Ionescu is generally viewed as embodying the rise of middle-class politics inside the early 20th century Kingdom of Romania (occasionally described as Takism), and, throughout the period, promoted a project of Balkan alliances while calling for measures to incorporate the Romanian-inhabited Austro-Hungarian regions of Transylvania, Banat and Bukovina.

After his country was defeated by the Central Powers and signed the Treaty of Bucharest, he left for Paris and London, organizing a Romanian National Committee to campaign for Greater Romania during the Peace Conference.

Born in Ploiești into a family of lower middle class origins, the eldest of four male children, he was the son of Ghiță Ioan, an entrepreneur who was facing insolvency, and his wife Eufrosina (or Frosa).

[6][7][8] In 1899, Ionescu took the side of Jewish scientist Lazăr Şăineanu, endorsing his naturalization in front of opposition from the antisemitic faction among the National Liberals, and helped bring the matter for renewed discussion in the Senate.

[11] However, by the end of the same year, Ionescu had mysteriously changed in mind: he voted in favor of complicating naturalization procedures for Jews and, as Education Minister, stripped Şăineanu of his honorary teaching position within the University of Bucharest.

[13] At the time, contrary to the more cautious policies of his party, he began voicing full support for incorporating Transylvania, a region largely inhabited by Romanians and ruled by Austria-Hungary, into the Kingdom of Romania; he even made a symbolic conquest by financing the building of a road in the vicinity of Buşteni, on the Transleithanian side of the border.

[16] He sided with the Conservative Nicolae Filipescu, who shared his views on the issue of Transylvania, and provoked a conflict within his grouping at a time when the PNL was strengthening itself by incorporating a large part of the Romanian Social Democratic Workers' Party.

[18] He held up estate leaseholders as a productive social class (arguing that, unlike peasants, "[they] do not consume their own income"),[18] and approved of repressive measures to the point where he initiated the decision taken by his cabinet to resign, to be replaced by that of the PNL's Dimitrie Sturdza.

[6] Additionally, Ionescu made mention of reforming the census suffrage enshrined in the 1866 Constitution, and expressed support for a single electoral college to replace the three wealth-based ones in existence at the time.

[2] In this version of events, mainstream politicians allegedly convinced Carol that the PCD had an agenda to depose the ruling House of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, and had depicted Ionescu as "a 'Belzebuth' who was supposed to be removed from public life".

[6] In late 1911, the PCD began talks for an alliance with the National Liberals, directed at the second Carp government, and opposed by King Carol (as it threatened to draw support for constitutional changes).

[8][13][16] Before Romania intervened in the Second Balkan War and annexed Southern Dobruja, Ionescu attempted to persuade Bulgarian politician Stoyan Danev to accept ceding the region as compensation for incorporating Aromanian-inhabited territories.

[25] He ultimately promised Luzzatti that all Jewish veterans of the Second Balkan War were going to be awarded Romanian citizenship, but the policy was overturned by the PNL's Ion I. C. Brătianu executive, coming to power in January 1914.

[21] According to one of the PCD's main opponents, the writer and journalist Tudor Arghezi, Ionescu changed his priorities on the very day King Carol convoked a Crown Council which confirmed neutrality policies (3 August 1914).

[27] Contending that Take Ionescu aimed to be "on all occasions, on the winning side, courting people in power", Rakovsky believed that his support for the Entente was conjectural: "Until yesterday, [he] was the man who continuously tied friendships with the Germans [...].

[21] Ionescu kept close contacts with Entente politicians, and notably with the prominent French Radical-Socialist Georges Clemenceau, who described him as "a great European, albeit Romanian down to his marrow, having for his country the highest and most legitimate of ambitions".

[13][28][29][30] Their adversary Christian Rakovsky accused Mille, a former socialist, of using his two dailies, Adevărul and Dimineaţa, as venues for Takist propaganda, and claimed that this was accomplished "under the mask of independence" (additionally, he stated: "[Ionescu] thus compensated for the weakness of his party, both in men and ideas, through corrupting the press").

[28][29] Eventually, after the Bucharest agreement was sealed, recognizing Romanian demands in front of the Entente, Brătianu approved of entering the conflict and agreed to declare war on the Central powers.

On 7 August 1916, the matter was communicated to political leaders in a Crown Council held at Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest; Ionescu, who was visiting Sinaia together with the American military attaché Halsey E. Yates, rushed back to the capital after being invited by Constantinescu-Porcu.

[4] He returned to his country in autumn 1919, with a design to form a single political group of democratic persuasion, stressing Conservative accomplishments (such as selling state land to peasants and confiscating mainmorte estates), while aiming to persuade the PNL to back electoral reform.

[24][33] Averescu, who was celebrated for his wartime command of the Romanian Army, shared several viewpoints with the PCD and, according to Argetoianu's ironic version of events, "a great, albeit undisclosed, spiritual affinity: they both belonged to the reptilian class".

[8][16][22] Argetoianu indicated that the PCD had not been part of the original cabinet makeup due to Averescu's maneuvers: reportedly, the general presented his group as the main candidate in the elections, and allowed the Conservative-Democrats to have a share in government only after he was validated by the popular vote.

[16][35] According to journalist Noti Constantinide, who visited him during his stay in Aix-les-Bains (March 1921), Ionescu, whom he called "the most intelligent person I ever met", was actively promoting the Romanian and Little Entente causes, seeking to sway public opinion in Allied countries.

[22] The Averescu executive, maneuvered by Brătianu and meeting with stiff opposition from the Romanian National, Peasants' and Democratic Nationalist parties, was ultimately brought down by Take Ionescu himself, through his resignation from office on 11 December 1921.

[36] This came as the project for land reform provoked a standoff in Parliament, after the PNL persuaded King Ferdinand that Averescu had to resign, and Ionescu agreed to induce an artificial crisis for the general to hand over his mandate.

Humanity is unified into a single confederation of republics and administrated from Liberty (a completely new capital built up on an artificial island in the Mediterranean Sea), while monarchies and wars have disappeared altogether.

[3] The Romanian climate is improved by afforestation, the country is spanned by canals, and the garden-like Bucharest, over which the narrator and Aru, his friend from the future, fly in a moored balloon, no longer has any churches left standing.

[39] Expanding on this issue, he noted that both the derisive tone in Caragiale's works and Ionescu's career reflected, each in its own way, the growth in importance of a single social class, the "national bourgeoisie".

[40] Atena Street housed a large statue of Take Ionescu, the work of French sculptor Ernest Henri Dubois, depicting him standing alongside two female nudes, representing the ideal borders of Greater Romania (the Dniester and the Tisza), and pointing toward Transylvania.

Under the Communist regime, Alexandrina Ecaterina Woroniecki was allowed to continue residing in the house Ionescu had built for her in the proximity of Şoseaua Kiseleff, but had to share her lodging with a section of the Republican Art Museum, and was assigned a room on the underground floor.