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The historical events in the first part of 1914 catalyzed an intense political discussion either for maintaining in or retreating Romania from the Triple Alliance. The appointment of I.I.C. Brătianu, known for his political orientation in favor of the Entente, as Prime Minister in the early 1914 created a favorable ground for Franco-Russian diplomatic actions. However, the event which produced the most hectic agitation in the German and Austro-Hungarian diplomatic circles regarding the progress the Entente powers were achieving in Romania was the visit of the Russian tsar to Constanța on June 14, 1914, continued by the talks between Brătianu and Sazonov in the coming days. Although the official circles justifiably maintained a reserved attitude, the press of the Great Powers in the Triple Alliance commented extensively and openly on the special significance of the visit made in Romania by Tsar Nicholas II and the Russian Foreign Minister Sazonov. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The beginning of the 20th century brought along a new period of tension in the Romanian-Greek relations, caused by the escalation of interethnic conflicts in European Turkey. Romania's involvement in the recognition of the rights of the Aromanians by the Ottoman state led to the breakdown of diplomatic relations with Athens between 1905 and 1911. In this context, on 30th May/12th June 1910, on board of the Romanian liner "Emperor Traian", which arrived in the port of Piraeus, serious events were taking place, which further strained the relations between Romania and Greece. The acts of vandalism carried out on the ship and the mistreatment of the crew created the premises for an escalation that could go as far as taking all the measures that the Romanian government considered necessary, in relation to the interests and dignity of the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vasile Ladislau Pop (1819-1875) is one of the Transylvanian personalities who had a major role in the political and cultural life from this province. He was elected president of Astra in 1867 (and occupied this position until 1875, when he died). In this quality, he focused on accomplishing a mission - which was known since the foundation of Astra (1861) - namely the establishment of a periodical. Therefore, on the 1st of January 1868, Transilvania magazine was first published - the official periodical of Astra, which had a major importance in the spreading of the culture of and for the Transylvanian Romanians, in order to strenghten the unity and national solidarity [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the 27th of March 1918, as a consequence of the fall of the Russian Empire, on the 28th ofNovember, and on the 1st December 1918, the Romanians from Bukovina, and the ones from Transylvania, under the conditions of the very fast decomposition of the Austrian-IIungarian Empire, expressed their will to unite with Romania. The recognition of this great act was going to be embraced in the Peace Conference from Paris in the years 1919-1920. As long as the Romanian delegation was led by theprime-minister 1.1. C. Brătianu, who wanted to respect entirely the Alliances Treaty from 1916 and confronted the signing of other treaties, which affected the sovereignty of the country, The Big Four, did not want to discuss the problem ofBessarabia. The situation was going to evolve in a positive way for Romania, when in December 1919 a new cabinet was being appointed, led by dr. Alexandru Vaida Voevod, a well-known politician and diplomat in Western politics and who was considered a reliable and sincere interlocutor. Taking over the head of the Romanian delegation at the Peace Conference in January 1920, Vaida raised in an assiduous way the issue of the recognition of the union of Bessarabia with Romania. As a result of assurances given to the Allies that in Unified Romania, the rights of the naţional minorities, including the confessional ones, will be strictly respected, that they will soon withdraw the Romanian troops from Hungary and that - following the change of attitude of the Western powers towards Soviet Russia - he started direct negotiations with the latter, and obtained, on the 3th of March 1920, the official recognition of the Peace Conference of the Union of Bessarabia with Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three important Transylvanian towns are linked to Avram Iancu's name: Cluj, Târgu Mureş and Sibiu. In Cluj he attended his high school studies and the upper law course between 1841-1846. In Târgu Mureş he did his lawyer (cancelist) internship between 1846 and the spring of 1848. He was here when the Revolution began. The years spent in the first two towns did not forecast that Avram Iancu would become the hero of the nation. Instead, Sibiu is linked to his name in the years of the Revolution (1848-1849). During the revolution, Avram Iancu came to the town of Sibiu several times to attend the meetings of the Permanent Committee of the Romanian Nation, whose member he was. Also after the invasion of Transylvania by the Hungarian revolutionary troops, he came to Sibiu to get informed about the course of events in the country and in the empire or to ask for weapons and supplies from the Austrian commandment. It was also in Sibiu, in 1852, when he gave the first signs of his distance from the world. In the years of his dramatic life he came to Sibiu several times, since the towan awakened memories and it was here that his good friend Ilie Măcelariu lived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The events preceding the First World War triggered a revival in Romanian foreign policy, oriented for three decades towards the Central Powers. The actions of the Vienna Cabinet -contrary to Romania's interests -during the Balkan Wars (1912-1913), but especially the situation of Transylvanian Romanians, under the rule of the dualist Hungary, prompted the beginning of Romania's reorientation to the Entente. The great powers of the