Finland was a part of Sweden from the Middle Ages until 1809. The starting point of Swedish rule is uncertain and controversial. It is traditionally linked to the First Swedish Crusade in the mid-12th century. Historical evidence of the establishment of Swedish rule in Finland exists from the middle of the 13th century onwards.
Swedish rule ended in 1721 in most of so-called Old Finland, the south-eastern part of the Finnish territories, as a result of the Great Northern War. Sweden ceded the remainder of Old Finland in 1743, following the Hats' War. Swedish rule over the rest of Finland ended on 17 September 1809, when the signing of the Treaty of Hamina ended 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. 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. Colonisation led to several conflicts between the colonists and local population which have been recorded in the 14th century. In colonised coastal areas the Finnish population, remaining as a minority, principally lost its fishing and cultivation rights to the colonists. 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. According to one estimate, approximately half of the taxes collected in Finland were used in the country, while the other half was transferred to Stockholm.
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. 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.
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. 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.
Middle Ages (c. 1150 – 1523)
Finland becomes part of Sweden
The starting point of the Swedish rule is under a large amount of uncertainty. It is connected to the efforts of the Catholic Church to expand the faith in the Eastern Baltic Sea region and to Northern Crusades.
According to the legend of Eric the Holy, written in the 1270s, the King of Sweden Eric the Holy and English bishop Henry made the first Swedish crusade to southwest Finland in the 1150s. According to the chronicle and other sources, the bishop Henry was converting people to Christianity in the areas of Finland Proper and Satakunta during the crusade. The crusade, possibly in 1155, most likely never occurred. Also, the Christianisation of the South-western part of Finland is known to have already started in the 10th century, and in the 12th century, the area was probably almost entirely Christian. According to Erik's Chronicle, the Swedish kingdom made two crusades to Finland in the 13th century. The so-called Second Crusade against Tavastians was made in 1249–1250 and the so-called Third Crusade against Karelians in 1293. According to historical sources, the reason for the crusades besides spreading Catholic faith, were the numerous raids that Finnish tribes made to Sweden. Pope Alexander IV even accepted marriage between Swedish king Valdemar and Sophia, daughter of Danish king Eric IV, so they could better repel heathen attacks.
By the 14th century, with the successful crusades and the partial colonization of Finnish coastline with Christian Swedish colonists, what is now Western and Southern Finland and the Karelian Isthmus, had become part of Sweden, Catholic Church and the Uppsala diocese. Eastern Karelia, the Käkisalmi region and the Ladoga Karelia retained their ties to the Orthodox Church and to Novgorod.
The Treaty of Nöteborg, made in 1323 between Sweden and Novgorod, was the first treaty that defined the eastern boundary of the Swedish realm and Finland at least for Karelia. The boundary in northern Finland remained unclear. However, Sweden annexed the Finnish population on the shores of Northern Ostrobothnia in the 14th century to its realm.
Finland as part of the Kingdom of Sweden
To help establish the power of the King of Sweden, three castles were built: the Turku Castle in Finland Proper, the Häme Castle in Tavastia and the Vyborg Castle in Karelia. In medieval times the castles were important for the defence of Finland and they also acted as government centers in Finland. The government area surrounding a castle was called a slottslän (linnalääni in Finnish). Sweden was an electoral kingdom in medieval times and the election was held at the Stones of Mora. Finland also received the right to send their representative to the election in 1362, which shows the established role of Finland as part of Sweden. The development of government and justice had a large role in the law established during the reign of King Magnus Eriksson.
In medieval times, the historical regions of Finland Proper and Satakunta were part of the central area of the Swedish government and retained the ties to Scandinavia they had formed already during prehistory. In Southwest Finland, Tavastia, southern Karelia there was permanent agricultural population, which gradually condensed and spread to a larger area. The spreading and establishment of the new population in Middle and North Ostrobothnia was one of the most notable events in the history of the Finnish population during the medieval ages. In Åland, the Turku archipelago and the coastal regions of Ostrobothnia and Uusimaa (Nyland) there also was a Swedish-speaking population. In the medieval ages, peasants were by far the largest population group in Finland. A large part of the area of current Finland was a wilderness in medieval times, where people from Satakunta, Tavastia and Karelia held hunting trips, and which was inhabited by the Sámi people, at least some of which spoke Sami. The wilderness was not part of any government area in practical terms.
In the early times of the Swedish rule, official government documents were often written in Latin, which emphasised the role of the clergy also in secular government. The use of old Swedish as a written government language increased during the 14th century. In local governments in cities, particularly concerning international trade, the Middle Low German language was also largely used. It is however impossible to present accurate approximations of the relations of different languages in medieval times.
Countryside and cities
Unlike the situation in central Europe, peasants in Sweden were free and feudalism never developed in the Swedish realm in the proportion it did in central Europe. The local government was based on local settlements (socken) and parishes in the countryside.
In the medieval times, the concept of cities was introduced to Finland. The bourgeoisie living in the cities, such as merchants and handicraft workers, only represented a small part of the population. The most important medieval cities in Finland were Turku (in Swedish Åbo) and Viipuri (Viborg). Other cities were Naantali (Nådendal), Rauma (Raumå), Ulvila (Ulfsby) and Porvoo (Borgå). Faraway trade in Finland and other Nordic countries in the medieval times was mostly in the hands of German Hanseatic League merchants and as such a significant portion of the bourgeoisie in Turku and Viipuri were Germans. In cities, the local government was in the hands of a court led by a mayor.
