Vol. XXIV, No. 10 



WASHINGTON 



October, 1 91 3 



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RUMANIA AND HER AMBITIONS 



By Frederick Moore 

 Author of "The Balkan Traii." 



SINCE the days of the Russo-Turk- 

 ish war of 1877, when the Ruma- 

 nians crossed the Danube and aided 

 the Russians in driving the Turks out of 

 the province of Bulgaria, there has been 

 peace, but not much good feehng, be- 

 iween the Rumanians and the Bulgarians. 

 The lack of sympath}^ between the two 

 has culminated in recent years in a close 

 association on the part of Rumania with 

 the Germanic Alliance, and in the last 

 few months in a successful war for an 

 adjustment of frontiers. 



In an article on the Balkan War, pub- 

 lished in a recent number of the Na- 

 TiONAiv Geographic Magazine,* I men- 

 tioned that the claim of Rumania was 

 based on the fact that the other Balkan 

 States annexed by their conquests a num- 

 ber of settlements of Vlachs (sometimes 

 called Kutso- Vlachs), who are remnants, 

 like the Rumanians, of ancient Roman 

 invasions of the Balkan Peninsula. 



It is my plan in this article to expand 

 that explanation and to show also why 

 the Balkan Question is not the simple 

 matter of Mohammedan domination in 

 certain Christian provinces invaded and 

 subjected by the Turks five or six cen- 

 turies ago. 



It was natural for the Rumanians to 

 contract the fever of territorial acquisi- 

 tion which affected all the other Chris- 

 tian countries of the Balkans in recent 



•-;< February, 1913. 



}ears. The departure of the Turks from 

 Europe was recognized as a certainty for 

 many years, and Greece, Bulgaria, and 

 Servia were laying claim to sections of 

 Turkish territory according to their own 

 censuses, respectively, of Greeks, Bul- 

 garians, and Servians populating Tur- 

 key. 



There was bitter rivalry among these 

 states, so bitter that the stay of the Turks 

 in Europe was delayed for a number of 

 years. Into this conflict Rumania saw 

 her opportunity to enter and assume a 

 sort of protectorate over the scattered 

 settlements of Machs or Wallachs (ap- 

 parently a Slav name for Italian). 



THE DREAMS OF THE BALKAN POWERS 



This claim was somewhat far-fetched, 

 but the fever of acquisition ran high and 

 was infectious, though the Rumanian 

 pretensions were not out of keeping with 

 those of the other states. The Greeks, 

 for instance, aspired to re-create the By- 

 zantine Empire, while the Bulgarians and 

 the Serbs looked to the re-establishment 

 of the kingdoms respectively of their 

 greatest ancient czars. 



Only a year ago were the Slav States 

 and Greece able to sink their differences 

 and come to a decision about the division 

 of Turkev in Europe, whereafter the at- 

 tack on Turkey soon followed. But Ru- 

 mania had too little to g^ain and too much 

 to risk. She was not in a mood to enter 

 a Balkan alliance, and the other states 



