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In these regions, the Swedish language is widely spoken even today. Swedish came to be the language of the upper class in many other parts of Finland as well. The first known mention of Finland is in runestone Gs 13 from the 11th century. Pope Gregory IX declared that Finlandia was passed under his protection in 1229. [36]
Finland, [a] officially the Republic of Finland, [b] [c] 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 .
In addition, Finland is home to significant groups of Finno-Swedish, Sámi and Roma minorities, which have long historical roots in the country. The official languages are Finnish and Swedish, of which 84.9 percent and 5.1 percent of the population speak the first as their mother tongue. [1] Finland was a part of the Swedish kingdom for around ...
The first immigrants to North America arrived at the New Sweden colony by the lower Delaware River in 1640. Finland was an integrated part of the Kingdom of Sweden at the time, and a Swedish colony in the New World thus had subjects from Finland as well.
Finland has been of strategic importance to the United States due to its position bordering the Soviet Union and later Russia, and after the end of the Cold War in 1991 Finland's shift to the West has led to warmer relations. There is significant trade activity, including military procurement, between the two countries.
Pesäpallo (reminiscent of baseball) is the national sport of Finland, although the most popular sports in Finland in terms of media coverage and audience attendance are Formula One, ice hockey, track and field, football and harness racing. However, in terms of actually playing sports, the most popular ones in terms of people registered to a ...
Although the term "Greater Finland" was not used in the early 19th century, the idea of Finland's natural geographical boundaries dates back to then. In 1837, the botanist Johan Ernst Adhemar Wirzén defined Finland's wild plant distribution area as the eastern border lines of the White Sea , Lake Onega , and the River Svir . [ 2 ]
An estimated 450,000 first- or second-generation immigrants from Finland live in Sweden, of which approximately half speak Finnish. The majority moved from Finland to Sweden following the Second World War, contributing and taking advantage of the rapidly expanding Swedish economy. This emigration peaked in 1970 and has been declining since.