Treaty of Bucharest (1916)
| Signed | 4/17 August 1916 |
|---|---|
| Location | Bucharest |
| Condition | Ratification by Romania and the Entente Powers |
| Signatories |
 Kingdom of Romania Russian Empire French Republic United Kingdom Kingdom of Italy
|
The Treaty of Bucharest of 1916 was signed between Romania and the Entente Powers on 4 (Old Style)/17 (New Style) August 1916 in Bucharest. The treaty stipulated the conditions under which Romania agreed to join the war on the side of the Entente, particularly territorial promises in Austria-Hungary. The signatories bound themselves to keep secret the contents of the treaty until a general peace was concluded.
In 1915 Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Thomson, a fluent French speaker, was sent to Bucharest as British military attaché on Kitchener's initiative to bring Romania into the war. But when there he quickly formed the view that an unprepared and ill-armed Romania facing a war on three fronts against Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria would be a liability not an asset to the allies. This view was brushed aside by Whitehall, and he signed (with foreboding) a Military Convention with Romania on 13 August 1916. Thompson became head of the British Military Mission.
The treaty had two parts: a political treaty (seven articles) and a military convention (seventeen articles). The Romanian government was to declare war on Austria-Hungary, in accordance with the stipulations in the military convention, on August 28 (new style) the latest, according to the political treaty. In exchange, it was to receive the following territories:
The exact borders stipulated by the treaty were those of prewar Romania (Article I) and those it was allowed to annex from Austria-Hungary, up to a line of demarcation described in Article IV:
The line of delimitation will start on the Pruth at a point of the present frontier between Roumania and Russia near Novosulitza and will ascend this river as far as the frontier of Galicia at the confluence of the Pruth and the Ceremos. After that it will follow the frontier of Galicia and Bucovina, and that of Galicia and Hungary, up the point Steag (hill 1655). From that point it will follow the line of separation of the Theiss and the Viso until it reaches the Theiss at the village of Trebuza up-stream from the spot where it unites with the Viso. Starting from that point it will go down along the thalweg of the Theiss to a distance of 4 kilometers down-stream from its confluence with the Szamos, leaving the village of Vásárosnamény to Roumania. It will then continue in a SSW direction to a point 6 km. east of the town of Debrecen. From that point it will reach the Crish (Körös) 3 km. down-stream from the union of its two affluents (the White Crish and the Swift Crish). It will then join the Theiss on a line with the village of Algyő, north of Szeged, passing to the west of the villages of Orosháza and Békéssámson; 3 km. from the latter it will make a slight curve. From Algyő the line will descend the thalweg of the Theiss down to its confluence with the Danube, and will finally follow the thalweg of the Danube down to the present frontier of Roumania.
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