Banat

Banat (bä`nät), region extending across W Romania, NE Serbia, and S Hungary. The term banat originally referred to any of several frontier provinces of Hungary and Croatia that were ruled by bans (governors). The Banat region is bordered on the E by Transylvania and Walachia, on the W by the Tisza River, on the N by the Mureşul River, and on the S by the Danube. Except for some eastern mountains, it is primarily an agricultural area of fertile, rolling plains. Inhabited since prehistoric times, the Banat was occupied successively by Romans, Goths, Gepidae, Huns, and Avars. Slavs began to settle there in the 5th cent. and Magyars in the 9th cent. In 1233, King Andrew II of Hungary established the Banat of Severin, a frontier province whose defense was entrusted to the Knights Hospitalers. In the aftermath of the Turkish victory over the Serbs at Kosovo (1389) and the Turkish occupation of Serbia (1459), many Serbs emigrated to the Banat, which itself became a Turkish sanjak (province) around 1552. By the Treaty of Passarowitz (1718), the Banat was made an Austrian military frontier zone known as the

Banat of Temesvar. Empress Maria Theresa put the region under civilian government in 1751 and brought in thousands of German colonists. In 1779 the Banat passed to Hungary, to which it belonged until 1918, except for a brief period as an Austrian crownland. Although the Allies in World War I had promised through a secret agreement to give the Banat to Romania, it was divided by the Treaty of Trianon (1920) between Romania and newly independent Yugoslavia, with the Szeged district reserved for Hungary.

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Banat

a fertile plain extending through Hungary, Romania, and Serbia

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Banat 

historical region in Southeastern Europe, located between the Transylvanian Alps on the east and the rivers Tisa in the west, Mureşul in the north, and Danube in the south. Banat arose at the turn of the 11th century as a feudal possession. It belonged to Hungary from the 12th century; from the mid-16th to the early 18th centuries, it was part of the Ottoman Empire. By the Treaty of Passarowitz (Pozarevac; 1718) it passed to the control of Austria (later Austria-Hungary). By the Treaty of Trianon of 1920 it was divided between Rumania and Yugoslavia: the western section of Banat became part of Yugoslavia (the autonomous region of Voivodina), the eastern section, of Rumania.

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Banat 

from 1960 to 1968, an administrative unit of Rumania. In 1968 the territory of Banat was reorganized and it became part of the provinces of Arad, Caraş-Severin, and Timiş.