Romanian War of Independence

Romanian War of Independence (1877–1878)
Part of Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78
Romanian troops returning to Bucharest after the war, 8 October 1878.
Date 24 April 1877 – 3 March 1878 (10 months, 1 week, 2 days) Location Balkans Result Romanian / Bulgarian / Russian victory Treaty of San Stefano, Treaty of Berlin Territorial changes Northern Dobruja passed from Ottoman Empire to Romania Southern Bessarabia passed from Romania to Russian Empire
Belligerents
Romanian Principality Russia Bulgaria	Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Carol I Grand Duke Nikolai Alexander of Battenberg	Ahmed Muhtar Pasha Ghazi Osman Pasha
Strength
66,000 troops[1] 190 cannons 280,000 troops (European front) 500 cannons[2] 50,000 troops 200 cannons [1]	186,000 troops[1] 210 cannons
Casualties and losses
Romania — 4,302 killed and missing, 3,316 wounded, 19,904 sick [3] Russia – 15,567 killed, 56,652 wounded, 6,824 died from wounds, 81,363 died from disease, 1,713 died from other causes, 3,500 missing [4] Bulgaria — 3,000 killed and wounded[5] (during the entire Russo-Turkish War)	30,000 killed in battle, 90,000 died from wounds and diseases [6] (during the entire Russo-Turkish War)[7] 2 river monitors sunk[8][9]

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The Romanian War of Independence is the name used in Romanian historiography to refer to the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78), following which Romania, fighting on the Russian side, gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. On April 16 [O.S. April 4] 1877, Romania and the Russian Empire signed a treaty at Bucharest under which Russian troops were allowed to pass through Romanian territory, with the condition that Russia respected the integrity of Romania. The mobilization began, and about 120,000 soldiers were massed in the south of the country to defend against an eventual attack of the Ottoman forces from south of the Danube. On April 24 [O.S. April 12] 1877, Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire and its troops entered Romania through the newly built Eiffel Bridge.

Background

On May 21 [O.S. May 9] 1877, in the Romanian parliament, Mihail Kogălniceanu read the act of independence of Romania as the will of the Romanian people. A day later, on May 22 [O.S. May 10] 1877, the act was signed by Prince Carol I, officially declaring the full state independence. The Romanian government immediately canceled paying tribute to Turkey (914,000 lei), and the sum was given instead to the War Ministry.

Initially, before 1877, Russia did not wish to cooperate with Romania, since they did not wish Romania to participate in the peace treaties after the war, but the Russians encountered a very strong Turkish army of 40,000 soldiers led by Osman Pasha at the Siege of Plevna (Pleven) where the Russian troops led by Russian generals suffered very heavy losses and were routed in several battles.^[10]

War

Due to great losses, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, the Russian commander-in-chief, asked Prince Carol I for the Romanian Army to intervene and join forces with the Russian Army.^[10][11]

Prince Carol I accepted the Duke's proposal to become the Marshal of the Russian troops in addition to the Command of his own Romanian army, thus being able to lead the combined armed forces to the conquest of Plevna and the formal surrender, after heavy fighting, of the Turkish General Osman Pasha. The Romanian Army won the battles of Grivitsa and Rahova, and on 28 November 1877 the Plevna citadel capitulated, and Osman Pasha surrendered the city, the garrison and his sword to the Romanian colonel Mihail Cerchez. After the occupation of Plevna, the Romanian Army returned to the Danube and won the battles of Vidin and Smârdan.

On 19 January 1878, the Ottoman Empire requested an armistice, which was accepted by Russia and Romania. Romania won the war but at a cost of more than 10,000 casualties. Its independence from the Porte was finally recognised by the Central Powers on 13 July 1878.

Map of the Siege of Plevna

The battlefield of Plevna and Grivitsa

Romanian troops storming the Grivitsa Redoubt

Naval operations

The gunboat România

The Romanian Navy consisted of three gunboats: Ştefan cel Mare, România and Fulgerul and one spar torpedo boat, Rândunica.^[12] The three gunboats displaced 352, 130 and 85 tons respectively.^[13] Ştefan cel Mare and România were each armed with four guns and Fulgerul with one gun.^[14] Despite its inferiority on paper, the Romanian Navy destroyed many Turkish river gunboats.^[15] The lightly armored Romanian spar torpedo boat Rândunica, with a displacement of 9 tons^[16] and commanded by Major Ioan Murgescu,^[17] attacked and sank the Ottoman river monitor Seyfi near Măcin, a success that brought clients from all over the world to her British builders.^[18] This was also the first instance in history when a torpedo craft sank its target without also sinking.^[19] Another river monitor, the Podgoriçe, was shelled and sunk by Romanian coastal artillery on 7 November 1877.^[20]

