Treaty of Bucharest (1918)

• Romania and the Central Powers declared the end of the state of war between them{{cite web|url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html|title=Article I of the Treaty|access-date=18 October 2019|archive-date=24 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324234829/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html}} and that the diplomatic and consular relations between them would be resumed.{{cite web|url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html|title=Article II of the Treaty|access-date=18 October 2019|archive-date=24 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324234829/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html}}
• Demobilization of the Romanian forces
• Of Romania's 15 infantry divisions, divisions 11th to 15th were to be disbanded. Of the remaining 10 infantry divisions, the two in Bessarabia were allowed to remain on a war footing, together with the Vânători battalions left over from the disbanded Vânători divisions, and the two Romanian cavalry divisions. These would remain active until the military operations carried out by the Central Powers in Ukraine would eliminate the danger at the Romanian eastern frontier. The remaining eight divisions would remain on a reduced peace footing: four infantry regiments of three battalions each, two cavalry regiments of two squadrons each, two field artillery regiments of seven batteries each, one battalion of pioneers and the necessary technical troops and convoys. The total force of these eight infantry divisions could not exceed 20,000 men, that of the cavalry 3,200 men and that of the artillery 9,000 men. The divisions in Bessarabia were also to be decreased, in case of demobilization, to the same peace footing as the other eight divisions mentioned above.{{cite web|url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html|title=Article IV of the Treaty|access-date=18 October 2019|archive-date=24 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324234829/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html}}
• The ordnance, machine guns, small arms, horses, wagons, and munitions made available by the reduction or disbanding of Romanian troops were to be transferred to Central Powers and to be guarded by Romanian depot troops. Ammunition left with the Romanian divisions on peace footing was limited to 250 cartridges per rifle, 2,500 cartridges per machine gun, and 150 rounds for each piece of ordnance. The divisions in Bessarabia were allowed to retain the ammunition needed for the state of war.{{cite web|url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html|title=Article V of the Treaty|access-date=18 October 2019|archive-date=24 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324234829/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html}}
• The demobilized troops were to remain in Moldavia until the evacuation of the occupied Romanian territory by the Central Powers, with the exception of the depot troops mentioned at article V. The troops in active service had to secure the permission of the Central Powers' high command if they wanted to pass into the occupied territory.{{cite web|url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html|title=Article VI of the Treaty|access-date=18 October 2019|archive-date=24 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324234829/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html}}
• Romania and the Central Powers would each appoint an officer from their respective General Staffs as liaison officer to the other party.{{cite web|url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html|title=Article VII of the Treaty|access-date=18 October 2019|archive-date=24 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324234829/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html}}
• The Romanian fluvial and maritime forces were allowed to remain intact until the conditions in Bessarabia were cleared up; afterwards they were to be reduced to a peace footing status, except for the fluvial and naval forces needed to protect the commercial navigation and the reestablishment of navigable lanes.{{cite web|url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html|title=Article VIII of the Treaty|access-date=18 October 2019|archive-date=24 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324234829/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html}} The military and naval personnel who in peace time was employed in the ports and in navigation were to be demobilized first, so that they could resume their former activity.{{cite web|url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html|title=Article IX of the Treaty|access-date=18 October 2019|archive-date=24 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324234829/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html}}
• Cession of Romanian territory
• Romania returned Southern Dobruja (the Cadrilater) and ceded the southern part of Northern Dobruja (see the maps) to Bulgaria. The rest of the province (starting south of Cernavodă-Constanța railroad up to the Danube and the Sfântu Gheorghe branch, thus leaving the Danube Delta to Romania) was ceded by Romania to the Central Powers and thus remained under joint Central Powers control. The Central Powers guaranteed the commercial road to the Black Sea for Romania by way of Cernavodă and Constanța.{{cite web|url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html|title=Article X of the Treaty|access-date=17 September 2017|archive-date=24 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324234829/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html}}
• Romania gave to Austria-Hungary control of the passes of the Carpathian Mountains (see the maps).{{cite web|url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html|title=Article XI of the Treaty|access-date=18 October 2019|archive-date=24 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324234829/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html}}
• State properties in the territories ceded by Romania passed without indemnity to the acquiring states. The acquiring states were to enter with Romania into agreements over the rights of option and emigration for the Romanian inhabitants in the ceded territories, the apportionment of the properties of the communal districts severed by the new frontiers, the attribution of archives, of judicial, administrative, and personal civil records, the management of the new frontiers, and the effect of the new frontiers upon dioceses and political treaties.{{cite web|url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html|title=Article XII of the Treaty|access-date=18 October 2019|archive-date=24 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324234829/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html}}
• All parties renounced war indemnities, except for special agreements regarding the regulation of war damages.{{cite web|url=https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html|title=Article XIII of the Treaty|access-date=18 October 2019|archive-date=24 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324234829/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html}}
• Romania leased its oil fieldss around Ploiești to Germany for 90 years.{{cite web |url=http://www.rubicon.hu/magyar/oldalak/1918_majus_7_romania_es_a_kozponti_hatalmak_alairjak_a_bukaresti_beket/ |title=1918. május 7. - Románia és a központi hatalmak aláírják a bukaresti békét |last=Tarján |first=M. Tamás |website=www.rubicon.hu |publisher=Rubiconline}}
• The Central Powers recognized the Union of Bessarabia with Romania.R. J. Crampton, Eastern Europe in the twentieth century, Routledge, 1994, {{ISBN|978-0-415-05346-4}}, p. 24–25
• The German and Austrian occupation of Romania was to continue until a date "later to be determined".Kitchen, Martin. "Hindenburg, Ludendorff, and Rumania". The Slavonic and East European Review, Volume 54, Issue 2, April 1976. page 223.
• All of occupation costs were to be paid by Romania.
• All of Romania's "surplus" agricultural production was to be handed over to Austria-Hungary and Germany, with an Austro-German commission deciding what was "surplus" and what price was paid.
• All railroads, telephones, telegraphs, and postal systems in Romania were to remain under the control of Germany and Austria-Hungary.
• German civil servants with the power to veto decisions by Romanian cabinet ministers and to fire Romanian civil servants were appointed to oversee every Romanian ministry, in effect stripping Romania of its independence.

