Editing Vojvodina (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Vojvodina}}

===Pre-Roman times and Roman rule===
In the Neolithic period, two important archaeological cultures flourished in this area: the [[Starčevo culture]] and the [[Vinča culture]]. [[Proto-Indo-Europeans|Indo-European]] peoples first settled in the territory of present-day Vojvodina in 3200 BC. During the [[Eneolithic]] period, the [[Bronze Age]] and the [[Iron Age]], several Indo-European archaeological cultures were centered in or around Vojvodina, including the [[Vučedol culture]], the [[Vatin culture]], and the [[Bosut culture]], among others.

Before the Roman conquest in the 1st century BC, Indo-European peoples of [[Illyrians|Illyrian]], [[Thracian]] and [[Celts|Celtic]] origin inhabited this area. The first states organized in this area were the Celtic [[Scordisci|State of the Scordisci]] (3rd century BC-1st century AD) with capital in [[Singidunum]] ([[Belgrade]]), and the [[Dacian Kingdom]] of [[Burebista]] (1st century BC).

During Roman rule, [[Sirmium]] (modern [[Sremska Mitrovica]]) was one of the four capital cities of the [[Roman Empire]], and six [[Roman Emperors]] were born in this city or in its surroundings. The city was also the capital of several Roman administrative units, including [[Pannonia Inferior]], [[Pannonia Secunda]], the [[Diocese of Pannonia]], and the [[Praetorian prefecture of Illyricum]].

Roman rule lasted until the 5th century, after which the region came into the possession of various peoples and states. While [[Banat]] was a part of the Roman province of [[Dacia]], [[Syrmia]] belonged to the Roman province of [[Pannonia (Roman province)|Pannonia]]. [[Bačka]] was not part of the Roman Empire and was populated and ruled by Sarmatian [[Iazyges]].

===Early Middle Ages and Slavic settlement===
After the Romans were driven away from this region, various Indo-European and Turkic peoples and states ruled in the area. These peoples included Goths, Sarmatians, Huns, Gepids and Avars. For regional history, the largest in importance was a Gepid state, which had its capital in Sirmium. According to the 7th-century ''[[Miracles of Saint Demetrius]]'', [[Pannonian Avars|Avars]] gave the region of Syrmia to a Bulgar leader named [[Kuber]] circa 680. The Bulgars of Kuber moved south with Maurus to Macedonia where they co-operated with [[Tervel]] in the 8th century.
[[File:Arača 5.jpg|thumb|left|Ruins of [[Arača]] church]]
[[Slavs]] settled today's Vojvodina in the 6th and 7th centuries,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.blic.rs/Vesti/Vojvodina/997/Slovenski-grobovi-uz-reku-Galadsku|title=Slovenski grobovi uz reku Galadsku|date=2 April 2007 |publisher=Blic.rs|access-date=23 July 2012}}</ref> before some of them crossed the rivers Sava and Danube and settled in the Balkans. Slavic tribes that lived in the territory of present-day Vojvodina included Abodrites, Severans, Braničevci and Timočani.

In the 9th century, after the fall of the Avar state, the first forms of Slavic statehood emerged in this area. The first Slavic states that ruled over this region included the Bulgarian Empire, [[Great Moravia]] and Ljudevit's Pannonian Duchy. During the Bulgarian administration (9th century), local Bulgarian dukes, [[Salan]] and [[Glad (duke)|Glad]], ruled over the region. Salan's residence was Titel, while that of Glad was possibly in the rumoured rampart of Galad or perhaps in the Kladovo (Gladovo) in eastern Serbia. Glad's descendant was the duke Ahtum, another local ruler from the 11th century who opposed the establishment of Hungarian rule over the region.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

In the village of [[Čelarevo]] archaeologists have also found traces of people who practised the Judaic religion. Bunardžić dated Avar-Bulgar graves excavated in Čelarevo, containing skulls with Mongolian features and Judaic symbols, to the late 8th and 9th centuries. Erdely and Vilkhnovich consider the graves to belong to the [[Kabars]] who eventually broke ties with the Khazar Empire between the 830s and 862. (Three other [[Khazar]] tribes joined the [[Magyars]] and took part in the Magyar conquest of the Carpathian basin including what is now Vojvodina in 895–907.){{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

