History, The Struggle for Independence

By the mid-1800s a unification movement had gathered strength in Moldavia and Walachia. The movement produced local uprisings that were suppressed by the combined action of Ottoman and Russian troops. The Treaty of Paris of 1856, which ended the Crimean War between the Ottoman Empire and Russia, established Moldavia and Walachia as principalities that would continue to pay tribute to the Ottoman Empire. Russia was obliged to return southern Bessarabia to Moldavia. In 1857 the councils of Moldavia and Walachia voted for union under the name Romania, with a hereditary prince, autonomy, and neutrality. Alexandru Ion Cuza was elected prince in January 1859.

In May 1864 a new constitution of Romania was adopted, establishing a bicameral national legislature. In the same year, Prince Alexandru Ion I freed the peasants from their feudal burdens. His attempts at reform led to his removal by local landowners in 1866. A German prince, under the name of Carol I, was elected to replace him, and a new constitution gave Carol veto power over all legislation. The long period of Carol’s reign (prince, 1866-1881; king, 1881-1914) saw great economic expansion but few political rights for the Romanian people. The last traces of Ottoman rule, which had lasted for nearly 500 years, finally disappeared as a result of a Russian-Romanian victory over the Ottomans in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877 and 1878.