Editing Alexandru Ioan Cuza (section)

===Reforms===

[[File:CuzaHuNewspaper.jpg|thumb|left|180px|Hungarian newspaper ''Vasárnapi Ujság'' commented "with sympathy and respect" (Carol C. Koka)<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://actualitateasm.ro/cgi-sys/suspendedpage.cgi|title=Pagina Suspendata – Site Gazduit de Claus Web|website=actualitateasm.ro}}</ref> Cuza's double election in Moldavia and Wallachia]]Assisted by his councilor [[Mihail Kogălniceanu]], an intellectual leader of the 1848 revolution, Cuza initiated a series of reforms that contributed to the modernization of Romanian society and of state structures.

His first measure addressed a need for increasing the land resources and revenues available to the state, by [[Secularization of monastic estates in Romania|nationalizing monastic estates]] in 1863.<ref name="Stoica1">{{cite book|last=Stoica|first=Vasile|title=The Roumanian Question: The Roumanians and their Lands|year=1919|publisher=Pittsburgh Printing Company|location=Pittsburgh|pages=69–70|url=http://www.wdl.org/en/item/7314/view/1/69/}}</ref> Probably more than a quarter of Romania's farmland was controlled by untaxed [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox]] "[[Dedication (ritual)|Dedicated]] monasteries", which supported Greek and other foreign monks in shrines such as [[Mount Athos]] and Jerusalem, presenting a substantial drain on state revenues. Cuza got his parliament's backing to expropriate these lands.

During the secularization of the Antiochian [[Metochion]] in Bucharest, Cuza exiled its proistamenos the Metropolitan Ioannikios of Palmyra and arrested its hegumen Seraphim, later Metropolitan of Irenopolis in Isauria.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Επίσκοπος Παλμύρας Ιωαννίκιος Μασσαμίρι|url=http://users.sch.gr/markmarkou/1833_1870/1860/new/ioannikios_massamiri.htm|access-date=2022-02-04|website=users.sch.gr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Μητροπολίτης Ειρηνουπόλεως Σεραφείμ (+ 05-09-1906)|url=http://users.sch.gr/markmarkou/1901_1930/1906/koim/serafeim_irinoupoleos.htm|access-date=2022-02-04|website=users.sch.gr}}</ref> He offered compensation to the [[Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople|Greek Orthodox Church]], but [[Patriarch Sophoronius III of Constantinople|Sophronius III]], the [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople|Patriarch of Constantinople]], refused to negotiate; after several years, the Romanian government withdrew its offer and no compensation was ever paid. State revenues thereby increased without adding any domestic tax burden.
The [[Land reform in Romania|land reform]], liberating peasants from the last [[corvée]]s, freeing their movements and redistributing some land (1864), was less successful.<ref name="Stoica1" /> In attempting to create a solid support base among the peasants, Cuza soon found himself in conflict with the group of [[Conservative Party (Romania, 1880-1918)|Conservatives]]. A liberal bill granting peasants title to the land they worked was defeated. Then the Conservatives responded with a bill that ended all peasant dues and responsibilities, but gave landlords title to all the land. Cuza vetoed it, then held a [[plebiscite]] to alter the Paris Convention (the virtual constitution), in the manner of Napoleon III.
[[File:1862PRINCIPATE.png|thumb|Romania in 1862 AD, after Alexandru Ioan Cuza merged the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia into one unitary state.]]
[[File:Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza.jpg|thumb|right|170px|Alexandru Ioan Cuza official portrait]]
[[File:Palatul Cuza Vodă de la Ruginoasa, Iași, România.jpg|left|thumb|150x150px|The Al.I. Cuza family residence in [[Ruginoasa, Iaşi|Ruginoasa]]]]
[[File:Palatul domnitorului Alexandru Ioan Cuza (azi Muzeul „Unirii” - Complexul Național Muzeal Moldova) (1).jpg|left|thumb|150x150px|The residence of Prince Cuza in [[Iași]], one of the two capitals of the United Principalities between 1859 and 1862]]
His plan to establish [[universal manhood suffrage]], together with the power of the Domnitor to rule by decree, passed by a vote of 682,621 to 1,307. This was an imperfect solution, still catering to the wealthy, and would be added onto with a constitution revision in 1866 after his abdication.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ioanid |first1=Radu |title=Sword of the Archangel: Fascist Ideology in Romania |date=1990 |publisher=East European Monographs |isbn=0880331895 |pages=36–37}}</ref> He consequently governed the country under the provisions of ''Statutul dezvoltător al Convenției de la Paris'' ("Statute expanding the Paris Convention"), an [[Constitution of Romania|organic law]] adopted on 15 July 1864. With his new plenary powers, Cuza then promulgated the Agrarian Law of 1863. Peasants received title to the land they worked, while landlords retained ownership of one third. Where there was not enough land available to create workable farms under this formula, state lands (from the confiscated monasteries) would be used to give the landowners compensation.

Despite the attempts by [[Lascăr Catargiu]]'s cabinet to force a transition in which some corvées were to be maintained, Cuza's reform marked the disappearance of the boyar class as a privileged group, and led to a channeling of energies into [[capitalism]] and [[industrialization]]; at the same time, however, land distributed was still below necessities, and the problem became stringent over the following decades – as peasants reduced to destitution sold off their land or found that it was insufficient for the needs of their growing families.

Cuza's reforms also included the adoption of the Criminal Code and the Civil Code based on the [[Napoleonic code]] (1864), a Law on Education, establishing tuition-free, compulsory public education for primary schools<ref name="Stoica1" /> (1864; the system, nonetheless, suffered from drastic shortages in allocated funds; illiteracy was eradicated about 100 years later, during the communist regime). He founded the [[University of Iași]] (1860) and the University of Bucharest (1864), and helped develop a modern, European-style Romanian Army, under a working relationship with France. He is the founder of the Romanian Naval Forces.