===Hungarian rule===
[[File:Bač fortress (Bačka tvrđava).JPG|thumb|right|[[Bač Fortress]]]]
Following territorial disputes with Byzantine and Bulgarian states, most of Vojvodina became part of the [[Kingdom of Hungary]] between the 10th and 12th century and remained under Hungarian administration until the 16th century (Following periods of Ottoman and Habsburg administrations, Hungarian political dominance over most of the region was established again in 1867 and over entire region in 1882, after abolition of the Habsburg Military Frontier).{{Citation needed|date=January 2017}}

The regional demographic balance started changing in the 11th century when Magyars began to replace the local Slavic population. But from the 14th century, the balance changed again in favour of the Slavs when Serbian refugees fleeing from territories conquered by the Ottoman army settled in the area. Most<ref name="hungarian">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-zZ_NVM9mNEC&q=%22lost+their+Hungarian+populations+for+more+than+two+centuries%22|title=Ethnic Geography of the Hungarian Minorities in the Carpathian Basin|via=google.rs|pages=140, 155|isbn=9781931313759|last1=Kocsis|first1=Karoly|last2=Kocsis-Hodosi|first2=Eszter|date=April 2001|publisher=Simon Publications, Incorporated }}</ref> of the Hungarians left the region during the Ottoman conquest and early period of Ottoman administration, so the population of Vojvodina in Ottoman times was predominantly Serbs (who comprised an absolute majority of Vojvodina at the time), with significant presence of Muslims of various ethnic backgrounds.<ref name="hungarian"/>

===Ottoman rule===
After the defeat of the [[Kingdom of Hungary in the Middle Ages|Kingdom of Hungary]] at [[Mohács]] by the [[Ottoman Empire]], the region fell into a period of anarchy and civil wars. In 1526 [[Emperor Jovan Nenad|Jovan Nenad]], a leader of Serb mercenaries, established his rule in [[Bačka]], northern [[Banat]] and a small part of [[Syrmia]]. He created an ephemeral independent state, with [[Subotica]] as its capital.

At the peak of his power, Jovan Nenad proclaimed himself Serbian Emperor in Subotica. Taking advantage of the extremely confused military and political situation, the Hungarian noblemen from the region joined forces against him and defeated the Serbian troops in the summer of 1527. Emperor Jovan Nenad was assassinated and his state collapsed. After the fall of emperor's state, the supreme military commander of Jovan Nenad's army, [[Radoslav Čelnik]], established his own temporary state in the region of Syrmia, where he ruled as Ottoman vassal.

A few decades later, the whole region was added to the [[Ottoman Empire]], which ruled over it until the end of the 17th and the first half of the 18th century, when it was incorporated into the [[Habsburg monarchy]]. The [[Treaty of Karlowitz]] of 1699, between [[Great Turkish War|Holy League]] and [[Ottoman Empire]], marked the withdrawal of the Ottoman forces from [[Central Europe]], and the supremacy of the [[Habsburg monarchy]] in that part of the continent. According to the treaty, the western part of Vojvodina passed to Habsburgs. The eastern part (eastern Syrmia and [[Temeşvar Province, Ottoman Empire|Province of Tamışvar]]) remained in Ottoman hands until Austrian conquest in 1716. This new border change was ratified by the [[Treaty of Passarowitz]] in 1718.

===Habsburg rule===
====Hungarian Crown land (1699–1849)====
During the [[Great Serb Migrations|Great Serb Migration]], Serbs from Ottoman territories settled in the Habsburg monarchy at the end of the 17th century (in 1690).<ref>{{cite book |last1=DeLucia |first1=JoEllen |title=Migration and Modernities The State of Being Stateless, 1750-1850 |date=2018 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=9781474440363 |page=156 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gHoxEAAAQBAJ&dq=Great+Serbian+Migration,+Serbs+from+Ottoman+territories+settled+in+the+Habsburg+monarchy&pg=PA156}}</ref> Most settled in what is now Hungary, with the lesser part settling in western Vojvodina. All Serbs in the Habsburg monarchy gained the status of a recognized nation with extensive rights, in exchange for providing a border militia (in the [[Military Frontier]]) that could be mobilized against invaders from the south (such as the Ottomans), as well as in case of civil unrest in the Habsburg Kingdom of Hungary.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}} Wallachian Right became the point of reference in the 18th century for military settlement in lowland region. The Vlachs who settled there were actually mainly Serbs, although there were also Romanians while [[Aromanians]] lived in the urban areas.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Czamańska |first1=Ilona |title=The Vlachs – several research problems |journal=Balcanica Posnaniensia. Acta et studia |date=2015 |volume=22 |issue=1 |page=13 |doi=10.14746/bp.2015.22.1 |url=https://pressto.amu.edu.pl/index.php/bp/article/view/3895/0}}</ref>

