Why the Romanians wanted to be led by a stranger. The reason why Carol I chose a prime minister with conservative visions

The Romanians wanted, most of the time, to be led by a foreign ruler, because of corruption, nepotism and power of power. The dream was fulfilled by Carol I, the first German to run Romania. He worked from the first day of his reign and continued to do so until the last day on the throne.

Carol I In 1878 Photo Archive

On May 10, 1866, Carol de Hohenzollern Sigmaringen arrived in Bucharest and took the oath, along with his wife. Became the first German ruler of the United Principalities. It was the fulfilled dream of the “national party”, a group of Romanian boyars and intellectuals who had militated since the end of the eighteenth century to bring a foreign prince to the throne of the Principalities. And this under the conditions in which the history of Moldova and Wallachia has been marked for several centuries by the dynastic struggles or civil wars between the different local suitors to the throne. It was an exit from the Balkan Bula of Romanian politics, considered partially responsible for the return of the Principalities, but also by the huge statement to the European West. The new ruler, Carol I, took his mission seriously from the first day and continued to do so until the last moment, representing one of the most profile and emblematic personalities who ever led Romanians.

Romanians were the most fierce enemies of their own country

The medieval history of the Romanians was actually sprinkled with wars for the throne. The suitors supported by boyar factions, but also of neighboring states interested in having control over Wallachia or Moldova, ended the country. Most of the population consisted of peasants whose destinies depended on the interests of the great Boeresti families. On the one hand, a dysfunctional dynastic law that offered the right to the reign of any suitor with “royal bone”, including illegitimate or charlatan children, and on the other hand the corruption and power desire for the great feudal clans – there were true brakes in the way of developing the Principalities.

“The internal struggles are the country, it prevents the business: poverty is added to humiliation.[…] If we had as we had other peoples, a precise and rigorous succession system, if we had recognized, for example, the right to primogen, from father to son. Unfortunately, however, not only did I not have such a system, but I did not border the right to succession, not even to the sons of the one who ruled. The brothers, the grandchildren, his cousins ​​could also aspire to the reign, since he was “seed of the Lord”. Moreover, the same rights and illegitimate sons that could prove their high origin were recognized. It is easy to understand what followed from such a system: it opened the road to all ambitions and compromises ”writes Constantin C. Giurăscu, in the “History of Romanians”.

At the beginning of the 19th century, after the Phanariot rulers, between the Principalities and the West was a cultural and technological gap for almost two centuries. Specialists like Constantin C. Giurescu said that the Romanians made, through these dynastic struggles, worse than all the extreme enemies together. “Much of the living forces of our nation were wasted in the wretched struggles for the reign: these struggles did us more harm than all the external enemies together. “stated Constantin C. Giurescu in the mentioned work.

“Of Latin or Austrian, only Romanian!”

Starting with the eighteenth century, under the pressure of Phanariot and the Ottoman control increasingly and harmful to the Principalities, in Wallachia and Moldova it was the so-called “national party”, made up of patriots and intellectuals, who advocate for the modernization of the country and the removal of Romanians from the Middle Ages. The national party took advantage of each conference and peace treaty between the great powers that disputed their primacy in the Balkan space to demand independence, union and especially modernity.

One of the most important requests of the Romanian patriots and progressists from the eighteenth century and until the next one was that the principalities were led by a foreign prince. That is, by a sovereign from a rule in Europe, with prestige. In no case a Romanian, especially from the great rulers. The reason was simple: when the Romanian rulers came to power, they became Despotici, they practiced nepotism and encouraged corruption. Especially since the seventeenth century, corruption and nepotism had become endemic in the Romanian Principalities, blocking any form of progress. A Balkan-Oriental, harmful, harmful conservatism, encouraged by the Boeresti, Ottomans, but also by the Church. On the path of modernity, starting with the 19th century, the Romanians demanded union and foreign prince.

“Even in the context of writing the organic regulations, Iordache Catargiu proposed the union of the two countries, Wallachia and Moldova, under a foreign prince. We find the idea of ​​a European gentleman in 1839, at the commission Leont Radu, who considered that such a character could exercise the authority on that Moldo-Valaho-Serbian federation. Maiorescu proposed the union of the Romanians under an Austrian prince. (…) Gradually in the political culture from us, the idea that salvation was expected from a prince was not Romanian: European, Latin or Austrian, only Romanian! “writes the specialist in political science Cristian Preda, in his work “happy Romanians. Vote and power from 1831 to the present”.

The explanation for these desires of the Romanian patriots is offered, of course, by a former ruler. He knew the ships and the “drunkenness of power” that included the Romanian rulers, once on the throne. “If they would be given a earthly prince, they would be a greatest evil again, because I know this. With my shame I confess that, for seven years, as I governed Moldova, he made a lot of injustices and iniquities. I put a minister on my cousin, great logofat on my cousin, postlenic on my son, president of the couch on my brother -in -law, ending on grandchildren and friends ”wrote former ruler Grigore Alexandru Ghica in a letter to Count Walevski, France Minister, explaining why the Romanians need a foreign prince.

What did the foreign prince do on the first day of reign

Even under these conditions, the first ruler of the United Principalities was a Romanian, Alexandru Ioan Cuza. Especially towards the end of the reign, the morals betrayed him. It was distant and the Romanians focused on the initial version of a foreign prince. After the negotiations failed with the Prince of Belgium, the Romanian diplomats reoriented themselves to the Hohenzollern House, Prussians with important connections at European level. This is how Carol I became Hohenzollern Sigmaringen. A militarous character, with a heavy sense of debt, with a Prussian education, he took his role immediately after taking the oath.

On May 11, on the first day of reign, Carol I formed, urgently, the government. This is after, on the evening of May 10, 1866, after the ceremony, the members of the lieutenant who had ensured the country's leadership after Cuza's maze gave their resignation. On May 11, Carol I convened a council of ministers who brought together representatives of all political formations. Carol thought he could quickly coagulate all the political forces in the Principalities, to avoid chaos and power struggles. In addition, in the morning, he appointed a head of the government. The new prime minister was the Conservative Lascăr Catargiu. Although, the first Romanian official he had known was IC Brătianu, the head of the Liberals, Carol preferred a conservative.

The new king confessed that Ic Brătianu was “A man” soaked in the ideas of modern parliamentarism wanting to conceive the influence in the management of public affairs to social blankets as wide as possible. “ That is, it was a bit progressive for his tastes, so he preferred at Lascăr Catargiu, a Moldovan boyar (although with mountain origins), with a vast political and administrative experience, conservative, follower of gradual, balanced changes. In fact, Lascăr Catargiu had made a very good impression of Carol by his moderate, pragmatic, but also by his molcoma, quiet.

After choosing Lascăr Catargiu as prime minister, Carol I also drew the first mission to the cabinet, to prepare the country for the war, if the Ottoman Empire would not recognize the union of the Principalities (this political construction was recognized by the Turks only during Cuza's reign). Later, Carol convened the Constituent Assembly and in charge of drafting a democratic constitution.