Romanianization of the Cities in Transylvania After 1918. Case Study: Alba Iulia

Abstract

In a period ranging from the end of the nineteenth century until the first quarter of the next century, territories or provinces whose political affiliation changed were subjected to a form of “nationalization”. Depending on the national specifics of the beneficiary state, this process received names such as “Germanization”, “Frenchification”, “Czechization”, “Slovakization” or “Romanianization”. After eliminating the ambiguities that might designate this last term, the study tried to promote a clear perspective by taking the town of Alba Iulia as the object of a case study. In this situation too, the richness of the sources and the problematics would have led to the elaboration of a text the size of a book. Consequently, the research was circumscribed to identifying the changes some socio-professional groups went through after 1918, including Romanian “economists” (farmers), craftsmen and tradesmen. Furthermore, the superior repositioning or the shaping of some segments of national elites was followed up: lawyers, secondary professors. The present study carries on the research in this area by approaching some cultural, economic and event-based aspects.