of independence won through combat. The Hohenzollern dynasty gave the country a framework of stability. Political life was dominated by the alternation in power between the National Liberal Party, led by Ion C. Brătianu, and the Conservative Party, through a system of alternating governments that lasted until the First World War.
The age of Carol I brought visible modernization: the building of railways, the bridge at Cernavodă (1895), designed by Anghel Saligny, the expansion of the school network, the development of the oil industry, and the appearance of banks and of the National Bank of Romania (1880). In culture there shone Mihai Eminescu, Ion Creangă, Ion Luca Caragiale and Ioan Slavici, grouped around the “Junimea” society, led by Titu Maiorescu. Unresolved agrarian tensions culminated in the uprising of 1907. The king died on 27 September/10 October 1914 in Peleș Castle at Sinaia.