Foreign Policy Actions in Support of the Agrarian Reform during the Reign of Alexandru Ioan Cuza
Foreign Policy Actions in Support of the Agrarian Reform during the Reign of Alexandru Ioan Cuza

Summary/Abstract: The Romanian modernizing and progressive elites’ political project for the creation of the Romanian national state contained provisions for achieving the economic and political independence of the country. One of the main actions taken in order to fulfill this objective sought to institute an agrarian reform whose key element would involve the seizure of church and monastic propertities. During the middle of the XIXth century, an important part of the country’s agricultural land was in the property of churches and monasteries. A significant part of the financial resources that resulted from the exploatation of these properties were sent outside the country without paying taxes and fees to the state budget. The administration of the young Romanian state could not tolerate this situation which led in turn to the introduction of the agrarian reform. The great European powers criticized the implementation of the secularization project in the Principalities. The only great power to support it was France. In this study, we will present the diplomatic aspects that accompanied this reform enterprise.

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