THE WHOLE HISTORY OF FINLAND
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Welcome to Countries Facts so you guys have heard of finland right the arctic wonderland in northern europe boarding russia and sweden and norway 2 i guess sami vikings the so-called white death grand duchies which are like regular dutchies just better swedes soviets and in between it all the reindeer just minding their own business whatever you've heard of the nordic nation its story goes back pretty far so finland is located right in the north of europe partly within the arctic circle most foreigners tend to mistakenly label the fins as scandinavian which is only partly true since only the very top of the country is actually in scandinavia it would be more correct to use the term nordic or northern european which encompasses the more broad cultural similarities they have with their neighbors the region was inhabited mostly on the coast by a people that outsiders called the feni the finns called their land sawami which means land of lakes which if you've ever been to finland is pretty accurate the finns and the sammy are ethnically uralic and speak languages in the finno-ugric family meaning they are distinct from caucasians but then again we don't really know and theories on the subject are about as common as vodka things were pretty peachy for the finns until they encountered a little-known germanic group from southern scandinavia the vikings the vikings raided along the finish in baltic shores for many centuries beginning the process of cultural influence that the norse would have on finland for almost its entire history norse people also arrived in finland as traders and settlers bringing with them culture food customs and traditions the finns were never really united but rather a group of small villages and farms with similar language and ancestry so resistance was light at best norse settlement and finland increased dramatically from the 9th to 12th centuries mostly from modern day sweden and denmark which would begin the long-standing claim of the scandinavian powers on the finished lands the scandinavian powers fought for control over much of the proto-finnic lands including parts of estonia to make things worse even the russians from novgorod got involved from time to time but before anyone knew what was going on the medieval ages rolled around and crusading was the hot new fashion the northern crusades between 1150 and 1293 saw the swedes conquer vast amounts of finnick land laying the foundations for the swedish empire in addition to land and dominance the expanding kingdom had a lot of symbolic significance for the swedes who had been struggling for many years against the danes their main rivals who had a bit of a head start on the whole empire building business the swedes brought with them the swedish language and also lots of war king magnus eriksson wasn't a fan of the russians and finland often got caught up in the crossfire of the two nations disputes not long after findlay became part of the most powerful northern personal union you've never heard of the union of calmer to try to counter the monopoly on trade from another union you've never heard of the hanseatic league princess margaret of denmark had her eyes set on the crowns of sweden and norway and don't get us wrong the royal families on these three countries were pretty intertwined by this point and they mostly spoke the same language so uniting them wasn't exactly the most far-fetched idea she married the king of sweden and succeeded as regent for her adopted son eric who became the king of norway sweden and denmark who by the way just happened to be a duke from poland the union was signed in 1397 in the swedish city of calmer which gave the new country its name bonus points for creativity the union was plagued by internal struggles and fighting with the danes and russians much of the time in the finnish mainland the livonian wars of the 1500s was a turbulent time for finland four major powers warred for control over more land resulting in a large territorial expansion in the northern finland the war also had internal struggles with sigismund vasa briefly being king of both poland and sweden until being opposed by his nephew king charles the conflicts were particularly harsh on the people of finland who revolted against the swedish crown during the finnish club war this ended well for no one least of all the finns and the sami 17th century finland found itself part of a dominant military power and many finns served in the swedish army the 1600s were pretty big in a religious war and sweden devout lutherans since 1527 couldn't help but get involved protestants were like the hipsters of europe at this point which is all fine and dandy unless those hipsters happen to control a large modernized army the 30 years war and the northern wars had many finns such as the hakapulita die for the swedish crowns symbolically to protect their faith but if they did happen to gain some land in the process well that was just an added benefit unusually cold temperatures and famine meant the finns weren't ready for the next conflict the swedes would bring them to the great northern war sweden had gone to war with literally all of its close neighbors and the finnish countryside was ravished by freezing temperatures and the russian army killing nearly half of finland's population if you'd like to learn more about the great northern war why not head over to the great courses plus the great courses plus is an on-demand video service with thousands of lectures and courses from all around the world this includes ivy league professors experts from national geographic and many many more for whatever interests you math science literature and of course history there's something for everyone lecture 22 in the decisive battles of world history entitled 1709 poltiva sweden's fall russia's rise is a fun and easy way to learn about the great northern war which devastated finland viewers who wish to support the sweeney channel are offered a free trial which they can access by heading to the great courses plus las sweeny or by clicking the link below to begin their online learning adventure thank you to everyone that helps the channel and to the great courses plus for their support finland was mostly at peace after that and may have been a disputed kingdom for a while it's complicated the finns more earnestly began to struggle for independence during the period of enlightenment when the napoleonic wars rolled around sweden just like all the cool kids went to war with france and somewhere in the middle of it russia annexed finland how this happened is long and complicated and we'll elaborate more when we do episodes on sweden and denmark but long story short the russians wanted to push their border as far west from saint petersburg as possible and gave the finn's autonomy under the grand duchy of finland to do it until world war 1 the duchy remained peaceful and didn't serve under the russian serfdom by the time the 20th century dawned the finns were thoroughly infected by the new european fever nationalism in 1917 during the first world war finland gained independence but just like pretty much all of its european neighbors at the time it became split on ideological divides in this case conservatives and socialists and ideological divides very rarely didn't lead to civil war in those days the finnish civil war ensued and the capitalist won but that wouldn't be the end of socialism or other ideologies in finland the second world war saw a major conflict in finland two months after the fall of warsaw the soviet army invaded finland this proxy conflict is labeled the winter war since most of the battles were fought in thick winter snow making him famous to finish ski troops molotov cocktails and semo haya the white death haiya was a finnish marksman who had the highest confirmed kills more than any other sniper in history in a major war the soviets named him the white death since he blended into the snow and the men feared him to the point of paranoia the finns were loosely allied with nazi germany during their attacks on russia but only lasted until 1944 when the finns went to war with germany to expel them from the northern lapland harsh war reparations were imposed on finland in the post-war period by the ussr however this had a modernizing effect on the nation they were largely optimistic after the war having successfully defended their nation nationalism was high and they remained free from absorption into the ussr rather remaining a close trade ally while strengthening its ties to scandinavia as well they were completely neutral during the cold war and cooperated mostly with both sides in 1952 they entered into the nordic union with abrogations of passports immigration social welfare and trade tariffs finland also shaped herself into the modern socialist welfare state it is today with a government not unlike sweden or denmark they joined the european union in 1995 with sweden and austria and four years later adopted the euro as their currency the facilitation in trade and immigration boosted the economy and tourism the economy is based on manufacturing service delivery and resource exports and is highly ranked in information technology outsiders have frequently described finland as a socialist utopia which while probably a little romanticized they are currently ranked the 5th happiest country in the world and who doesn't love happy reindeer well we hope you enjoyed the finland episode if you want the chance to vote for the next country we cover you can head on over to the sweeney patreon page where you can get this and many other cool perks such as behind the scenes and merchandise don't forget to check out the great courses plus until next time large and small nomadic tribes the largest and most powerful of which are occasionally recorded for us by western european scholars who wrote about the dreadful eastern heathens raiding their lands such as the huns avars and bulgars if you want to go back further there were the germanic goth settlements before that and roman before that and greek before that and mammoths before that but hell i hope you guys this Article will informative for you we will see you soon in the next Article Goodbye.