At the beginning of Habsburg rule, most of the region was integrated into the Military Frontier, while western parts of Bačka were put under civil administration within the County of Bač. Later, the civil administration was expanded to other (mostly northern) parts of the region, while southern parts remained under military administration. The eastern part of this area was held again by the [[Ottoman Empire]] between 1787 and 1788, during the [[Russo-Turkish War (1787–1792)|Russo-Turkish War]]. In 1716, [[Vienna]] temporarily forbade settlement by Hungarians and Jews in the area, while large numbers of German speakers were settled in the region from Bavaria and southern areas, in order to repopulate it and develop agriculture. From 1782, [[Protestantism|Protestant]] Hungarians and [[ethnic Germans]] settled in larger numbers.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

[[File:Serbia and Vojvodina 1848.png|thumb|left|Proclaimed borders of Serbian Vojvodina at the May Assembly (1848) and autonomous Ottoman [[Principality of Serbia]]]]
During the [[Revolutions of 1848|1848–49 revolutions]], Vojvodina was a site of a war between Serbs and Hungarians, due to the opposite national conceptions of the two peoples. At the [[May Assembly]] in [[Sremski Karlovci]] (13–15 May 1848), Serbs declared the constitution of the ''[[Serbian Vojvodina|Serbian Voivodship]]'' (''Serbian Duchy''), a Serbian autonomous region within the [[Austrian Empire]]. The Serbian Voivodship consisted of Srem, Bačka, Banat, and [[Baranya (region)|Baranja]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Boarov |first1=Dimitrije |title=Na pravoj ili krivoj strani istorije |url=http://www.yurope.com/nasa-borba/arhiva/Maj98/1005/1005_2.HTM |website=Naša Borba |date=10 May 1997}}</ref>

The head of the [[Metropolitanate of Karlovci|metropolitanate of Sremski Karlovci]], [[Josif Rajačić]], was elected [[Patriarchate of Karlovci|patriarch]], while [[Stevan Šupljikac]] was chosen as first [[Voivode|voivod]] (duke). The ethnic war erupted violently in the area, with both sides committing atrocities against the civilian populations.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

====Austrian Crown land (1849–1860)====

Following the Habsburg-Russian and Serb victory over the Hungarians in 1849, a new administrative territory was created in the region in November 1849, in accordance with a decision made by the [[Austrian emperor]]. By this decision, the Serbian autonomous region created in 1848 was transformed into the new Austrian [[crown land]] known as '''[[Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar]]'''. It consisted of Banat, Bačka and Srem, excluding the southern parts of these regions which were part of the Military Frontier with significant Serbian populations.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Storm |editor1-first=Eric |editor2-last=Núñez Seixas |editor2-first=Xosé M. |title=Regionalism and Modern Europe: Identity Construction and Movements from 1890 to the Present Day |date=2018 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=9781474275217 |page=312 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9ll-DwAAQBAJ&dq=Voivodeship+of+Serbia+and+Banat+of+Temeschwar+excluded+southern+military+frontier&pg=PA312}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Stojkovski |editor1-first=Boris |title=Voyages and Travel Accounts in Historiography and Literature. Volume 2 Connecting the Balkans and the Modern World |date=2020 |publisher=Trivent Publishing |isbn=9786158179355 |page=132 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t2ZsEAAAQBAJ&dq=Serbian++1848++Voivodeship+of+Serbia+and+Banat+of+Temeschwar&pg=PA132}}</ref> An Austrian governor seated in [[Timișoara|Temeschwar]] ruled the area, while the title of Voivod belonged to the [[Austrian Emperor|emperor]] himself. The full title of the [[Austrian Emperor|emperor]] was "[[Grosswojwod|Grand Voivod]] of the Voivodship of Serbia" (German: ''Großwoiwode der Woiwodschaft Serbien''). German and Serbian were the official languages of the crown land. In 1860, the new province was abolished and most of it (with exception of Syrmia) was again integrated into the Habsburg [[Kingdom of Hungary]].<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Parker |editor1-first=Joshua |editor2-last=Poole |editor2-first=Ralph J. |title=Austria and America: Cross-cultural Encounters 1865-1933 |date=2014 |publisher=Lit |isbn=9783643905765 |page=30 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VIi8BAAAQBAJ&dq=Voivodeship+of+Serbia+and+Banat+of+Temeschwar+abolished+1860&pg=PA30}}</ref>

