Guide turistiche

Finland, officially the Republic of Finland (Finnish: Suomi, Suomen tasavalta, Swedish: Republiken Finland (help·info)), is a Nordic country situated in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the west, Russia to the east, and Norway to the north while Estonia lies to its south. Finland is bounded by the Baltic Sea, with the Gulf of Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west. The Åland Islands, off the southwestern coast, are an autonomous, demilitarised administrative province of Finland.

Finland has a population of 5,282,583 people[1] spread over 338,145 square kilometers (130,558.5 sq mi) making it the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. Finland is a democratic republic with a semi-presidential system and parliamentarism. Finland was previously part of the Swedish kingdom and later an autonomous Grand Duchy in the Russian Empire, until it declared its independence on December 6, 1917. Finland is eleventh on the 2006 United Nations Human Development Index[2] and ranked as the sixth happiest nation in the world by a subjective independent scientific study heavily weighted on literacy rates.[3]

The Republic of Finland is a member state of the United Nations and the European Union. Along with Estonian, Hungarian and Maltese, Finnish is one of the few official languages of the European Union that is not of Indo-European origin. Finland's second official language is Swedish.


History


According to archaeological evidence, the area now composing Finland was first settled around 8500 BCE during the Stone Age as the ice shield of the last ice age receded. The earliest people were probably hunter-gatherers, living primarily off what the tundra and sea could offer. Pottery is known from around the 5300 BCE (see Comb Ceramic Culture). Scientists believe it is probable that speakers of the Finno-Ugric language arrived in the area during the Stone Age (see Finno-Ugric peoples), and were possibly even among the first Mesolithic settlers in Europe.[5] The arrival of the Battle Axe culture (or Cord-Ceramic Culture) in southern coastal Finland around 3200 BCE may have coincided with the start of agriculture. However, the earliest certain records of agriculture are from the late third millenium BCE. Hunting and fishing continued to be important parts of the subsistence economy, especially in the northern and eastern parts of the country.

The Bronze Age (1500–500 BCE) and Iron Age (500 BCE–1200 CE) were characterised by extensive contacts with other cultures in the Fennoscandian and the Baltic region. The first verifiable written documents appeared in the twelfth century.

The beginning of Finland's seven-century association with the Kingdom of Sweden is traditionally connected with the year 1155[6] and the 1150s hypothesised introduction of Christianity by Sweden's King Erik after a military expedition later dubbed as the First Swedish Crusade. However, archaeological evidence points to prior Christian influences in southwestern and southeastern Finland and include both western and eastern Christian artifacts. Historically verifiable date of the conquest is 1249 when Birger jarl conducted the so-called Second Swedish Crusade to Finland. Swedish became the dominant language of administration and education; Finnish chiefly a language for the peasantry, clergy and local courts in predominantly Finnish-speaking areas. The society was divided in four estates of the realm: nobility, clergy, burghers and peasants, who represented the majority, and the estateless.

In the sixteenth century the first written works were published in Finnish by Mikael Agricola, and during this time, the Swedish Empire converted to Lutheranism, the current mainstream religion. The Swedish kingdom systematically settled areas and built cities in Finland, particularly in the east, such as in Ingria and Kainuu. Governor General Per Brahe the Younger founded ten cities and the first university in Finland, the The Royal Academy of Turku. The establishment of universal literacy and rule of law also dates to this time. Finnish people participated in wars of the Swedish kingdom, and Finnish warriors of Sweden's army became known as Hakkapeliittas.

The Swedish Kingdom strove to push the borders eastward, which led to wars of varying success with Novgorod. The expansion was halted by the unification of Russia and was eventually rolled back. During the eighteenth century, virtually all of Finland was twice occupied by Russian forces, known by the Finns as the Greater Wrath (1714–1721) and the Lesser Wrath (1742–1743). During this time "Finland" became the predominant term for the whole land area from the Gulf of Bothnia to the Russian border; both in domestic Swedish debate and by Russians promising protection from "Swedish oppression".

The earlier Finland – that is, the southwestern area – was from then on called "Finland Proper". The Finnish areas ceded to Russia in 1721 and 1743 (excluding Ingria) were called "Old Finland". In these areas the traditional freedom of peasants was constantly pushed towards the oppressed position peasants had in other parts of Russia.

On March 29, 1809, after being conquered by the armies of Russian Emperor Alexander I from Sweden in the Finnish War, Finland became a semi-autonomous Grand Duchy under the Russian Empire until the end of 1917. Old Finland was returned to the Grand Duchy in 1812. During the Russian era, the Finnish language started to gain recognition by both the imperial court and the governing bodies, first probably to sever the cultural and emotional ties with Sweden and thereafter, from the 1860s onwards, as a result of a strong nationalist movement, known as the Fennoman movement. Milestones included the publication of what would become Finland's national epic, the Kalevala, in 1835; and the Finnish language achieving equal legal status with Swedish in 1892.

In 1906, universal suffrage was adopted in the Grand Duchy of Finland, as the second country in the world. However, the relationship between the Grand Duchy and the Russian Empire gradually soured when the Russian government made moves to restrict the Finnish autonomy. Wishes for national independence gained ground, first among radical nationalists and socialists.