Nation-Building and Contested Identities: Romanian & Hungarian ...

“The California of the Romanians”our trade. ... We will spend 16, 20 or 25 more millions, as much as ittakes to build the necessary seaport and bridge over the Danube, butthis will be the best proof that we are a powerful nation and that thefuture of the entire Orient depends on us. 70The economic incorporation of Dobrogea into Romania coincided with anincreased role played by the Romanian state in stimulating economicdevelopment. The province benefited from exceptional material investments,concentrated preponderantly in communications. Initially, becauseof a lack of regular naval transportation and bridges over the Danube, theprovince was quasi-isolated from Romania, especially in winter. In October1882, the Romanian state bought the Constanþa-Cernavodã railwayfrom the Barklay company for 16 million golden francs; and invested anadditional 35 million lei in a major bridge over the Danube, in order tocomplete the railway communication between Bucharest and Constanþa.Inaugurated in 1895, the “grandiose” bridge “King Carol I,” was thelongest in Europe and the second longest in the world at that time. Celebratedby the public as an emblem of Romania’s technological achievementsand as a symbol of Dobrogea’s union with “the mother-country,” 71the bridge had an instrumental role in Dobrogea’s colonization, facilitatingthe immigration of approximately 70,000 people. The bridge was alsothe shortest link between Asia Minor and Western Europe: Constanþabecame the terminal station of the Orient Express, the place where Westerntravelers embarked for Asia Minor.In October 1896, the Romanian state also began the construction ofa major harbor for redirecting Romanian exports from land to the BlackSea. Unlike Romania’s leading Danubian ports of Galaþi and Brãila, thenew Black Sea harbor was not placed under the supervision of “The EuropeanCommission of the Danube,” being therefore regarded as a symbolof Romania’s economic independence. Soon, Constanþa harbor becamea major objective of the Romanian national economy and turned into “thelung of the county.” The total volume of Romania’s sea export grew from89,400 tones in 1889 to 1.5 million tones in 1913, one third of Romania’sexport. 723.1 URBANIZATION AND ETHNIC ASSIMILATION IN NORTHERN DOBROGEAUrbanization also made important progress in the province. UnderOttoman rule, Dobrogea had fourteen cities, largely dominated by merchantcolonies of Greeks, Armenians and Jews. After 1878, the statesponsoredurbanization altered this ethnic composition. In 1912, Dobrogeahad a total urban population of 94,915 inhabitants (25.7% of its total139