Acarnania was a region of ancient central western Greece that lay along the Ionian Sea, west of Aetolia, with the Achelous River for a boundary, and north of the gulf of Calydon, which is the entrance to the Gulf of Corinth. The capital and principal city was Stratos.

The founding tradition of Acarnania was that is was founded by a son of the king at Pylos, a Mycenaean city.

When the Byzantine Empire broke up (1204), Acarnania passed to the Despotate of Epirus and in 1480 to the Ottoman Turks. Since 1832 it has been part of Greece.