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Torontál County
County of the Kingdom of Hungary From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Torontál (Hungarian: Torontál, German: Torontal, Serbian: Торонтал, Romanian: Torontal) was an administrative county (comitatus) of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is now divided between Serbia and Romania, except for a small area which is part of Hungary. The capital of the county was Nagybecskerek (Serbian: Велики Бечкерек, German: Großbetschkerek, Romanian: Becicherecu Mare), the current Zrenjanin.
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Geography
Torontál county was located in the Banat region. From its recreation in 1779 until its partition in 1920 it shared borders with the Hungarian counties of Bács-Bodrog, Csongrád, Csanád, Arad and Temes.
The Banat Military Frontier lay along its southern border until it was abolished in 1873, after which the river Danube formed its southern border, which it shared with the Principality of Serbia (Kingdom of Serbia after 1882), and the Slavonian Military Frontier (Croatian-Slavonian county of Syrmia after 1881).
The river Tisza formed its western border and the river Maros (Mureș) its northern border. The rivers Aranca, Bega, Timiș and Bârzava flowed through the county. Its area was 10,042 km2 (3,877 sq mi) around 1910.
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History
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Torontál county was formed before the 15th century, within the medieval Kingdom of Hungary. Initially, the capital was at Aracs/Vranjevo (now a part of the town of Novi Bečej), and the county existed until this area was taken by the Ottoman Empire in 1552. During Ottoman administration, this territory was included into the Ottoman Temeşvar Eyalet. In 1594, the region was affected by the anti-Ottoman Banat uprising of local Christians, mainly Serbs and Romanians.[1]
During the Great Turkish War (1683-1699), much of the region was temporarily liberated, but under the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699) it was returned to the Ottoman rule.[2] The region finally was captured by the Habsburg monarchy during the next Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718). Under the Treaty of Passarowitz (1718) it became a Habsburg possession, and was included into the Banat of Temeswar.[3]
This province was abolished in 1778 and it was incorporated into the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary. Torontal county was restored in 1779, with significantly different borders than in medieval times. Its center was moved temporarily to Nagyszentmiklós (present-day Sânnicolau Mare) between 1807 and 1820 due to a great fire in Nagybecskerek (present-day Zrenjanin).
In 1848/1849 the area of the county was claimed by the self-proclaimed Serbian Vojvodina, while between 1849 and 1860 it was part of the Voivodeship of Serbia and Temes Banat, a separate Austrian crownland. After 1853, the county did not exist since the voivodeship was divided into districts. After the voivodeship was abolished in 1860, the area was reincorporated into the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary and the county was recreated in January 1861. In 1876, when the administrative structure of the Kingdom of Hungary was changed, the borders of Torontal County were modified to include the District of Velika Kikinda. A few years prior, parts of the territory of the former Banat Military Frontier (including Pancsova/Pančevo, formerly the seat of the so-called German Regiment) had also been annexed to it.
In the autumn of 1918, at the end of the First World War, the ephemeral Banat Republic was proclaimed in Timișoara, and also claimed Torontál county, but the attempt to create a Banatian state failed. Under the Armistice of Belgrade (13 November), armed forces of Austria-Hungary were obligated to retreated from the territory of Bács-Bodrog county, and the region was possessed by the Allied Army of the Orient, thus allowing the Serbian Royal Army to establish effective control south of the Baja-Szeged-Mureș line line.[4]
By that time, the process of political dissolution of Austria-Hungary already entered its final stages, and on 16 November the First Hungarian Republic was proclaimed. In the same time, local Serbian and other Slavic leaders organized the Great People's Assembly of Serbs, Bunjevci and other Slavs in Banat, Bačka and Baranja, that was held on 25 November in Novi Sad, and proclaimed the unification of those regions (Banat, Bačka and Baranja, including the Torontál county), into the Kingdom of Serbia. Several days later, on 1 December 1918, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was proclaimed, encompassing Serbia with Montenegro, and South Slavic provinces of the former Austria-Hungary. Thus, two countries laid claims on the Torontál county, the Hungarian Republic and the Yugoslav Kingdom.[5]
The question was finally settled by the Treaty of Trianon of 1920, and the area of the county was divided between the Yugoslav Kingdom, Romania, and Hungary. Most of the county was assigned to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (which was later renamed to Yugoslavia). The north-eastern part of the county was assigned to Romania, and the northernmost part of the county (a small area south of Szeged, comprising Kiszombor and 8 surrounding villages) was assigned to Hungary and became part of the newly formed county of Csanád-Arad-Torontál in 1923.
The Yugoslav part of the pre-1920 Torontál county (the western Banat region) is now part of Serbia (mostly in the autonomous region of Vojvodina, except the small part near Belgrade, which is part of Belgrade Region). The Romanian part is now part of Timiș county (called Timiș-Torontal between 1919 and 1950). The Hungarian part is now part of Csongrád County.
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Demographics
Subdivisions
In the early 20th century, the subdivisions of Torontál county were:
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See also
Notes
References
Sources
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