Réalités géopolitiques du Danube Maritime (1774-1800)
Geopolitical Realities of the Maritime Danube (1774-1800)

Summary/Abstract: During the second half of the XVIIIth century, the territory of the Romanian Principalities acquired a higher geopolitical and geostrategical importance, consequent to the fall of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire was passing through a deep political crisis which incurred some noticeable territorial losses. Within this context, the political and judiciary statute of the Romanian Principalities, being under Ottoman suzeranity, represented a crucial issue in defining the role played by the Romanian Principalities in the international relations. The distribution of the territories left from the Ottoman Empire, including the Romanian Principalities, was known as the „Oriental Question”. Triggered by the Peace from Karlowitz (1699), between the XVIIIth and the XIXth centuries, the Oriental Question was brought, by the great powers, to the fore of the European relations, with the aim of avoiding a disturbance of the balance of powers on the continent. The cancellation of the Turkish monopoly upon the traffic of goods on the Danube, along with the emergence of the big steam-powered ships, able to perform heavy transports an lower prices, intensified the trade on the Danube. The Romanian Principalities turned into markets for the English, Austrian, Russian and Greek commodities. The political consequences of this new economical situation were: Moldavia and Vallachia regained their autonomy and they initiated a process on institutional reorganization, aiming at modernization. This outstanding step in their evolution cannot be analyzed without considering the mouths of the Danube, as an element of utmost geopolitical and geostrategical importance, in the context of the dissolution of the Turkish Empire and of the distribution of its European inheritance.

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