The Scandinavia is an area located in the North of the Europe including/understanding, with the most strict direction, the Sweden, the Norway and the Denmark, which divide a common Culture. Indeed, it is the ground of origin of part of the Germanic Peuples and Viking S.

It includes/understands also sometimes the Finland, the Faroe Islands and the Iceland, in the broad sense.

Because of the successive waves of Glaciation which struck it, Scandinavia was several times depopulated and deprived of terrestrial fauna and flora.

Definition of the Scandinavia

Strict direction

One includes the Scandinavian Péninsule in general there which corresponds to the Norway and the Sweden as well as the Denmark, of which inhabitants, rather homogeneous éthniquement (except the Samis and the Finnois) speak about the related languages. These three countries also have a long story common, often reduced wrongly to the period Viking of the 8th century/11th century-12th century, since they were often joined together under the same crown.

Since the years 1850, Scandinavia included, politically and culturally, the Sweden, the Norway and the Denmark. Geographically the Scandinavian peninsula includes the Sweden and the Norway, and also an area of the Finland, whereas the peninsula of the Jutland includes the Denmark and a small area of Germany (Denmark does not have any more any territory on the Scandinavian peninsula since the beginning of the 19th century).

The Denmark, the Norway and the Sweden are seen like political and cultural area plain during the rise of the nationalist movements in these countries in the middle of the 19th century ( Voir Scandinavisme ). Before the middle of the 19th century, the limit covered a greater area of Scandinavian Europe including/understanding the adjacent areas of the Germany and the Russia framing the Finland and the Estonia. The latter, by her linguistic proximity with Finland, asserts as Nordique as Balte.

Today the similarities on the level of the languages (Scandinavian Languages and Germanic) as at the historical and cultural level make it possible to link Scandinavia. These similarities moreover persisted after the hostility and competition, with respect to the policies applied by these countries during the two world wars and the Cold war, and the different positions to adhesion in international agencies (for example NATO and the European Union).

Other definitions

In the broad sense, one also includes there the Finland, the Iceland and the Faroe Islands and with the maximum direction the Svalbard and occasionally the Greenland because depend on Denmark. But by including all these countries, it is necessary to prefer " Europe of Nord" with " Scandinavie".

If one wants to indicate the Sweden-Norway-Denmark-Finland unit with the geographical direction, the most suitable word is then " Fennoscandie ".

In the current use, the " term; Scandinavie" is often employed like synonym for the Scandinavian countries. The term of “Scandinavian Pays” indicates without ambiguity, the Norway, the Sweden, the Denmark, the Finland and the Iceland, country of origin Scandinavian, Member States of the Scandinavian Conseil.

Geography

See also: Geography of Denmark, Geography of Sweden, Geography of Norway

The area includes/understands the near total of the Scandinave peninsula, the Jutland and the islands in the interval. Moreover small portions of the peninsulas belong to the Finland and the Germany.

Environment

The Scandinavian countries profit of a wild nature and a fauna preserved exceptionally well for Europe, as well as little anthropized landscapes. The Forêt is artificialisée however more and more there and intensively exploited to answer at the requests of wood and paper Pulp of the country and other countries.

The zone was touched, twice, by the cloud of Tchernobyl and by radioactive rejections coming from the east.

The Baltic, semi closed is very polluted, with several dead Zones, probably because of eutrophication, general pollution and locally of serious pollution related to the immersed Munitions after the two World wars, therefore thousands of chemical tons of ammunition which start to flee.

Etymology

Three assumptions of origin can explain the name Scandinavia .

• Of the Germanic Skathin meaning “danger” and D Awjo meaning “island”. It can refer to the dangerous benches around Skanör-Falsterbo in the south of Scandinavia. The term appears in Roman texts and the Histoire of the Goths of Jordanès like Scandza .

• a derivative since the name of the historical province of Skåne (Scanie in the part more in the south of the Scandinavian peninsula, in Sweden).

• a derivative of Skadi , Scandinavian name of the goddess-giantess of the cold, hunting and winter

History

The Scandinavians were christianized at the time of the 10th-13th centuries what had as a result three consolidated kingdoms:

• formed Denmark of the “Grounds of Denmark”: Scania ( Skåneland ), Zealand ( Sjælland ) and the Jutland ( Jylland ) by including some parts of current Sweden;
• formed Sweden of the “Grounds of Sweden”;
• Norway including some parts of current Sweden and with the Iceland, the Greenland, the Faroe Islands, the islands the Shetland, the the Orkneys and the Hébrides.

