Province
This article is about political-adminstrative jurisdictions. See Ecclesiastical province and geologic province for those meanings.Province is a name for a
subnational entity.
The word is attested in English since c.1330, deriving from Old French
province (13c.), itself from Latin
provincia "territory under Roman domination". This is derived from
pro- ("on behalf of") and
vincere ("to take control")--in other words, a province is a territory or function that a Roman magistrate took control of on behalf of his government.
The word
provincia was given its territorial administrative meaning by the
Romans, when they divided their empire into
provinciae, but in many senses these were long more like modern colonies, being exploited without equal rights, which were ironically granted from the start to the
coloniae, which were smaller local settlements, often founded for veterans.
In modern languages, a province is a secondary level of government in many countries, while other use alternative terms for similar entities, such as
state (in
Australia,
Brazil,
India,
Mexico and the
United States),
land (in
Austria,
Germany),
department (in
Bolivia,
Uruguay), or
prefecture (in
Japan).
Usage varies, however. In
France, in
Spain and in
Italy provincia is a tertiary form of government, akin to a
county, within a
region. In
Sweden län is the equivalent of a county, while in
Finland its cognate
Lääni is the equivalent of
province. Various overseas parts of the
British Empire had the colonial title of
Province in a more Roman sense, such as the
Province of Canada and the
Province of South Australia (to distinguish it from the penal 'colonies' elsewhere in Australia). In Germany and Austria, the same sense of historical and cultural unity on a less-than-national scale is expressed as
Land, the common name for
states of Germany and
states of Austria.
In
France, the expression
en province still tends to mean "outside of the region of
Paris". (The same expression is used in
Peru, where
en provincias means "outside of the city of
Lima".) Prior to the
French Revolution, France consisted of various governments (such as Ile-de-France, built around the early
Capetian royal demesne) some of which were considered as provinces, although the term would be used colloquially to describes lands as small as a manor (
châtellenie). Mostly, the
Grands Gouvernements, generally former medieval feudal principalities (or agglomerates of such), were the most commonly referred to as provinces. Today, the expression is sometimes replaced with
en région, as that term is now officially used for the secondary level of government.
In historical terms,
Fernand Braudel has depicted the European provinces—built up of numerous small regions called by the French
pays or by the
Swiss cantons, each with a local cultural identity and focused upon a market town—as the political unit of optimum size in pre-industrial Early Modern Europe and asks, "was the province not its inhabitants' true '
fatherland'?" (
The Perspective of the World 1984, p. 284) Even centrally organized France, an early
nation-state, could collapse into autonomous provincial worlds under pressure, such as the sustained crisis of the
Wars of Religion, 1562—1598.
For 19th and 20th-century historians, "centralized government" had been taken as a symptom of modernity and political maturity in the rise of Europe. Then, in the late 20th century, as a
European Union drew the
nation-states closer together, centripetal forces seemed to be moving towards a more flexible system composed of more localized, provincial governing entities under the European umbrella.
Spain after Franco is a
State of Autonomies, formally unitary, but in fact functioning as a federation of
Autonomous Communities, each one with different powers. (see
Politics of Spain). While
Serbia, the rump of the former Yugoslavia, fought the separatists in the province of
Kosovo, at the same time the
UK, under the political principle of "
devolution" established local parliaments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (1998). Strong local nationalisms surfaced or developed in
Cornwall,
Languedoc,
Catalonia,
Lombardy,
Corsica and
Flanders, and east of Europe in
Abkhasia,
Chechnya and
Kurdistan.
In geology the term province refers to a specific physiogeographic area composed of a grouping of like
bathymetric or former
bathymetric elements (now
sedimentary strata above water) whose features are in obvious contrast to the surrounding regions, or other provinces. The term usually refers to sections or regions of a craton recognized within a given time-
stratigraphy, i.e., recognized within a major division of time within a period.
