Search

The Danube, one of the major rivers of Europe, had a special significance in the life of the peoples of the continent. Connecting Central Europe and the Orient, the Danube was the most important European trade axis. For Romania, the river has always had a special significance. On the occasion of the peace Congress of Paris (1856), the European Commission of the Danube was founded, an organization established in order to draw up the applicable navigation and police regulations on the entire course of the river. At the same time, however, the plenipotentiaries of the great powers assembled in Berlin (1878), after a series of rather marginal negotiations, left open the question of the regulation of the navigation on the Danube and the Black Sea Straits, although the latter was indeed the key to the whole “Oriental Question". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]