World War I military treaty
Treaty of Bucharest (1916)
Treaty of Bucharest (1916)
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Signed
| 4/17 August 1916
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Location
| Bucharest
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Condition
| Ratification
by Romania and the
Entente Powers
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Signatories
|
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Languages
| French
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The
Treaty of Bucharest of 1916
was signed between
Romania
and the
Entente Powers
on 4 (
Old Style
)/17 (
New Style
) August 1916 in
Bucharest
.
[1]
The treaty stipulated the conditions under which Romania agreed to join the war on the side of the Entente, particularly territorial promises in
Austria-Hungary
. The signatories bound themselves to
keep secret the contents of the treaty
until a general peace was concluded.
Negotiations
[
edit
]
In 1915 Lieutenant-Colonel
Christopher Thomson
, a fluent French speaker, was sent to Bucharest as British military attache on
Kitchener's
initiative to bring Romania into the war. But when there he quickly formed the view that an unprepared and ill-armed Romania facing a war on three fronts against Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria would be a liability not an asset to the allies. This view was brushed aside by Whitehall and he signed (with foreboding) a Military Convention with Romania on 13 August 1916.
[2]
Thompson became head of the British Military Mission.
Terms
[
edit
]
The treaty had two parts: a political treaty (seven articles) and a military convention (seventeen articles).
[1]
The Romanian government was to declare war on
Austria-Hungary
, in accordance with the stipulations in the military convention, on August 28 (new style) the latest, according to the political treaty. In exchange, it was to receive the following territories:
- Transylvania
,
Cri?ana
and
Maramure?
, territories ruled by Hungary, but with an ethnic Romanian majority and
Hungarian
and
German
minorities, with its western border reaching the
Tisza
river.
[3]
- The whole
Banat
territory
[4]
ruled by Hungary, with a mixed Romanian (37.42 %), German (24.50 %), Serbian (17.97 %) and Hungarian (15.31 %) population.
- Most of
Bukovina
(the whole region except the part at the left bank of the
Prut
river), the territory ruled by Austria, with a Romanian majority population.
The exact borders stipulated by the treaty were those of prewar Romania (Article I) and those it was allowed to annex from
Austria-Hungary
, up to a line of demarcation described in Article IV:
[5]
The line of delimitation will start on the
Pruth
at a point of the present frontier between Roumania and Russia near
Novoselitza
and will ascend this river as far as the frontier of
Galicia
at the confluence of the Pruth and the
Ceremos
. From there, it will follow the frontier of Galicia and Bucovina, and that of Galicia and Hungary, up the point Stog (hill 1655). From that point it will follow the line of separation of the
Theiss
and the
Viso
until it reaches the Theiss at the village of
Trebusa
up-stream from the spot where it unites with the Viso. Starting from that point it will go down along the
thalweg
of the Theiss to a distance of 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) downstream from its confluence with the
Szamos
, leaving the village of
Vasarosnameny
to Roumania. It will then continue in an SSW direction to a point 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) east of the town of
Debrecen
. From that point, it will reach the Crish (
Koros
) 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) downstream from the union of its two affluents (the
White Crish
and the
Swift Crish
). It will then join the Theiss on a line with the village of
Algy?
, north of
Szeged
, passing to the west of the villages of
Oroshaza
and
Bekessamson
; 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from the latter it will make a slight curve. From Algy? the line will descend the thalweg of the Theiss down to its confluence with the Danube, and will finally follow the thalweg of the Danube down to the present frontier of Roumania.
In Article IV Romania also bound itself not to construct fortifications opposite Belgrade and to indemnify Serbs from Banat for their properties if they emigrated from Romania in the two years following the conclusion of peace.
[6]
In Article V of the political convention, the signatories promised not to make separate peace and also bound Great Britain, France, Italy and Russia to let Romania annex the territories from Article IV at an eventual Peace Treaty.
[6]
The Entente also guaranteed Romania equal rights with its allies at the Peace Conference in Article VI of the political treaty.
[6]
Article VII bound the signatories to maintaining secrecy of the convention until a general peace was signed.
