Sweden

Sweden, Swed. Sverige, officially Kingdom of Sweden, constitutional monarchy (2005 est. pop. 9,002,000), 173,648 sq mi (449,750 sq km), N Europe, occupying the eastern part of the Scandinavian peninsula. It borders on Norway in the west, on Finland in the northeast, on the Gulf of Bothnia in the east, on the Baltic Sea in the south, and on the Øresund (The Sound), the Kattegat, and the Skagerrak in the southwest. The country includes several islands, notably Gotland and Öland, in the Baltic. Stockholm is Sweden's capital and largest city.

Land and People

Sweden falls into two main geographical regions: the north (Norrland), comprising about two thirds of the country, which is mountainous (except for a narrow strip of lowland along the Gulf of Bothnia); and the south (Svealand and Götaland), which is mostly low-lying and where most of the population lives. About 65% of Sweden's land area is forested, and less than 10% is arable. The country has several large rivers, which generally flow in a southeastward direction; these include the Götaälv, the Dalälven, the Indalsälven, the Ångermanälven, the Umeälv, the Skellefteälven, the Luleälv, and the Torneälv. There are also a number of large lakes, including lakes Vänern, Vättern, Mälaren, Storsjön, Hjälmaren, Siljan, and Uddjaur. The highest point in Sweden is Kebnekaise (6,965 ft/2,123 m), located in the Kölen (Kjölen) Mts. in Lapland.

The great majority of the nation's population speaks Swedish and is descended from Scandinavian tribes (see Germans); there is a sizable Finnish-speaking minority and a small Lapp-speaking minority. About 12% of the population is foreign born. Most Swedes belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church; the metropolitan see is at Uppsala. It was long the official state church, but it was disestablished in 2000. The Nobel Prizes (except the Peace Prize) are awarded annually in Sweden. Social welfare legislation has long been advanced and comprehensive, providing for pensions, maternity benefits, health insurance, and allowances for all children.

Economy

Sweden is a highly industrialized country and has one of the highest living standards in the world. Since 1940 there has been a great movement of workers from farms to cities; nevertheless, agricultural output has increased considerably with the application of scientific farming methods. In 2006 industry contributed about 28% of the annual national income and agriculture about 1%. Transportation, communication, and trade are also important. Farming is concentrated in the southern part of the country; the leading commodities produced are dairy products, grain (including fodder crops), sugar beets, and potatoes. Large numbers of poultry, hogs, and cattle are raised.

Sweden is one of the world's leading producers of iron ore; important mines are at Kiruna and Gällivare. Copper, lead, and zinc ores and pyrite are also extracted. The country's chief industrial centers are Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö, Uppsala, Västerås, Helsingborg, and Norrköping. Food processing is important and the leading manufactures include iron and steel, machinery, precision equipment, forest products, chemicals, and motor vehicles. Sweden is known for its decorative and folk arts, fine glassware (made especially at Orrefors), and high-quality steel cutlery and blades. Much hydroelectric power is generated. The country's beautiful scenery and handsome towns and cities attract large numbers of tourists.

Sweden carries on a large foreign trade, and the value of exports usually slightly exceeds that of imports. The chief exports are machinery, motor vehicles, paper goods, pulp and wood, iron and steel products, and chemicals.The main imports are machinery, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, motor vehicles, iron and steel, foodstuffs, and clothing. The principal trade partners are Germany, Norway, Denmark, Great Britain, and Finland.

Government

Sweden is a constitutional monarchy governed under the constitution of 1975, which replaced that of 1809. The hereditary monarch is the head of state but has little power. The prime minister, who is the head of government, is elected by the Parliament. Legislative power is vested in the unicameral Parliament or Riksdag, whose 349 members are elected by a system of proportional representation to four-year terms. The country's executive is the cabinet, headed by the prime minister, which must have the confidence of the Riksdag. Public administration is to a large extent decentralized, so that elected county and municipal governments play a major role in running the country. Administratively, Sweden is divided into 21 counties.

History

Origins of Sweden

In early historic times, Svealand was inhabited by the Svear (mentioned as the Suiones by Tacitus in the late 1st cent. A.D.). They engaged in wars with their southern neighbors, who inhabited Götaland and who according to an unproved tradition were the ancestors of the Goths. By the 6th cent. A.D. the Svear had conquered the Götar, with whom they merged. The early Swedes were combined and confused with other Scandinavians (e.g., the piratical Vikings and Norsemen). The Swedes alone, known as Varangians in Russia, extended (10th cent.) their influence to the Black Sea. The Swedish kings warred for centuries with their Danish and Norwegian neighbors.

