Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, opposite Estonia. Finland covers a total area of 338,145 square kilometres (130,559 sq mi), including a land area of 303,815 square kilometres (117,304 sq mi), and has a population of 5.6 million. Helsinki is the capital and largest city. The vast majority of the population are ethnic Finns. The official languages are Finnish and Swedish; 84.9 percent of the population speak the first as their mother tongue and 5.1 percent the latter. Finland's climate varies from humid continental in the south to boreal in the north. The land cover is predominantly boreal forest biome, with more than 180,000 recorded lakes.
The history of Finland begins around 9,000 BC during the end of the last glacial period. Stone Age cultures were Kunda, Comb Ceramic, Corded Ware, Kiukainen, and Pöljä cultures. The Finnish Bronze Age started in approximately 1,500 BC and the Iron Age started in 500 BC and lasted until 1,300 AD. Finnish Iron Age cultures can be separated into Finnish proper, Tavastian and Karelian cultures. The earliest written sources mentioning Finland start to appear from the 12th century onwards when the Catholic Church started to gain a foothold in Southwest Finland.
The Northern Crusades or Baltic Crusades were Christianization campaigns undertaken by Catholic Christian military orders and kingdoms, primarily against the pagan Baltic, Finnic and West Slavic peoples around the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic Sea.
Year 1202 (MCCII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar.
Finland Swedish or Fenno-Swedish is a variety of the Swedish language and a closely related group of Swedish dialects spoken in Finland by the Swedish-speaking population, commonly also referred to as Finland Swedes, as their first language.
Österland ('Eastland') was a medieval term used for the southern part of Finland, one of the four traditional lands of Sweden. The term occurs in documents approximately between 1350–1470 and gradually fell out of use by the end of the 15th century. Before this period the term was used in plural, Österlanden ('Easternlands').
Korela Fortress is a medieval fortress in the town of Priozersk, Leningrad Oblast, Russia.
The Treaty of Nöteborg, also known as the Treaty of Orehovsk, is a conventional name for the peace treaty signed at Oreshek on 12 August 1323. It was the first agreement between Sweden and the Novgorod Republic regulating their border, mostly in the area which is now known as Finland. Three years later, Novgorod signed the Treaty of Novgorod with the Norwegians.
The Military timeline of Denmark is centered around an involvement in wars in Northern Europe since 793 and, recently, elsewhere.
Anders Sunesen was a Danish archbishop of Lund, Scania, from 21 March 1201, at the death of Absalon, to his own death in 1228.
Nordic colonialism is a subdivision within broader colonial studies that discusses the role of Nordic nations in achieving economic benefits from outside of their own cultural sphere. The field ranges from studying the Sámi in relation to the Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish states, to activities of the Danish Colonial Empire and Swedish Empire in Africa, New Sweden, and on Caribbean islands such as St. Thomas and Saint-Barthélemy.
The First Swedish Crusade was a possibly mythical military expedition in the 1150s to Southwestern Finland by Swedish King Eric IX and English Bishop Henry of Uppsala.
There are scattered descriptions of early Finnish wars, conflicts involving the Finnish people, some of which took place before the Middle Ages. The earliest historical accounts of conflicts involving Finnish tribes, such as Tavastians, Karelians, Finns proper and Kvens, have survived in Icelandic sagas and in German, Norwegian, Danish and Russian chronicles as well as in Swedish legends and in birch bark manuscripts. The most important sources are the Novgorod First Chronicle, the Primary Chronicle and Erik's Chronicle.
Sastamala is a town in Finland, located in the Pirkanmaa region. Sastamala lies on both sides of River Kokemäenjoki in the southwest corner of Pirkanmaa. The population of Sastamala is approximately 23,000, while the sub-region has a population of approximately 26,000. It is the 44th most populous municipality in Finland.
The angon is a type of javelin that was used during the Early Middle Ages by the Anglo-Saxons, Franks, Goths, and other Germanic peoples. It was similar to, and probably derived from, the pilum used by the Roman army and had a barbed head and long narrow socket or shank made of iron mounted on a wooden haft.
Julius Ailio was a Finnish archaeologist and a Social Democratic politician. His archaeological work involved the Stone Age and Early Metal Age in Karelia, especially the isthmus.
In Swedish and Finnish history, Finland under Swedish rule is the historical period when the bulk of the area that later came to constitute Finland was an integral part of Sweden. The starting point of Swedish rule is uncertain and controversial. Historical evidence of the establishment of Swedish rule in Finland exists from the middle of the 13th century onwards.
The Swedish colonisation of Finland took place during the Northern Crusades from the 12th century until the 1350s. Sweden's colonisation efforts focused on the Finnish archipelago and some of its coastal regions and brought Swedish-speakers to Finland. The settlers were from central Sweden. It has been estimated that there were thousands of settlers.
Ancient kings of Finland are kings of Finland mentioned in early historical sources. The word kuningas is an old Finnic word deriving from the ancient Germanic word kuningaz. In the time the sources were written, "Finland" mainly referred to the Finland Proper area, and depending on the source, the "kings of Finland" could also refer to kings of the Sami people.
Mika Tapio Lavento is a Finnish archaeologist. He has worked as the Professor of Archaeology at the University of Helsinki since 2004.
