Neutral Romania, personified as a woman in national dress, raises the Romanian flag before her wealth of wheat, baskets of bread, and barrels of food and oil, barring the path of a train from which a Turkish fez peeps. The illustration is not geographically accurate, as Romania did not share a border with Turkey, but did (and does) with Bulgaria, her southern neighbor, who peers over a hill to the right. Over Romania's right shoulder, the spiked helmet of Germany and shako of Austria-Hungary rise above the horizon. By Em. DuPuis, 1916. Romania formally set aside the prudence referred to in the caption on August 27, 1916 when she declared war on Austria-Hungary; she was soon at war with Germany, Bulgaria, and Turkey as well.

Signed Em. DuPuis, 1916.

Prudence est mère de Sécurité . . . Roumanie

Prudence is the mother of Security

Reverse:

Visé Paris No. 116.

Logo: Paris Color 152 Quai de Jemmapes

Carte Postale

Other views: Larger

The former Ottoman provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia united in 1861 as an autonomous state before becoming the independent kingdom of Romania in 1878 after the Russo-Turkish War.

Not sharing a border with Turkey, Romania played no part in the First Balkan War of 1912-13, in which Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Montenegro defeated Turkey with the victors expanding their territory at Turkey's expense.

Dissatisfied with Serbia's refusal to honor pre-war commitments on the division of territory, Bulgaria launched the Second Balkan War against Serbia and Greece, but was defeated when Romania struck its rear.

With the Danube River forming a natural border between Romania and Bulgaria, Romania made relatively small claims on Bulgaria, expanding its territory in southern Dobruja between the Danube and the Black Sea.

Romania’s nationalist ambitions were to expand by incorporating the largely Romanian populations of Austria-Hungary in Transylvania, and of Russia in Bessarabia.

Both the Central Powers and the Entente Allies tried to entice the neutral nations to join their war effort. Romania initially declared neutrality, but declared war on Austria-Hungary on August 27, 1916. Although the Allies encouraged Romania to attack Bulgaria from the north as Allied forces attacked from the south, Romania crossed it natural mountain defenses and invaded Transylvania.

After initial success, Romania was swiftly defeated in 1916, but retained a fighting force in its northeast province of Moldavia, holding a front with Russian troops.

Romania returned to the war on November 10, 1918.

Romania mobilized 1,249,601 men for the war, and suffered 510,000 casualties killed, wounded, and missing. Of the Entente Allies, only Russia, France, Great Britain, and Italy fielded more men.

The Kingdom of Romania is a country in Europe.

More about The Kingdom of Romania:

Statistics for Romania (1)

Type	Statistic
Population	6,996,000

Some places in The Kingdom of Romania (4)

Click to View	Location Type
Bucharest	City
Dobruja	Region
Moldavia	Region
Walachia	Region

Some books about Romania (6)

Title	Author Last Name	Author First Name
Romania in World War I, a Synopsis of Military History	Alexandrescu	Vasile
Nurse at the Russian Front, a Diary 1914-18	Farmborough	Florence
The Great War and the Romanians: Notes and Documents on World War I	Petrescu-Comnène	Nicholae
Antwerp to Gallipoli	Ruhl	Arthur
The Balkans, A Laboratory of History	Sloane	William
The Romanian Battlefront in World War I	Torrey	Glenn