A fear from the past, reborn in the present? Austria’s historical opposition to Romania’s progress
Autor: Claudiu-Lucian TOPOR
Cuvinte-cheie: war, propaganda, alliances, history, past and present.
DOI: 10.58543/rjmh.2024.15.1-2:103
During the years of neutrality Romania has tolerated in the public arena manifestations that were opposed to Austrian policy. A virulent discourse involving historical precedents paints the portrait of a potentially enemy Austria, whose vicinity had historically hindered the prosperity of the Romanian nation. Naturally, this narrative did not manage to catch the entire Romanian society in its propagandistic snares. Nonetheless, it had managed to coagulate unsuspected energies, especially among war veterans, among politicians from the second echelon, but also among some of the country’s leading intellectuals. Remarkable personalities such as the historian A.D. Xenopol, the writer Barbu-Ștefănescu Delavrancea (an excellent orator), but also people in search of notoriety such as the conservative Ioan Grădișteanu (a participant in the Crown Council of 1914) or the senator N.D. Chirculescu (a Liberal lawyer), Major Constantin Moroiu (a war veteran and one of the most famous Romanian Freemasons at the end of the 19th century) and many others spoke virulently against “perfidious Austria”, the neighbouring empire that had shown only ingratitude to the Romanians’ goodwill. The origin of this aggressive war rhetoric lies in two distinct historical stereotypes: the first one referred to annexationist Austria (whose expansion in previous centuries also involved expansion into the historical regions inhabited by Romanians) and the second one highlighted the weaknesses of Austro-Hungary, a decrepit empire, a prison of nationalities, whose time had come to answer to history for the injustices committed in the past.
Several speeches, pamphlets and press articles served to shape this kind of revanchist narrative, intended to prepare Romania’ intervention in the European war, arguing the belligerency in terms of historical justice. We have selected in this study a few excerpts from a properly “Austrophobic” text, showing them as documentary support for the historical research.