Before World War II, Romania was primarily agrarian; in the late 1940s, about three-quarters of the population was engaged in subsistence agriculture from ever-shrinking plots of land (due to an increasing rural population). Although some industrial activity was encouraged by state contracts and foreign investment, industrial development was slow and failed to create alternative employment opportunities for the overpopulated and impoverished countryside. Atop the low social pyramid stood a disproportionately powerful social elite, a remnant of the nobility that had once owned most of the land in the old kingdom . Although reforms between 1917 and 1921 had left them with only 15\% of the arable land, this aristocracy retained a powerful voice in political affairs.
Before World War II, Romania was primarily agrarian; in the late 1940s, about three-quarters of the population were engaged in subsistence agriculture from ever-shrinking plots of land (due to an increasing rural population). Although some industrial activity was encouraged by state contracts and foreign investment, industrial development was slow and failed to create alternative employment opportunities for the overpopulated and impoverished countryside. Atop the low social pyramid stood a disproportionately powerful social elite, a remnant of the nobility that had once owned most of the land in the Kingdom of Romania . Although reforms between 1917 and 1921 had left them with only 15\% of the arable land, this aristocracy retained a powerful voice in political affairs.
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Kingdom of Romania