Serbian Banat
The Serbian Banat (Western Banat) was part of Serbian Vojvodina (1848–1849) and part of the Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar (1849–1860). After 1860, the Serbian Banat was part of Torontal and Temes counties of Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary. The center of Torontal county was Veliki Bečkerek, the current Zrenjanin.
The region was county of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes between 1918 and 1922 (in 1918–1919, county was part of the province of Banat, Bačka and Baranja) and from 1922 to 1929 it was divided between Belgrade oblast and Podunavlje oblast. In 1929, most of the region was incorporated into the Danube Banovina (Danubian Banat), a province of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, while the city of Pančevo was incorporated into self-governed Belgrade district.
Between 1941 and 1944, the Serbian Banat was occupied by the Nazi German troops. Following the Axis partition of Yugoslavia, Serbian Banat was made a part of German-occupied Serbia, in which it enjoyed autonomy. It functioned as a virtually separate autonomous entity ruled by its German minority, who were promoted by the German occupational military authorities. During this time, numerous war crimes were committed against local Serb and Jewish population. As a consequence of a disturbed ethnic relations during the occupation, much of the local Germans fled from the region together with defeated German army in 1944. Those Germans who remained in the country were sent to prison camps run by the new communist authorities. After prison camps were dissolved (in 1948), most of the remaining German population left Serbia because of economic reasons. Many went to Germany; others emigrated to western Europe and the United States.
Since 1944-1945, the Serbian Banat (together with Bačka and Syrmia), has been part of the Serbian Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, first as part of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and then as part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro. Since 2006, it has been part of an independent Serbia.
In Serbia, the Banat is mostly plains. Wheat, barley, oats, rye, maize, hemp and sunflower are grown, and mineral wealth consists of oil and natural gas. A popular tourist destination in the Banat is Deliblatska Peščara. There are also several ethnic minorities in the region, including Hungarians (10.21% of the population), Romanians, Slovaks, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Roma people, and others.
The districts of Serbia in Banat are:
- North Banat okrug (which also includes municipalities of Ada, Senta and Kanjiža, which are situated in the region of Bačka)
- Central Banat okrug
- South Banat okrug
Serbian Banat also includes the area known as Pančevački Rit, which belongs to the Belgrade municipality of Palilula.
See also: Geographical regions in Serbia
Read more about this topic: History Of Banat, Geography