Finland
Finland (Suomi in Finnish) is a country in Northern Europe and is a member state of the European Union. Finland is one of the Nordic countries. It is also part of Fennoscandia. Finland is located between the 60th and 70th latitudes North. Its neighbours are Sweden in the west, Norway in the north, Russia in the east and Estonia in the south, beyond the sea called Gulf of Finland. Most of the western and southern Finland is seashore of the Baltic Sea.
The capital of Finland is Helsinki. The currency of Finland is the euro (EUR). It was the markka, the Finnish mark, FIM, before 2002. The president of Finland is Sauli Niinistö. 5.3 million people live in Finland. Finnish and Swedish are the official languages of Finland. Most people in Finland speak Finnish, but about six percent of Finland's population speak Swedish as their mother tongue, living mostly in the western part of Finland and on Åland (Finnish Ahvenanmaa). Finland became independent in 1917.
The most important cities and towns in Finland are Helsinki, Espoo, Tampere, Vantaa, Turku, Oulu, Lahti, Kuopio, Jyväskylä and Pori.
Finland is a highly industrialized First World country. The most important Finnish industrial products are paper, steel products such as machines, and electronics.
Nokia (the mobile company) is originally a company of Finland, named after a small town called Nokia.
Also, Finland has had the most least corrupt titles on the Corruption Perceptions Index.
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[change] People and culture
The people of Finland are called Finns. Most Finns speak Finnish as their mother tongue; 6% of Finns have the Swedish language as their mother tongue. Finns also study mandatory English and Swedish in school. Most Finns work either in services (that is: shops, banks, offices or businesses) or in factories. Finns often like saunas and nature. Many Finnish families have a summer cottage, a small house where they go to relax on their summer holiday. The most important festivals that Finnish people celebrate are Midsummer and Christmas. Santa Claus is an old Finnish tradition, although later the Coca-Cola company introduced him to the world.
The most popular sports in Finland are ice hockey,skiing, track and field and association football (soccer). Recently Finns have also won many events in swimming and motor sports and gymnastics.
There is a very small group (a minority) of a few thousand Samis (also called Lapps) in the most northern part of Finland, called Lapland. Most of the Samis live in Norway and Sweden. Many Sami people farm reindeers. Originally Samis were hunter-gatherers. In the past the Sami were nomads, but nowadays they live in regular houses.
Very few people in Finland are from other countries, only about one percent. The number of foreigners in Finland has recently been growing rapidly.
[change] Nature and weather
Most of Finland is covered by pine forest. The swan is the national bird of Finland. The swan was a holy animal long ago. Wood is the most important natural resource of Finland. It is estimated that up to one-third of all wood resources of the European Union are in Finland.
The national animal of Finland is the brown bear. And the largest animal is the elk (moose).
There are also hundreds of rivers and thousands of lakes with fresh water. Fishing is a popular sport. It is estimated there are almost 180,000 lakes in Finland.
Many islands in the Baltic Sea belong to Finland, too. Thousands of islands are part of the Åland archipelago. Tourists from all over the world come to see the fells and the northern lights in Lapland.
The highest mountain of Finland is Halti, which is 1328 meters high. The largest lake is Saimaa, 4,400 square kilometers. The longest river of Finland is Tornionjoki. The largest river (by watershed) is Kemijoki, 552 kilometers long.
The weather in Finland varies a lot by the season. The summer lasts usually from May to early September, and temperatures can reach up to +35 °C. Autumns are dark and rainy. Permanent snow falls in Helsinki in early December (in Lapland it can fall already in October) and in the winter the temperature can be -30 °C. The winter usually lasts to mid-March when the snow melts away in Helsinki (in Lapland the snow usually melts away in early May), and spring to late May. Springs are vigorous and the weather can vary from frost to sunshine in a matter of days. Northern lights are common in Lapland.
[change] History of Finland
People first came to Finland 10,000 years ago. That was just after an ice age, after a very thick layer of ice that was covering the ground, had melted away.
