Petre P. Carp

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Petre P. Carp bigraphy, stories - Ministers

Petre P. Carp : biography

June 29, 1837 – June 19, 1919

Petre P. Carp ( also Petrache Carp, Francized Pierre Carp, Ioana Pârvulescu, , in România Literară, Nr. 25/2010 occasionally Comte Carpe;Evans-Gordon, pp.168, 191, 304 June 28 Mircea Dumitriu, , in România Liberă, September 22, 2007 or 29,Călinescu, p.440 1837 – June 19, 1919) was a Moldavian-born Romanian statesman, political scientist and culture critic, one of the major representatives of Romanian liberal conservatism, and twice the country’s Prime Minister (1900–1901, 1910–1912). His youth was intertwined with the activity of Junimea club, which he co-founded with critic Titu Maiorescu as a literary society, and then helped transform into a political club. He left behind a budding career as Junimeas polemicist and cultural journalist, joining the state bureaucracy of the United Principalities, the Romanian diplomatic corps, and ultimately electoral politics. A speaker for aristocratic sentiment and the Romanian gentry, Carp helped create the Conservative Party from the various "White" conservative clubs (1880), but also led a Junimist dissident wing against the Conservative mainstream leaders Lascăr Catargiu and Gheorghe Grigore Cantacuzino. He was a contributor to the Junimea platform Convorbiri Literare, and founder of the newspapers Térra (1868) and Moldova (1915).

Widely seen as unyielding and trenchant in his public stance, and respected as an orator, P. P. Carp stood against the majority current in various political debates. His entire discourse was an alternative to the protectionist, antisemitic and populist tendencies of "Red" Romanian liberalism. Welcoming Westernization and free trade, his vision of development nonetheless rested on gradualism and criticized modern experiments in government. The two Carp administrations are remembered for their fiscal reforms, their encouragement of foreign investments, and their attempted clampdown on political corruption.

A Germanophile and a Russophobe, Carp gathered consensus for steering the Kingdom of Romania into the Triple Alliance, but his external policy became entirely unpopular by the start of World War I. During that time, he was the only prominent public figure to demand a declaration of war against the Entente Powers. He came out of retirement during the German occupation of Romania, when he inspired fellow Conservative Lupu Kostaki to set up a collaborationist territorial government. This final project caused his fall into disgrace once the legitimate government regained control.

Biography

Early life and education

Carp was a scion of the old boyar class in Moldavia: his family has attested roots going back to the 17th century, and believed by some to have originated in the Baltic region. Adriana Oprea-Popescu, , in Jurnalul Naţional, December 12, 2005 The Carps were related to other noble houses, including the Cozadinis, the Racoviţăs and the Kostakis. Nicolae Iorga, , Romanian Academy, Bucharest, 1882, pp.7–8 (online version at the University of Bucharest ) They owned the manorial estate of Ţibăneşti, formed over the centuries by the accumulation of yeomen farmland and still a lucrative business in their lifetime. Mihai Dim. Sturdza, , in Convorbiri Literare, June 2004 Carp’s father, also known as Petre (Petru), was a Spatharios of the Princely Court, then Stolnic. Educated abroad during the earliest wave of Westernization, fascinated by Enlightenment ideals and the Carboneria, he took part in political agitation before the Moldavian Revolution of 1848. His wife, Petre P. Carp’s mother, was Smaranda Radul, from the boyar branch of Dealu Mare. The couple had another son, who died at birth.

The future Conservative leader was born in the Moldavian capital of Iaşi. When he was still a young child, his father took him on his first trip out of Moldavia: they traveled by stagecoach through the Austrian Empire, and then to Prussia. In Berlin, Petre Jr enlisted at the bilingual Französisches Gymnasium, and lived in the house of its Huguenot headmaster, L’Hardy.Vianu, p.76 Young Carp received a classical education in literature, and was noted as a connoisseur of works by Homer, J. W. Goethe, and especially William Shakespeare. He took his Matura with the highest grade of his class, and then studied Law and Politics at the University of Bonn. Carp affiliated with a notorious student fraternity, the Corps Borussia. According to literary historian Tudor Vianu, this aristocratic influence Germanized his views and his public persona, from "the slightly aggressive ego" and the passion for dueling to the wearing of a monocle. It was in Bonn that Carp made his debut as an orator. On behalf of the student fraternities, Carp welcomed Jérôme, cousin of French Emperor Napoleon III, and was remarked by the visitor for his "clear" and intellectually honest political stance. Carp’s future colleague, Moldavian Iacob Negruzzi, also briefly met him as a student, and first noticed in him the potential statesman.Vianu, p.7