Greater Romania

The term Greater Romania (Romanian: România Mare) usually refers to the borders of the Kingdom of Romania in the interwar period. It also refers to a pan-nationalist idea.

As concept, the main goal is the re-creation of a nation-state which would incorporate all Romanian speakers. The phrase is strongly associated with the Kingdom of Romania between 1918 and 1940, often considered the realization of the pan-Romanian goal. In 1918, after the incorporation of Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia, the Romanian state reached its largest peacetime geographical extent ever (295,049 km²). Nowadays, the concept serves as a guiding principle for the unification of Romania and Moldova.

The idea is comparable to other similar conceptions such as Greek Megali Idea, Greater Hungary, Greater Bulgaria, Greater Serbia, as well as Greater Albania.

The theme of national identity had been always a key concern for Romanian culture and politics. The Romanian national ideology in the first decades of the twentieth century was a typical example of ethnocentric nationalism. The concept of "Greater Romania" shows similarities to the idea of national state. The Romanian territorial claims were based on "primordial racial modalities", the essential goal of them was to unify the biologically defined Romanians. The nation-building based on the French model of a unitary nation-state became an all time priority especially in the interwar and the Communist periods.

The union of Michael the Brave, who ruled over the three principalities with Romanian population (Wallachia, Transylvania and Moldavia) for a short period of time, was viewed in later periods as the precursor of a modern Romania, a thesis which was argued with noted intensity by Nicolae Bălcescu. This theory became a point of reference for nationalists, as well as a catalyst for various Romanian forces to achieve a single Romanian state.

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Wikipedia