The Sweden ( sv Sverige to pronounce " sfelyeu" in Swedish), in long form the Kingdom of Sweden ( sv Konungariket Sverige ), is a country of the north of the Europe which belongs to the Scandinavia. Its capital is Stockholm and its inhabitants are called the Swedish. The spoken language is the Swedish. The Finnish and the sami are also spoken, mainly in the north of the country. The regional variations are frequent.

Sweden has a border with the Norway with the Western and another with the Finland with the Is. The Denmark, with the Southern, to which the country is connected by the Pont of Öresund is located at 4 km at the broad one. The north of Sweden is occupied by the Lapland, called Sápmi by its inhabitants, the SAMES, which were the first inhabitants of the north of Scandinavia.

Sweden belongs to the European Union since 1995, but not of the Euro area.

With its 449.964 km ², Sweden is the third largest country of Western Europe. Sweden has weak densities of population, except in the metropolitan zones. The rate of urbanization is of 84%, whereas the cities occupy only 1,3% of the territory. The safeguard of the environment and the problem of renewable energies are generally the priority of the politicians, as well as most of the people.

Sweden is for a long time a large wood and copper, iron exporter. The industrialization, which started in the years 1890, made it possible Sweden to develop, and to nowadays obtain constantly a good place in the European classifications on the Indicator of human development (IDH). Sweden has great drinkable water reserves, but lack of fossil energy resources like coal or oil.

Modern Sweden is resulting from the Union of Kalmar, created in 1397. The country was unified at the 16th century by the king Gustav Vasa. At the 17th century, Sweden conquers new territories. The Swedish empire is formed. However, the major part of these territories will have to be abandoned at the 18th century. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Finland and other territories are lost. After its last war in 1814, Sweden knows peace, adopting a policy of non-alignment in times of peace, and a neutrality in time of war.

History

See also: History of Sweden

Archaeological discoveries prove that the Swedish territory was colonized during the age of the stone, when the grounds started to get rid of the ice accumulated during the glacial era. The first inhabitants lived of hunting, gathering, and especially of the resources that future the the Baltic to them offered.

The Swedish territory seems to have known a strong population density during the Bronze Age, the traces of enlarged Communities and prosperous having been highlighted.

The first written mention of the existence of the Swedish people ( Latin Suiones in ) is made by Tacite in the year 98. They are also mentioned by Jordanès at the 6th century, under the names of Suehans or Suetidi . The Anglo-Saxon epopee Beowulf describes battles between the Swedes and the Goths of Scandinavia ( Geats ) during this time, which showed the prevalence of the Swedes ( Sweonas ).

During 9th and 10th century, the culture Viking could open out in all the Scandinavia thanks to the Commerce, with plunderings and the movements of colonization towards the east (Baltic States, Russia and Black Sea).

The movement of Christianization, at the 12th century, resulted in particular in the creation of the archbishop's palace of Uppsala into 1164. It facilitated the consolidation of a Swedish State centered on the edges of the the Baltic: in 1250, the dynasty of the Folkung reaches the capacity and establishes its capital with Stockholm.

Nevertheless, just like in the new States of Norway and the Denmark, an serious attack occurred at the 14th century, worsened by the Black Death. In spite of these difficulties, the Swedes continued their expansion in the north of the Scandinavian peninsula, towards current the Finland.

The Great Schism of the East between the Catholicism and the Orthodoxie had repercussions until in this area, in particular through the ceaseless wars which burst between catholic Sweden and the Principauté of Novgorod, orthodoxe. The tensions calmed down only in 1323 with the signature of the Traité of Gothenburg, which establishes a border active of the point is Golfe of Finland to the northern point of the Gulf of Bothnia. The territory Finnish passes under Swedish domination starting from 1362.

In 1397, the three States of Norway, Denmark and Sweden were linked under only one monarch within the framework of the Union of Kalmar. During the 15th century, the Swedes had then to resist the attempts to centralize the authority under the Danish crown , sometimes until taking the weapons. Sweden ends up leaving the Union in 1521, when Gustave Eriksson Vasa, more known under the name of Gustave I {{er}} of Sweden, restores the independence of the Swedish crown.

The reign of Gustave Vasa was characterized by the adoption of the Protestant Réforme, a new consolidation of the State and an increased participation of the middle-class in the public decisions by the creation of an assembly in four rooms (the Riksdag ). Gustave Vasa, king builder and peaceful, are often regarded as the father of the Swedish nation.

During the 17th century, Sweden gradually affirmed like a European great power , because in particular of its advantageous engagement in the Guerre Thirty Year old, on the initiative of the king Gustave II Adolphe. The interior of the kingdom also knew deep reforms modernisatrices thanks to the action of the count Axel Oxenstierna.

