Up to WWI, there were many Romanian living in the Austro-Hungarian empire. In fact they were the majority of population in Transylvania (a province that briefly became part of Hungary following the Austro-Hungarian agreement of 1867). Thus there is no surprise that many Romanians were conscripted into the army as were the Croats, Czechs or Serbs. Some of the officers even won the MMThO like Major Urs (1859 & 1860), Colonel and later General Boeriu (1918) or Major Popovici (1921). There are many reasons for this. First of all, most of them were ethnic Romanian. Furthermore, following the union of Transylvania with the Old Romanian Kingdom, they all became Romanian citizens (even the non-Romanians). It is true though that most of the officers who joined the Romanian army following the war were Romanians. As a side note, some joined the Romanian army even before WWI, like General Dragalina. For these officers there was no problem with the allegiance to the Romanian state. In fact during WWI their allegiance to the empire was questioned since the tough Hungarisation policy of the end of the 19th century did make them feel second category citizens. Romania's entry into WWI offered them another opportunity to fight for their rights with more concrete results. Indeed, many ethnic Romanians from the AH Army who fell prisoners to the Russians early during the war eagerly joined the Romanian Army in 1917. Even active officers risked their lives to cross the lines to the Romanian side, some of them being unfortunately caught and executed, as Lt. Emil Rebreanu, brother of the Romanian writer Liviu Rebreanu (the latter was a graduate of the Military Academy in Budapest who resigned the AH army and settled in Romania in 1909, but without joining the Romanian army). In spite of some difficulties for the former AH officers (mainly related to age issues), some of them even became chiefs of the general staff or ministers of defence in the inter-war period (as General Ilcuşu or General Iacobici). In fact many Transylvanians became prominent personalities in post-WWI Romania (politicians like Iuliu Maniu and Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, religious leaders like Patriarch Miron Cristea or Bishop Iuliu Hossu and many others).