State of Siege and Nation-State Building in Interwar Romania: The Case of South Dobruja

Abstract South Dobruja (or the Quadrilateral) became part of the Kingdom of Romania before the first World War, as a result of Romania’s involvement in the second Balkan War. The Romanians steadily began a policy of assimilating the native population and colonization. Much of the administrative effort was taken over by the military, namely the 9th Infantry Division, under extraordinary powers granted by an almost continuous state of siege. Compared to all other territories acquired by Romania at the beginning of the twentieth century, this province stood out by its historical and ethnic “otherness”. Romanians were the minority, and even the propaganda struggled to convince Romanian public that there were any historical rights associated with the takeover of South Dobruja. During this short period, the province proved to be the perfect testing ground for the strategy of state-building through acquisition of foreign territories. The article will aim to shed light on the mechanisms through which the state of siege was enacted in order to “pacify” and “Romanianize” the region, focusing on the 1920s, and will assess how the official legal discourse was formulated for these purposes.