The Phanariote Rule

These offices very presently fell to the lot of the Phanariotes (Greek

merchants and bankers inhabiting the quarter of Phanar), who had in some

way or another assisted the princes to their thrones, these being now

practically put up to auction in Constantinople. As a natural consequence

of such a state of affairs the thoughts of the Rumanian princes turned to

Russia as a possible supporter against Ottoman oppression. A formal

alliance was entered into in 1711 with Tsar Peter the Great, but a joint

military action against the Turks failed, the Tsar returned to Russia, and

the Porte threatened to transform Moldavia, in order to secure her against

incipient Russian influence, into a Turkish province with a pasha as

administrator. The nobles were preparing to leave the country, and the

people to retire into the mountains, as their ancestors had done in times

of danger. It is not to be wondered at that, under the menace of losing

their autonomy, the Rumanians 'welcomed the nomination of the dragoman of

the Porte, Nicholas Mavrocordato, though he was a Greek. The people

greeted with joy the accession of the first Phanariote to the throne of

the principality of Moldavia'[1] (1711).



[Footnote 1: Xenopol, op. cit., ii. 138]



Knowledge of foreign languages had enabled the Phanariotes to obtain

important diplomatic positions at Constantinople, and they ended by

acquiring the thrones of the Rumanian principalities as a recompense for

their services. But they had to pay for it, and to make matters more

profitable the Turks devised the ingenious method of transferring the

princes from one province to another, each transference being considered

as a new nomination. From 1730 to 1741 the two reigning princes

interchanged thrones in this way three times. They acquired the throne by

gold, and they could only keep it by gold. All depended upon how much they

wore able to squeeze out of the country. The princes soon became past

masters in the art of spoliation. They put taxes upon chimneys, and the

starving peasants pulled their cottages down and went to live in mountain

caves; they taxed the animals, and the peasants preferred to kill the few

beasts they possessed. But this often proved no remedy, for we are told

that the Prince Constantin Mavrocordato, having prescribed a tax on

domestic animals at a time when an epidemic had broken out amongst them,

ordered the tax to be levied on the carcasses. 'The Administrative regime

during the Phanariote period was, in general, little else than organized

brigandage,' says Xenopol[1]. In fact the Phanariote rule was instinct

with corruption, luxury, and intrigue. Though individually some of them

may not deserve blame, yet considering what the Phanariotes took out of

the country, what they introduced into it, and to what extent they

prevented its development, their era was the most calamitous in Rumanian

history.



[Footnote 1: Ibid, op. cit., ii. 308]



The war of 1768 between Russia and Turkey gave the former power a vague

protectorate over the Rumanian provinces (Treaty of Kutchuk Kainardji). In

1774 Austria acquired from the Turks, by false promises, the northern part

of Moldavia, the pleasant land of Bucovina. During the new conflict

between Turkey and Russia, the Russian armies occupied and battened upon

the Rumanian provinces for six years. Though they had again to abandon

their intention of making the Danube the southern boundary of their

empire--to which Napoleon had agreed by the secret treaty with Tsar

Alexander (Erfurt, September 27, 1808)--they obtained from Turkey the

cession of Bessarabia (Treaty of Bucarest, May 28, 1812), together with

that part of Moldavia lying between the Dnjester and the Pruth, the

Russians afterwards giving to the whole region the name of Bessarabia.