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The Banat of Temeswar (German: Temeswarer Banat, Romanian: Banatul Timișoarei, Serbian: Tamiški Banat or Тамишки Банат, Hungarian: Temesi Bánság, Latin Banatus Temesiensis) was a Habsburg province that existed between 1718 and 1778. It was located in the present day region of Banat, which was named after this province. The province was abolished in 1778 and administratively incorporated into the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary. [1]
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Before this Habsburg province, an Ottoman province named Eyalet of Temeşvar existed in this region. Although after Austro-Ottoman war (1683–1697) and before the treaty of Karlowitz (1699) most parts of Banat were temporarily controlled by the forces of Prince Eugene of Savoy, the treaty recognized the Ottoman sovereignty over the region with the fort of Temeşvar. Spanish Succession War and the Rákóczi's War for Independence in the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary caused the Habsburgs to turn their attention elsewhere, so until the 1710s there were no Habsburg attempts to gain any territories from the Ottomans.
In the Austro-Turkish War of 1716-18, Prince Eugene of Savoy conquered Banat from the Ottoman Empire. It received the title of the Banat of Temeswar after the Treaty of Passarowitz (1718), and remained a separate province of the Habsburg Monarchy under military administration until 1751, when Empress Maria Theresa of Austria introduced a civil administration. The capital of the province was Temeswar.
From 1718 to 1739, Banat of Temeswar included not only Banat region, but also parts of present-day Serbia on the southern bank of the Danube river. Following the Treaty of Belgrade (1739), areas on the southern bank of Danube were returned to Ottoman control. In 1751, southern parts of Banat were excluded from the province and were transformed into Banatian Military Frontier.
The Banat of Temeswar was abolished in 1778, and in 1779 it was incorporated into Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary, while its former territory was divided into three counties: Torontál, Temes and Krassó-Szörény. The southern part of the Banat region, which was part of the Banat of Temeswar until 1751, remained part of the Military Frontier (Banat Krajina) until it was abolished in 1871.
The province had to be repopulated after the Habsburg conquest because due to previous wars it had low population density. The population density was among the lowest in Europe, some researchers suggest that it was around 1 person / square kilometres. According to the first census conducted by the Habsburg military authorities, population of Banat numbered about 20,000 inhabitants, mostly Serbs. [2] Former Muslim population of Banat has left from the area following Habsburg conquest. [2]
The low population density resulted to a colonization which continued till the early 19th century and had many sources, German families settled there from Austrian and southern German lands, Romanians from Wallachia and Transsylvania, and Serbian refugees from Ottoman Empire, as well as Serbs from other parts of the Habsburg Monarchy. The government also organized regimental districts, which had mostly Serbian population as they got special rights in exchange for defending the borders. Hungarians were excluded from this process as the settlement of Hungarians was officially forbidden till the late 18th century (this was possibly the result of the Rákóczi's War for Independence between 1703-11).
According to data from 1774, the population of the Banat of Temeswar was composed of: [3]
The first official census took part during the rule of Joseph II, from the late 18th century. This shows Romanian majority in the east, Serbian in the west, and numerous German population in the whole area.
