The Autonomous Province of Vojvodina (Serbian: Аутономна Покрајина Војводина, Hungarian: Vajdaság Autonóm Tartomány, Slovak: Autonómna pokrajina Vojvodina, Romanian: Provincia Autonomă Voivodina, Croatian: Autonomna Pokrajina Vojvodina, Rusyn: Автономна Покраїна Войводина) is the northern province of Serbia. Its capital is Novi Sad and the second largest town is Subotica. It is ethnically diverse, with more than 25 different ethnic groups comprising a third of the region's population. It has no less than six official languages, reflecting the region's great cultural and linguistic diversity. Vojvodina is one of two autonomous provinces of Serbia, the other being Kosovo and Metohija.

History

Vojvodina is the Serbian name for the territory of Northern Serbia, which belonged to Austria-Hungary before World War I.

The area of Vojvodina has been inhabited continuously since the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods. Sirmium was an important Roman town.

During the early medieval migrations, Slavs (Severans) settled today's Vojvodina in the 6th century. The Magyars arrived in the Pannonian Plain in the 9th century but are believed to have settled in present-day Vojvodina later on. Isolated pockets of Slavs remained in the Pannonian Plain, including Vojvodina. The region was later conquered by the Kingdom of Hungary which ruled over it until the 16th century.

An increasing number of Serbs began settling from the 14th century onward. By 1483, according to a Hungarian source, as much as half of the population of Vojvodina territory of the Kingdom of Hungary at the time would have been made up of Serbs. Another Hungarian source from the same century put the number of Serb settlers in Vojvodina at 200,000.

The Ottoman Empire took control of Vojvodina following the Battle of Mohács of 1526 and the fall of Banat in 1552. This turbulent period caused a massive depopulation of the region. The Banat areas were administered from Temesvar, while Bačka and Sirmium were under Budim.

The Habsburg Empire took control of Vojvodina among other lands by the treaties of Karlowitz (1699) and Passarowitz (1718). The areas adjacent to the Turkish territory in the south were separated into the Military Frontier, its Slavonian and Banat sections.

Wishing to express their national individuality, confronting the authorities, both Austrian and Hungarian, Serbs declared the constitution of the Serbian Vojvodina (a dukedom) at the May Assembly in Sremski Karlovci (13th to 15th May 1848). The dukedom Vojvodina consisted of Srem, Bačka, Banat and Baranja. The Serbs also formed a political alliance with the Croats "based on freedom and perfect equality". They also recognized the Romanian nationality. Josif Rajacic was elected Patriarch, and Stevan Supljikac for the first Duke. Instead of the old feudal reign a new reign was founded based on the national boards with the Head Serbian national board presiding.

The Hungarian government replied by the use of force: on June 12th 1848, a war between Serbs and Hungarians started. Austria took side of Hungary at first, demanding from the Serbs to "go back to being obedient". Though weaker in number and poorly equipped, the Serbian army fought courageously, aided by the volunteers from Serbia. As a negative consequence of this war, was the expansion of the conservative fractions. Since the Austrian court turned against the Hungarians in the later stage of revolution, feudal and clerical circles of Vojvodina formed an alliance with Austria and became a tool of the Viennese reaction to Hungarian revolution. The forces of reaction smothered the revolution, helped by the Russian Czarism, in the summer of 1849 and in that way defeated all the national and social movements in the Habsburg monarchy.

Serbian Vojvodina and Tamiš Banat, surrounded in green (Wojwodowena und Banat)

After the defeat of the revolution, by a decision of the Austrian emperor, in November 1849, an administrative area of Serbian Vojvodina and the Tamis Banat was formed. An Austrian governor seated in Temesvar ruled the area, and the title of Duke belonged to the emperor himself. After the Austrian and Hungarian authorities signed an agreement, the development of capitalism and democratic parliamentary rule had the necessary conditions to develop.

Significant settlement of Germans took place under Austrian rule. With the reshuffling of the country and the abolishment of the military frontier between 1867 and 1881, Backa and Banat were reabsorbed into Hungary while the Sirmium region was part of the Hungarian crownland of Croatia-Slavonia.

At the end of the World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed. In November 1918 the Serbian Assembly of Novi Sad proclaimed the union of Bačka, Banat, Srem and Baranja with the then Kingdom of Serbia.

