Banat, region in southeastern Europe,
extending over areas of present-day western Romania, northeastern Serbia
(part of the federation of Serbia and Montenegro), and southern Hungary,
with a total area of 28,524 sq km (11,013 sq mi). The term is derived from
ban, the local name for a provincial governor. The Banat was an Ottoman
province from 1552 to 1718, when it became part of Habsburg Austria. It
remained in Austria-Hungary until World War I (1914-1918). By the Treaty
of Trianon (1920) the eastern portion of the Banat, about two-thirds of
the territory, became Romanian; the western portion became part of the Yugoslavian
state (the newly formed Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes); and
a tiny portion around Szeged in the northwest remained Hungarian. The Yugoslavian
portion, which today is approximately equivalent to the Serbian province
of Vojvodina, became part of the federation of Serbia and Montenegro in
1992, after the breakup of Yugoslavia. The Romanian portion centers on the
capital of Timis district, the city of Timisoara (Hungarian Temesvár).
The region was known as the Banat of Temesvár and in earlier times
as the Banat of Severin. In the second half of the 18th century thousands
of German colonists settled in the Romanian Banat.