===Hungarian rule===

====Hungarian Crown land (1860–1867)====
[[File:Blagovestenski sabor 1861.jpg|thumb|right|[[Annunciation Council|Blagoveštenski assembly]] in Sremski Karlovci, 1861]]

Vojvodina remained Austrian Crown land until 1860, when Emperor [[Franz Joseph]] decided that it would be Hungarian Crown land again.<ref>{{cite book|author=Geert-Hinrich Ahrens|title=Diplomacy on the Edge: Containment of Ethnic Conflict and the Minorities Working Group of the Conferences on Yugoslavia|publisher=[[Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars|Woodrow Wilson Center Press Series]]|year=2007|page=243|isbn=9780801885570|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b3fLRcHYSVAC&q=hungarian+%22crown+land%22+vojvodine&pg=PA243}}</ref> After 1867, the Kingdom of Hungary became one of two self-governing parts of [[Austria-Hungary]], and the territory was returned again to Hungarian administration.

====Counties in the Kingdom of Hungary (1867–1920)====

In 1867, a new county system was introduced. This territory was organized among [[Bács-Bodrog County|Bács-Bodrog]], [[Torontál County|Torontál]] and [[Temes County|Temes]] counties. The era following the [[Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867|Austro-Hungarian Compromise]] of 1867 was a period of economic flourishing. The Kingdom of Hungary had the second-fastest growing economy in Europe between 1867 and 1913,{{citation needed|date=March 2020}} but ethnic relations were strained. According to the 1910 census, the last census conducted in Austria-Hungary, the population of Vojvodina included 510,754 (33.8%) Serbs; 425,672 (28.1%) Hungarians; and 324,017 (21.4%) Germans.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}<!-- The census is cited -->

===Kingdom of Yugoslavia===
{{contradictory|Syrmia entered as a part of Vojvodina or the State SHS?|date=July 2021}}
[[File:Panorama Novog Sada.jpg|thumb|[[Novi Sad]], at the beginning of 20th century]]
At the end of [[World War I]], the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed. On 29 October 1918, Syrmia became a part of the [[State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs]]. On 31 October 1918, the [[Banat Republic]] was proclaimed in [[Timișoara]]. The government of Hungary recognized its independence, but it was short-lived.

On 25 November 1918, the [[Great People's Assembly of Serbs, Bunjevci and other Slavs in Banat, Bačka and Baranja]] in Novi Sad proclaimed the unification of Vojvodina ([[Banat, Bačka and Baranja]]) with the [[Kingdom of Serbia]] (The assembly numbered 757 deputies, of which 578 were [[Serbs]], 84 [[Bunjevci]], 62 [[Slovaks]], 21 [[Rusyns]], 6 [[Germans]], 3 [[Šokci]], 2 [[Croats]] and 1 [[Magyars|Hungarian]]).<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Rastović |editor1-first=Aleksandar |editor2-last=Carteny |editor2-first=Andrea |editor3-last=Vučetić |editor3-first=Biljana |title=War, Peace and Nation-building (1853-1918) |date=2020 |publisher=Institute of History |isbn=9788677431402 |pages=20–21 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FEkUEAAAQBAJ&dq=25+November+1918,+the+Great+People's+Assembly+of+Serbs+757&pg=PA20}}</ref> One day before this, on 24 November, the Assembly of Syrmia also proclaimed the unification of Syrmia with Serbia. On 1 December 1918, Vojvodina (as part of the Kingdom of Serbia) officially became part of the [[Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes]].<ref>{{cite book |author1-last=Nikolić |author1-first=Marko |author2-last=Davidović |author2-first=Vladimir |author3-last=Tanasković |author3-first=Darko |author4-last=Radojević |author4-first=Mileta |title=Religion and Law in Serbia |date=2024 |publisher=Wolters Kluwer |isbn=9789403517087 |page=71 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3J4JEQAAQBAJ&dq=1+December+1918,+Vojvodina+Kingdom+of+Serbs&pg=PA71}}</ref>

