Akademos: Revista de Ştiinţă, Inovare, Cultură şi Artă (Oct 2017)
TRANSYLVANIA ON ITS WAY TO NATIONAL UNITY (FROM THE REVOLUTION OF 1848 TO THE FIRST WORLD WAR)
Abstract
The crossing of the Carpathians by the ‘battalions’ of the Romanian army in August 1916 in order to set Transylvania free appeared as a normal step, legitimated by the previous historical evolutions; during the decades before the Great War, these evolutions revealed the unity of thinking and feeling on both sides of the Carpathians. The efforts of generations of scholars and politicians from the Old Kingdom could but raise the awareness of the public opinion in Romania, influence the options of national solidarity of all Romanians, and lead to pressure from the decision-making factors on Romanian’s joining the triple Entente. The Greater Romania was possible only by the sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of Romanians, anonymous or known soldiers, and officers, priests, teachers and workers from Walachia, Moldavia, or Transylvania; they were all martyrs with the ideal of national unity, modernization, and rise of their nation.
