Banat Republic
From Alternative History
Following World War I and the dissolution of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire many wanted to maintain the integrity of the multiethnic Banat region. On October 31st military councils were established by the different nationalities living there: Romanian, Hungarian, German, Jewish, and Serb. On November 1st Otto Roth announced the creation of the Republic of Banat. It's constitution proclaimed the Banat People's Council, which would have representatives from each ethnic group. The council had 20 members from the city council of TimiÅŸoara, the capital of Banat, 60 from the military national councils, 40 from workers councils, and 70 from bourgeois parties. Then an executive council of 20 was elected.
At first only Hungary recognized the Banat Republic. The Romanian plurality, which disagreed with the formation of the Banat Republic at first was convinced to support it through negotiations by November 5th, and a delegation of Romanian diplomats convinced Romania to recognize the country on November 10th.
Military squads and a civil guard were organized on November 4th in order to take control of the country. Since, Hungary and Romania had recognized it Serbia called off its invasion of the Banat Republic which had been scheduled for November 15th, because they did not want a war with Romania and Hungary.
The Banat Republic remained an independent democracy until World War II when Germany invaded in 1941. The Nazis installed a puppet government called the State of Banat, which was ruled entirely by the German ethnic minority. Jews were rounded up and handed over to Germany as had happened in other puppet regimes. The Serb minority also faced considerable discrimination.
In 1944 Banat was liberated by Yugoslav rebels, and after World War II it was made a constituent republic of Yugoslavia.
[edit] The Collapse of Yugoslavia
In 1992 Banat declared its independence following the same trend as Slovenia, Croatia, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina declared its independence. This was done with some resistance. The Serbs made up the third largest ethnicity in Banat. This lead to years of civil war between the ethnically divided Banat government and Serbian minority similar to the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Political affiliation seemed to be divided primarily along ethnic lines with the largest ethnicities except for the Germans (Romanians, Serbs, and Hungarians) wanting to join Romania, Serbia, or Hungary respectively. Banat is still independent, because no ethnicity ever manages to reach a majority.
