The union of the Romanians in 1918 was and remains the most sublime event in Romanian history. Its greatness resides in the fact that national unity was not achieved by any politician, government or party -- it was accomplished by the Romanian nation itself. Its source was the people's powerful longing for unity, which the political leadership managed with intelligence. Peoples' rights to national self-determination were widely recognised after World War I, and this served the cause of the Romanians who lived in the Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires. The collapse of Tsarist Russia allowed the Romanians in Bessarabia to articulate their desire to merge with Romania. This was expressed through the vote of the national representative body, the Country Council, which convened in Chisinau on 9 April 1918. The fall of the Habsburg monarchy in the autumn of 1918 made it possible for nations that had been under Austro- Hungarian rule to liberate themselves. Accordingly, the National Council of Bucovina voted on 28 November 1918 that Cernauti should become part of Romania. This memorable event was ratified in Transylvania, where the National Assembly convened at the "Holy City" of Alba Lulia on 1 December 1918. There, over 100,000 delegates voted to unify and incorporate this historically Romanian territory into modern Romania. On the second day, the provisional organs of state power were elected, the Great National Council and the Diligent Council. This was a moment when the Romanian people's dreams turned into reality. Over the following years the international peace treaties signed at Neuilly with Bulgaria, and at Saint Germain with Austria, recognised respectively the union of Bucovina with Romania and of Tianon with Hungary, and the union of Transylvania with Romania. It was these treaties which established the new European realities. The Great Union was not the result of Romania participating in World War I. Neither the supporters of the Entente, nor the allies of the Central Powers took into account the Russian Revolution, or for that matter the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. It was not a military victory that laid the foundation for the Great Romania, but the will of the Romanian nation to create for itself the territorial and institutional framework to become a nation state. A nation is a historic necessity which has proven to be more powerful than the will of any government, and has to live within the boundaries of a nation state. Romania celebrates its National Day every year on 1 December, marking the accomplishment of a century-long dream. Today Romania is an example of what democracy and the rule of law can bring: stability for itself and others.
