Early Life and Revolution
He was born in Bucharest, Wallachia, to the prominent Ghica boyar family, and was the nephew of both Grigore Alexandru Ghica (who was to become Prince of Wallachia in the 1840s and 1850s) and Ion Câmpineanu, a Carbonari-inspired radical. Ion Ghica was educated in Bucharest and in the West of Europe, studying engineering and mathematics in France from 1837 to 1840.
After finishing his studies in Paris, he left for Moldavia and was involved in the failed Frăţia ("Brotherhood") conspiracy of 1848, which was intended to bring about the union of Wallachia and Moldavia under one native Romanian leader, Prince Mihai Sturdza. Ion Ghica became a lecturer on mathematics at the Academy which was founded by the same Prince Sturdza in Iaşi (future University of Iaşi).
He joined the Wallachian revolutionary camp, and, in the name of the Provisional Government then established in Bucharest, went to Istanbul to approach the Ottoman Imperial government; he, Nicolae Bălcescu, and General Gheorghe Magheru were instrumental in mediating negotiations between the Transylvanian Romanian leader Avram Iancu and the Hungarian Revolutionary government of Lajos Kossuth.
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