Vojvodina in its current form (south Bačka, east Srem, west Banat) was formally ceded to Yugoslavia in the Treaty of Trianon of 1920. The region was again temporarily split by the Axis Powers during World War II, but was later restored as a province of Serbia with varying degrees of autonomy. It was only nominally autonomous at first but enjoyed extensive rights of self-rule under the 1974 constitution, which also gave it voting rights equivalent to Serbia itself on the country's collective presidency.

Under the rule of Serbian president Slobodan Milošević, Vojvodina and Kosovo lost most of their autonomy in September 1990. The outbreak of the Yugoslav Wars contributed to the increase of ethnic tensions, with many refugee Serbs who were driven out from Croatia and Bosnia being resettled in Vojvodina.

The fall of Milošević in 2000 created a new climate for reform in Vojvodina, with the province's ethnic minorities strongly supporting the new democratic government in Belgrade. Following talks between the parties, the province's autonomy was restored in 2002 with a new flag also being introduced.

Geography

The region is traditionally divided by the Danube and Tisa rivers into: Bačka in the northwest, Banat in the east and Srem in the southwest. Today, the western part of Srem is in Croatia while Baranja (which is between Danube and Drava, rather) is in Hungary and Croatia. Vojvodina has a total surface area of 21,500 km² (8,299 mi²).

Districts

The districts of Serbia in Vojvodina are:

• West Bačka okrug
• North Bačka okrug
• South Bačka okrug
• North Banat okrug
• Central Banat okrug
• South Banat okrug
• Srem okrug

Demographics

Population by national or ethnic groups:

• 1,321,807 Serbs (65.05%)
• 290,207 Hungarians (14.28%)
• 56,637 Slovaks (2.79%)
• 56,546 Croats (2.78%)
• 55,016 undeclared (2.71%)
• 49,881 Yugoslavs (2.45%)
• 35,513 Montenegrins (1.75%)
• 30,419 Romanians (1.50%)
• 29,057 Romanies (1.43%)
• 19,766 Bunjevci (0.97%)
• 15,626 Rusyns (0.77%)
• 11,785 Macedonians (0.58%)
• 10,154 regional affiliation (0.50%)
• 4,635 Ukrainians (0.23%)
• other

Population by mother tongue:

• 1,557,020 Serbian language (76.63%)
• 284,205 Hungarian language (13.99%)
• 55,065 Slovak language (2.71%)
• 29,512 Romanian language (1.45%)
• 21,939 Roma language (1.08%)
• 21,053 Croatian language (1.04%)
• 4,152 Macedonian language
• 2,369 Albanian language
• 920 Bulgarian language

Population by religion:

• 1,401,475 Eastern Orthodox (68.97%)
• 388,313 Catholics (Roman Catholic and Eastern Rite) (19.11%)
• 72,159 Protestants (3.55%)
• 12,583 atheists
• 8,073 Muslims
• 329 Jews
• 166 Oriental religions (Buddhism, Hinduism etc.)
• 4,456 others
• 418 without religious affiliation
• 42,876 unknown
• 101,144 undeclared on the question

Population by gender:

• 984,942 males
• 1,047,050 females

Population by age groups:

• 0-14 years: 15.85% (165332 males, 156873 females)
• 15-64 years: 68.62% (693646 males, 700416 females)
• 65 years and over: 15.53% (125964 males, 189761 females)

Source: Republic Statistical Office of Serbia

Politics

• Vojvodina Elections 2004

External links

• Politics and economics of Vojvodina

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Vojvodina |-
colspan=2 align=center	http://www.worldhistory.com/wiki/nophoto.jpg
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width=40% valign=top	Official languages		width=60%	Serbian language	Serbian, Hungarian language	Hungarian, Slovak language	Slovak, Romanian language	Romanian, Croatian language	Croatian, Rusyn language	Rusyn 1
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Capital		Novi Sad
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Area  - Total  - % water		21,500 km² n/a
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valign=top	Population  - Total (2002)  - Population density	Density		2,031,992 94.51/km²
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valign=top	List of ethnic groups	Ethnic groups (2002)		Serbs: 65.05% Hungarians: 14.28% Slovaks: 2.79% Croats: 2.78% Others: 15.1%
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Time zone		UTC +2
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colspan="2"	1: All of the official languages are used in the provincial government, Serbian is used in all municipality governments, others are used in selected municipality governments, and few minority languages are used outside official documents
}