A territorial administrative division or province, particularly one used in Yugoslavia and some Balkan countries.
From South Slavic languages, derived from 'ban' (a governor or leader) plus the suffix '-ovina' indicating a region or territory. The term reflects the feudal administrative systems of the Balkans.
The banovina system in Yugoslavia was an attempt to organize diverse ethnic groups into manageable regions, but the system ultimately couldn't hold together the tensions between different peoples.
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