The majority of its leaders were Greek-Catholic, following a trend in regional politics started with the introduction of the Eastern Catholic Churches in the early 18th century, when conversions had been encouraged by the Habsburg monarchy with promises of civil rights in exchange; throughout the following period, although a minority in comparison with the Orthodox Romanian community, Greek-Catholics had been the leaders of all communal political projects appealing directly to Vienna (beginning with the 1791 Supplex Libellus Valachorum).
The previous generation of ethnic Romanian politicians (especially its central figure, Andrei Şaguna) felt largely disappointed by the Austrian Empire policies of negotiations with Budapest after the 1848 Revolutions (culminating in the dissolving of the Transylvanian Diet and the Ausgleich - with Transylvania's reincorporation into Hungary), and had taken refuge in cultural ventures such as ASTRA; at the same time, Romania's alliance with Austria-Hungary and the German Empire, carried out under King Carol I and the Conservative Party cabinets, had prevented any assistance other than maintaining educational and religious facilities of the Romanian communities.
However, many party leaders, including Iuliu Maniu and Alexandru Vaida-Voevod, supported the federalist solution favored by the heir apparent, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, until his 1914 assassination in Sarajevo (see: United States of Greater Austria ).
As the PNL was unchallenged as the party on the Right, the new movements questioned its reserves in front of the promised land reform (with a Liberal version of very limited scope having been carried out in 1918), and resented its opposition to the replacement of the 1866 Constitution of Romania.
Averescu's was viewed as a transitional cabinet, and was soon followed by a new period of Liberal supremacy: much to the outrage of the opposition forces, it allowed Brătianu to pass the 1923 Constitution, a centralist document, through a regular vote in Parliament; nonetheless, the PNL ultimately used the template of land reform proposed by Mihalache, which only served to increase its support.
The two parties were brought into a short period of overt hostility to the political system: the king's fatal illness caused Maniu to start talks for an illegal ascension to the throne for Prince Carol (who had been banned from succession for his behaviour during World War I); at the same time, the PNR sought a new agreement with Miklós Horthy's Hungary over the borders created by the Treaty of Trianon, a gesture sanctioned by Carol and mediated by Viscount Rothermere.
After a period in clandestinity extended throughout World War II, it was to emerge as an important force between late 1944 and its banning six months before the proclamation of a People's Republic of Romania.