Finland

The Republic of Finland (Finnish: Suomi, Suomen tasavalta, Swedish: Republiken Finland (help·info)), is one of the Nordic countries. more...

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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 south-western coast, are an autonomous province of Finland.

Finland has a population of over five million people spread over more than 330,000 km² (127,000 sq. mi) making it one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world.

Finland is ranked 11th on the 2006 United Nations Human Development Index.

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.

History

Prehistory (8500 BCE– )

According to archaeological evidence, the area now comprising 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). It has been postulated and held probable that the 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. 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 3rd millennium B.C. 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 Scandinavia, northern Russia and the Baltic region. Inhabitants of Finland - like the Kvens - and their \"kings\" are mentioned in some historic chronicles and other writings such as the Scandinavian sagas. There are also some written documents from the 13th century.

The Swedish reign (1154–1809)

The beginning of Finland's nearly 700-year association with the Kingdom of Sweden is traditionally connected with the year 1154 and the hypothesised introduction of Christianity by Sweden's King Erik. However, archaeological evidence points to prior Christian influences in south-western and south-eastern Finland and include both western and eastern Christian artefacts. Historically (more documented), the union began upon Birger jarl's expedition to Finland in 1249. 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. Not until the 16th century were the first written works published in Finnish by Mikael Agricola.

Read more at Wikipedia.org