[[File:Velika-narodna-skupstina-1918.jpg|thumb|left|Assembly of Serbs, Bunjevci, and other nations of Vojvodina in Novi Sad proclaimed the unification of Vojvodina region with the Kingdom of Serbia, 1918.]]
Between 1929 and 1941, the region was part of the [[Danube Banovina]], a province of the [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Zakić |first1=Mirna |title=Ethnic Germans and the Invasion of Yugoslavia. 1941 |date=2017 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781107171848 |page=58 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v1xEDgAAQBAJ&dq=1929+and+1941+vojvodina+danube+banovina&pg=PA58}}</ref> Its capital city was Novi Sad. Apart from the core territories of Vojvodina and Baranja, it included significant parts of [[Šumadija]] and [[Braničevo (region)|Braničevo]] regions south of the Danube (but not the [[Belgrade City Administration (1929–41)|capital city of Belgrade]]).

===World War II and immediate aftermath===
Between 1941 and 1944, during [[World War II]], [[Nazi Germany]] and its allies, [[Kingdom of Hungary (1920–1946)|Hungary]] and the [[Independent State of Croatia]], [[Occupation of Vojvodina, 1941-1944|occupied Vojvodina]] and divided it. Bačka and Baranja were annexed by Hungary and Syrmia was included in the Independent State of Croatia. A smaller Danube Banovina (including Banat, Šumadija, and Braničevo) was designated as part of the area governed by the [[Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia|Military Administration in Serbia]]. The administrative center of this smaller province was [[Smederevo]]. But, Banat was a separate autonomous region ruled by its ethnic German minority.

The occupying powers committed numerous crimes against the civilian population, especially against Serbs, Jews and Roma; the Jewish population of Vojvodina was almost completely killed or deported. In total, [[Axis Powers|Axis]] occupational authorities killed about 50,000 citizens of Vojvodina (mostly Serbs, Jews and Roma) while more than 280,000 people were interned, arrested, violated or tortured. Such crimes in varying regions of Vojvodina were carried out by Nazi Germans, Ustaše and Hungarian Axis forces.<ref>Popov, Dr Dušan, ''Vojvodina, Enciklopedija Novog Sada, sveska 5'', Novi Sad, 1996, pg. 196.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref> Many historians and authors describe the [[Ustashe]] regime's mass killings as [[Persecution of Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia|genocide of the Serbs]], including [[Raphael Lemkin]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Crowe|first=David|title=Crimes of State Past and Present: Government-Sponsored Atrocities and International Legal Responses|year=2011|publisher=Routledge|pages=45–46}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=McCormick|first=Robert B.|title=Croatia Under Ante Pavelić: America, the Ustaše and Croatian Genocide|year=2014|location=London-New York|publisher=I.B. Tauris|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c-t7BAAAQBAJ|isbn=9781780767123}}</ref><ref>{{cite web| url=http://public.mzos.hr/fgs.axd?id=10921| author=Ivo Goldstein| title=Uspon i pad NDH| publisher=[[Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb]]| access-date=20 February 2011| url-status=dead| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717114852/http://public.mzos.hr/fgs.axd?id=10921| archive-date=17 July 2011| author-link=Ivo Goldstein}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TtWycwryensC&pg=PA430 |title=Century of genocide: critical essays and eyewitness accounts|isbn=0-203-89043-4|page=430|date=1997|author=Samuel Totten, William S. Parsons|publisher=Taylor & Francis |access-date=28 September 2010}}</ref> In 1942, in the [[Novi Sad Raid]], a military operation carried out by the [[Royal Hungarian Army|Királyi Honvédség]], the armed forces of [[Kingdom of Hungary|Hungary]], during [[World War II]], after [[Hungarian occupation of Yugoslav territories|occupation and annexation]] of former [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslav]] territories. It resulted in the deaths of 3,000–4,000 civilians in the southern [[Bačka]] (Bácska) region. Under the Hungarian authority, 19,573 people were killed in Bačka, of which the majority of victims were of Serb, Jewish and Romani origin.

