Counties of Estonia

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A county (Estonian: maakond) is an administrative subdivision of Estonia. Estonia is divided into 15 counties. The government (Estonian: maavalitsus) of each county is led by a county governor (Estonian: maavanem), who represents the national government at the regional level. He is appointed by the government for a term of five years.

Contents

1 List of counties
2 History
3 See also
4 External links

List of counties

The counties of Estonia

Each county is further divided into municipalities which are of two types: urban municipality, or town (Estonian: linn), and rural municipality, or commune (Estonian: vald).

History

See also: History of Estonia

It is thought that counties first formed in the beginning of the 2nd millennium as political and military unions of parishes. The counties themselves were independent, as Estonia had no central government.

The first written information about Estonian sub-divisions comes from the Chronicle of Henry of Livonia, written in the 13th Century during the Northern Crusades. According to it, there were 8 large counties - Ugandi (in south-eastern Estonia), Sakala (roughly modern Pärnumaa and Viljandimaa), Läänemaa, Saaremaa, Harju (modern southern Harjumaa and Raplamaa), Rävala (modern northern Harjumaa, including Tallinn), Järva and Virumaa. Additionally there were several smaller counties in central Estonia where danger of war was smaller - Vaiga, Mõhu, Nurmekund and Alempois. The exact number and borders of some counties are disputed.

The old counties lost their importance after Estonia was conquered and divided between Denmark, Livonian Order, Bishopric of Dorpat and Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek. The names of Rävala, Ugandi, Sakala and the smaller counties disappeared from common usage.

In the 1580s, after the Livonian war as Sweden had conquered Northern Estonia, Harju, Järva, Lääne and Viru counties were officially formed there. Southern Estonia, which belonged to Poland 1582-1625, was divided into voivodships of Pärnu and Tartu; the island of Saaremaa belonged to Denmark until 1645. They all became counties as they went under Swedish rule.

This administrative system mostly remained as Estonia went under Russian rule as a result of the Northern War. In 1793 were formed Võru County in the south of Tartumaa, Viljandi County between Tartu and Pärnu counties, and Paldiski County in the west of Harjumaa. In 1796 Paldiski County was joined with Harjumaa again. Until 1888 Võrumaa and Viljandimaa were not completely independent from Tartumaa and Pärnumaa respecively.

Several changes were made to the borders of countis after Estonia became independent, most notably the formation of Valga County (from parts of Võru, Tartu and Viljandi counties) and Petseri County (area acquired from Russia with the 1920 Tartu peace treaty).

During the Soviet rule, Petseri County once again became a part of Russia in 1945. Hiiumaa seceded from Läänemaa in 1946, Jõgevamaa from Tartumaa in 1949 and Jõhvimaa (modern Ida-Virumaa) from Virumaa in 1949. Counties were completely dissolved in 1950 as Estonian SSR was divided into regions (rajoonid) and (until 1953) oblasts. Until the 1960s the borders of regions changed often until 15 of them were left. Out of them, Põlva and Rapla regions became separate, while the others were roughly corresponding to the pre-1950 counties.

Counties were re-established in 1 January, 1990 in the borders of the Soviet-era regions. Due to the numerous differences between the current and historical (pre-1940) layouts, the historical borders are still used in ethnology, representing cultural and lingustical differences better.

External links

[Local Government Reform] Estonian Institute publication

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