Frälse
The Ordinance of Alsnö, given during the reign of King Magnus Ladulås, established a small secular frälse (Finnish: rälssi) or nobility, freed from tax, in Sweden and Finland in 1280. The spiritual frälse meant spiritual people who were exempt from paying tax to the secular government (such as priests, nuns and beggar brothers).
The parishes of the Catholic church in the area of Finland belonged to the Archdiocese of Turku. The bishop of Turku, the head of the diocese, had as well as power over the church, a large amount of secular power, and he was a member of the Privy Council of Sweden. One of the most notable medieval bishops of Turku was Magnus II Tavast, who held the office from 1412 to 1450. The spiritual frälse were the educated, literate intellectuals in medieval Finland. Its members had often attended the Turku cathedral school and some had also studied in foreign universities.
Age of the Kalmar Union
Finland as a part of the Kalmar Union
The Nordic Kalmar Union was founded by Queen Margaret I of Denmark in 1397. In practice, conflicts arose within the union, as the Swedish upper classes with their expansionist policy were interested in the east, the direction of Russia, whereas the Danish were more interested in the south – the direction of the German lands. There were also internal conflicts between the upper classes of individual nations. The struggle for power was not only the result of "foreign political" differences in modern parlance.
Even under the Kalmar Union, Finland did not form a continuous governmental area but was instead divided into two separate administrative divisions. Viipuri acted as a significant, sometimes almost independent centre, whereas Turku was a more integral part of the governmental area under the central authority.
The independent position of Viipuri was evident in that although Finland was divided into two separate lawspeaker areas, Southern and Northern, in 1435, Viipuri had its own independent Karelian lawspeaker area already in the 1440s, with the lawspeaker probably appointed by the chief of the Viipuri Castle. However, the Karelian lawspeaker had no authority in the Turku land court.
During the union, Finland's position as part of the realm changed. For four decades, the monarchy's control over Finland tightened. King Eric of Pomerania visited Finland twice, in 1403 and again in 1407. Within the union, the leading authorities in Finland also changed, as the king appointed his own trustees to the realm. Abraham Broderson rose as the chief of Turku Castle, and the Danish Klaus Fleming was appointed as lawspeaker. Later, Klaus Lydekesson Djäkn and Krister Nilsson Vasa rose to significant positions. Turku's bishop Magnus II Tavast supported the Kalmar Union.
The estates during the Kalmar Union
The frälse and the clergy formed the leading political group during the union. Finland's own frälse rarely ruled over larger slottslän, which were mostly ruled by Swedes or Danes, and sometimes even German-born men, whom had lived in Finland for decades. The Finnish frälse was mostly responsible for the lower government, military duty and especially justice. The most significant duties in the church were also assigned to sons of the Finnish frälse. Peasants could also participate in the activities of different courts and affect political decisions, such as the election of the king.
Apart from Turku and Viipuri (Viborg), cities during the union were still small and few. As such, foreign trade was modest at best. Even Viipuri could not compete with Reval (Tallinn) as the centre of Russian trade. Domestic trade was economically more significant than foreign trade.
Under the reign of the Kalmar Union, the Finnish government was reorganised to help relieve the economic situation. In 1405, hundreds of farms had their tax exempt status revoked, creating the foundation for systematic agricultural taxation. The crown also attempted to raise tax income by settling new lands: farmed fields begot taxes, whereas work in the wilderness did not. In 1409, Turku started minting its own coinage, which differed in value from standard Swedish currency, being örtugs made of silver and six penny coins. In 1407, Finland got its own supreme court, the Turku land court, which was also given governmental powers. The leaders of Finland could now decide on their country's matters in their own meetings.
Union begins to fall apart
Externally, the early years of the Kalmar Union were a time of peace for Finland. With his active foreign policy, King Eric of Pomerania ran into conflict with the Hanseatic League, which hampered Baltic trade. The turmoil Sweden experience in the 1830s did not directly affect Finland, though Finland still experienced peasant opposition to the upper class caused by the expansion of property owned by the crown and the frälse. The best known of these rebellions was David's Rebellion in Tavastia in 1438, which was a peasant rebellion aimed at the Viikki manor.
No one from Finland participated in the Arboga meeting in 1435 (The first Swedish Riksdag). In the same autumn, bishop Magnus II Tavast and Krister Nilsson arrived in Sweden, participating in the negotiations that discharged the leaders of the Engelbrekt rebellion and formed a compromise. Krister Nilsson became the drots (seneschal) and Karl Knutsson Bonde became the marshal. Following Nilsson's return to Finland that autumn, rebel activities restarted in Sweden.
In order to fight the rebels, Finnish peasants were promised a tax cut in a letter dated 24 June 1436, signed by the archbishop, the drots and the marshal, under the authority of the government. The reason given was that the Finns had proven to be loyal to the realm and sworn never to take up a leader of their own, and promised not to rise up in rebellion, and accepted the leader appointed by the government. Seppo Suvanto has interpreted this as Sweden fearing that the Finnish local government would separate itself from the Swedish realm with the Finns then choosing a leader of their own.