St. Ansgar introduced Christianity c.829, but paganism was fully eradicated only in the 12th cent. by Eric IX, who also conquered Finland. The royal authority was weakened before the 13th cent. by the rise of an independent feudal class. The Swedish cities also began to acquire wide rights at that time and were strongly influenced by German merchants of the Hanseatic League, active especially at Visby. In 1319, Sweden and Norway were united under Magnus VII, and in 1397 Queen Margaret I effected the personal union of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark through the Kalmar Union.

However, Margaret's successors, whose rule was centered in Denmark, were unable to control the Swedes. Real power was held for long periods by regents (notably those of the Sture family) chosen by the Swedish diet. Christian II, who asserted his claim to Sweden by force of arms, ordered a massacre (1520) of Swedish nobles at Stockholm. This "Stockholm Blood Bath" stirred the Swedes to new resistance; at Strängnäs, in 1523, they made Gustavus Vasa their king as Gustavus I.

Growth of the Swedish State

The founder of the modern Swedish state, Gustavus eliminated the influence of the Hanseatic League in Sweden, strengthened the central authority, made (1544) the kingship hereditary in the Vasa dynasty, and made Lutheranism the state religion. However, he was unable to regain the southern provinces, held by Denmark. His successor, Eric XIV (reigned 1560-68), began the Swedish conquest of Livonia by taking (1561) its northern section (Estonia).

Swedish interests in E Europe were further enhanced by the marriage of John III (reigned 1569-92), Eric's successor, to the sister of Sigismund II of Poland. Their son, Sigismund III of Poland, was a Roman Catholic; his accession (1592) to the Swedish throne was deeply resented by the Protestant Swedes. He was deposed in 1599, and his uncle became regent and then king of Sweden as Charles IX (reigned 1607-11).

Charles's son, Gustavus II (Gustavus Adolphus; reigned 1611-32), made Sweden a great European power. Through a war with Russia, he acquired (1617) Ingermanland and Karelia; from Poland he took nearly all of Livonia. By his victories at Breitenfeld (1631) and Lützen (1632) in the Thirty Years War, Gustavus made Sweden the dominant Protestant power of continental Europe. Axel Oxenstierna, appointed chancellor by Gustavus in 1612, was highly influential during Gustavus's reign and the first half of the reign of Queen Christina (1632-54).

In the 17th cent. Swedish colonial aspirations in North America (see New Sweden) proved short-lived. The Peace of Westphalia (1648; see Westphalia, Peace of), which ended the Thirty Years War, gave W Pomerania, Wismar, and the archbishopric of Bremen to Sweden, making the Swedish kings princes of the Holy Roman Empire. Charles X, who became king on the abdication (1654) of Christina, successfully led wars against Poland and Denmark. The southern provinces of Sweden were definitively recovered from Denmark in 1660. Under Charles XI (reigned 1660-97), Sweden became an absolute monarchy, and the great nobles lost their independence.

In the Northern War (1700-1721), which broke out shortly after the accession of Charles XII (reigned 1697-1718), Sweden was crushed after gaining its greatest military triumphs (e.g., at Narva and in Livonia). Under the treaties of Stockholm (1720) and Nystad (1721), Sweden ceded the archbishopric of Bremen to Hanover, part of Pomerania to Prussia, and Livonia, Ingermanland, and Karelia to Russia. Internally, Sweden was torn in the 18th cent. by political intrigue and civil discord. Ulrica Eleonora (d.1741) succeeded her brother, Charles XII, in 1718, but abdicated (1720) in favor of her husband, Frederick I (d. 1751), a prince of Hesse-Kassel.

The constitution of 1720 gave increased powers to the Riksdag (diet) and the political scene was dominated (1738-65) by the faction known as the Hats, who favored an aggressive anti-Russian policy in alliance with France and who represented the nobility and the bureaucracy. They were successfully challenged in 1765 by the Caps, who sought peaceful relations with Russia and who represented the lesser estates. In 1751 the house of Oldenburg-Holstein-Gottorp gained the Swedish throne when Adolphus Frederick became king. His son, Gustavus III (reigned 1771-92), restored absolutism in 1772 but was later assassinated by a conspiracy of nobles. Gustavus IV (reigned 1792-1809), a despotic ruler, involved Sweden in war with Napoleon I and then (1806-9) with Russia. A coup (1809) placed his uncle, Charles XIII, on the throne, and later in the same year Sweden was forced to cede Finland to Russia.

A constitutional monarchy was established by the constitution of 1809, which, although modified considerably (e.g., in 1866 and 1969), remained in effect until Jan. 1, 1975. From 1810, Swedish affairs were in the hands of Charles's adopted heir, Marshal Bernadotte (later Charles XIV). Sweden again joined the allies against Napoleon in 1813; this was the last war in which Sweden has participated. The Congress of Vienna compensated (1814) Sweden for its loss of Pomerania and Finland with Norway, which remained a separate kingdom in personal union with Sweden until 1905.

