Matthew J Thorne and Dr. Valerie Hudson, Political Science
If the purpose of science is to better understand our world, eliminate suffering, and generally make it a more inhabitable place, then lessons on how to avoid war, entangling alliances, and unwanted political ideologies may make Political Science the most important of all the sub sciences. Political Science is difficult because it presents limited possibilities for empirical testing and proofs; political scientists are left to do case studies instead of regressions, and psychological profiles instead of experiments. The importance of such work though can be easily seen when looking at the tragic tears of war, conquest, and subjugation in histories great tapestry. A tapestry so large that important strands remain unstudied, or undiscovered. One of these is Romania, its alliances and its leaders during World War Two.
The Romanian people have suffered much through the centuries from the aggressive tendencies of their neighboring countries, and due to their unfortunate geographic location between Eastern and Western European historic superpowers. In fact, Romania has only been independent for less than a cumulative century in its people’s more than two millennia of existence. Romania even takes its name from its first conqueror, Rome, who brought the native Dacian tribes into submission, and spread the height of learning, architecture, and cities to this important geopolitical area on the Black Sea at the mouth of the Danube River. This cultural heritage, a Latin based language, and an earned distrust of Russia caused Romania and Romanians to ally and identify with Western Europe, particularly France and the Untied Kingdom. In my research I sought to answer the question of why, given these factors, Romania first allied with Fascist Germany, and then with Communist Russia causing more than a half century of possibly avertable suffering.
Although most histories of World War Two will mention Romania in some fashion, it is little recognized what a key role Romania and her alliances played in the progression and outcome of that Great War. Western libraries and western readers are both generally barren of Romanian histories of the war, or even histories of Romania. For theses reasons I found it necessary to travel to Romania to locate books and historians with accurate, or at least ample, information to draw a clear picture of the reasons behind Romania’s destructive alliances before and during the war.
Romania was one of the most important countries in World War Two, not because of its manpower or its military machine, but because it was one of the only countries in Europe that had native oil. World War II was the first truly mechanized war and that meant there was a critical need to fuel the planes, trains, trucks, and tanks. Ironically it may have been the sale of this precious commodity that resulted in Romania’s eventual subjugation to the German Third Reich. While many mistakes were made by Western European powers in allowing Germany to rearm and begin its domination of mainland Europe, one that is not often considered, but is truly paramount was the economic alliances fostered, mainly over oil, between Germany and Romania.
Centuries of territorial squabbles with Russia over the province of Bassarabia (present day Moldova) had placed Romania at odds with their neighbors from the east. In fact, immediately before the beginning of World War II Russia seized control of this province and made any type of Russo-Romanian alliance impossible. Romania turned to France and England for economic and political assurances. However Romania was mistakenly not seen as a priority by either of these countries until it was too late.
My research is focused on the story of the people and circumstances (the micro factors), which eventually led to the economic and political decisions resulting in the destruction and captivity of Romania. While macro variables such as geography and military strategy insured that Romania would be dragged into the war, it was the leaders, the people, their quirks, and qualities that determined on what side Romania would fight, and at what point Romania would switch to fight its former enemy. Marshal Antonescu, King Caroll II, and King Mihai, were three of the men that played the biggest role in forming and switching Romania’s alliances.
In Romania I was able to obtain a number of books, which are not available anywhere else, and which I plan to donate to the Harold B. Lee Library, dealing with the history of Romania, and especially the history of Romania during World War Two. Through my ongoing study of these books I have already discovered new information that was wholly unavailable during my extensive preliminary research of the subject. While in Romania I was also able to get the contact information for some of the leading Romanian historians and Professors, and through ongoing collaboration with them I hope to publish, in English, a definitive synopsis of the leaders of Romania during this time and what influenced them to do as they did.
Through collaboration with these Romanian historians I also hope to have the occasion to interview or correspond with King Mihai of Romania who was exiled to Switzerland at the Communist takeover of Romania. King Mihai is in his eighties, but was one of the main and most influential political forces in Romania at the time of the war. Surprisingly little has been written by or about him, and this gives me an opportunity to publish a unique perspective on one of the key countries to influence the outcome of World War Two.
Also as interesting and possibly of even more value will be the insights gained by looking at the literature that I was able to purchase while in Romania. The literature depicts pre-Communist, Communist and post-Communist ideologies. I will closely study how two such opposing philosophies such as Fascism and Communism could be so quickly and effectively imposed on a people who feel democracy is their true heritage. This research will be of great value as a case study to be compared with today’s Fascist and Communist regimes and the rise of future ones.
Romania’s history is one of captivity and exploitation. Only by fully understanding all of the circumstances and their consequences can Romania, or any country, be insured against repeating the same. I’ve learned that real people with real shortcomings and real passions who make real mistakes, are the reason history is as it is. . Romania is also a valuable case study as to how several people can bend the will of the masses to their philosophies and agenda’s. By learning about how such alliances were formed, political ideologies imposed, and wars started in Romania, I hope to add to the store of knowledge that will help mankind to not repeat the mistakes of the past.