provinces of Indonesia

A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''province'' has since been adopted by many countries. In some countries with no actual provinces, "the provinces" is a metaphorical term meaning "outside the capital city".

While some provinces were produced artificially by colonial powers, others were formed around local groups with their own ethnic identities. Many have their own powers independent of central or federal authority, especially in Canada and Pakistan. In other countries, like China or France, provinces are the creation of central government, with very little autonomy.

Etymology

The English word ''province'' is attested since about 1330 and derives from the 13th-century Old French , which itself comes from the Latin word , which referred to the sphere of authority of a magistrate, in particular, to a foreign territory.

A popular etymology is from Latin ("on behalf of") and ("to triumph" or "to take control of"). Thus a "province" would be a territory or function that a Roman magistrate held control of on behalf of his government. In fact, the word ''province'' is an ancient term from public law, which means: "office belonging to a magistrate". This agrees with the Latin term's earlier usage as a generic term for a jurisdiction under Roman law.

History and culture

In France, the expression still means "outside the Paris region". Equivalent expressions are used in Peru (, "outside the city of Lima"), Mexico (, "lands outside Mexico City"), Romania (, "outside the Bucharest region"), Poland (, "provincial"), Bulgaria (, , "in the provinces" and , , "provincial") and the Philippines (, "from outside Metro Manila", , "in the provinces", or "in the countryside"). Similarly, in Australia "provincial" refers to parts of a state outside of the state capital.

Before the French Revolution, France comprised a variety of jurisdictions (built around the early Capetian royal demesne), some being considered "provinces", though the term was also used colloquially for territories as small as a manor (). Most commonly referred to as "provinces", however, were the , generally former medieval feudal principalities, or agglomerations of such. Today the expression is regularly replaced in the media by the more politically correct , now being the term officially used for the secondary level of government.

In Italy, generally means "outside the biggest regional capitals" (like Rome, Milan, Naples, etc.).

For the United Kingdom use of the word is often pejorative, assuming a stereotype of the denizens of the provinces to be less culturally aware than those in the capital.

The historic European provinces—built up of many small regions, called by the French and "