In the 9th century, the area was ruled by the Bulgarian-Slavic dukes Glad and Salan, while in the 11th century, the eastern part of the area was ruled by duke Ahtum. From 11th to 16th century, during the administration of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary, the area was divided between the Csanadiensis County, Temesiensis County and Torontaliensis County in the east, and Csongradiensis County, Bacsensis County and Bodrogiensis County in the west. Part of the area was also located within the Cumania region. In 1526-1527, the area was ruled by the independent Serb ruler, emperor Jovan Nenad, while during Ottoman administration, it was divided between the Temeşvar Eyalet in the east and the Sanjak of Segedin in the west. During Habsburg administration, the area was divided between the Banat of Temeswar in the east and the Military Frontier in the west. Since the abolishment of the Theiß-Marosch section of the Military Frontier, and abolishment of the Banat of Temeswar, the area was divided between the Torontal County in the east and the Batsch-Bodrog County in the west, with a small part of it that was located within the Tschongrad County. Much of the area was part of the autonomous districts of Velika Kikinda in the east and Potisje in the west. In the 1850s, the area was divided between the Veliki Bečkerek District in the east and Sombor and Novi Sad districts in the west. After 1860, it was again divided between Torontal, Batsch-Bodrog and Tschongrad counties. During the royal Serb-Croat-Slovene administration, the area was initially divided between the Veliki Bečkerek County in the east and the Novi Sad County in the west. From 1922 to 1929, it was part of the Belgrade Oblast, and from 1929 to 1941 part of the Danube Banovina. During the German-Hungarian Axis occupation, the area was divided between the Banat autonomous region in the east and the Bács-Bodrog County in the west. Initially, the Banat region was part of the rump Danube Banovina, but since December 1941, it was organized as one of the districts of Serbia and was officially named the District of Veliki Bečkerek. Since 1944, the area was part of autonomous Yugoslav Vojvodina. The present-day districts of Serbia were defined by the Government of Serbia's Enactment of 29 January 1992.
Note: for municipalities with Hungarianethnic majority, the names are also given in Hungarian. An interesting fact is that the first three municipalities enlisted are geographically, in fact, in the Bačka region since the natural border between Banat and Bačka is the riverTisa.
Demographics
According to the last official census done in 2011, the North Banat District has 147,770 inhabitants.
Ethnic groups
Hungarians are the largest ethnic group in the district at 46.64%, closely followed by Serbs at 42.67%. Municipalities with Serb ethnic majority are Kikinda and Novi Kneževac, while municipalities with Hungarian ethnic majority are: Čoka, Ada, Senta and Kanjiža. As for local communities, 29 have Hungarian majority, 19 have Serb majority, and 2 are ethnically mixed, with Hungarian relative majority. The ethnic composition of the district :
Ethnic group
Population
Proportion
Hungarians
68,915
46.64%
Serbs
63,047
42.67%
Roma
4,769
3.23%
Yugoslavs
665
0.45%
Croats
530
0.36%
Romanians
421
0.28%
Albanians
264
0.18%
Montenegrins
247
0.17%
Slovaks
207
0.14%
Macedonians
198
0.13%
Germans
137
0.09%
Muslims
135
0.09%
Others
8,235
5.57%
Total
147,770
Culture
The first modern Serb printing-house was founded in Kikinda in 1878, to be followed a year later by the opening of the first library. This city is also reputable for its painters, including Teodor Ilić Češljar, Nikola Aleksić, Đura Pecić, and Đura Jakšić, a painter and author. Kikinda was the scene of the region's first theatrical performance, given in German, in 1796.