The three kingdoms then joined together in the Union of Kalmar during all the 15th century then the union was cut in two halves:

• “Denmark Norway” (possessions of overseas including in the north of the Atlantic Ocean);
• “Sweden” (of which the current Finland and other territories in the the Baltic).

In the middle of the 17th century, the treaties of Brömsebro and Roskilde, in a permanent way, transferred some provinces and islands from Norway and Denmark to Sweden.

After the Napoleonean Wars, Scandinavia was reorganized in three personal trade unions:

• the Denmark with the the Schleswig-Holstein (dissolved in 1864);
• the Sweden and the Norway (dissolved in 1905);
• Russia with the Grand Duchy of Finland (until in 1917)

Following the Second world war, a Scandinavian Union of defense (agreement of defense between the Sweden, the Norway and the Denmark) was tried but fell through.

Languages

See also: Scandinavian Languages, Finno-ugric Languages

The majority of the Scandinavian languages (Danish (in Denmark), Swedish (in Sweden and Finland) and Norwegian (in Norway) are mutually understandable. The Scandinavians can easily understand the languages of each one of their neighbors because they appear daily in the press and are heard with the radio and on television. Danish, Swedish and Norwegian are traditionally seen as different languages whereas they are rather dialects of a common language. This language is related to the other Germanic languages of north, the Icelandic and the Féringien which go down from the Vieux norrois. Since the the Middle Ages, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian were influenced to differing degree by the German . A substantial quantity of this influence comes from the economic activity managed by the German-speaking Hanse S.

The Norwegians, who have two parallel forms of writing and a strong presence of local dialects, are accustomed with variations and can perceive Danish and Swedish like dialects slightly more distant.

The Scandinavian languages are (as a family of language) entirely independent of the Finnois and the Estonian , which as Finno-ugric Langues is related to the Hungarian. However, there always were many loans to the Swedish language by these languages.

At the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, the movement “ethnic-nationalist” of Fennoman in Finland fought for equal rights of language between the people speaking Finnish and the elite speaking Swedish.

Policy

See also: Political of Political Denmark, of Finland, Political of Iceland, Political of Norway, Political of Sweden

The modern use of the term Scandinavia comes from the Political movement of Scandinavia, which was in activity in the middle of the 19th century, mainly between the First War of Schleswig (Slesvig) (1848 - 1850), in which the Sweden-Norway showed its considerable military force and the Second War of Schleswig (1864) where the Parliament of the Sweden rejected the promises of the king to bring a military support.

The king proposed the unification of the Denmark, the Norway and the Sweden in “Kingdom - Linked”. This after the tumultuous events during the Napoleonean wars which led to the division of Sweden (the oriental party becoming the Grand-duché of Finland in 1809) and of Denmark. Finland becoming part of the imperial Russia meant whereas it should be left out of any attempt at political union between Scandinavian countries.

The geographical Scandinavia included Norway, Sweden and of the areas of Finland, but the political Scandinavia also included Denmark. Politically Sweden and Norway were plain in a union under a Monarque and the Finland constituted part of Sweden. Denmark also comprised the territories of Iceland, the Faroe Islands and the Greenland in the Atlantic Ocean (which however historically had belonged to Norway, but involuntarily remained with Denmark according to the Traité of Kiel).

The end of the Scandinavian political movement arrived when Denmark refused its military support with the Sweden-Norway for the annexation of the duchy of Schleswig. The Second War of Schleswig followed in 1864. It was short but disastrous war between Denmark and the Prussia (supported by the Austria). The the Schleswig-Holstein was conquered by Prussia, and after the success of Prussia in the Franco-German Guerre of 1870, a German Empire was created and a new balance around the the Baltic was established.

Even if a Scandinavian political union never appeared, there were a Scandinavian Monetary Union with the Couronne as common currency which lasted of 1873 at the beginning of the First World War.

After the First World War, the Scandinavian co-operation taken again with the participation of the lately independent Finland and, since 1944, the Iceland. In 1952, the Scandinavian Pays joined within the Scandinavian Conseil.

Historical political structure

1/the colonists of the Faroe Islands and the Iceland were of origin Scandinavian (mainly Norwegian), with important elements of origin Celtique or Picte (of Scotland and Ireland).

See too

Internal bonds

• Project devoted to medieval Scandinavia
• Scandinavian Cross
• Northern Europe
• Scandinavian Countries

External bonds

• Origins and formation of Scandinavia by Governed Boyer, Professor emeritus of languages, literatures and civilizations Scandinavian at the university of Paris Iv-Sorbonne.

Nds-nl: Scandinavia Simple: Scandinavia Zh-min-nan: Skandinavia

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