[4][5] Yotvingians until 14th century Grand Duchy of Lithuania 1400s–1569 Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth 1569–1795 Kingdom of Prussia 1795–1807 Duchy of Warsaw 1807–1815 Congress Poland 1815–1867 Vistula Land 1867–1915 Ober Ost 1915–1919 (occupation) Second Polish Republic and  Lithuania, contested during 1919–1920 Second Polish Republic 1920–1939 Nazi Germany/ Soviet Union 1939–1941 (occupation) Nazi Germany 1941–1944 (occupation) Polish People's Republic 1944–1989 Poland 1989– The Neolithic era ushered in the first settled agricultural communities in the area of present-day Poland, whose founders had migrated from the Danube River area beginning about 5500 BC.

[7] After the local Yotvingians were eradicated or Germanized by the Teutonic Order in the 14th century, their southern lands were repopulated by Poles, Belarusians, and Ukrainians.

Their northern territories of Suvalkija remained largely void of settlement until the 16th century, when Lithuanians began to migrate into the area.

[11] In 1815, the Suwałki Region became part of Congress Poland, a state which was tied by personal union to Russia and absorbed by the Russian Empire in the aftermath of the 1830 November Uprising.

The Suwałki Region was claimed by re-established independent Lithuania, based on cultural heritage and later 1920 peace treaty with Soviet Russia.

Nevertheless, the German military saw further strengthening of Polish aspirations as disadvantageous and in March 1919 handed control over the area to the Lithuanian Taryba.

[23] During the Interwar period, the Lithuanian authorities claimed that the region consisted of three counties (see administrative divisions of Lithuania), that were illegally occupied by Poland.

These included: The aforementioned units roughly correspondended to the actual administrative division of the area into powiats of Augustów, Suwałki and Sejny of the Białystok Voivodeship of Poland, respectively.

[24] Following the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, most of the Suwałki Region was annexed by Nazi Germany and adjoined to the province of East Prussia.

Under German occupation, the Polish population was subjected to the genocidal Intelligenzaktion campaign, which included mass arrests, massacres, deportations to forced labour and concentration camps, and expulsions, while in the Soviet-occupied part the Russians carried out deportations of Poles into the USSR.

In April 1940, the Germans carried out mass deportations of local Polish intelligentsia to concentration camps, including Soldau, Sachsenhausen and Dachau.

Towns: Forests: Lakes: Parks: a^ The Polish term Suwalszczyzna was formed in the second half of the 19th century to describe the territory of the Suwałki Governorate.

[27][32] g^ According to the Polish census of 2002, 90% of Lithuanians lived in the areas close to the Polish-Lithuanian border and nearly 60% of them resided in Gmina Puńsk.