This strong position collapsed at the 18th century, when the Russia imposed its domination on Northern Europe at the conclusion of the Guerre of North, before finally being granted in 1809 half is country and making of it the Grand Duchy of Finland, under Russian administration.

The king Gustave III of Sweden, following a coup d'etat in 1772, put an end to the constitutional mode founded by Riksdag in 1719 and reigned as a lit despot, establishing a absolute monarchy which will end in 1809, when Sweden became a constitutional monarchy. The French marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was elected heir to the throne then king de Suède under the name of Charles XIV Jean of Sweden. Its dynasty always reigns on Sweden. The remainder of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, until 1917 when parliamentarism left definitively victorious, meant slow transfer of the capacity of the king towards Riksdag.

The modern history of Sweden is remarkably peaceful, the last war known by the country having been a campaign carried out against the Norway in 1814, at the conclusion which a personal union of the two crowns was established, with Swedish domination. It was dissolved in 1905 when Norway declared its independence, but without involving conflict.

The first ceremony of handing-over of the Nobel Prize took place with the Royal Academy of Music to Stockholm in 1901. Since 1902, the prices are officially decreed by the king of Sweden.

Sweden managed to preserve its neutrality during the Première and the Second world war, except notable for the logistical support and military brought to the Finland at the time of the attempt at Soviet invasion of 1939 - 1940. Following the failure of the introduction of a Scandinavian Union of defense, the country persisted in its policy of neutrality during the Cold war, and is not to today member of any treaty of military alliance. Adhesion with the European Union date of 1995.

Policy

See also: Political of Sweden, Swedish Political parties

Sweden has been a Monarchie for almost a millenium. As of the the Middle Ages, the peasants subjected to the tax constituted one of the four rooms of the General states of the kingdom (the Ståndsriksdagen ).

The Executive power, until in 1680, was divided between the king and the Council of the Swedish nobility. It followed one period of Absolute monarchy exerted by the king. In reaction to the fiasco of the War of North, the Parlement arism was reintroduced in 1719, was followed by three forms different of Constitutional monarchy in 1772, 1789 and finally in 1809, when the first Swedish constitution was signed by the king, who commits himself there guaranteeing several fundamental freedoms.

In 1866, the Ståndsriksdagen was definitively dissolves and replaced by a parliamentary system bicameral, the Riksdag : the First Room was elected by the indirect suffrage by local Great Electors, and the Second Room was elected by the direct suffrage.

Parliamentarism was reinforced in 1917 when the king Gustave V, after decades of political confrontation which let fear a revolution, agreed to name from now on ministers having to obtain the confidence of the majority of the Parliament. The democratization of the mode was supplemented in 1918 with the adoption of the Vote for all. The voter turnout was always high in Sweden: the rate of 80% with the elections of 2002 is low ever recorded.

In 1975, a new constitution ended final at the political power of the king: he is today only the formal representative but symbolic system of the Swedish State, and its obligations primarily consist in governing the official ceremonies.

The Social-démocratie played a political role dominating since 1917, when the branch reformist was reinforced and that the revolutionary branch left the party. The influence of the social democrat current on the Swedish company is often described like hegemonic. The coalition of the centrists and the social democrats ensured a stable government of 1932 1956. Thereafter, the political life was completely dominated by the only social democrats, often supported by the Marxist of the Vänsterpartiet and the Verts of the Miljöpartiet .

In 1971, the Riksdag became monocaméral. According to the constitution, the 349 members of the Riksdag hold the supreme authority in Sweden. The assembly can modify the constitution in the majority qualified. The initiative of the laws is allocated jointly to the ministers and to the members of Parliament. The latter are elected for four years according to the principle of the representation proportional.

The government and the Parliament are in permanent dialog with the others Scandinavian Pays within the framework of the Scandinavian Conseil.

The legal system, of tradition romano-Germanist, is composed of the civil, penal and administrative jurisdictions. A hierarchy exists between local courts, regional courses of call and supreme court. The Swedish law is codified.

Administration

The great areas ( Landsdelar )

Sweden is composed of three great traditional areas ( Landsdelar in Swedish): the Götaland in the south, the Svealand in the center and the Norrland in north.

Until 1809, the fourth area of Sweden was the Österland, in the east, today the Finland.

Historical provinces ( Landskap )

See also: historical Provinces of Sweden

Until the administrative reforms carried out by Axel Oxenstierna in 1634, these three great areas were subdivided in 25 Province S, said “historical provinces” ( Landskap in Swedish).

The provinces do not have any more any administrative office today, but represent for the Swedes an important historical heritage and cultural to which they are identified readily. They are also used as delimitation for the duchies.

