FLORIN NACU, 1916 – 2016 – un secol de la intrarea României în Războiul pentru Reîntregire Naţională

FLORIN NACU
Cercetător ştiinţific III, dr., Institutul de Cercetări Socio-Umane „C.S. Nicolăescu-Plopşor” din Craiova, al Academiei Române;
E-mail: florinnacu86@yahoo.ro

Abstract
The article intends to cross the threshold of the moment when Romania decided to enter World War I. Although connected, due to the Treaty of 1883, to the Central Powers, the same as Italy, Romania could not renounce at the ideal of national union. The treaty, signed mainly with Austro-Hungary, did not confer it the right to such pretentions, but, the same as Italy, considered that Austro-Hungary had been an aggressive state, and did not
enter the war in the summer of 1914. The President of the Council of Ministers, Ionel Brătianu desired neutrality, which would have granted the entering to war of Romania, along with the Entente, while King Carol I and the conservatives wanted the entering on the side of the Central Powers. In the years of neutrality, Ionel Brătianu negotiated intensively, having on his side the ascending on the throne, in 1914, of King Ferdinand I the Unifier and
Queen Mary, an adept of the Entente. Subjected to conjugated influences, Ionel Brătianu would succeed to finally enter the war, in the summer of 1916, on the side of Entente, justifying that the Central Powers were weakened, although he had been systematically subjected to pressures in 1914, and also at the beginning of the summer from 1916, when the Entente had registered significant outcomes. The breaking of the allies’ word, the events from Russia, the underestimation of Bulgaria and Austro-Hungary, the differences of points of views between the French and the Germans, led to the circumstances in which, in the winter of 1917, Romania to be occupied, being reduced territorially to Moldova, after the peace from the spring of 1918.
We can assert that Brătianu had succeeded, with great ability, to impose his conditions, but the abandon of neutrality in 1916 served especially as image leverage, for the forces of Entente.
The both military blocks used an arsenal made of provocations and diplomatic actions, in order to attract Romania towards one side or another.
The consequent faith of the war would transform Brătianu into the number 1 politician of the country, as much as the end of the war would mean the political death of the conservative movement.

Keywords
neutrality, Entente, Central Powers, negotiations, World War I, Romania, Ionel Brătianu