Sweden since 1814

The history of 19th-century Sweden, under Charles XIV (reigned 1818-44), Oscar I (1844-59), Charles XV (1859-72), and Oscar II (1872-1907), was one of progressive liberalization in government and of industrial development. Freedom of the press (1844) and internal free trade (1864) were established, and the suffrage bill of 1865 enfranchised the middle class. The accelerated industrial development of the late 19th cent. was accompanied by the rise of the Social Democratic party, which dominated Swedish politics after 1920. From 1870 to 1914 about 1.5 million Swedes emigrated to the United States, mostly to the Midwest.

Relations with Norway were strained throughout the 19th cent., and in 1905 the union of Norway and Sweden was peacefully terminated. Under Gustavus V (reigned 1907-50), Sweden averted involvement in World War I and II, making armed neutrality the basis of its foreign policy, and, except for the early 1920s and early 1930s, enjoyed economic prosperity. Universal taxpayer suffrage was introduced in 1907, and in 1910 a workers' compensation insurance law began the long series of Swedish welfare legislation. Sweden entered the United Nations in 1946, and Dag Hammarskjöld, a Swedish diplomat, was secretary-general of the organization from 1953 until his death in 1961. In 1950, Gustavus VI ascended the throne; he was succeeded in 1973 by Charles XVI Gustavus. Sweden refused to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949 in order not to compromise its neutrality, and for similar reasons withdrew its first application for full membership in the European Community in 1971.

The Social Democrats, led by Tage Erlander from 1946 to 1969 and thereafter by Olof Palme, controlled the government after 1945, usually at the head of coalition governments. Considerable new social welfare legislation was passed, but from the mid-1960s Swedish economic growth slowed, and there were sizable increases in unemployment and in the rate of inflation in the early 1970s. Palme was replaced in 1976 by Thorbjörn Fälldin, a Center party member who led a coalition that ended 44 years of domination by the Social Democrats.

The period was marked by a heated national debate over nuclear power. Fälldin resigned in 1978 when he was forced to compromise on his decision to halt the building of nuclear power plants. Ola Ullsten became prime minister briefly, but Fälldin was returned to power after a general election in 1979. A 1980 referendum called for the phasing out of nuclear power, but in the subsequent decades most nuclear power plants remained in operation. In 1982 the Social Democrats resumed power under the leadership of Olof Palme, who was assassinated by an unidentified gunman in 1986. Palme was succeeded by Ingvar Carlsson. In 1991 the Social Democrats lost power and Carl Bildt, a Conservative, became prime minister; his government enacted austerity measures.

Carlsson and the Social Democrats were returned to power in the 1994 elections. Sweden joined the European Union in 1995. Carlsson resigned as prime minister in 1996 and was succeeded by his finance minister, Göran Persson, who continued in office following the 1998 elections, despite a setback for the Social Democrats. In 2002, Swedish voters again returned the Social Democrats to power, this time with an increased percentage of the vote. Sweden has deregulated many sectors of its economy while retaining its welfare state, and the country has experienced steady growth since the mid-1990s. A center-right coalition, led by the Moderate party, defeated the Social Democrats in Sept., 2006. Fredrik Reinfeldt, leader of the Moderates, became prime minister of a four-party coalition in October.

officially Kingdom of Sweden

Country, eastern Scandinavian Peninsula, northern Europe. Area: 173,860 sq mi (450,295 sq km). Population (2005 est.): 9,024,000. Capital: Stockholm. The population is largely homogeneous, although there are Finnish and Sami (Lapp) minorities and 10percnt of the inhabitants are immigrants or their descendents. Language: Swedish (official). Religions: Christianity (predominantly Protestant; also Roman Catholic); also Islam. Currency: Swedish krona. Sweden has three traditional regions: mountainous Norrland covers about three-fifths of the country and has vast forests and large ore deposits; Svealand has undulating glacial ridges and contains most of the country's 90,000 lakes; and Götaland comprises the stony Småland highlands and the rich Skåne plains. About 15percnt of Sweden lies north of the Arctic Circle. The economy is largely based on services, heavy industries, and international trade. Sweden has large deposits of iron ore; industries include mining, lumbering, steel manufacturing, and tourism. Agricultural products include grains, sugar beets, potatoes, and livestock. One of the world's richest countries, Sweden is known for its comprehensive social welfare system. It is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary state with one legislative house; its chief of state is the king, and the head of government is the prime minister. The first traces of human life in Sweden date from about 9000 BC. During the Viking era (9th–10th century AD), the Swedes controlled river trade in eastern Europe between the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea; they also raided western European lands. Sweden was loosely united and Christianized in the 11th–12th century. It conquered the Finns in the 12th century, and in the 14th century it united with Norway and Denmark under a single monarchy. Sweden broke away in 1523 under Gustav I Vasa. In the 17th century it emerged as a great European power in the Baltic region, but its dominance declined after its defeat in the Second Northern War (1700–21). It became a constitutional monarchy in 1809 and united with Norway in 1814; it acknowledged Norwegian independence in 1905. Sweden maintained its neutrality during both World Wars. It was a charter member of the UN but abstained from membership in NATO and did not join the European Union until 1995. A new constitution drafted in 1975 reduced the monarch's powers to those of a ceremonial chief of state. In 1997 Sweden began the controversial shutdown of its nuclear power industry. By the early 21st century it had emerged as a European centre of telecommunications and information technology.