Current division in counties ( Län )

The counties ( Län in Swedish) were instituted in 1634 on the initiative of the chancellor Axel Oxenstierna for the construction of a modern administration. Although strongly inspired by the preexistent provinces, the counties have often different borders.

Sweden is divided into 21 counties. 18 of them are directed, on the one hand, by a prefect ( Landshövding ) representing the State with the head of the Länsstyrelse , and on the other hand by an elected local assembly ( Landstinget ) whose principal function is to manage the departments of health. 2 counties, Västra Götaland and Skåne, reached the statute of area, and have a body of regional government (“ regionalt självstyrelseorgan ”). 1 county, Gotland, is composed of only one commune which dealt with the functions occupied elsewhere by the “ landsting ”.

Site of Swedish federation of the communes and the landsting http://www.skl.se Site of the http://www.lst.se prefectures

See also: Departments of Sweden

The communes ( kommuner )

See also: Common of Sweden

The counties are divided into communes, or kommuner which represents the local level of the government in Sweden. 290 communes are counted (in 2004).

Geography

See also: Geography of Sweden

Sweden enjoys a relatively moderate climate in spite of its septentrional situation, because of action of the Gulf Stream. In the south of the country, the leafy trees can be in abundance, contrary to north, where the thorn-bushes dominate the landscape. In the part of the country being located at the north of the Arctic Circle, the sun never lies down in summer, and the winter is only one night without end.

In the east of Sweden are the the Baltic and the Gulf of Bothnia: this very lengthened littoral contributes to still soften the climate. In the west, an assembly line, the the Scandinavian Alps (Stress), separates the country from the Norway.

Along the Gulf of Bothnia the area of “the high coast is” Höga Kusten which raises each year of more than 8 Misters This élèvement isostatic is due to the depression of the ground under the weight of a layer of thick ice of more than three kilometers during the last glacial period. Since the cast iron of the ices, the ground rose of 800 Mr. To 286 meters of altitude, one can find the line coastal highest formed after the last glaciation.

The South has a very clear agricultural vocation, and the surface occupied by the forest increases as one progresses towards north. The population density is also higher than the south, in particular in the valley of the Lac Mälar, in the area of the Öresund and all along the west coast, even if the south-east of the country relatively forms also an area with weak density.

The country is very rich in lakes of which some, like the Vänern and the Vättern are among largest of Europe.

Gotland and Öland, in the the Baltic, is the two larger islands of Sweden and forms each one a clean historical province. The Swedish coasts are intersected enough with a very great number of small gulfs (of the fjärdar ) and many small islands which often form archipelagoes, like those of Stockholm and Gothenburg.

Economy

See also: Economy of Sweden

Supported by peace and political neutrality throughout the 20th century, the Swedish population reached an enviable standard of living resting on the two pillars of high-technology and a powerful État-providence. The country has of excellent transport infrastructures and communication and a highly qualified labor. The Wood, the Hydroelectricity and the Fer constitute the basic resources of an economy directed towards the foreign trade.

The proportion of the population employed in the secondary industry (industry) was in 1960 of 43,9% then of 29,1% in 1987 according to the figures of the the ILO

Following a crisis of the Swedish model during the Years 1990, the budgetary austerity measures adopted by the government led to a substantial surplus in 2001. This last was tiny room of half in 2002, because of the world economic deceleration. The Swedish central bank (the Riksbank) sets like objective the price stability with a target of inflation at 2%.

In 2003, the adoption of the Euro was rejected into a Référendum where the opponents of the Euro gained a convincing victory (55,9% against; 42% for). The majority of the political parties was officially in favor of the adoption.

Growth rate for 2004 should amount to 3,5%, confirming a remarkable economic health compared to the average of the countries of the European Union. The Unemployment, although having known increase continues since 2001, reaches yet only one honourable 4,9% in October 2004.

Among the Swedish companies, one can quote Ericsson, Electrolux, H&M, IKEA, Saab, Scania, Tele2, Tetra Pak and Volvo.

See also: List of Swedish companies

Demography

See also: Demography of Sweden

Sweden with the one of the highest life expectancies in the world, and one of the highest birth rates in Europe. On the other hand, in 1969, its Birth rate passed in lower part of the Seuil of renewal (2,1 children per woman). She counts approximately 17  000 Same S in north, and 50  000 Swedes of Finnish stock , not to confuse with the Finnish immigrants of the 20th century.

The Swedish nation was a country of emigration until the end of the First World War (nearly 1,5 million Swede emigrated in the United States towards 2nd half of the 19th century because mainly of the famine), then a nation of immigration after the Second world war. Nearly 12% of the residents were born abroad, and approximately a fifth of the Swedish population is made up either of immigrants, or children of immigrants. The most immigrants come from Finland, of ex-Yugoslavia, Iran, Norway, the Denmark and Poland. This composition testifies to the strong migrations between Scandinavian countries, of the immigration of labor in the years 1960, then family gathering.

