Finland History

Some maintain that the first inhabitants came from central Russia a few thousand years ago, while others asserted that they arrived from the Baltic region in the first century AD.  In any event, Finland was associated with Sweden for about 700 years starting from 1154 when the Swedish king Eric first introduced Christianity into the western area of Finland and gradually colonized the territory.  In those days, the Finns gained the right to send representatives to the Swedish Diet and elect the Swedish king (from 1362), and had significant participant in the Swedish army.  On the other hand, Finland adopted Swedish as the main language and developed its political and social institutions along Swedish lines.  In the 17th century, Sweden emerged as a major power and launched wars against Russia, among others.  As a result, Finland became a pressure point between Sweden and Russia a few times in the 17th and 18th centuries.

In 1809, Sweden was forced to hand over Finland to Russia after it sided with France during the Napoleonic wars of 1808–09 and was defeated by Russia.  However, Finland was allowed by Russia to maintain its autonomy and keep the Lutheran religion. During the 19th century, Finnish nationalism emerged and led to the creation, after Russia’s Revolution in 1905, of a parliament and reintroduction of the Finnish language to replace Swedish.  In 1917, Finland declared its independence soon after the Bolshevik’s seized power in Russia, but this was followed by a bitter civil war with opposing sides sponsored by the Bolsheviks (Red forces) and the Germans (White forces).  The White forces won, but Finland was forced to realign with the west when Germany was defeated in WWI. 

From 1920 until 1991, Finland was often entangled with the Soviet Union and other great powers.  In 1939-40, after the Soviet Union pressed for territorial concessions, Finland fought and lost the Winter War.  In 1941 to 1944, it fought the Continuation War against the Soviet Union along side Germany, after its appeal to the west for protection following Russia’s annexation of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia was unheeded; it again ended in defeat and an armistice with the Soviet Union.  This was followed by the Lapland War of 1944 to 1945, when it was forced to by the armistice to fight against Germany.  The end result was that Finland had to cede territories to the Soviet Union, accept a Soviet naval base close to Helsinki, and be subject to Soviet veto regarding its foreign policy initiatives. 

From1955 onwards, following withdrawal of the Soviets from its naval base, Finland began to shake itself off the constraints imposed by the Soviets and participated more actively in European and world affairs.  In 1995, it joined the EU; in 1999, it joined the European Monetary Union and in 2002 it adopted the Euro.