The Banat Military Frontier was a strip of territory which paralleled the left bank of the Danube from the confluence with the Theiss to Orschowa. In the settlement phase of the Banat, Magyars (Germans) were largely excluded from settling in both the Military Frontier and the Civil Banat. In a potential Magyar uprising or open rebellion against the Habsburgs, the Crown viewed the Banat Military Frontier as a buffer preventing the facile unification of Magyar revolutionaries and Turks.

The militia farmers (Colonists) of these military districts received the free use of farm land in return for part time military service. These farmers, or Grenzers, were, in most cases, indigenous peoples from the area of which the districts were formed.

For more information, please refer to Dave Dreyer’s “VII Grenzland Introduction”