Simplify the following text for a Grade 8 native English-speaking person.
Original: This new unified state featured the provinces in their modern form , as non-autonomous subdivisions of the national state , and again numbering 17 provinces , though not all the same as the 16th century ones .
Simplified: Today , they are non-autonomous subdivisions of the national state . There are again numbering 17 provinces , though not all are the same as the 16th century ones .