Treaty of Bucharest (1916)

The Treaty of Bucharest of 1916 was signed between Romania and the Entente Powers on 4 (Old Style)/17 (New Style) August 1916 in Bucharest.^[1] The treaty stipulated the conditions under which Romania agreed to join the war on the side of the Entente, particularly territorial promises in Austria-Hungary. The signatories bound themselves to keep secret the contents of the treaty until a general peace was concluded.

Signed

4/17 August 1916

Bucharest

Ratification by Romania and the Entente Powers

French

Negotiations[edit]

In 1915 Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Thomson, a fluent French speaker, was sent to Bucharest as British military attaché on Kitchener's initiative to bring Romania into the war. But when there he quickly formed the view that an unprepared and ill-armed Romania facing a war on three fronts against Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria would be a liability not an asset to the allies. This view was brushed aside by Whitehall and he signed (with foreboding) a Military Convention with Romania on 13 August 1916.^[2] Thompson became head of the British Military Mission.

Crișana and Maramureș, territories ruled by Hungary, but with an ethnic Romanian majority and Hungarian and German minorities, with its western border reaching the Tisza river.^[3]

Transylvania

The whole territory^[4] ruled by Hungary, with a mixed Romanian (37.42 %), German (24.50 %), Serbian (17.97 %) and Hungarian (15.31 %) population.

Banat

Most of (the whole region except the part at the left bank of the Prut river), the territory ruled by Austria, with a Romanian majority population.

Bukovina

The treaty had two parts: a political treaty (seven articles) and a military convention (seventeen articles).^[1] The Romanian government was to declare war on Austria-Hungary, in accordance with the stipulations in the military convention, on August 28 (new style) the latest, according to the political treaty. In exchange, it was to receive the following territories:

The exact borders stipulated by the treaty were those of prewar Romania (Article I) and those it was allowed to annex from Austria-Hungary, up to a line of demarcation described in Article IV:^[5]

In Article IV Romania also bound itself not to construct fortifications opposite Belgrade and to indemnify Serbs from Banat for their properties if they emigrated from Romania in the two years following the conclusion of peace.^[6]

In Article V of the political convention, the signatories promised not to make separate peace and also bound Great Britain, France, Italy and Russia to let Romania annex the territories from Article IV at an eventual Peace Treaty.^[6] The Entente also guaranteed Romania equal rights with its allies at the Peace Conference in Article VI of the political treaty.^[6] Article VII bound the signatories to maintaining secrecy of the convention until a general peace was signed.^[7]

The military convention stated that Romania was to attack Austria-Hungary from the south while Russia committed itself to start an offensive on the Austrian front to support the Romanian advance into Transylvania. Also, the Russian High Command promised to send two infantry divisions and one cavalry division into Dobruja to protect the rear of the front from a Bulgarian attack.^[8] The French and the British pledged to start an offensive on the Thessaloniki front in order to force Bulgaria out of the war.^[1]