Syrmia (former county)

Infobox Former Subdivision
native_name =
conventional_long_name = Syrmia County
common_name = Syrmia
subdivision = County
nation = Croatia-Slavonia
p1 =
s1 =
year_start = 12th century
event_end = Treaty of Trianon
year_end = 1920
date_end = June 4

---

image_map_caption = Map of the county within Croatia-Slavonia, Kingdom of Hungary
capital = Vukovár
stat_area1 = 6866
stat_pop1 = 414200
stat_year1 = 1910
today = Serbia, Croatia
footnotes = Vukovar is the current name of the capital.

Syrmia (Croatian: "Srijem", Hungarian: "Szerém", Serbian: "Srem" or "Срем", Latin: "Syrmia" or "Sirmium") was the name of an administrative county (comitatus) of the autonomous region Croatia-Slavonia within the historic Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is currently in eastern Croatia and north-western Serbia. The name Syrmia ("Srem" or "Srijem") is still used for the corresponding regions in Serbia and Croatia. The capital of the county was Vukovar (Hungarian: "Vukovár" or "Valkóvár").

Geography

Syrmia county shared borders with the Kingdom of Serbia, the Austro-Hungarian land Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Hungarian counties Bács-Bodrog, Torontál, Požega and Virovitica (the latter two were in Croatia-Slavonia). The county stretched along the right (southern) bank of the river Danube and the left (northern) bank of the river Sava, down to their confluence. Its area was 6,866 km² around 1910.

History

The territory of Syrmia became part of the Kingdom of Hungary in the 12th century. By the 13th century, two counties were formed in this region: Syrmia (in the east) and Vukovar (in the west). The Syrmia county was taken by the Ottoman Empire in 1521 and the area became an Ottoman sanjak in 1544. The Habsburg Empire took one part of Syrmia from the Ottomans in 1688, while the other part was taken by Habsburgs in 1718. The entire region was incorporated into the Military Frontier, which was then extended from Western Slavonia, where it stood in 1683, all the way to Transylvania.

The Syrmia county was re-established in 1745. The county was included into the Kingdom of Slavonia, a Habsburg province, which was part of both, the Kingdom of Croatia, and the Kingdom of Hungary. The Kingdom of Slavonia was mainly inhabited by Serbs and Croats.

In 1848 and 1849 the area of the county was part of the Serbian Voivodship, a Serbian autonomous region proclaimed at the May Assembly in Sremski Karlovci. Between 1849 and 1860 the area was part of the Voivodship of Serbia and Tamiš Banat, a separate crown land of the Austrian Empire.

After 1860 Syrmia County was established again, and was incorporated into the Kingdom of Slavonia, which was a completelly separate Habsburg province at the time. In 1867, as a consequence of the "Ausgleich" between the Austrians and the Hungarians, Kingdom of Slavonia was incorporated into Transleithania, the half of Austria-Hungary run from Budapest, and in the Hungarian-Croatian Settlement of 1868, it was incorporated into Croatia-Slavonia, a formally separate kingdom within the Kingdom of Hungary, which had a certain level of autonomy and was ruled by its own "ban".

After World War I, the area of Syrmia County became part of the newly formed Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918 and this was confirmed by the Treaty of Trianon of 1920. The County of Syrmia was administrative division of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes between 1918 and 1922, and then was transformed into the Province (Oblast) of Syrmia. After 1922, the county as such no longer existed.

"For the history of the region of Syrmia in general, please see that article."

Demographics

According to the census of 1910, the county had 414,234 inhabitants.

Population by language (1910 census):
*Serbian = 183,109 (44.20%)
*Croatian = 106,198 (25.64%)
*German = 68,086 (16.44%)
*Hungarian = 29,522
*Slovakian = 13,841
*Russniak = 4,642

ubdivisions

In the early 20th century, the subdivisions of Syrmia county were:

The towns of Vukovar, Ilok, Vinkovci, and Županja are currently in Croatia, in Vukovar-Srijem county. The towns of Šid, Ruma, Irig, Mitrovica (Sremska Mitrovica), Stara Pazova, Sremski Karlovci and Petrovaradin are currently in Vojvodina. Zemun is currently in Central Serbia.