Emmanuel de Martonne et la défense de la Grande Roumanie
Emmanuel de Martonne and the defense of Great Romania

Summary/Abstract: Recently, there has been considerable scholarly interest in the role of French geographer Emmanuel de Martonne (1873-1955) at the Versailles Peace Conference of 1919. After having established his international reputation thanks to works on the physical and human geography of Romania, de Martonne placed his knowledge at the service of the cause of Greater Romania, which he considered to be a natural ally of France. This article looks at the final stage of de Martonne’s long relationship with Romania: firstly, as ‘missionary’ for France in post-war Romania, and in particular at the University of Cluj, then as a vocal opponent of both Hungarian revisionism and German geopolitics. Ironically, some of his Romanian disciples would be attracted by geopolitics in the context of the territorial changes before and during the Second World War. The article concludes with the eclipse of de Martonne and his disciples after the imposition of the Communist dictatorship and the end of Greater Romania.

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