The old ("undivided") Banat comprises areas of present-day western Romania, north-eastern Serbia, and southern Hungary, with a total area of 11,013 square miles. It was an Ottoman province from 1552 to 1718, when it became part of Habsburg Austria. Planned colonization by the Habsburg emperors brought large numbers of German settlers from the western regions of the Empire to the Banat.  By 1910 there were 388,000 ethnic Germans (locally called Swabians, later Danube Swabians) in the undivided Banat. By the Treaty of Trianon (1920) about two-thirds of the Banat became Romanian; almost a third became Serbian/Yugoslavian; only a small area around Szeget remained within Hungary. 

The Romanian part is centered around the regional capital of Temeswar/Temesvár/Timisoara.  Other important cities are Arad, Lugosch/Lugos/Lugoj and Reschitz/Resicza/Resita. The area north of the city of Arad, although located north of the river Marosch/Maros/Mures also contained a number Danube-Swabian communities and is, therefore, usually included in studies or articles dealing with the Banat.

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Banat is a region in south-eastern Europe, located between the rivers Danube in the south, Theiss / Tisza / Tisa in the west, Marosch /Maros / Mures in the north, & foothills of the Carpathian mountains in the east.

The term “banat” originates from Persian, meaning lord or master, and was introduced into Europe by the Avars; it came to mean a frontier province or a district under military governorship.