right|thumb|200px|Posens provinsvapen
'''Posen''', historisk preussisk provins som begränsades i öster av ryska Posen. 

Posen var i äldre tid en del av konungariket Polen. Vid dettas första delning (1772) kom det s.k. Netzedistriktet och 1793 den södra delen (som därefter kallades Sydpreussen) till Preussen. Åren 1807-15 tillhörde Posen hertigdömet Warschau.

Befolkningen utgjorde 1910 2 099 831 personer, varav med avseende på religionen 31% lutheraner, 67% katoliker och 1,26% judar och med avseende på språket 38,1% tyskar och nära 61% polacker, vilka var (och är) katoliker (bosatta i övre Warthedalen), varför Posen bland Preussens provinser näst Rhenprovinsen hade den relativt största katolska befolkningen, och hade även större polsk befolkning än någon annan provins. Den polska nationalitetens allt tydligare framträdande föranledde Preussens regering och lantdag till en märklig åtgärd, som hade till syfte att hävda den tyska nationalitetens ställning. Genom en lag av 28 april 1886 upprättades en s.k. kolonisationskommission, till vars förfogande ställdes stora ekonomiska resurser för inköp av polsk jordegendom, som sedan i mindre lotter på förmånliga villkor skulle säljas eller utarrenderas till tyska bönder och arbetare. Denna kommission, som hade sitt säte i staden Bromberg, då dess verksamhet omfattade även Västpreussen, upplöstes 1909.

{{Infobox Former Subdivision
|conventional_long_name = Posen
|common_name = Posen
|subdivision = Province
|nation= Prussia
|year_start = 1848
|year_end = 1919
|p1 = Grand Duchy of Posen
|flag_p1 = Flag of Wien.svg <!-- looks the same -->
|s1 = Posen-West Prussia
|flag_s1 = Flagge Preußen - Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen.svg
|s2 = Poznań Voivodeship (1921-1939)
|image_s2 = 20px
|today =
|image_flag = Flagge Preußen - Provinz Posen.svg
|image_coat = Wappen Preußische Provinzen - Posen.png
|image_map = Map-Prussia-Posen.svg
|image_map_caption = Posen (red), within the Kingdom of Prussia, within the German Empire
|capital = Posen
|latd=52 |latm=24 |latNS=N |longd=16 |longm=55 |longEW=E
|stat_area1= 28970
|stat_year1 = 1905
|stat_pop1 = 2099831
|political_subdiv= Posen </br> Bromberg
}}
The '''Province of Posen''' (, ) was a province of Prussia from 1848-1918 and as such part of the German Empire from 1871 to 1918; the whole area is now part of Poland.  Its capital was Poznań (German: ''Posen''). The province replaced the Grand Duchy of Posen.

Known as the "cradle of the Polish nation", this region was the home to Germans, some Roman Catholic, and about 90% of the Germans were Protestant. The small numbers of Jews were primarily to be found in the larger communities, mostly in skilled crafts, local commerce and regional trading. The smaller the community, the more likely it was to be either Polish or German. These "pockets of ethnicity" existed side by side, with German villages being the most dense in the northwestern areas. With Germanization policies, the population became more German until the end of the 19th century, when the trend reversed (in the Ostflucht). This was despite efforts of the government in Berlin, which established the Settlement Commission to buy land from Poles and make it available only to Germans.

== Characteristics ==
The land is mostly flat, drained by two major watershed systems; the Noteć (German: ''Netze'') in the north and the Warta (German: ''Warthe'') in the center. Ice Age glaciers left moraine deposits and the land is speckled with hundreds of "finger lakes", streams flowing in and out on their way to one of the two rivers.

left| 
grains, and some tobacco and hops. Significant parcels of wooded land provided building materials and firewood. Small numbers of livestock existed, including geese, but a fair amount of sheep were herded.

When this area came under Prussian control, the Freiherr vom Stein) in 1810 (1864 in Congress Poland), but lingered in some practices until the late 1800s.  The situation was thus that (primarily) Polish serfs lived and worked side by side with (predominantly) free German settlers. Though the settlers were given initial advantages, in time their lots were not much different. Serfs worked for the noble lord, who took care of them. Settlers worked for themselves and took care of themselves, but paid taxes to the lord. 

Typically, an estate would have its manor and farm buildings, and a village nearby for the Polish laborers. Near that village, there might be a German settlement. And in the woods, there would be a forester's dwelling. The estate owners, usually of the nobility, owned the local Dutch, who began the process of turning unproductive river marshes into fields. This process was finished by the German settlers who were used to reclaim unproductive lands (not only marshland) for the host estate owners.

== History ==

The Kingdom of Prussia had annexed the later territory of the Province of Posen during the 18th century Partitions of Poland. It was part of the Duchy of Warsaw during the Napoleonic Wars, but was restored to Prussia in 1815 as the Grand Duchy of Posen.

During the Revolutions of 1848, the Frankfurt Parliament attempted to divide the duchy into two parts: the Province of Poznań, which would have been given to the Germans and annexed to a newly-created German Empire, and the Province of Gniezno, which would have been given to the Poles and held outside Germany. Because of the protest of Polish parliamentarians, these plans failed and the integrity of the duchy was preserved. On February 9, 1849, after a series of broken assurances, the Prussian administration renamed the duchy to the province of Posen.  However, "Grand Duke of Posen" remained a title of the Hohenzollern dynasty and the name remained in official use until 1918.

With the unification of Germany after the Franco-Prussian War of 1871, the province of Posen became part of the German Empire (1871-1918) and the city of Posen was officially named an imperial residence city.

In the 1880s, German Chancellor Germanisation policies, such as an increase of police forces, a colonization commission, the German Society for the Eastern Borders (Hakata), and the Kulturkampf. In 1904, special legislation was passed against the Polish population. The legislation of 1908 allowed the confiscation of Polish landed property. The Prussian authorities did not allow the development of industries, so the duchy's economy was dominated by high-level agriculture.

After Greater Poland Uprising broke out on 27 December 1918, a day after the speech of Ignacy Jan Paderewski. The uprising received little support from the Polish government established in Warsaw at that time. After the success of the uprising the Posen province was briefly (until mid-1919) an independent state with its own government, currency and military force.

With the signing of the Silesia, Pomerania and Brandenburg.

==Ethnic conflict==
thumb|right|300px|The Prussian province of Posen. Polish-speaking areas are shown in yellow.

Due to the large number of resident Germans (the first Germans coming as ethnic conflicts.