Voivodeship

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Voivodeship (in Polish, Województwo, sometimes also, in French, Voivodship and formerly Palatinate) is the largest unit of the political-administrative system of Poland. In the Middle Ages the Kingdom was divided into military regions led by a wojewoda or chief of warriors. At the beginning of the 14th century this system was transformed into a system of civil regions or provinces. Since 1999 modern Poland has been divided into 16 voivodeships.

The word vaivode is also used in other Slavic states of Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans as a synonym for governor. In the Ottoman Empire, the Christian princes of Moldavia and Wallachia were called vaivodes, for example. In Montenegro it was synonymous with military chief.

The case of the Serbian autonomous province of Vojvodina is interesting. In Serbian, the voice Vojvodina has a variant, Vojvodstvo, which is equivalent to the Polish word województwo (province).