Some think the first people in Finland already spoke a language that is related to Finnish that is spoken today. It is known for sure that an early form of the Finnish language was spoken in Finland in the Iron Age. (The Iron Age was in Finland 2500-800 years ago).
The first residents in Finland hunted animals, instead of farming their food. Those kind of people are called "hunter-gatherers". Some people started the farm to farm some food 5200 years ago. Farming slowly became more and more popular and became the major way of life until the modern age.
The religion of the Finnish people was paganism. The biggest god of the Finns was Ukko. He was a god of sky and thunder. About a thousand years ago some Finns changed their religion to Christianity, and slowly Christianity became more and more popular. Some pagan beliefs still remained amongst the Christian beliefs. During the Reformation of Christianity most Finnish people became protestants.
From the Middle Ages Finland was a part of Sweden. Then, in the year 1809 AD Russia took Finland from Sweden. Finland was a part of Russia, but after a short period of time it became autonomous, which means that the Finns essentially controlled Finland, though the Tsar was in control officially. Finns could create their own laws and had their own currency, (called the markka), their own stamps and own customs. However, Finland did not have its own army.
On 6 December 1917, Finland became independent, which meant that it no longer was a part of Russia. There was a communist revolution in Russia and after 1922 Russia was a part of the Soviet Union. There were communists in Finland too, who tried to create a revolution in Finland. This attempt at revolution caused the Finnish civil war. The communists lost the civil war, and Finland did not change its old capitalist system.
Stalin, who was the leader of the Soviet Union, did not like having a capitalist country as its neighbour. Stalin wanted Finland to become a communist state and be a part of the Soviet Union. The leaders of Finland refused: they wanted to stay independent. The Soviet Union sent many troops across the eastern border of Finland to try to make Finland join them, which resulted in the Winter War. There were many battles, that eventually resulted in Finland losing areas along its eastern border to the Soviet Union.
Adolf Hitler was the dictator of Germany, and wanted to invade the Soviet Union. Finland wanted to retrieve the areas that it had lost, so they joined the German invasion, which started in 1941. This part of the Second World War is called the Continuation War in Finland. However, Finland was not a fascist or an antisemitic country. Finns were interested in freedom rather than dictatorship.
While Germany was losing the war, Finland had already progressed into the Soviet Union in order to regain the areas lost in the previous peace. Finland wanted to end the war with the Soviet Union, which resulted in peace, but once again Finland had to relinquish the areas that they had conquered. This time, the peace with the Soviet Union made Finland and Germany enemies. Finns fought Germans, and Germans retreated to Norway, burning down the whole of Lapland behind them. This is called War of Lapland. Finland remained independent.
After the war, many factories were built in Finland. Many people moved from farms to cities. At that time, big factories manufactured products like paper and steel. More and more people worked in more advanced jobs, like high technology. Also, many people went to universities to get a good education. Finland was one of the first countries where most people had Internet connections and mobile phones. A well-known company that makes mobile phones, Nokia, is from Finland.
Finland joined the European Union in 1995. The finnish currency, the markka (mark), was changed to the European Union's currency, the euro, in 2002.
[change] Famous Finnish people
- Jari Litmanen, footballer (soccer); 1995 UEFA Champions League winner
- Sami Hyypiä, football coach; 2005 UEFA Champions League winner
- Jean Sibelius, the most important Finnish composer
- Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux
- Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, a president and military commander
- Alvar Aalto, architect
- Kimi Räikkönen, 2007 Formula One World Champion
- Mika Häkkinen, 1998 and 1999 Formula One World Champion
- Keke Rosberg, 1982 Formula One World Champion
- Teemu Selanne, 2007 Stanley Cup Winner
- Jari Kurri, 5 time Stanley Cup Winner, NHL Hall Of Famer
- Tarja Turunen, former member of the internationally famous band Nightwish
- Tuomas Holopainen, founder of the internationally famous band Nightwish
- The Dudesons, also know as Duudesonit, a four-man stunt group with several TV
shows and a movie. Close friends with the Jackass crew.
[change] Other websites
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