Finland History

Abstract

In my own experience of living with a person from Finland and getting to know her as a wife and best friend and raising two children together , I have gained a lot of respect for the Finnish people and their culture This respect comes from watching her work ethics and dedication to raising our two children both being boys and only thirteen months apart in age can always be a challenge . So from talking with her over the years about her country and its people , I decided to do a research on

br the country my wife calls Suomi . Finland was part of the Swedish Kingdom from the 13th century to 1809 when it was ceded to the Russian Empire . It however gained independence in 1907 . The history of Finland is tainted with wars from the time of the Swedes up until the Second World War . All of this not withstanding Finland has developed into a vibrant economy in recent times Finland is a land of vast green forests and sparkling lakes with ultramodern buildings and old castles located in northwestern Europe on the Baltic Sea . The country shares b with Norway to the north and Russia to the east , and the south the Gulf of Finland and west Gulf of Bothnia . The name Soumi , which came from one of the early inhabiting tribes around 3000 B . C . called Soumalaiset , is the Finn 's word for Finland meaning land of lakes and marshes . Finland first became habitable sometime around 8000 B .C . after the withdrawal of the artic glaciers northward . The first inhabitants migrated into the country from the northern and southern surrounding areas such as the Volga River basin and Estonia and started to dwell in the coastal areas of the Nordic country . These people , who just started domestication of animals development of agriculture and manufacture of pottery and populated these places , were threatened through out the year from the east and west by the politically more advanced Scandinavian and the Slavic people and in the end were over come by these other cultures . It is widely believed that an early Uralic language which later differentiated into both the Sami languages , Finnish etc . was already spoken in Finland at this time (Derry , 1979 ,

. 9

The Orthodox and Catholic churches in Sweden initiated the conversion of the Finnish tribes to Christianity . This led to the attack of the Finnish tribes in 1155 by the Swedish (Jutikkala , 1984 ,

. 120 . The Finns were finally subdued in 1172 and Swedish rule was maintained by the building of fortresses especially the one built in 1249 in central Finland to protect it against Russian incursion . Russian attack in 1292 ended with a treaty dividing Karelia between Russia and Sweden . Another war with Russia ended in 1617 with the pushing of the Swedish b far east into Ingria . The thirty years war of the Swedes (1618 - 1648 ) and another war with Russia (1656 - 1661 ) caused heavy taxation and great suffering on the Finns . Compensation...