Vojvodina (redirected from Vajdaság)

Vojvodina or Voivodina (both: voi'vōdē`nä), province (1991 pop. 2,013,889), 8,301 sq mi (21,500 sq km), N Serbia. Novi Sad is the chief city. A part of the Pannonian Plain, it is watered by the Danube, the Tisza, and the Sava rivers and is one of the most densely populated parts of Serbia. About 60% of the land is under cultivation. It is the breadbasket of Serbia; cereals, fruit (notably plums, used for brandy), grapes, and vegetables are extensively cultivated. Cattle raising is also important, and food processing is the most significant industry. Besides Novi Sad, the chief cities are Subotica, Zrenjanin, Sombor, and Pančevo. The region was part of Hungary and Croatia before its conquest by the Turks in the 16th cent., and it was restored to the Hungarian crown by the Treaty of Passarowitz (1699). Parts of the region were included in the military frontier of S Hungary in the 18th cent., and the whole region was settled with Serbian and Croatian fugitives from the Ottoman Empire, as well as by German colonists. The present population is still mixed and includes Serbs, Croats, Magyars, Romanians, and Slovaks. The region was ceded (1920) to Yugoslavia by the Treaty of Trianon, and it received autonomy in 1946. As constituted in 1946, the Vojvodina consists of three sections—the Srem, in the southwest, which was part of Croatia-Slavonia until 1918; the Backa, in the northwest, which was an integral part of Hungary; and the western part of the Banat of Temesvar. Under the Yugoslavian constitution of 1974, Vojvodina and Serbia's other province Kosovo were designated autonomous provinces within Serbia. The autonomy, however, was rescinded in the 1990 Serbian constitution.

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Vojvodina

Province (pop., 2004 est.: 2,022,257), within the Republic of Serbia. It covers 8,315 sq mi (21,536 sq km), and its chief city is Novi Sad. Slavs settled there in the 6th and 7th centuries, followed by Hungarian nomads in the 9th and 10th centuries. Ottoman Turks controlled the region from the 16th to the 18th century, until it became part of the Austrian Habsburg empire. By then it was a centre of Serbian Orthodox culture. In 1849 portions of the historic regions of Backa and Banat were united as the Vojvodina under Croatia-Slavonia. By 1873 the entire region had reverted to Hungary, and in 1918 it was made part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia). In 1945 it became an autonomous province of the Serbian republic, but in 1989 Slobodan Miloševic rescinded this status. In 1999, after receiving tens of thousands of Serbian refugees from Kosovo, it demanded restoration of its autonomy. Although denied full autonomy, it was granted some autonomous powers in 2002 by the Serbian parliament.

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Vojvodina, Voivodina

an autonomous region of NE Serbia and Montenegro, in N Serbia. Capital: Novi Sad. Pop.: 2 024 487 (2002). Area: 22 489 sq. km (8683 sq. miles)