The Finns constitute the first large wave of immigration in contemporary Sweden. During the Second world war, close to 70  000 young Finns fled their country because of the Soviet invasion . 15.000 of them remained in Sweden after the war, and others went back there to their adulthood. The difficulties of post-war period in Finland pushed then a great number of Finnish unemployed towards the prosperous Swedish economy of the years 1950 and 1960. With most extremely of the phenomenon, 400.000 Finnish lived in Sweden, but following the First oil crisis in 1973 the rate of Chômage increased whereas the Finland profited from its commercial relations with the the USSR. Since, the number of Finno-Swedes fell under the bar of the 200.000.

The Soviet interventions in Hungary in 1956, then with Prague in 1968, involved the arrival of the first political refugees. The American deserters refusing to go to fight with the Vietnam often found refuge among the Swedes. After the coup d'etat of 1973 to the Chile and the appearance of other military dictatorships in South America, the political refugees are reflected to dominate the migratory flux towards Sweden, including coming from Iran, of Iraq and Palestine. 135  000 refugees made during the Yugoslav Conflits are always in the country. The country thus counts a Muslim community.

Sweden has a very sophisticated system of cribs being able to guarantee a place with any older child from 2 to 5 years. The Welfare state, strongly developed, also grants long parental leave to the mother and to the father of a child, a ceiling for the health expenditure, of the minimal pensions of retirement and the allowances disease.

Culture

See also: Culture of Sweden

Music

Sweden has a long tradition of music: skillingtryck, Bellman, Monica Zetterlund, folk dance, Evert Taube… and it is a country with a very long-lived culture of song as a choral society. The Swedes train singing people! One even says that the Swedish language lends itself very well to the traditional song with Italian thanks to his vowels. Sweden gives to the opera of many singers such as Anne-Sofie Von Otter. The country also counts two orchestras of reputation, the royal Philharmonic orchestra of Stockholm and the Symphony orchestra of Gothenburg.

Sweden gained the Concours Eurovision of the song four times:

Sweden also gathers many musical groups which had an international success such as Ace off Base in 1993 with All that she wants , Roxette with Pearls off Passion in 1986 and The Cardigans more recently with Lovefool . One can name Eagle-Eye Cherry, Neneh Cherry and Titiyo.

Sweden was the third exporting country of music, behind the United States and England. In 2004 and for the first time, Sweden exported more towards England than England towards itself. This musical culture undoubtedly goes back to the victory of ABBA to the Eurovision and thus to the emergence of this group, which sold more than 360 million album throughout the world throughout its career.

The electronic music and Swedish electroacoustic are known thanks to the work of Joakim Sandgren. The music metal, in particular Viking metal and melody Death, is also popular. Groups like In Flames (more than one million albums sold in the world), Amon Amarth, Dark Tranquility or Opeth are known and have a very great musical influence everywhere in the world. But a few years earlier, Sweden was known to have lodged one of the precursory groups of the Black metal and the Viking metal, Bathory (of which the leader Quorthon died in 2004), as some groups of Death metal at the time when the style took off, at the end of the Eighties and with beginning of the year 90: Nihilist, Entombed, Dismember, Serious, Unleashed. They were distinguished from the American scene Death metal from their sound more " crade" , their punk and primitive approach of the movement and their less technique.

The rock'n'roll remains however the major music of Sweden with groups like The Hives, Kent, The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, The Sounds, Backyard Babies, Caesars Palace. A minority rap is represented by Timbuktu, and Ska by Svenska Academien. There exists also a folk popular rock'n'roll in Sweden: Lars Winnerbäck.

Certain Swedish artists preferred France like land of welcome and met success there: Jay Jay Johansson, Hermann Dune or Peter von Poehl. One will not forget to quote the pop revival Swedish with Jose González, I' m From Barcelona, Loney, Dear, Love Is All, The Knife, Deportees, Tarentula, and in a register plus intimist, Frida Hyvönen.

Literature and film

See also: Swedish Literature

the Grand Prix of the Swedish Academy (“Svenska akademiens will stora taken”) is a rare price for Swedish authors and not an annual and international price like the Nobel Prize of literature.

the price August (“Augustpriset”) is an annual price for Swedish authors. The book which gained the price 2000, Populärmusik från Vittula , was transformed into a film 2004.

Swedish personalities

Periodic events

World heritage

Random links:Krisztián Vadócz | François Hanriot | The Song of the streets | Johann Ramaré | Jean Sauvaget