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(born circa 1303, Swed.—died July 23, 1373, Rome; canonized Oct. 8, 1391; feast day July 23) Mystic and patron saint of Sweden. She had religious visions from an early age but married and had eight children, including St. Catherine of Sweden. On the death of her husband (1344), she retired to a life of prayer. She lived in Rome after 1350, striving to bring the pope back from Avignon. In response to a revelation, she founded a new religious order in 1370, the Brigittines. In 1372, inspired by another vision, she journeyed to the Holy Land and died soon after her return to Rome.

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Only Swedish colony in North America, on the Delaware River, extending from the site of present-day Trenton, N.J., U.S., to the mouth of the river. It was established by the New Sweden Co. led by Peter Minuit in 1638, when Fort Christina was built at what is now Wilmington, Del. It was captured by the Dutch in 1655 under Peter Stuyvesant. The Swedish colonists were allowed to keep their lands and continue their customs under Dutch rule.

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Sweden is a town in Oxford County, Maine, United States. The population was 324 at the 2000 census. Sweden includes the village of East Sweden. Set among hills, forests and ponds, the town is a recreational area popular with hunting and fishing enthusiasts.

History

This was once territory of the Sokokis Indians, an Abenaki tribe whose main village was at Pequawket (now Fryeburg). Pequawket was attacked during Dummer's War on May 8, 1725 by Captain John Lovewell and his company of soldiers. Lovewell was killed in the battle, after which the tribe fled to Canada for safety. Called New Suncook Plantation, it was granted by the Massachusetts General Court in 1774 to the officers and soldiers (or heirs) for their services to the state. In 1800, the town was incorporated as Lovell after Captain Lovewell.

The southeast portion of Lovell (which would become Sweden) was first settled in 1794 by Colonel Samuel Nevers from Burlington, Massachusetts. He was followed in 1795-1796 by Benjamin Webber from Bedford, Jacob Stevens from Rowley, Andrew Woodbury and Micah Trull from Tewksbury, and Peter Holden from Malden. On the plan which accompanied the petition for incorporation of the southeast portion, it was labeled Southland. It was set off as Sweden on February 26, 1813. The surface of the town is somewhat broken, but had good soil for farming, particularly the cultivation of grains. Other industries included a sawmill that produced short and long lumber, in addition to shooks. The town also had a carriage factory.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 29.7 square miles (76.9 km²), of which, 28.8 square miles (74.5 km²) of it is land and 0.9 square miles (2.4 km²) of it (3.13%) is water. It is drained by Plummer Brook and the Kezar River.

The town is crossed by state route 93. It borders the towns of Waterford to the northeast, Lovell to the northwest, Fryeburg to the southwest, and Bridgton to the southeast.

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 324 people, 132 households, and 97 families residing in the town. The population density was 11.3 people per square mile (4.4/km²). There were 266 housing units at an average density of 9.3/sq mi (3.6/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 98.77% White, and 1.23% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.31% of the population.

There were 132 households out of which 31.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 62.9% were married couples living together, 7.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 25.8% were non-families. 19.7% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.45 and the average family size was 2.79.

In the town the population was spread out with 24.4% under the age of 18, 4.3% from 18 to 24, 25.6% from 25 to 44, 28.7% from 45 to 64, and 17.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 89.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.0 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $30,781, and the median income for a family was $40,625. Males had a median income of $30,000 versus $24,375 for females. The per capita income for the town was $14,991. About 12.9% of families and 19.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.6% of those under age 18 and 35.0% of those age 65 or over.

Site of interest

• Sweden Historical Society & Museum

References

External links

• Maine.gov -- Sweden, Maine
• History of Sweden, Maine (1886)