Entente, especially France and Russiasought to take full advantage of the deterioration of the Romanian-Austro-Hungarian relations. Russia was most interested in weakening the influence of Austria- Hungary in the Balkans and to draw Romania on the side of the Entente. As a result, the visit of Russia's Tsar in Constanţa on 14 June 1914 produced the most vivid agitation in German and Austro-Hungarian diplomatic circles due to the advances that the powers of the Entente made in Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the entire Middle Ages, Sibiu had in the Romanian territory incontestable priorities in many areas. One of the most important fields which had a real priority was the medicine, adopted very early in this Romanian city. The 18th century, a very important century in the entire evolution of the country, marks a very important moment in the development of Sibiu – the county seat of Transylvania, which had become in 1668-1691 a part of Austrian Empire. In Sibiu the medical life begins its journey to modernity, to the science and the art of medicine. The barbers, the surgeons, the house doctors are replaced with graduates of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Vienna, or other important university centres of Europe. In 1755, the first medical school in Transylvania begins its activity; known as the “University" or the “Academy" of Cluj, this institution will become soon the Lyceum Regium, in which activates a Medical-surgical School. The medical practice is accredited in 1786, the year when in Cluj and Sibiu appear the first schools for midwifery nursing. The modern and humanitarian reforms inspired by the politics of Vienna during the Teresian and Josephin era (1740-1790) influence a lot the medical life, by organising the official medical staff. The majority of graduated doctors are Transylvanian Saxons (Michael Neustädter, Andreas Wolff, etc.), but, in time, due to the indulgent regime of Sibiu, the first Romanian and Hungarian doctors also appear, like Ioan Piuariu Molnar and Sámuel Köléseri. After 1739-1742, the military doctors of Sibiu will complete the staff. The military medicine will have a separate activity after the moment when Sibiu becomes the head office of the most important Austrian garrison in Transylvania. Another important aspect is the relatively large number of pharmacies in city, including a military pharmacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The massive colonization of the German populations (known as Saxons) by the Hungarian kings in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the south of Transylvania and which will receive broad privileges, starting with the Golden Bull of the Saxons, given by King Andrew II in 1224, and in time will have among the consequences the rising of a blooming town - Sibiul - which for centuries will be the political and administrative center of the Saxons, the most important cultural center of theirs, and, after Brașov, the second handicraft and commercial center od Transylvania. Such an organized community has also early known an evolving public organized sanitary activity. The first hospitalized institution in Sibiu was attested in 1292, compared with the great cities of Western Europe. There are certain data about the existence of other hospitals in town from 1475 to 1535. In Sibiu, the first military pharmacy was attested in 1460 and the first civil pharmacy was attested in Transylvania. A long time in the Middle Ages, up to the establishment of the Austrian Rule in the late eighteenth century, one could not separate the military medicine from the civil one, about the Military Hospital in Sibiu having been spoken as a distinctive institution only after the conquest of Transylvania by the Austrians. Its documentary attestation is placed between 1739 and 1742. Its medical body will serve the important military garrison of the town, the largest of the Eastern provinces of the Austrian Empire asserting itself as an elite medical corps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the solid ground created by the Illuminist historiography, represented by the Transylvanian School, and on which created by the forty-eighters-historians Aron Florian, A.T. Laurian and N. Bălcescu, who make that in the first half of the 19th century the dimensions of the history of the Romanians, reflected in historiography, to be in fact one of the nation, ASTRA is developing its preoccupations for the study of the history of the Romanian people. Through the projects forged in the frame of the historical section of the Transylvanian Association and through the organized study of some chapters of the people's past, constitutes a the orethical support of the political struggle of the Romanians during the Austro-Hungarian dualism (1867-1918). The Transylvania Review is the organ press of ASTRA which comprises in a large sphere of preoccupations the culturalscientific activity of the Association. Preeminently in the period of our discussion the review cultivates the historical science. The aim of the historians grouped around her is gathering at one place of the documentary material necessary for the writing of a national history of the Romanian people. Three remarkable personalities of the ASTRA, through their historical activity, namely Timotei Cipariu, Al. Papiu Ilarian and G. Bariţiu imposed the fortyeighties' historiography with a pronounced national goal. Around them shall group historians and scholars increasingly numerous, covering all the fundamental chapters of the history of Transylvania, as a component part of the national one, raking whole archives and publishing tomes of documents, evidence that the historical past was subject to researches of ample proportions and unprecedented erudition. From the three great historians up to Silviu Dragomir and Ioan Lupaş, the last active participants at the carrying out of the national ideal, the Union, the historiography developed, reaching in the evening before the national complete Unity full European devotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]