What happened to Romania from 1914 1919?

Romania entered World War I on August 27, 1916 on the Allied side. During the Great War, Romania saw some of the most brutal fighting on the Eastern Front. However Romania eventually emerged from the conflict as a significantly larger country, more than doubling its territory and population.

At the start of the 20th century Romania was a small, relatively weak state in Eastern Europe, bordered by the Russian Empire to the east, the Ottoman Empire to the south and the Austro-Hungarian Empire to its north.

In 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in Sarajevo, and World War I broke out. Serbia was quickly overrun, and Romania faced the choice of either joining the war on the Allied or the Central Powers side.

Ultimately Romania chose to support the Allies, hoping that they would help it to expand its territories. In August 1916, Romania entered the war, but was soon defeated by the German and Austro-Hungarian forces. For almost three years, Romania was occupied by the Central Powers.

By the end of 1918, the Allies had won the war and Romania was liberated. Through the Treaty of Trianon, Transylvania and most of Banat, formerly occupied by Austria-Hungary, were ceded to Romania, while it also received Bukovina from the dissolved Austria-Hungarian Empire, and Bessarabia from Russia. As a result of these territorial gains, Romania nearly doubled in size, and its population more than doubled, from 7.9 million to 16 million.

This marked the beginning of a new era for Romania, which now found itself as a major regional power.