The phrase "former lands" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it when referring to lands that were previously owned, controlled, or inhabited by a particular group of people. For example: "The Indigenous population of this area was displaced when European settlers claimed control of their former lands."
Lippe and Waldeck remained under sovereign princes; Hanover and Oldenburg were awarded their former lands.
As the war continues, the former lands of Kievan Rus', the "lost kingdom" of Saint Vladimir's times, are growing further and further apart.
The king's arrangements for the governance of Llywelyn's former lands in northwestern Wales were embodied in the Statute of Wales (1284).
In the German revolution of 1918 all the Ernestine rulers abdicated, and in 1920 their former lands were merged in the new Thuringia, with the exception of Coburg, which joined Bavaria.
Adam Jerzy, Prince Czartoryski, (born January 14 , 1770 Warsaw, Pol. died July 15 , 1861 Montfermeil, France) Polish statesman who worked unceasingly for the restoration of Poland when Russia, Prussia, and Austria had partitioned his country's former lands among themselves.
As a remedy he forbade the native states to sell more lands to Europeans and thus infuriated not only the Europeans but also the Indonesian aristocrats, whom he ordered to reclaim their former lands and pay indemnities for improvements.
Geologic evidence suggests that Adam's Bridge represents a former land connection between India and Sri Lanka.
Much of that former land area is now submerged beneath the Beaufort, Bering, and Chukchi seas.
The inverted relief will preserve relicts of former land surfaces and is therefore older than the surrounding terrain.
Now many Kurds are returning to their former land, ejecting Arabs who have been planting crops.
We then updated the former land use map by superimposing the CL classification to all these areas.
