The
Dacian tribe of
Albocenses dwelled in this area in the second century AD. There are remains of the ancient
Roman fortress called
Contra Margum, opposite to the
Margum, a fortress on the other side of the Danube. In the ninth and tenth centuries, this area was populated by
Slavs and
Romanians and
Voivode Glad ruled over the region. Glad was defeated by the
Hungarians, and the area was included into the medieval
Kingdom of Hungary. In the 11th century, one of the descendants of Glad,
Ahtum, ruled over the region but he, too, was defeated by the Hungarians. The earliest mention of the settlement was in 1071 as
Keuee. Kovin is mentioned in the 12th century as a seat of the county, which included most of the western
Banat. Since the 14th century, the city has had a large
Serb population that escaped there from
Serbia under threat by the
Ottomans. The Serbian despot
Lazar Branković took control over the city in 1457, but in the next year it came again under control of the Kingdom of Hungary. In the 16th century, the city was included in the
Ottoman Empire and became a part of the Ottoman
Province of Temeşvar. During the Ottoman rule (16th-17th century), Kovin was mostly populated by ethnic
Serbs. In 1716, it became part of the
Habsburg monarchy and belonged to the Habsburg
Banat of Temeswar until 1751 when it became part of the Habsburg
Military Frontier (
Banat Krajina). In 1848/1849, Kovin was part of the
Serbian Voivodship, but in 1849 it was again placed under administration of the Military Frontier. With the abolishment of the Military Frontier in 1873, Kovin was incorporated into
Temes county within the
Kingdom of Hungary. According to the 1910 census, Kovin District had a population of 35,482, of whom 21,795 spoke
Serbian, 6,587
German, 5,705
Romanian, and 5,355
Hungarian. This town had a significant role in the outbreak of
World War I. In July 1914, a purported military skirmish here was a proximate cause of the declaration of war against Serbia by
Franz Joseph I of Austria, but the report of such skirmish was apparently false, or greatly exaggerated. In 1945, it became part of the Socialist Autonomous Province of
Vojvodina within the Socialist Republic of
Serbia and the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In 1992, Kovin became part of the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which was in 2003 transformed into the state union of
Serbia and Montenegro. Since 2006, the town is part of an independent
Serbia. == Inhabited places ==