The Balkans: A History of Bulgaria—Serbia—Greece—Rumania—TurkeyHogarth, D. G. (David George)
History
The Balkans: A History of Bulgaria—Serbia—Greece—Rumania—Turkey
Hogarth, D. G. (David George)
Balkan Peninsula -- History; Eastern question (Balkan)
[Footnote 1: The Rumanians inhabit mainly the province of Transylvania,
Banat, Crishiana, and Maramuresh. They represent 46.2 per cent. of the
total population of these provinces, the Magyars 32.5 per cent., the
Germans 11.5 per cent., and the Serbs 4.5 per cent. These figured are
taken from official Hungarian statistics, and it may therefore be
assumed that the Rumanian percentage represents a minimum.]
[Footnote 2: Over a period of 22 years (1886-1908) 850 journalists were
charged, 367 of whom were Rumanians; the sentences totalling 216 years
of imprisonment, the fines amounting to Fcs. 138,000.]
Notwithstanding these disabilities the Rumanians of Transylvania
enjoyed a long period of comparative social and economic liberty at a
time when Turkish and Phanariote domination was hampering all progress
in Rumania. Office under the Government growing increasingly difficult
to obtain, the Rumanians in Transylvania turned largely to commercial
and the open professions, and, as a result, a powerful middle class now
exists. In their clergy, both of the Orthodox and the Uniate
Church—which last, while conducting its ritual in the vernacular,
recognizes papal supremacy— the Rumanians have always found strong
moral support, while the national struggle tends to unite the various
classes. The Rumanians of Hungary form by far the sanest element in the
Rumanian nation. From the Rumanians within the kingdom they have
received little beside sympathy. The important part played by the
country at the Peace of Bucarest, and her detachment from
Austria-Hungary, must necessarily have stimulated the national
consciousness of the Transylvanians; while at the same time all hope
for betterment from within must have ceased at the death of Archduke
Francis Ferdinand, an avowed friend of the long-suffering
nationalities. It is, therefore, no mere matter of conjecture that the
passive attitude of the Rumanian Government at the beginning of the
present conflict must have been a bitter disappointment to them.
_(b) Rumania’s Attitude_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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