The year 1866 marks a significant date in the political fortunes of modern Romania. By this time its institutional structures were largely in place and its mental climate clarified. The union of Moldavia and Wallachia was accomplished, and the independence of the United Principalities was all but assured. The political foundations of “Romania,” as the Romanians now called their country, had been laid: a constitution adopted in 1866 would serve as the fundamental law, with occasional modifications down to 1923; a new dynasty, a branch of the Hohenzollerns, ascended the princely throne in the same year and enhanced the prospects for political stability; administrative principles – a strong executive and a centralized bureaucracy – had been codified; and the dominant philosophies of the age – liberalism and conservatism – found expression in new political parties in process of formation. By this time, too, the country’s political and intellectual elites had embraced the idea of nation as a moral compass, and they welcomed the duty it laid upon them to redraw the country’s political boundaries in accordance with ethnic patterns. By the mid 1860s, contacts with Western Europe had become customary and were viewed as crucial to national progress. The West, or “Europe” as many Romanians continued to call it, presented the elites with a permanent model of development, to be followed or rejected as they saw fit, but never to be ignored.

Independence, 1866–1881

Those liberals and conservatives who overthrew Alexandru Cuza lost no time in installing a provisional government and filling the vacancy on the throne. The majority of them favored a foreign prince as the most effective way of diminishing internal rivalries for power and thus of ensuring political and social stability. They finally offered the throne to Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (1839– 1914), who accepted it and reached Bucharest on May 7, 1866.