Finland under Swedish rule

Finland
Part of Sweden
1150s–1809
Flag Coat of arms
Map of Sweden (1747)
Government
Monarch
• 1250–1275	Valdemar
• 1792–1809	Gustav IV Adolf (Last)
Regent
• 1438–1440	Karl Knutsson Bonde
• 1512–1520	Sten Sture the Younger
Historical era	Middle Ages to Napoleonic Wars
• First Swedish Crusade	1150s
• Established	1150s
• Kalmar Union	1397–1523
• Swedish Empire	1611–1721
• Finnish War	1808–1809
• Diet of Porvoo	1809
• Treaty of Fredrikshamn	17 September 1809
Preceded by Succeeded by Finnish tribes Grand Duchy of Finland
Today part of	Finland

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.

Swedish rule ended in most of so-called Old Finland, the south-eastern part of the Finnish territories, in 1721 as a result of the Great Northern War. Sweden ceded the remainder of Old Finland in 1743 following the Hats' War. On 17 September 1809, the period of Swedish rule over the rest of Finland came to an end when the Treaty of Hamina was signed, ending the Finnish War. As a result, the eastern third of Sweden was ceded to the Russian Empire and became established as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland.

Swedish rule in the area of modern-day Finland started as a result of the Northern Crusades. The Finnish upper class lost its position and lands to new Swedish and German nobility and to the Catholic Church.^[1] The Swedish colonisation of some coastal areas of Finland with Christian population was a way to retain power in former pagan areas that had been conquered. It has been estimated that there were thousands of colonists.^[2] Colonisation led to several conflicts between the colonists and local population which have been recorded in the 14th century. In colonised areas the Finnish population principally lost its fishing and cultivation rights to the colonists.^[3][4] Though the Finnish provinces were an integral part of the Kingdom of Sweden with the same legal rights and duties as the rest of the realm, Finnish-speaking Swedish subjects faced comparative challenges in dealing with the authorities as Swedish was established as the sole official language of government. In fact, it remained a widely accepted view in Sweden proper that the Finns were in principle a separate and conquered people and therefore not necessarily entitled to be treated equitably with Swedes. Swedish kings visited Finland rarely and in Swedish contemporary texts Finns were often portrayed as primitive and their language inferior.^[5] Approximately half of the taxes collected in Finland was used in the country, while the other half was transferred to Stockholm.^[6]

Under Sweden, Finland was annexed as part of the Western Christian domain and the cultural, communal and economic order of Western Europe, on which the market economy, constitutional governments and legalistic principles were founded. Finland was the eastern frontier of the realm, which brought many wars and raids to the areas. The Finnish language, dating from prehistoric times, and some parts of folklore religion and culture remained under Swedish rule, even though they changed as they adapted to new circumstances.^[7] For example, in this period Finnish adopted the Latin alphabet as its writing system and approximately 1100 Swedish loanwords, though most of them are originally from Latin or Greek.^[8]

The historian Peter Englund has noted that Swedish-ruled Finland was not so much part of a national union or a province as "the eastern half of the realm which was practically destroyed in 1809, when both parts went on along their separate ways." Englund thinks that the period of Sweden as a superpower was the common "property" of Sweden and Finland, because the rise as a superpower would have been impossible for a poor nation without the resources of the eastern part of the realm.^[9] For a time, Finns were considered by a majority of historians to be the first inhabitants of Sweden together with the Sámi. This was also believed by some Swedish historians, like Olof von Dalin (18th century), who believed them to be one of the biblical Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. This change in attitude largely stemmed from a need to create a more equal footing during the decline of the Swedish Empire. They still faced difficulties in dealing with higher Swedish authorities in Finnish and a lack of publications in Finnish. ^[10]