[7]
The military convention stated that Romania was to attack
Austria-Hungary
from the south while Russia committed itself to start an offensive on the Austrian front to support the Romanian advance into Transylvania. Also, the Russian High Command promised to send two infantry divisions and one cavalry division into
Dobruja
to protect the rear of the front from a Bulgarian attack.
[8]
The French and the British pledged to start an offensive on the
Thessaloniki front
in order to force Bulgaria out of the war.
[1]
Romania in the war
[
edit
]
In the morning of 27 August 1916 (14 August O.S.), a Crown Council was held at the
Cotroceni Palace
, convened by
King Ferdinand
,
[8]
which decided to honor the treaty with the Entente Powers. On that day, Romania declared war on Austria-Hungary, and
launched three armies of 440,000 men
the same night across the passes of the
Southern
and
Eastern Carpathians
.
[
citation needed
]
The advance of the Romanian Army was initially unopposed, as Austria-Hungary had not stationed considerable forces along the Romanian border. By mid-September, however, the attack was halted, with
German
,
Bulgarian
and
Turkish
troops advancing into
Dobruja
and threatening to outflank the Romanian Army from the south-east.
[
citation needed
]
By October, the Romanian Army was pushed out of Transylvania with the help of German reinforcements, and by the end of 1916 the capital
Bucharest
had fallen, along with
Wallachia
and Dobruja, under the control of the
Central Powers
, while the Romanian government retreated to
Ia?i
. Thompson, now head of the British Military Mission, had to alleviate the consequences of Romania's capitulation, and he personally supervised the destruction of the Romanian oil wells to deny them to Germany.
[9]
In 1917, the Romanian Army
recovered and succeeded in stopping German attempts to break the front
, in spite of the disintegration of the Russian Army after the
February Revolution
. The exit of Russia from the war in March 1918 with the
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
left Romania alone in Eastern Europe, and a peace treaty between Romania and the Central Powers (
Treaty of Bucharest (1918)
) was negotiated in May 1918, but was not ratified by Romania, allowing them to re-declare war on the Central Powers on November 10, 1918, and thus participate as a victorious power in subsequent peace negotiations. The toll of the campaign was approximately 220,000 dead for Romania, but in the end it gained Transylvania, two-thirds of the
Banat
,
Bukovina
, and
Bessarabia
in the
Treaty of Trianon
.
Gallery
[
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]
-
Political treaty
(1st page)
-
Political treaty
(2nd page)
-
Political treaty
(3rd page)
-
Military convention
(1st page)
-
Military convention
(2nd page)
-
Military convention
(3rd page)
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
Constantin Kiri?escu
, "
Istoria r?zboiului pentru intregirea Romaniei: 1916?1919
", 1922, p. 179
- ^
Masefield, Sir Peter G:
To Ride the Storm: The Story of the Airship R.101
, pp. 16?17 (1982, William Kimber, London)
ISBN
0-7183-0068-8
- ^
The lights that failed: European international history, 1919?1933
; Zara Z. Steiner, 2005,
p.94
- ^
The Routledge companion to Central and Eastern Europe since 1919
, Adrian Webb, 2008,
p.7
- ^
Charles Upson Clark (1971) [1932; with the title
Greater Roumania
].
United Roumania
. Ayer Publishing. pp. 134?135.
ISBN
978-0-405-02741-3
.
- ^
a
b
c
Charles Upson Clark (1971) [1932; with the title
Greater Roumania
].
United Roumania
. Ayer Publishing. p. 135.
ISBN
978-0-405-02741-3
.
- ^
Charles Upson Clark (1971) [1932; with the title
Greater Roumania
].
United Roumania
. Ayer Publishing. p. 136.
ISBN
978-0-405-02741-3
.
- ^
a
b
Kiri?escu, p. 180
- ^
Masefield, pp. 16?17 (1982, William Kimber, London)
ISBN
0-7183-0068-8
Great Union
(
Marea Unire
)
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Background
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Figures
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Accomplishment
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Disestablishment
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Aftermath
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