[[File:Fruška gora - spomenik na Iriškom vencu, WWII memorial 04.jpg|thumb|The Freedom Monument on the [[Fruška Gora]], dedicated to the [[Resistance during World War II|anti-fascist resistance]] in [[Axis occupation of Vojvodina|occupied Vojvodina]]]]
When Axis occupation ended in 1944, the region was temporarily placed under a military administration (1944–45) run by the new communist authorities. During and after the military administration, several thousands of citizens were killed. Victims were mostly ethnic Germans, but Hungarian and Serb populations were also killed. Both the war-time Axis occupational authorities and the post-war communist authorities ran concentration/prison camps in the territory of Vojvodina (see [[List of concentration and internment camps]]). While war-time prisoners in these camps were mostly Jews, Serbs and communists, post-war camps were formed for ethnic Germans (historically known as [[Danube Swabians]]).{{Citation needed|date=January 2017}}

Most Vojvodina ethnic Germans (about 200,000) fled the region in 1944, together with the defeated German army.<ref>Dragomir Jankov, ''Vojvodina – propadanje jednog regiona'', Novi Sad, 2004, page 76.</ref> Most of those who remained in the region (about 150,000) were sent to some of the villages cordoned off as prisons. It is estimated that some 48,447 Germans died in the camps from disease, hunger, malnutrition, mistreatment, and cold.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://adevarul.ro/locale/focsani/cine-fost-baba-novac-credinciosul-general-mihai-viteazul-ucis-unguri-chinuri-groaznice-devorat-corbi-1_5587fbd3cfbe376e358b3190/index.html|title=Cine a fost Baba Novac, credinciosul general al lui Mihai Viteazul, ucis de unguri în chinuri groaznice şi devorat de corbi|date=22 June 2015 }}</ref> Some 8,049 Germans were killed by partisans during military administration in Vojvodina after October 1944.<ref>Stefanović, Nenad. ''Jedan svet na Dunavu'', Beograd, 2003, page 133.</ref><ref>Janjetović, Zoran. ''Between Hitler and Tito'', 2005.</ref>

It has also been estimated that post-war communist authorities killed some 15,000–20,000 Hungarians<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hungarytoday.hu/cikk/commemoration-held-70th-anniversary-vojvodina-hungarian-massacre-szeged-92948|title=Commemoration Held On 70th Anniversary Of Vojvodina Hungarian Massacre In Szeged|work=Hungary Today|date=26 January 2015}}</ref><ref>Jankov, Dragomir. ''Vojvodina – propadanje jednog regiona'', Novi Sad, 2004, page 78.<!-- ISSN/ISBN needed --></ref> and some 23,000–24,000 Serbs<ref name="mail-archive1">{{cite web|url=http://www.mail-archive.com/sim@antic.org/msg44296.html|title=[sim] Srbe podjednako ubijali okupator i i "oslobodioci"|date=14 January 2009|work=mail-archive.com}}</ref> during [[Communist purges in Serbia in 1944–45]]. According to [http://www2.masfak.ni.ac.rs/sitegenius/topic.php?id=1693 Dragoljub Živković], some 47,000 ethnic Serbs were murdered in Vojvodina between 1941 and 1948. About half were killed by occupational Axis forces and the other half by the post-war Communist authorities.<ref name="mail-archive1"/>

The region was politically restored in 1944 (incorporating Syrmia, Banat, Bačka and Baranja) and became an autonomous province of Serbia in 1945. Instead of the previous name (Danube Banovina), the region regained its historical name of Vojvodina, while its capital city remained Novi Sad. When the final borders of Vojvodina were defined, Baranja was assigned to Croatia, while the northern part of the Mačva region was assigned to Vojvodina.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

===Socialist Yugoslavia===
For decades, the province enjoyed only a small level of autonomy within Serbia. Under the 1974 Yugoslav constitution, it gained extensive rights of self-rule, as both Kosovo and Vojvodina were given ''de facto'' veto power in the Serbian and Yugoslav parliaments. Changes to their status could not be made without the consent of the two Provincial Assemblies.{{citation needed|date=March 2018}}

The 1974 Serbian constitution, adopted at the same time, reiterated that "the Socialist Republic of Serbia comprises the [[Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina]] and the [[Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo]], which originated in the common struggle of nations and nationalities of Yugoslavia in the National Liberation War (the Second World War) and socialist revolution".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bjelica|first=Slobodan|title=Views of Vojvodinian Leadership on Re-Opening the Issue of the Relationship Between Sr Serbia and Sap Vojvodina in 1981|date=2016|url=http://istrazivanja.ff.uns.ac.rs/index.php/istr/article/view/1885|journal=Istraživanja: Journal of Historical Researches|language=en|issue=27|pages=258–273|doi=10.19090/i.2016.27.258-273|issn=2406-1131|doi-access=free}}</ref>

