Transylvania's choices in 1918, economic point of view

Agarici, you risk to steer off the topic, as I did

There were many propaganda leaflets sent by Hungary in those days, are many references about it in memories of those who were part of events. But I can't understand how Maniu could be part of it, because his mother was taken hostage by Hungarian guards and was exchanged later with the father of Bela Kuhn.

In regard to question "when ?", the text is mentioning that Bessarabia was lost, and Dobrogea is at the brink of being lost. This looks like the late summer of 1940.

Now, regarding who did it... The fact that the text is in Romanian (with some obvious grammar mistakes) is not a proof that it was issued by Romanians.
The political world of interbelic Romania was indeed divided, but at least all Romanian parties had in common the will to keep Romania united.

This post has been edited by Florin on December 19, 2011 04:34 am

Wow ! So that war was more than business... It was personal.

Even if it's a little old one - this is an interesting discussion anyway !

For my personal understanding, Mihnea - when you mention "Independent Transylvania" you consider just "core-Transylvania" or also all Western region gained by Romania in 1918-1919 ?

I asked this because ... Banat region was independent ( and recognized as so by Hungary ) for ... few weeks until the Serbian Army invaded it. This is just as an indication of real chances for such an alternative ...
And also it worth to note that Banat region provided a lot of industrial output claimed to be from "Transylvania" - without which ... probably the general level of province/region would be even more comparable to Old Kingdom median output/GDP and so on.

Hello all of you,

I am a bit confused, about the title...Transilvania's choice in 1918...well, this is not the best title to be given. Let me explain, the war ended after the Romanian-Hungarian war, in 1919, when the Romanian Army occupied Budapest.
I think this aspect is very relevant when you are speaking about Transilvania as an independent state.
As we all know, back then, and even now, independence is won in battle, in 1877, Romania won it's independence.
In 1920, at Trianon, Romania secured it's independence by signing that treatty.
The ones who speak about Transilvania as an independent state, disregard this argument, Transilvania was not a separate state inside the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it was a part of Hungary, it had no army of it's own, no government of it;s own, no parliament of its own, no justice system of it's own.
When is said that Transilvania was richer then the Kingdom ( Vechiul Regat), no one is saying were exactly the comparisson was made.
Indeed the industry was more developed, agriculture was more develepod, but the gains from this were sent to Vienna and to Budapest.
If you visit the History Museum in Vienna, there you can see a large quantity of gold objects that came from Transilvania...why Vienna? why not Cluj ? if indeed Transilvania had a choice in 1918...
As I said above, Hungary accepted Transilvania to be out of their control only with the romanian flag on top of the hungarian parliamnet in Budapest....in any other situation, Transilvania would have been still a region inside Hungary...and all forms of romanian culture would have seeisd to exist.
The romanian people would have been transformed in hungarians by name changes, lack of romanian schools and so on...

Transilvania was the source for prime materials for Austro-Hungary, romanians in Transilvania were the cheap workforce that was exploited.
The major cityes were inhabited by hungarians and germans, who had more civil rights then the romanian majority that was kept in a poor state of education, and had access to limited financial resources.
I think all of you red Liviu Rebreanu's novel Ion, where the sad reality of the romanian majority was presented.

I'm not a nationalist, but i know both sides of the story, my grandmother was from Transilvania, and the rest of my family was from Bucharest.
I'm sure that in 1918, this topic was not on the agenda, no one wanted an independent Transilvania, the act from Alba Iulia was more important.