At the intersections of European diplomacy: Romania between the Central Bloc and the Entente (1914–1918)

Abstract

The main tendencies of the development of the Kingdom of Romania during the First World War were analysed in this article. The stages of the diplomatic negotiations of the Romanian government with the countries of the Central Bloc and the Entente during 1914–1918 years are considered. Bucharest managed to take advantage of its own diplomatic balancing during the war, which was
squeezed between the two military-political blocs. Thanks to its foreign policy strategy, the Romanian government had retained its sovereign right to the development and the acceptance of the most important decisions, and those which were touched of the upholding of the national interests of the state. Moreover, Romania managed to significantly expand its borders, which was possible due to the crisis and the destruction that was passed through Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire during 1917-1918 years. In the context of the foreign policy strategy of the kingdom during the World War, the «Bessarabian question» is partially covered and which role it played in the realization of the project of the creation of «Great Romania» by Bucharest. In addition, the certain reasons of the signing, the content and the consequences of the Bucharest peace treaty of 1918 year for the alignment of the forces in the Central European region at the final stage of the war were characterized. Ultimately, the authors state that the diplomatic balancing of the Romanian political leadership during the World War gave it the opportunity to gradually but steadily realize the project of the expansion of the state borders at the expense of the contiguous territories.