Alexandru Ioan Cuza

Alexandru Ioan Cuza (pronounced [alekˈsandru iˈo̯an ˈkuza] or Alexandru Ioan I, also
anglicised as Alexander John Cuza; 20 March 1820 – 15 May 1873) was Prince of Moldavia,
Prince of Wallachia, and later Domnitor (Ruler) of the Romanian Principalities. He was a
prominent figure of the Revolution of 1848 in Moldavia. He initiated a series of reforms that
contributed to the modernization of Romanian society and of state structures.

Early life
Born in Bârlad, Cuza belonged to the traditional boyar class in Moldavia, being the son of
Ispravnic Ioan Cuza (who was also a landowner in Fălciu County) and his wife Sultana (or
Soltana), a member of the Cozadini family of Greek Phanariote origins. Alexander received
an urbane European education, becoming an officer in the Moldavian Army (rising to the
rank of colonel). He married Elena Rosetti in 1844. In 1848, known as the year of European
revolutions, Moldavia and Wallachia fell into revolt. The Moldavian unrest was quickly
suppressed, but in Wallachia the revolutionaries took power and governed during the summer
(see 1848 Wallachian revolution). Young Cuza played a prominent enough part so as to
establish his liberal credentials during the Moldavian episode and to be shipped to Vienna as
a prisoner, where he made his escape with British support.

Hungarian newspaper Vasárnapi Ujság commented "with sympathy and respect" (Carol C.
Koka)[1] Cuza's double election in Moldavia and Wallachia

Returned during the reign of Prince Grigore Alexandru Ghica, he became Moldavia's minister
of war in 1858 representing also Galați in the ad hoc Divan at Iași. Cuza was acting freely
under the guarantees of the European Powers in the eve of the Crimean War for a recognition
of the Prince of Moldavia. Cuza was a prominent speaker in the debates and strongly
advocated the union of Moldavia and Walachia. In default of a foreign prince, he was
nominated as a candidate in both principalities by the pro-unionist Partida Națională
(profiting of an ambiguity in the text of the Treaty of Paris). Cuza was finally elected as
Prince of Moldavia on 17 January 1859 (5 January Julian) and, after "street pressure"
changed the vote in Bucharest, also Prince of Wallachia, on 5 February 1859 (24 January
Julian). He received the firman from the Sultan on 2 December 1861 during a visit to
Istanbul. He was recipient of the Order of Medjidie, Order of Osmanieh, Order of Saints
Maurice and Lazarus and Order of the Redeemer.

Although he and his wife Elena Rosetti had no children, she raised as her own children his
two sons from his mistress Elena Maria Catargiu-Obrenović: Alexandru Al. Ioan Cuza
(1864–1889), and Dimitrie Cuza (1865–1888 suicide).

Reign
Diplomatic efforts

Alexandru Ioan Cuza official portrait

The residence of Prince Cuza in Iași, one of the two capitals of the United Principalities
between 1859 and 1862

Thus Cuza achieved a de facto union of the two principalities. The Powers backtracked,
Napoleon III of France remaining supportive, while the Austrian ministry withheld approval
of such a union at the Congress of Paris (18 October 1858); partly as a consequence, Cuza's
authority was not recognized by his nominal suzerain, Abdülaziz, the Sultan of the Ottoman
Empire, until 23 December 1861, (and, even then, the union was only accepted for the
duration of Cuza's rule).
The union was formally declared three years later, on 5 February 1862, (24 January Julian),
the new country bearing the name of Romania, with Bucharest as its capital city.

Cuza invested his diplomatic actions in gaining further concessions from the Powers: the
sultan's assent to a single unified parliament and cabinet for Cuza's lifetime, in recognition of
the complexity of the task. Thus, he was regarded as the political embodiment of a unified
Romania.

Reforms
Assisted by his councilor Mihail Kogălniceanu, an intellectual leader of the 1848 revolution,
Cuza initiated a series of reforms that contributed to the modernization of Romanian society
and of state structures.