After being refitted and modernized at the Galați shipyard in 1900 and having her displacement increased to 10 tons,^[21] Rândunica would also fight during the Romanian Campaign of World War I.^[22]

Aftermath

The peace treaty between Russia and the Ottoman Empire was signed at San Stefano, on 3 March 1878. It created a Bulgarian principality and recognized the independence of Serbia, Montenegro, and Romania.^[23] Some in Romania claim that Russia did not keep its promises of the 4 April 1877 treaty (signed by the Russian consul Stuart Dimitri (and approved by the Czar Alexander II and the Romanian Prime Minister of the day Mihail Kogălniceanu) to respect Romania's territorial integrity. However, this belief is disputed. The Convention between Russia and Romania, which established the tranzit of Russian troops through the country, is one by which Russia obliged itself "to maintain and have the political rights of Romanian state observed, such as they result from the internal laws and the existent tratatives and also to defend the present integrity of Romania".^[24] The Romanians believe that "defend" in a diplomatic act means recognition of the status-quo set by Congress of Paris of 1856, whereby three counties in Southern Bessarabia (a part of Budjak, a contested region conquered in the mid of 14th century by Romanians, conquered by Turks around late 15th century and ruled until late 19th century when it was conquered by Russians) were taken from the Russian Empire, defeated in the Crimean War, and given back to the Romanians in Principality of Moldavia. However, the provisions of the Paris Treaty were no longer applicable in 1878 since that treaty also saw the European Powers pledge in 1856 to maintain the integrity of the Ottoman Empire which was no longer the case after their defeat. As a consequence, in 1878, the territories taken from Russia in 1856 from Southern Bessarabia, were no longer reglemented under an applicable international treaty and Russia exchanged those three counties in Southern Bessarabia, passing the Northern Dobruja, which came under Russian control the same year and had an ethnic Romanian plurality, to the Romanian side.

The treaty was not recognised by the Central Powers and the 1878 peace conference in Berlin decided that Russia would give Romania its independence, the territories of Northern Dobruja, the Danube Delta and access to the Black Sea including the ancient port of Tomis, as well as the tiny Snake Island (Insula Şerpilor), but Russia would nevertheless occupy as a so-called "compensation" the old Romanian Southern counties of Bessarabia (Cahul, Bolgrad and Ismail), which by the Treaty of Paris of 1856 (after the Crimean War) were included in Moldavia. Prince Carol was most unhappy by this unfavorable turn of negotiations; he was finally persuaded by Bismarck (in now-published original letters exchanged at that time) to accept this compromise with Russia in view of the great economical potential of Romania's direct access to the Black Sea and its ancient ports at the expense of Bulgaria.^[25]

See also

• National awakening of Romania
• Kingdom of Romania
• Great Eastern Crisis (1875–78)

Footnotes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Romanian War of Independence.

• The Plevna Delay by Richard T. Trenk, Sr. (Originally published in Man At Arms magazine, Number Four, August, 1997)
• The Romanian Army of the Russo-Turkish War 1877-78
• Grivitsa Romanian Mausoleum in Bulgaria
• Russo-Turkish Wars at Classic Encyclopedia based on the Encyclopædia Britannica (1911)

Great Eastern Crisis (1875–78)
Wars and conflicts	Serb Herzegovina Uprising (1875–77) Montenegrin–Turkish War (1876–78) Serbian–Turkish War (1876–78) Kumanovo Uprising Bulgarian April Uprising Razlovtsi insurrection Kresna–Razlog Uprising Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) Romanian War of Independence Austro-Hungarian campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878 Greek Macedonian Revolution of 1878 Epirus Revolt of 1878 Cretan Revolt (1878)
International agreements	Berlin Memorandum Reichstadt Agreement Constantinople Conference Budapest Convention of 1877 Treaty of San Stefano Cyprus Convention Congress of Berlin and Treaty of Berlin (1878)
See also	Bulgarian Exarchate Deligrad Event Niš Committee First Constitutional Era (Ottoman Empire) Opalchentsi Topola Rebellion Armenian Question Provisional Russian Administration in Bulgaria British Cyprus League of Prizren Battles for Plav and Gusinje Pact of Halepa Dual Alliance (1879) Brsjak Revolt Austro–Serbian Alliance of 1881 French conquest of Tunisia Convention of Constantinople (1881) British Occupation of Egypt Marche slave Anna Karenina