ethnically mixed historic region of eastern Europe; it is bounded by Transylvania and Walachia in the east, by the Tisza River in the west, by the Mures River in the north, and by the Danube River in the south. After 1920 Banat was divided among the states of Romania, Yugoslavia, and Hungary. The name banat has its origin in a Persian word meaning lord, or master, and was introduced into Europe by the Avars; it came to mean a frontier province or a district under military governorship.

First occupied in prehistoric times, the Banat was later controlled by the Romans, Goths, Gepidae, Huns, and Avars. The Slavs settled there in the 5th century AD, and after the Magyars displaced them (9th century), the area became an integral part of Hungary and was organized as the Banat of Severin (Terra de Zevrino) by King Andrew II in 1233. In the 14th and 15th centuries many Serbs settled there; in the mid 16th century it was conquered by the Ottoman Turks, who retained it until 1718, when Austria acquired it (Treaty of Passarowitz).

Under Austrian military rule, the region was organized as the Temeser Banat (or Banat of Temesvár). Later a civil administration took control of the northern part of the area, and the Austrian rulers encouraged the settlement of colonists from the Rhineland, Lorraine, and Luxembourg. For most of the period from 1779 to 1920, the Banat was attached to Hungary. After World War I, the victorious Allies divided it by the Treaty of Trianon (Trianon, Treaty of) (June 4, 1920). Hungary retained the district of Szeged, Romania acquired the large eastern section, and the remainder (largely part of the province of Vojvodina in present-day Serbia) went to Yugoslavia.