The Romanian Extractive Industry, from its Early Beginnings up to Year 1948

This paper presents a dynamic portrait of the evolution of Romanian extractive industry from its early beginnings up to year 1948, and highlights the role and importance of this industry in the evolution of Romanian society by that time. To achieve these goals, our research pursued the extractive industry development in three stages: from ancient beginnings to the First World War, then in the interwar period and, ultimately, up to the nationalization in 1948, emphasizing the technological developments and socio-economic characteristics changes at both national and international level. Special attention was placed on analyzing the different sectors of this industry in terms of development and its evolution over time (for natural gas, coal, iron ore, ferrous, non- ferrous and other non-metallic minerals). Being the first research in a row of four, this paper is a start that must be supported, disseminated and nurtured both by the scientific community of Romanian Academy (as we tried through our present work), as well as by policymakers, Governmental institutions, media, etc, thus all contributing to placing the Romanian nation on its deserved position among the nations of the world (these latest issues will be further discussed in our future research).