Republic of Ploiești

The Republic of Ploiești (Romanian: Republica de la Ploiești) was a revolt against the Romanian monarchy in the city of Ploiești, Romania, on August 8, 1870.

Romanian liberal radicals of Ploiești and elsewhere were opposed to the new ruler of the country, Prince Carol of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (future King of Romania), and desired a republic to replace the monarchy established by the 1866 Constitution - the main argument being that a new constitutional system, viewed as more democratic, was to put an end to the partnership between the monarch and the Conservatives (which had effectively blocked the Liberals out of government).

Although many Liberals had contributed to the creation of the "monstrous coalition" (which had toppled Alexandru Ioan Cuza on February 22 (February 11 O.S.), 1866), the deep resentment of Carol's politics, added to the perception that he had remained a foreigner linked to Prussia, had initially led to republican projects advocated by both the most left-wing Liberal faction (the "Reds", led by C. A. Rosetti) and the Liberal leader Ion Brătianu, and ultimately led to "coup d'état plans". At the same time, for many lower-level plotters, Cuza had arguably conserved his status image as both an anti-establishment social reformer and, given that his rule had preceded the Constitution, a quasi-republican political figure. Other, less prominent, factors included the revolutionary tradition inside the Liberal groups (see: 1848 Moldavian Revolution and 1848 Wallachian Revolution), as well as the persistence of French models in Liberal rhetoric. Although references to French republicanism itself had been moving out of focus after the replacement of the Second French Republic with the Empire, the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in July fueled the Liberals' resentment of Prussia.

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