Petre P. 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 it into a political club. He left behind a budding career as Junimea ' s polemicist and cultural journalist, joining the state bureaucracy of the United Principalities , the Romanian diplomatic corps, and ultimately electoral politics. Widely seen as unyielding and trenchant in his public stance, and respected as an orator, 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 governance.
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.
Carp was a scion of the old boyar class in Moldavia: his family has attested roots going back to the 17th century, [ 3 ] and believed by some to have originated in the Baltic region. Carp's mother, was Smaranda Radul, [ 4 ] from the boyar branch of Dealu Mare. 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. Goethe , and especially William Shakespeare. Carp affiliated with a notorious student fraternity , the Corps Borussia.
