VOJVODINA

region of Yugoslavia within the republic of Serbia. It is the northernmost part of Yugoslavia, bordered by Croatia to the west, Hungary to the north, and Romania to the east. The Vojvodina includes the historic regions of Backa, between the Danube and Tisa rivers and the Hungarian border; Banat, to the east of Backa; and Srem (Srijem), to the south. The border with Serbia proper to the south generally follows the Sava River west of Belgrade and is formed by the Danube east of the city. For the most part, the province consists of an extensive plain that is part of the Pannonian Basin, or Plain. Area 8,304 square miles (21,506 square km). Pop. (1991) 2,012,605; (1996 est.) 1,983,000. Fine chernozem soils make the Vojvodina the agricultural heart of Yugoslavia, and the region supplies much of the country's wheat and corn (maize). Many cash crops are also grown therenotably sugar beets and oilseedswhich are processed by regional enterprises. Livestock raising and petroleum and natural gas extraction near Vrac and Kikinda in the west are also important, and at Pancevo, in the south, there is a heavy industrial complex. The Vojvodina has a well-developed system of roads and railways, as well as an extensive network of canals and navigable waterways. The principal towns are Novi Sad (the administrative centre), Subotica, and Zrenjanin. The province's population is more than half Serb, with a large minority of Hungarians and smaller numbers of other ethnic groups. Slav farmers first settled in the Vojvodina in the 6th and 7th centuries, and Hungarian (Magyar) nomads arrived there in the 9th and 10th. The Ottoman Turks controlled the region from the early 16th to the late 18th century. During that time, many Serbs emigrated to the Vojvodina from Serbia proper, which was under Ottoman rule. The town of Sremski Karlovci became an important centre of Serbian Orthodox culture, especially after the abolition of the patriarchate at Pec (Kosovo) in 1766. With the region's incorporation into the Austrian Habsburg empire later in the 18th century, large numbers of Hungarians, Germans, and Romanians also migrated to the area. The immigrant population was given grants of land and awarded privileges that included the right to elect their own leader, or vojvod; in return, the immigrants provided military service, defending the empire against the Turks. This region, called the Military Frontier, underwent a succession of changes in its political status during the 19th century. It was initially attached directly to the Austrian crown, but, following the defeat of an uprising by Hungarian nationalists in 1848, portions of Backa, Banat, and Srem were united with it, under direct Viennese control, and given the title the Vojvodina. The civil and military regions were again separated in 186768: the Military Frontier remained attached to Austria, and the other segments reverted to the Hungarian crown. This section of the Military Frontier was abolished in 1873, and it, too, reverted to Hungarian control (although the name the Vojvodina continued in general use). In 1918 the Vojvodina was incorporated into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which was renamed Yugoslavia in 1929. An area of eastern Srem (the Fruka Gora ) was attached to the Vojvodina in 1931, which greatly increased the Serb population in the region. In 1945, after a wartime Axis occupation that had split up Yugoslavia, the Vojvodina was reincorporated into the new socialist Yugoslav federation as an autonomous province of the Serb republic. The process of regionalization in Yugoslavia had by 1974 made the Vojvodina a virtual republic in its own right. Serb nationalists resented the Vojvodina's independence, and Serbia reasserted direct control over it in 1989. It remained a province in the new Yugoslav republic established in 1992. The ethnic makeup of the Vojvodina was altered considerably by the warfare in the Balkan region that followed the breakup of the Yugoslav federation. An increasingly hostile atmosphere of Serb nationalism prompted many from the province's ethnic minorities to leave for neighbouring countries, reducing in particular the important Hungarian community. They were replaced by ethnic Serbs who came as refugees from Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Serbian province of Kosovo. In 1999 the Vojvodina became the target of many attacks during NATO's massive aerial bombing campaign of Yugoslavia, the province being the location of many of the country's petroleum storage and refining facilities. Bridges over the Sava and Danube were specially targeted. The bombing destroyed much of the province's infrastructure and communications. John B. Allcock