Most people know about Kosovo and the dispute between Serbia & Albania. I saw some maps and I decided to ask why is the area called Vojvodina 'seperated' with dotted lines (Much like Kosovo in order to avoid the flame war). However I've never heard about it.
I have a goods knowledge of the ethnic groups in the Balkans & at that particular area. What's the deal with Vojvodina really?
(Worked for a defense team in the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia).
Vojvodina was an ethnically mixed (1/3 Hungarian, 1/3 Austrian/German, 1/3 Serbian) Hapsburg territory that was annexed to Serbia following the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian empire following WWI. Compared to the other Yugoslav territories, it had a much larger proportion of non-Southern Slavs (Bosnians, Croations, Kosovars, Macedonians, Serbs, ect) and very strong ethnic pluralities that did not belong to a Yugoslav nation. Since those ethnic pluralities belonged to large nations with irrendist goals, Vojvodina had to be granted a large amount of autonomy in order to ensure peace.
This state of affairs continued onwards from this foundation, especially as Yugoslavia began to fracture and its raison d'etre as a non-ethnic Southern Slav communist nation failed. Serbia is a small country and Vojvodina made up a large chunk of its territory, agricultural output and 1/4 of its population. As such, it couldn't afford to have it either be too powerful or in open rebellion. Milosevic was able to remove much of its independent political power, and some Serbian ultranationalist groups did undertake ethnic based attacks against "Hungarians" (catch all term for non-Yugoslavs in Vojvodina), but he was never in a position of sufficient power to completely wipe outs its autonomy, especially as he was surrounded by far more pressing enemies to deal with.
I don't nmknow the fully detailed local history, but the province of Vojvodina is autonomous province. And thats why it has the same dots as Kosovo has/had. The province also enjoyed autonomy during the Yugoslav Republic, and the reason behind the autonomy is probably the multicultural composition of Vojvodina province. Just like ghe province of Kosovo they were provided autonomy, to please the specific needs of the people living there. This is just brief overview, after all your question is very specific and I hope someone with more insight and knowledge about provincial Serbian local history can give a more indeth answer.