In many
federations (particularly those that are in fact
confederations), the province or state is not clearly subordinate to the national or "central" government. Rather, it is considered to be sovereign in regard to its particular set of constitutional functions. The central and provincial governmental functions, or areas of jurisdiction, are identified in a constitution. Those that are not specifically identified in the constitution are called "residual powers". These residual powers lie at the provincial (or state) level in a decentralised federal system (such as the United States and Australia) whereas in a centralised federal system they are retained at the federal level (as in Canada). Nevertheless, some of the enumerated powers can also be very significant. For example,
Canadian provinces are sovereign in regard to such important matters as law and order, property, civil rights, education, social welfare, medical services and even taxation.
The evolution of federations has created an inevitable tug-of-war between concepts of federal supremacy versus "states' rights". The historic division of responsibility in federal constitutions is inevitably subject to multiple overlaps. For example, when central governments, responsible for "foreign affairs", enter into international agreements in areas where the state or province is sovereign, such as the environment or health standards, agreements made at the national level can create jurisdictional overlap and conflicting laws. This overlap creates the potential for internal disputes that lead to constitutional amendments and judicial decisions that significantly change the balance of powers.
Not all "second-level" polities are termed provinces. In
Arab countries the secondary level of government, called a
muhfazah, is usually translated as a
governorate. This term is also used for the historic
Russian
guberniyas, (compare to modern-day
oblast). In
Poland, the equivalent of province is
województwo, often translated as
voivodeship.
In
Peru, provinces are a tertiary unit of government, as the country is divided into
twenty-five regions, which are then subdivided into 194 provinces.
There are also
provinces in New Zealand, but the country is not seen as a "federal" country. However, the provinces do have a few duties like collecting rates and each province has its own Health Board and District Prisons Board.
Some provinces are as large and populous as nations. The most populous province is
Henan,
China, pop. 93,000,000. Also very populous are several other Chinese provinces, as well as
Punjab, Pakistan, pop. 85,000,000.
The largest provinces by area are
Xinjiang, China (1,600,000 km²) and
Quebec,
Canada (1,500,000 km²).
The term
governorate is widely used in Arab countries to describe an administrative unit; it translates the Arabic word
muhafazah. Some governorates combine more than one
wilaya; others closely follow traditional boundaries inherited from the
Ottoman Empire's
vilayet system.
Current provinces and polities translated "province"
Ancient and medieval/feudal provinces
* Pharaonic Egypt : see
nome (Egypt)* Achaemenid Persia (and probably before in Media, again after conquest and further extension by Alexander the Great, and in the larger Hellenistic
successor states : see
satrapy *
Provinces of the Roman Empire* Byzantine Empire : see
exarchate,
thema* Frankish (Carolingian) 're-founded' Holy Roman Empire : see
gau and
county *
Caliphate and subsequent
sultanates : see
Emirate*
Khanate can also mean a province as well as an independent state, as either can be headed by a Khan
* In the Tartar
Khanate of Khazan : the five daruğa ('direction')
*
Mughal Empire :
subah * In the
Habsburg territories, the traditional provinces are partly expressed in the
Länder of 19th-century
Austria-Hungary.
*The
provinces of the Ottoman Empire had various types of governors (generally a
pasha), but mostly styled
vali, hence the predominant term
vilayet, generally subdivided (often in
beyliks or
sanjaks), sometimes grouped under a governor-general (styled
beylerbey).
Modern post-feudal & colonial provinces
*in the Spanish empire, at several echelons:
**
viceroyalty above
**
intendencia*former British colonies
**
Province of Canada (1840-1867)
**
Province of South Australia (now an
Australian state)
**
Provinces of India*The former
provinces of France*The former
provinces of Ireland*The former
provinces of Japan*The former
provinces of Sweden*The former
Republic of the Seven United Provinces (The Netherlands)
*The former
United Provinces of Central America*
Governor*
Lists of unofficial regions by country*
Provincialism(incomplete)
*
Etymology OnLine*
WorldStatesmennds-nl:Pervincie
