Alexandru Ioan Cuza or Alexandru Ioan I, also anglicised as Alexander John Cuza; 

 (20 March 1820 – 15 May 1873) 

He was the first ruler of the Romanian Principalities through his double election as prince of Moldavia on 5 January 1859 and prince of Wallachia on 24 January 1859. He was a prominent figure of the Revolution of 1848 in Moldavia. Following his double election, he initiated a series of reforms that contributed to the modernization of Romanian society and of state structures.

    As ruler of the Romanian Principalities, he supported a political and diplomatic activity for the recognition of the union of Moldavia and Wallachia by the suzerain Ottoman Empire and achieved constitutional and administrative unity between Moldavia and Wallachia in 1862, when the Romanian Principalities officially adopted the name Romanian United Principalities with a single capital at Bucharest, a single national assembly and a single government.

He was born in the South of Moldavia, in a traditional boyars family

Studied at Iassy, Romania and Paris, France

He was millitary by profession

Also took part at the 1848 Revolution in Moldavia

On 24 January he was also elected as lord of the Wallachia

Alexandru Ioan Cuza 's  Reforms

-He settled down the  country's capital at Bucharest

-The Tricolor became the Romanian Flag

-On the flag there were two symbols:the bison and the vulture.

 AGRICULTURAL REFORM

  EDUCATION  REFORM

He founded the universities of Iassy and Bucharest

                     ELENA  CUZA-his wife

                         She was born in Iassy at 17 of

                       June 1825  being  the daughter of                           the bedfellow Iordache Rosetti.