Creation and Modernization of the Romanian State Reflected in the National System of Medals from Romania (1864-1918)

Abstract

An important attribution of national sovereignty is that of establishing, organizing and conferring distinctions. The offensive of the Ottoman Empire in central and eastern Europe since the fourteenth century, the expansionist policy of the Christian kingdoms Hungary and Poland, blocked the process of territorial unification, which led to the founding of three principality: Transylvania, Moldavia and Wallachia. It took almost half a millennium to wait for the national elites, amidst the systemic crisis known by the Ottoman Empire, to promote a unity policy. Under the conditions of the first stage of the construction of the Romanian state, the union of Moldova with Wallachia, by electing as the unique ruler of Alexandru Ioan Cuza (January 5-24, 1859), the young Romanian state began to assume the fundamental elements of sovereignty. These included the establishment of a national system of decorations. Although Alexandru Ioan Cuza tried to establish more medals, the net refusal of the Ottomans and the reluctance of the great powers prevented that initiative. After the ascension of Prince Carol I, that element of sovereignty progressively began to be used with the year 1872. The conquest of the state independence of Romania as result of the participation in the Russian-Turkish war (1877-1878) released the activity of distinctions issuance. There had been a fruitful period in which the national decoration system was organized and developed, according to the needs of a modern state.