In the first half of the 19th century, fundamental cultural, political and economic changes took place in the Romanian Principalities. At the cultural level, mentalities, political and philosophical conceptions have changed, there has been a transition from religious thinking to rationalistic, modern thinking. Cultural emancipation was seen as a condition of political and economic emancipation. Decisive for the foundation of the new culture and for the formation of new mentalities were the research of history, traditions and popular culture, the study of the language, the analysis of the particular political and social conditions in which the Romanian people evolved. This issue was also reflected in the level of political and historical thinking, in the systems of ideas that Romanian thinkers built. The evolution of political thought and institutions in the first half of the 19th century expressed the tendency to democratize and adapt liberal principles to domestic conditions.