page_title: Hungarian occupation of Yugoslav territories
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Hungarian occupation of Yugoslav territories / Geography
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the areas of Yugoslavia occupied by Hungary between 1941-44
context_page_description: The Hungarian occupation of Yugoslav territories consisted of the military occupation, then annexation, of the Bačka, Baranja, Međimurje and Prekmurje regions of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Kingdom of Hungary during World War II. These territories had all been under Hungarian rule prior to 1920, and had been transferred to Yugoslavia as part of the post-World War I Treaty of Trianon. They now form part of several states: Yugoslav Bačka is now part of Vojvodina, an autonomous province of Serbia, Yugoslav Baranja and Međimurje are part of modern-day Croatia, and Yugoslav Prekmurje is part of modern-day Slovenia. The occupation began on 11 April 1941 when 80,000 Hungarian troops crossed the Yugoslav border in support of the German-led Axis invasion of Yugoslavia that had commenced five days earlier. There was some resistance to the Hungarian forces from Serb Chetnik irregulars, but the defences of the Royal Yugoslav Army had collapsed by this time. The Hungarian forces were indirectly aided by the local Volksdeutsche, the German minority, which had formed a militia and disarmed around 90,000 Yugoslav troops.
context_section_description: The Hungarian-occupied territory of Bačka consisted of that part of the Danube Banovina bounded by the former Hungarian–Yugoslav border to the north, the Danube to the south and west, and the Tisza to the east. The occupied territory of Baranja had also been part of the Danube Banovina, but was that area bounded by the former Hungarian-Yugoslav border to the north and west, the Drava to the west and south, and the Danube to the east. The territory of Međimurje was part of the Banovina of Croatia prior to the invasion, and was bounded by the Mura river to the north and the Drava river to the south. Prekmurje consisted of that part of the pre-war Drava Banovina that lay north of the Mura. Most of the Hungarian-occupied territories consisted of flat, largely agricultural land of the Pannonian Plain, except for some hilly country in the northwest of the Međimurje region and in the north of the Prekmurje region. The total area of the Yugoslav territories occupied by Hungary was 11,475 square kilometres (4,431 sq mi), consisting of 8,558 km² (3,304 sq mi) in Bačka, 1,213 km² (468 sq mi) in Baranja, and 1,704 km² (658 sq mi) in the Međimurje and Prekmurje regions.
caption: Map showing the division of the areas of Yugoslavia occupied then annexed by Hungary, including the relevant Hungarian administrative subdivisions
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