[[File:Novi Sad, Mihajla Pupina, budova vlády Vojvodiny večer.jpg|right|thumb|[[Banovina Palace]], the seat of the Provincial [[Government of Vojvodina]], at night.]]
In 1990s, during the [[Croatian War of Independence|war in Croatia]] in [[persecution of Croats in Serbia during Yugoslav Wars]] was organized and participated in the expulsion of the Croats in some places in Vojvodina. Based on an investigation by the ''Humanitarian Law Fund'' from Belgrade in the course of June, July, and August 1992, more than 10,000 Croats from Vojvodina exchanged their property for the property of Serbs from Croatia, and altogether about 20,000 Croats left Serbia.<ref>[http://www.aimpress.ch/dyn/trae/archive/data/199506/50619-002-trae-beo.htm Croats in Serbia which is not in war with Croatia, With head stuck into sand]</ref> According to other estimations, the number of Croats which have left Serbia under political pressure of Milošević's regime might be between 20,000 and 40,000.<ref>[http://www.mvpei.hr/hmiu/tekst.asp?q=hnm007 Hrvatska nacionalna manjina u Srbiji] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090311170041/http://www.mvpei.hr/hmiu/tekst.asp?q=hnm007 |date=March 11, 2009 }}</ref> According to Petar Kuntić of [[Democratic Alliance of Croats in Vojvodina]], 50,000 Croats were pressured to move out from Serbia during the Yugoslav wars.<ref>{{in lang|sr}} [http://www.danas.org/content/article/1622985.html?page=2 Sedamnaest godina od proterivanja Hrvata iz Hrtkovaca, Zoran Glavonjić]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2010&mm=05&dd=06&nav_id=66956 |title=Anniversary of SRS rally in Vojvodina town |access-date=2011-05-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100510192931/http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-article.php?yyyy=2010&mm=05&dd=06&nav_id=66956 |archive-date=2010-05-10 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Under the rule of Serbian president [[Slobodan Milošević]], a series of protests against Vojvodina's party leadership took place during the summer and autumn of 1988, which forced it to resign. Eventually Vojvodina and Kosovo had to accept Serbia's constitutional amendments that practically dismissed the autonomy of the provinces in Serbia. Vojvodina and Kosovo lost elements of statehood in September 1990 when the new constitution of the Republic of Serbia was adopted.

Vojvodina was still referred to as an autonomous province of Serbia, but most of its autonomous powers – including, crucially, its vote on the Yugoslav collective presidency – were transferred to the control of Belgrade, the capital. The province still had its own parliament and government, and some other autonomous functions as well. According to Đorđe Tomić, this is an example of a [[phantom border]].<ref>{{cite thesis|url=http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/dissertationen/tomic-dorde-2014-11-28/PDF/tomic.pdf|title="Phantomgrenzen" in Zeiten des Umbruchs – die Autonomieidee in der Vojvodina der 1990er Jahre|author=Đorđe Tomić|date=28 November 2014|publisher=Philosophische Fakultät I |doi=10.18452/17174 }} Dissertation. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 2015.</ref>

===Contemporary period===
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The fall of Milošević in 2000 created a new political climate in Vojvodina. Following talks between the political parties, the level of the province's autonomy was somewhat increased by the [[omnibus law (Serbia)|omnibus law]] in 2002.{{citation needed|date=December 2016}} The Vojvodina provincial assembly adopted a new statute on 15 October 2008, which, after being partially amended, was approved by the [[Parliament of Serbia]].{{citation needed|date=December 2016}}

On 28 January 2013, as an answer to the proposal of the [[Third Serbia]] political organization from Novi Sad to abolish the autonomy of Vojvodina,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://trecasrbija.rs/ |title=Трећа Србија |access-date=2021-04-01 |archive-date=2013-01-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130119052357/http://trecasrbija.rs/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rtv.rs/sr_ci/vojvodina/novi-sad/treca-srbija:-ds-brinula-o-kulturi-kao-o-lanjskom-snegu_367019.html|title = Трећа Србија: ДС бринула о култури као о лањском снегу}}</ref> the [[Vojvodina Autonomist Movement|pro-autonomist]] [[Vojvodina's Party]] performed a campaign that involved the posting of "Republic of Vojvodina" posters in [[Novi Sad]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2013&mm=01&dd=28&nav_category=11&nav_id=681363|title = NS:Novi plakati Vojvodina republika}}</ref>