Syrmia

Syrmia (Ekavian Serbo-Croatian: Srem / Срем or Ijekavian Srijem / Сријем) is a region of the southern Pannonian Plain, which lies between the Danube and Sava rivers.

Most of the region is flat, with the exception of the low Fruška gora mountain stretching along the Danube in its northern part.

Srem (Serbian Cyrillic: Срем) and Srijem (Сријем) are used to designate the region in Serbia and Croatia respectively.

The region was later incorporated into the Principality of Lower Pannonia, but during the 10th century it became a battleground between Hungarians, Bulgarians, and Serbs.

[6] At the beginning of the 11th century, the ruler of Syrmia was Duke Sermon, vassal of the Bulgarian emperor Samuil.

A new but ultimately short lived area of governance named the Thema of Sirmium was established.

In 1404, Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor ceded part of Syrmia to Stefan Lazarević of Serbia.

[9] From 1459, the Hungarian kings endorsed the House of Branković and later, the Berislavići Grabarski family as the titular heads of the Serbian Despotate of which Syrmia was a part.

In 1522, the last of the titular Serbian despots in Syrmia, Stjepan Berislavić, moved to Slavonia, ahead of invading Ottoman forces.

[10] Until the Treaty of Passarowitz at the end of the Austro-Turkish War of 1716-18, remainder of Syrmia was part of the Habsburg Military Frontier.

In 1848, most of Syrmia was part of the temporary Serbian Voivodship, a Serb autonomous region within the Austrian Empire.

By a 1849 decree of the Emperor Franz Joseph, the Voivodship of Serbia and Tamiš Banat was created, comprising Northern Syrmia, including Ilok and Ruma.

In August 1942, following the joint military anti-partisan operation in the Syrmia by the Ustashe and German Wehrmacht, it turned into a massacre by the Ustasha militia that left up to 7,000 Serbs dead.

After the war, a number of towns and municipalities in the Croatian part of Syrmia were designated Areas of Special State Concern.

[20] The census showed that Croats made up 78.3% of total population, Serbs 15.5%, Hungarians 1%, Rusyns 0.9% and others.

It divided the Yugoslav constituent republic of Croatia and the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, itself part of Serbia, within Yugoslavia.

Milovan Đilas, a Montenegrin and then a confidant of Josip Broz Tito, drew the border according to demographic criteria, which explains why the town of Ilok on the Danube, with a Croat majority, lies east of Šid in Serbia, with a Serb majority.