The treaty put Romania in a unique situation compared to other German-occupied countries. It completely respected Romania's de jure independence, and Romania ended up with more territory after the union with Bessarabia, thoough the requirement that German civil servants with the power of veto power be stationed in Bucharest together with the German occupation to continue until a date "later be determined", effectively turned Romania into a de facto German protectorate.

Germany was able to repair the Ploiești oil fields and by the end of the war had pumped a million tons of oil. They also requisitioned two million tons of grain from Romanian farmers. These materials were vital in keeping Germany in the war to the end of 1918.John Keegan, World War I, pg. 308

Although Bulgaria received a part of Northern Dobruja, the fact that it could not annex the whole province had a strong effect on the Bulgarian public opinion.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R3cEDgAAQBAJ&g=PA358 |title=Entangled Histories of the Balkans |author=Roumen Dontchev Daskalov |author2=Diana Mishkova |author3=Tchavdar Marinov |author4=Alexander Vezenkov |date=30 January 2017 |page=358 |volume=4 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-25075-8}} Bulgarian Prime Minister Vasil Radoslavov was forced to resign on 20 June 1918 after the failure to acquire the whole of Dobruja. Nevertheless, Bulgaria continued to lobby Germany and Austria-Hungary for the annexation of the whole province, including the condominium established by the Treaty of Bucharest. Representatives of Bulgarian Dobrujans held a second general assembly in Babadag on 23 September, adopting a final resolution requesting Dobruja's incorporation into Bulgaria. After negotiations, a protocol regarding the transfer of the jointly administered zone in Northern Dobruja to Bulgaria was signed in Berlin on 24 September 1918, by Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria. In return, Bulgaria agreed to cede the left bank of the Maritsa river to Turkey. The protocol was deemed a desperate attempt by the Central Powers to keep Bulgaria on their side during the Vardar Offensive on the Macedonian front. In the end, the agreement was short-lived: five days later, on 29 September, Bulgaria capitulated in the face of the advancing Allied forces (see also the Armistice of Salonica).

The treaty was denounced in October 1918 by the Marghiloman government. Romania re-entered the war on 10 November 1918, the day before it ended in Western Europe, and the 1918 Treaty of Bucharest was nullified by the Armistice of 11 November 1918.{{citation |url = http://www.servicehistorique.sga.defense.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/LaConventionDarmistice.pdf |access-date = 17 November 2017 |title = Armistice convention of 11 November 1918 |date = 11 November 1918 |archive-date = 23 November 2018 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181123133121/http://www.servicehistorique.sga.defense.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/LaConventionDarmistice.pdf }}, Article XV. In 1919, Germany was forced in the Treaty of Versailles to renounce all the benefits provided by the 1918 Treaty of Bucharest.[http://wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Articles_248_-_263 Articles 248–263 - World War I Document Archive] The territorial transfers to Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria were annulled by the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919), and the Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine (1919), respectively; and the Treaty of Trianon (1920) settled Romania's border with Hungary.

File:Histdob.png|Map of Dobruja (areas in light blue, orange and pink were annexed by Bulgaria, while the area in yellow was to be administered jointly by the Central Powers)

File:Harta administrativa Romania 1918 05 07.PNG|Romanian territories ceded to Austria-Hungary (purple), Bulgaria (blue), and the Central Powers (green) through the Treaty of Bucharest. These changes were reversed by the Treaty of Versailles.

File:Territory taken from Roumania by Bulgaria according to the Peace of Bucharest (1918).png|The Bulgaria–Romania border in Dobruja according to the Treaty (source: US Department of State, 1918)

File:Map Treaty of Brest-Litovsk-en.jpg|The situation on the Eastern Front in March 1918 (after the completion of the Operation Faustschlag)

File:1918.5.7REGAT.png|Romania on 7 May 1918, after the Treaty of Bucharest. The Treaty, while signed by Prime Minister Alexandru Marghiloman, was never ratified by King Ferdinand I.

File:Stephan Burián von Rajecz signing the Treaty of Bucharest.jpg|Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary, Stephan Burián von Rajecz, signing the treaty

File:BASA-313K-3-44-1-Treaty of Bucharest (1918).jpeg|Picture taken at the signing of the treaty (Bulgarian State Archives). Bulgarian Prime Minister Vasil Radoslavov is fourth from the left, sitting.

File:Delegates at Peace of Bucharest.jpg|Delegates at the signing of the treaty

File:French caricature on the Romanian-German Peace Treaty.jpg|French caricature on the Romanian-German peace: Kaiser Wilhelm II pointing a dagger at a woman (Romania), while showing her the terms of the treaty and stepping on the throat of a man (Russia)

• Romania during World War I
• Treaty of Bucharest (1812)
• Treaty of Bucharest (1913)
• Treaty of Bucharest (1916)

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• [http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html Full text of the Treaty of Bucharest] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130223024635/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/routreat.html |date=2013-02-23 }}
• [http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/bucharest1918.htm The Treaty of Bucharest on FirstWorldWar.com]
• [http://terkepek.adatbank.transindex.ro/kepek/netre/120.gif Territory which was ceded to the Austro-Hungarian Empire by Romania following the Treaty of Bucharest, 1918]

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