Bucharest
Bucharest names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Bucharest agreement which terminated the war between Rumania and the Central Powers
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
agreement which terminated the war between Rumania and the Central Powers, signed at Bucharest, May 6, 1918. The withdrawal of Russia from the war had robbed Rumania of her only strong ally in eastern Europe, and thus had made her defeat inevitable. At the end of November, 1917, the eastern front from Bukowina to the Black Sea had been held by a combined force of Russians and Rumanians. The former were composed of 450,000 men and the latter of about 180,000. When the Russian armistice was signed, Rumania was compelled by the threats both of the Germans and the Russians themselves to adhere to it. While the Russo-Teuton conferences were in progress, the Russian armies melted away rapidly, and Rumania was left alone to confront, with vastly inferior forces and supplies, the victorious troops of Von Mackensen, who had already captured a large part of their territory, and who could now be re-enforced by the other German and Austrian armies released from the fighting on the Russian front. For a time, help was promised by the Ukraine, but this last hope faded when the latter country signed its separate peace with the Central Powers. It was simply a case of capitulation or annihilation, and the little country bowed to the inevitable. On Feb. 6, 1918, Field Marshal Von Mackensen dispatched an ultimatum to the Rumanian Government, then at Jassy, demanding that peace negotiations be begu begun within four days. After fruitless efforts at delay, the Government acquiesced and discussions were begun. They were protracted, however, through the unwillingness of Rumania to accept the drastic terms proposed by her conquerors, and a second ultimatum was sent by the Germans on March 4, giving the kingdom twenty-four hours to accept the terms or be crushed. There was no alternative and a preliminary treaty was signed which was to be the basis of a final treaty to be concluded later. This final treaty treaty was signed May 6, 1918, at Bucharest, from which it takes its name. In general, the effect of the treaty was to leave Rumania with only a shadow of real independence and to put all her natural resources under the control of the victors. This was confirmed by her bitter experience following the signing of the treaty, when she was ground down and plundered by the exactions of the German armies. As in the case of the Brest-Litovsk treaty, the Allies denounced the iniquitous provisions of the treaty of Bucharest and promised that it should be annulled. This was done when the peace treaty that ended the war was signed at Versailles, June 28, 1919.
Bucharest the capital of the former principality of Wallachia and
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the capital of the former principality of Wallachia and of the present kingdom of Rumania, stands 265 feet above sea-level, in the fertile but treeless plain of the small, sluggish Dambovitza. By rail it is 716 miles S. E. of Vienna, 40 N. of Giurgevo on the Danube, and 179 N. W. of Varna on the Black Sea. A strange meeting point of East and West, the town still has many narrow and crooked streets, though the latter are now mostly paved and lighted with gas and electricity. An elaborate system of fortification was undertaken in 1885. There are some handsome hotels; and the metal-plated cupolas of the innumerable churches give to the place a picturesque aspect. The royal palace was rebuilt in 1885; and the Catholic Cathedral is a fine edifice of 1875-1884. The number of cafés and gambling tables is excessive; and, altogether, Bucharest has the unenviable reputation of being the most dissolute capital pe, with all the vices but few of , in Europe the refinements of Paris. There is, however, a university, founded in 1864. The Corso, or public promenade, is a miniature Hyde Park. Bucharest is the entrepôt for the trade between Austria and the Balkan Peninsula, the chief articles of commerce being textile fabrics, petroleum, grain, hides, metal, coal, timber, and cattle. Its manufactures include refined petroleum, vegetable oils, flour, soap, candles, etc., and the workmen are chiefly Hungarians and Ger- Besides the university there are mans. a number of other educational institutions, museums, hospitals, and other charitable institutions. Bucharest has been several times besieged; and between 1793 and 1812 suffered twice from earthquakes, twice from inundations, once from fire, and twice from pestilence. Here in 1812 a treaty was concluded between Turkey and Russia, by which the former ceded Bessarabia and part of Moldavia; in 1886 the treaty between Servia and Bulgaria was made here; in 1913 the division of the capcured parts of Turkey (see BALKAN WARS) was arranged in Bucharest; and in 1918 the treaty between Rumania and the Central Powers, terminating the war between these countries, was made here. During the WORLD WAR (q. v.) Bucharest, in common with the rest of Rumania, suffered much as the result of the invasion by the Central Powers. It was captured early in December, 1916, and it was only two years later, on Dec. 3, 1918, that the King of Rumania was able to re-establish his government, which during the invasion had been moved to Jassy, in the capital of the country. Pop. about 350,000 TREATY OF, the
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's put Bucharest at "about 350,000" people in 1921 and called it the most dissolute capital in Europe; the city proper now holds roughly 1.8 million, with well over two million in its wider area, and Romania has been in NATO since 2004 and the European Union since 2007. The old account lists earthquakes among the city's historic afflictions, and the pattern held: the Vrancea quake of 4 March 1977 killed some 1,500 people in Bucharest alone. Far more of the picturesque churches and crooked streets were lost to Nicolae Ceausescu's demolitions of the 1980s, which cleared a large district for the vast House of the People, now the Palace of the Parliament; Ceausescu himself was overthrown in the December 1989 revolution that began with street protests and ended with his execution. The 1918 treaty described in the other entry was indeed voided, as Collier's says, and the name "Treaty of Bucharest" now more often calls to mind the 1913 settlement of the Second Balkan War.
Written for this edition, 2026.