The double election of Alexandru Ioan Cuza, in 1859, as ruler of the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, was not an accident of history, but a result of the struggle of an exceptional generation in Romanians’ history. Essentially, this generation is responsible for the emergence of the Romanian issue at international level, the achievement of the 1859 Union, the bringing of the foreign prince, the gaining of state independence, and the proclamation of the Kingdom of Romania – in other words, the building of modern Romania. Alexandru Ioan Cuza was one of the exponential factors of this generation; between 1859 and 1866, he was the bearer of an imperative mandate, by which the wishes expressed in 1857 by the ad hoc Divans of Moldavia and Wallachia had to be carried out. Therefore his reign was another phase on the path the Romanians had to follow towards full unification and independence.