Introduction:
The Åland Islands or Åland is an archipelago province at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia in the Baltic Sea belonging to Finland. It is autonomous, demilitarized and is the only monolingual Swedish-speaking region in Finland. It is the smallest region of Finland, constituting 0.51% of its land area and 0.54% of its population.
Åland comprises Fasta Åland on which 90% of the population resides and a further 6,500 skerries and islands to its east. Fasta Åland is separated from the coast of Sweden by 38 kilometers (24 mi) of open water to the west. In the east, the Åland archipelago is contiguous with the Finnish Archipelago Sea. Åland’s only land border is located on the uninhabited skerry of Märket, which it shares with Sweden.
Åland’s autonomous status means that those provincial powers normally exercised by representatives of the central Finnish government are largely exercised by its own government.
Autonomy:
The autonomous status of the islands was affirmed by a decision made by the League of Nations in 1921 following the Åland Islands dispute. It was reaffirmed within the treaty admitting Finland to the European Union. By law, Åland is politically neutral and entirely demilitarized, and residents are exempt from conscription to the Finnish Defence Forces. The islands were granted extensive autonomy by the Parliament of Finland in the Act on the Autonomy of Åland of 1920, which was later replaced by new legislation by the same name in 1951 and 1991. The constitution of Finland defines a “constitution of Åland” by referring to this act. Åland remains exclusively Swedish-speaking by this act.
In connection with Finland’s admission to the European Union, a protocol was signed concerning the Åland Islands that stipulates, among other things, that provisions of the European Community Treaty shall not force a change of the existing restrictions for foreigners (i.e., persons who do not enjoy “home region rights”—hembygdsrätt—in Åland) to acquire and hold real property or to provide certain services.
Etymology:
Åland’s original name was in the Proto-Norse language Ahvaland which means “land of water”. Ahva is related to the Latin word for water, “aqua”. In Swedish, this first developed into Áland and eventually into Åland, literally “river land”—even though rivers are not a prominent feature of Åland’s geography. The Finnish and Estonian names of the island, Ahvenanmaa and Ahvenamaa (“perch land”), are seen to preserve another form of the old name.
Another theory suggests that the Finnish Ahvenanmaa would be the original name of the archipelago, from which the Swedish Åland derives.
The official name, Landskapet Åland, means “the Region of Åland”; landskap is cognate to English “landscape”.
History:
Members of the Neolithic Comb Ceramic culture started settling the islands some 7000 years ago, after the islands had begun to re-emerge from the sea after being pushed down by the weight of the continental ice of the latest ice-age. Two neolithic cultures met on Åland: the Comb Ceramic culture and the later Pit-Comb Ware culture which spread from the west.