Délvidék

Délvidék (Hungarian for "southern land" or "southern territories"; pronounced [deːlvideːk]) is a historical political term referring to varying areas in the southern part of what was the Kingdom of Hungary.^[1] In present-day usage, it often refers to the Vojvodina region of Serbia.

In the Middle Ages, like the names Alvidék ("lower land") and Végvidék ("borderland"), Délvidék referred to the Hungarian counties (Verőce, Pozsega, Szerém, Bács, Torontál, Temes, Keve) and vassal banates (Macsó, Ózora, Só, Szörény) beyond the Danube and the Sava.^[1]

By the 18th and 19th centuries, Délvidék referred only to Bácska and Banat.^[1] After the 1918 dismemberment of Hungary, the meaning was further narrowed to only those areas of the former Kingdom of Hungary attached to the new Yugoslav state.^[1] In the Second World War, the Yugoslav areas occupied and annexed by Hungary (Bačka, Baranja, Međimurje, and Prekmurje) were in some Hungarian sources called "az anyaországhoz visszatért délvidéki területnek" ("the southern land returned to the motherland"). Banat, divided between Romania and German-occupied Serbia was no longer considered part of the concept.

In contemporary usage, Délvidék has several uses. It can refer to the imprecisely defined area of Serbia's northern Pannonian Basin including Vojvodina, the Belgrade region, and the Mačva plain as well as eastern Croatia (Baranja and western Syrmia). Sometimes the term is used (especially by irredentist) in the narrow sense of Vojvodina although it has largely been replaced by Vajdaság, the Hungarian name for Vojvodina.^[2] "Délvidék Hungarians" (délvidéki magyarok) can refer to Hungarians in Vojvodina or, in a larger since, to both the Vojvodina Hungarians and Hungarians of Croatia.

See also

• Greater Hungary

References

This article incorporates information from this version of the equivalent article on the Hungarian Wikipedia.