Administrative division of Poland-Lithuania

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Poland-Lithuania 1619 and today's states:
red-violet = Kingdom of Poland ,
blue-violet = Grand Duchy of Lithuania ,
dark gray = Duchy of Livonia ,
pink and light gray = fiefdom,
green = Swedish and Danish

The area of ​​the Polish-Lithuanian aristocratic republic (1569-1795) consisted of the area of ​​the Polish Crown, divided into the provinces of Greater Poland and Lesser Poland, each of which comprised far more than the earlier duchy of the same name, from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , which in about the area the present-day states of Lithuania and Belarus , and, since 1582, Livonia , which formed a kind of condominium between the two parts of the empire. The fiefdoms of Courland , Ducal Prussia and the Lauenburg and Bütow lands in the rear of Pomerania were not integrated into the republic . Only a few years before the end of the aristocratic republic , the Silesian duchy of Siewierz , which belonged to the Kraków bishops, was formally attached.

The voivodships , in Latin Palatinatus , were subdivided into powiats (roughly rural districts ).

The term Duchy , in Polish Księstwo , Latin Ducatus , is used on the one hand for the large domains into which Poland was divided in the High Middle Ages and whose duchy the Polish kings have since led in their full title, on the other hand for small areas that are on the same level as the voivodships stood.

The term land , Polish Ziemia , Latin Terra , sometimes only stood for Powiats with an independent past, but in the extensive Ruthenian Voivodeship around Lemberg it was an intermediate level above the Powiats.

list

Poland in the 17th century
Voivodeships and fiefdoms of the Polish aristocratic republic

Greater Poland Province

The Province of Greater Poland (Prowincja wielkopolska) comprised the territory of the Duchies of Greater Poland and Mazovia and Royal Prussia .

Voivodeships in the Duchy of Greater Poland (with Kujawy )

Voivodeships in the Duchy of Mazovia

Voivodeships in Royal Prussia

Lesser Poland Province

The province of Lesser Poland (Prowincja małopolska) included the Duchy of Lesser Poland and Ruthenian possessions of Poland, namely Galicia , Podolia , Volynia and large parts of the Ukraine . A large part of these areas had (partly in the form of vassal states) since the 14th / 15th centuries. It belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the 17th century and only went to the Polish part of the empire with the Union of Lublin .

Voivodeships in the Duchy of Lesser Poland

Voivodeships in Ruthenia

Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Nine voivodeships and one duchy:

Livonia

Pl. Inflanty , since 1598, three provinces:

after 1620 only one