Sweden–Finland
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Sweden–Finland is a historiographical term, used especially in Finland, to refer to the Swedish Kingdom from the Kalmar Union to the Napoleonic wars, or the period from the 14th to the 18th century. In 1809 the realm was split and the eastern half came to constitute the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland, in personal union with Imperial Russia.
Although the term has didactic merits, for instance when used in conjunction with the term Denmark-Norway, it is misleading because from the Middle Ages up to 1809 what now is Finland was an integrated part of the Swedish kingdom. Finland until 1809 was considered as one of four Swedish lands. However, it was different from Götaland and Svealand, but not Norrland, in that Swedish was not the majority language in this part of the kingdom, except for some areas along the coastline and amongst the nobility and the urban upper classes. During the time of the Swedish Empire Sweden-Finland was identical to Sweden proper; other overseas possessions constituted the dominions of Sweden.
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[edit] Origins of the names "Sweden" and "Finland"
In Swedish, Sverige (Sweden) originally seems to have referred to the kingdom of the Suiones, a germanic tribe that during early Middle Ages lived in the Mälaren Valley. As to the Swedish name "Finland", it originally referred only to a very small part of what now is meant by Finland, namely the region east of the Baltic Sea that was first made a part of the Swedish kingdom. This region corresponded to less than three percent - only the extreme southwestern corner - of the area inhabited by the Finns, or approximately three percent of the modern-day Finland, and is today called Finland proper. For a short time, as the Swedish kingdom continued its expansion in the Eastern lands, the Swedish government also used the term Österlanden ("the Eastern lands") to refer to the part of the kingdom that was situated east of the Baltic Sea.
However, the term Österland fell from use in Sweden within less than a century (Vahtola, Suomen Historia - History of Finland), and "Finland", the land of the Finns, again took over in the official Swedish government terminology as the commonly used term for the eastern parts of the Swedish kingdom.
[edit] The situation before 1809
In the 13th century the kings of the recently christianized Svealand incorporated Finland into their Kingdom under influence from the Catholic Church. The details of this process are not known: the traditional concept of three "crusades" has been dismantled by modern research. The conquest took place at the same time or later than Sweden was united under one king; and Finland - or Österland - was seen as a constituent part of the Swedish kingdom, although represented in the elections of Swedish kings first in 15 February 1362 (when Haakon Magnusson was elected as co-king of his father).
East of the Baltic Sea the Finnish language continued to be spoken by the vast majority of the commoners through the centuries of Swedish rule. Swedish was, however, the dominant language along the South and West coast and amongst the nobility. During the Reformation, the Bible was translated into both Swedish and Finnish.
As to the western parts of the Swedish kingdom (approximately modern Sweden), Swedish was the majority language, even though in some parts of the country, Finnish settlers created Finnish-speaking communities (Finnbygder).
[edit] The History after 1809
Sweden and Finland were separated by the Treaty of Fredrikshamn in 1809. The eastern provinces became the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian empire, and remained so until 1917.
In Finland, Swedish is still one of two official languages, although it is only spoken by approximately 5% of the population, especially in the Åland islands and in some communes in western and southern Finland.
The situation for the Finnish language in Sweden is different, because it only has a limited recognition as one of five minority languages. But in some parts of northern Sweden, especially in the Torne Valley (Finnish ("Meänkieli") speaking areas), where Finnish mother tongue had always been the majority language, it stayed dominant until the 20th century, and is still widely spoken. In the rest of Sweden, the Finnish speaking minority settlers decreased with the secession and has now become assimilated with the Swedish speaking majority population in the ensuing centuries. The feeling of cultural belonging, however, has remained for some of the Finnish descendants. In more recent times, during and following the Second World War Sweden saw large scale immigration from Finland. Thus the number of Sweden Finns again increased in the 1950s and the 1960s.