1865 stamp

Cuza in the 1860s; portrait by August Strixner

His first measure addressed a need for increasing the land resources and revenues available to
the state, by "secularizing" (confiscating) monastic assets in 1863.[2] Probably more than a
quarter of Romania's farmland was controlled by untaxed Eastern Orthodox "Dedicated
Monasteries", which supported Greek and other foreign monks in shrines such as Mount
Athos and Jerusalem (a substantial drain on state revenues). Cuza got his parliament's
backing to expropriate these lands. He offered compensation to the Greek Orthodox Church,
but Sophronius III, the Patriarch of Constantinople, refused to negotiate; after several years,
the Romanian government withdrew its offer and no compensation was ever paid. State
revenues thereby increased without adding any domestic tax burden. The land reform,
liberating peasants from the last corvées, freeing their movements and redistributing some
land (1864), was less successful.[2] In attempting to create a solid support base among the
peasants, Cuza soon found himself in conflict with the group of Conservatives. A liberal bill
granting peasants title to the land they worked was defeated. Then the Conservatives
responded with a bill that ended all peasant dues and responsibilities, but gave landlords title
to all the land. Cuza vetoed it, then held a plebiscite to alter the Paris Convention (the virtual
constitution), in the manner of Napoleon III.

The Al.I. Cuza family residence in Ruginoasa

His plan to establish universal manhood suffrage, together with the power of the Domnitor to
rule by decree, passed by a vote of 682,621 to 1,307. He consequently governed the country
under the provisions of Statutul dezvoltător al Convenției de la Paris ("Statute expanding the
Paris Convention"), an organic law adopted on 15 July 1864. With his new plenary powers,
Cuza then promulgated the Agrarian Law of 1863. Peasants received title to the land they
worked, while landlords retained ownership of one third. Where there was not enough land
available to create workable farms under this formula, state lands (from the confiscated
monasteries) would be used to give the landowners compensation.

Despite the attempts by Lascăr Catargiu's cabinet to force a transition in which some corvées
were to be maintained, Cuza's reform marked the disappearance of the boyar class as a
privileged group, and led to a channeling of energies into capitalism and industrialization; at
the same time, however, land distributed was still below necessities, and the problem became
stringent over the following decades – as peasants reduced to destitution sold off their land or
found that it was insufficient for the needs of their growing families.

Cuza's reforms also included the adoption of the Criminal Code and the Civil Code based on
the Napoleonic code (1864), a Law on Education, establishing tuition-free, compulsory
public education for primary schools[2] (1864; the system, nonetheless, suffered from drastic
shortages in allocated funds; illiteracy was eradicated about 100 years later, during the
communist regime). He founded the University of Iași (1860) and the University of Bucharest
(1864), and helped develop a modern, European-style Romanian Army, under a working
relationship with France. He is the founder of the Romanian Naval Forces.

Downfall and exile

A French perspective on the situation after Cuza's toppling, caricature by Honoré Daumier in
Le Charivari (May 5, 1866). A character symbolising the Danubian Principalities, looking on
as the Foreign Powers charged with overseeing him quarrel: "Oh, my! It looks as if they are
no longer taking care of me at all!"

Cuza failed in his effort to create an alliance of prosperous peasants and a strong liberal
prince, ruling as a benevolent authoritarian in the style of Napoleon III. Having to rely on a
decreasing group of hand-picked bureaucrats, Cuza began facing a mounting opposition after
his land reform bill, with liberal landowners voicing concerns over his ability to represent
their interests. Along with financial distress, there was an awkward scandal that revolved
around his mistress, Maria Catargiu-Obrenović, and popular discontent culminated in a coup
d'état.

Cuza was forced to abdicate by the so-called "monstrous coalition" of Conservatives and
Liberals. At four o'clock on the morning of 22 February 1866, a group of military
conspirators broke into the palace, and compelled the prince to sign his abdication. On the
following day they conducted him safely across the frontier.

His successor, Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, was proclaimed Domnitor as Carol

Despite the participation of Ion Brătianu and other future leaders of the Liberal Party in the
overthrow of Cuza, he remained a hero to the radical and republican wing, who, as
Francophiles, had an additional reason to oppose a Prussian monarch; anti-Carol riots in
Bucharest during the Franco-Prussian War (see History of Bucharest) and the coup attempt
known as the Republic of Ploiești in August 1870, the conflict was eventually resolved by the
compromise between Brătianu and Carol, with the arrival of a prolonged and influential
Liberal cabinet.

Cuza spent the remainder of his life in exile, chiefly in Paris, Vienna and Wiesbaden,
accompanied by his wife, his mistress, and his two sons. He died in Heidelberg. His remains
were buried in his residence in Ruginoasa, but were moved to the Trei Ierarhi Cathedral in
Iași after World War II.