Šumadija (Serbian Cyrillic: Шумадија, pronounced [ʃumǎdija]) is a geographical region in the central part of Serbia.

[1] The region of Šumadija is surrounded by the river Morava in the east, Kolubara in the west, the Danube in the north, and the mountains of Crni Vrh, Kotlenik and Rudnik in the southeast, south and southwest.

[2] According to some interpretations (for example, physiologist J. Cvijić and ethnologist J. Erdeljanović), the northern border of Šumadija lay between Avala and Kosmaj mountain.

Central Šumadija is well known for its rich horticulture, with major products being plums, apples, pears, apricots, peaches, nuts, cherries, strawberries, and raspberries.

Notable Neolithic sites include Grivac and Kusovac in the west, Divostin in the middle, and Dobrovodica and Rajac in the east.

Central Šumadija's three parts (Gruža, Jasenica and Lepenica) most likely existed as administrative divisions or župe (counties) during the Byzantine era.

Many topographic names that have survived until today confirm old settlements, churches and monasteries (selište, crkvine, manastirine, kućerine, podrumine, varoševo, etc.

Schweiger, who passed through Serbia in 1577, among other things, said that he travelled from Kolar "[through] a deserted region, scarcely settled and badly processed, in three days not having seen more than five poor villages".

In groups, or individually, families left their homeland and went in different directions, over (preko) the rivers, to Syrmia, Banat, Bačka and Slavonia, to Bosnia, and other regions.

Among them were Milovan Vidaković, who described their way: "we are watching the villages through which and along which we passed, all are already covered in grass, not a living soul in them, all has gone; vineyards, gardens, flats, it's all empty and lying in weeds".

For example, the parents of activist Ilija Milosavljević-Kolarac fled preko with the rest of the peasants in 1813, to take shelter in front of the Ottoman army.

However, after the Austro-Turkish War, after the establishment of Koča's frontier, when Šumadija had a more bearable situation, it saw an increasing influx of settlers with its height after the outbreak of the First Serbian Uprising (1804).

[14] During the 18th century, the forests and hills of Šumadija were the refuge for the hajduk bands (brigands, rebels, guerilla fighters) that fought against Ottoman occupation.

In 1788, the Habsburg-organized Serbian Free Corps liberated Šumadija, which, after subsequent Austrian military involvement, came together with the rest of the sanjak under Habsburg occupation (1788–92).

This diverse population blended, mutually permeated and leveled, thus creating an ethnographic group (the Šumadinci), with characteristical psychical traits.

[19] Cvijić noted the particular striking character of the Šumadinci as "something very strong, bold, with great activeness, and healthy nerves", that many of them are capable, "it seems, they manage to succeed in any enterprise", and that "there is increasingly appearing personalities with great will", "Foreign observers would have the impression that everyone thrives with intractible persistence and tenacity", "Rigid traditionalism has almost completely disappeared.