, one of the oldest and for several centuries the largest city of the region In the
Early Middle Ages, the territory was inhabited by the
Vistulans and
Lendians, old
Polish tribes. It formed part of Poland since its first historic ruler
Mieszko I, however, later on, at various times, portions of the region fell under the
Kievan Rus', the
Golden Horde, and the
Kingdom of Hungary, before Poland regained full control in the 14th century. Following the
Partitions of Poland the entire region was annexed by
Austria and included within the newly established
Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. The oldest cities in the province, with over 1,000 years of history, are
Przemyśl and
Sanok.
Rzeszów,
Łańcut and
Tarnobrzeg, with their castles and palaces, were important residential cities of the powerful Polish magnate families of
Lubomirski,
Potocki and
Tarnowski. During the
interwar period (1918–1939), territory of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship was part of the
Lwów Voivodeship and belonged to
"Poland B", the less-developed, more rural parts of Poland. To boost the local economy, the government of the
Second Polish Republic began in the mid-1930s a massive program of industrialization, known as the
Central Industrial Region. The program created several major armament factories, including
PZL Mielec, PZL Rzeszów,
Huta Stalowa Wola, and factories in other Subcarpathian towns such as
Dębica,
Nowa Dęba,
Sanok,
Tarnobrzeg and
Nowa Sarzyna. Following the joint German–Soviet
invasion of Poland, which started
World War II in September 1939, most of the current province was
occupied by Nazi Germany with the eastern outskirts occupied by the Soviet Union, and the city of Przemyśl divided between the occupiers until 1941, and then the entire region occupied by Germany until 1944. Following the Soviet annexation of the regional capital of
Lwów,
Rzeszów was chosen as the new regional capital and the
Rzeszów Voivodeship was founded. The
voivodeship was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former
Rzeszów,
Przemyśl,
Krosno and (partially)
Tarnów and
Tarnobrzeg Voivodeships, pursuant to the
Polish local-government reforms adopted in 1998. ==Government==