![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/Finland-on-the-Globe-300x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Finland’s population is 5.52 million as of July 2019, the majority of whom live in the central and south of the country and speak Finnish<\/a>, a Finnic language<\/a> from the Uralic language family<\/a>, unrelated to the Scandinavian languages<\/a>. Finland is the eighth-largest country in Europe and the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. It is a parliamentary republic of 310 municipalities, and includes an autonomous region, the \u00c5land Islands<\/a>. Over 1.4 million people live in the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area, which produces one third of the country’s GDP. Swedish is the second official language of Finland, which is mainly spoken in certain coastal areas and on \u00c5land. A large majority of Finns are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church<\/a>.<\/p>\n Finland was inhabited when the last ice age ended, approximately 9000 BC. Comb Ceramic culture<\/a> introduced pottery 5200 BC and Corded Ware culture<\/a> coincided with the start of agriculture between 3000 and 2500 BC. The Bronze Age<\/a> and Iron Age<\/a> were characterized by extensive contacts with other cultures in the Fennoscandian and Baltic regions<\/a>. At the time Finland had three main cultural areas \u2013 Southwest Finland<\/a>, Tavastia<\/a> and Karelia<\/a>. From the late 13th century, Finland gradually became an integral part of Sweden through the Northern Crusades<\/a> and the Swedish part-colonization of coastal Finland<\/a>, a legacy reflected in the prevalence of the Swedish language and its official status.<\/p>\n In 1809, Finland was incorporated into the Russian Empire<\/a> as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland<\/a>. In 1906, Finland became the first European state to grant all adult citizens the right to vote, and the first in the world to give all adult citizens the right to run for public office. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution<\/a>, Finland declared itself independent<\/a>. In 1918, the fledgling state was divided by civil war, with the Bolshevik-leaning Red Guard<\/a>, supported by Soviet Russia<\/a>, fighting the White Guard<\/a>, supported by the German Empire<\/a>. After a brief attempt to establish a kingdom<\/a>, the country became a republic. During World War II<\/a>, Finland fought the Soviet Union in the Winter War<\/a> and the Continuation War<\/a> and lost some land, but maintained independence.<\/p>\n Finland remained largely an agrarian country until the 1950s. After World War II, the war reparations demanded by the Soviet Union forced Finland to industrialize. The country rapidly developed an advanced economy while building an extensive welfare state based on the Nordic model<\/a>, resulting in widespread prosperity and a high per capita income. Finland is a top performer in numerous metrics of national performance, including education, economic competitiveness, civil liberties, quality of life, and human development. In 2015, Finland was ranked first in the World Human Capital and the Press Freedom Index<\/a> and as the most stable country in the world during 2011\u20132016 in the Fragile States Index<\/a>, and second in the Global Gender Gap Report<\/a>. It also ranked first on the World Happiness Report<\/a> report for 2018 and 2019.<\/p>\n Finland joined the United Nations<\/a> in 1955 and adopted an official policy of neutrality. The Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948<\/a> gave the Soviet Union some leverage in Finnish domestic politics during the Cold War<\/a>. Finland joined the OECD<\/a> in 1969, the NATO Partnership for Peace<\/a> in 1994, the European Union<\/a> in 1995, the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council<\/a> in 1997, and the Eurozone<\/a> at its inception in 1999.<\/p>\n If the archaeological finds from Wolf Cave<\/a> are the result of Neanderthals<\/a>‘ activities, the first people inhabited Finland approximately 120,000\u2013130,000 years ago. The area that is now Finland was settled in, at the latest, around 8,500 BC during the Stone Age<\/a> towards the end of the last glacial period. The artifacts the first settlers left behind present characteristics that are shared with those found in Estonia, Russia, and Norway. The earliest people were hunter-gatherers, using stone tools.<\/p>\n The first pottery appeared in 5200 BC, when the Comb Ceramic culture was introduced. The arrival of the Corded Ware culture in Southern coastal Finland between 3000 and 2500 BC may have coincided with the start of agriculture. Even with the introduction of agriculture, hunting and fishing continued to be important parts of the subsistence economy.<\/p>\n In the Bronze Age permanent all-year-round cultivation and animal husbandry spread, but the cold climate phase slowed the change. Cultures in Finland shared common features in pottery and also axes had similarities but local features existed. Seima-Turbino-phenomenon<\/a> brought first bronze artifacts to the region and possibly also the Finno-Ugric-Languages<\/a>. Commercial contacts that had so far mostly been to Estonia started to extend to Scandinavia. Domestic manufacture of bronze artifacts started 1300 BC with Maaninka-type bronze axes. Bronze was imported from Volga region<\/a> and from Southern Scandinavia.<\/p>\n In the Iron Age population grew especially in H\u00e4me and Savo regions. Finland proper was the most densely populated area. Cultural contacts to the Baltics and Scandinavia became more frequent. Commercial contacts in the Baltic Sea region grew and extended during the 8th and 9th centuries.<\/p>\n Main exports from Finland were furs, slaves, castoreum<\/a>, and falcons to European courts. Imports included silk and other fabrics, jewelry, Ulfberht swords<\/a>, and, in lesser extent, glass. Production of iron started approximately in 500 BC.<\/p>\n At the end of the 9th century, indigenous artifact culture, especially women’s jewelry and weapons, had more common local features than ever before. This has been interpreted to be expressing common Finnish identity which was born from an image of common origin.<\/p>\n An early form of Finnic languages spread to the Baltic Sea region approximately 1900 BC with the Seima-Turbino-phenomenon. Common Finnic language was spoken around Gulf of Finland 2000 years ago. The dialects from which the modern-day Finnish language was developed came into existence during the Iron Age. Although distantly related, the Sami retained the hunter-gatherer lifestyle longer than the Finns. The Sami<\/a> cultural identity and the Sami language<\/a> have survived in Lapland, the northernmost province, but the Sami have been displaced or assimilated elsewhere.<\/p>\n The 12th and 13th centuries were a violent time in the northern Baltic Sea. The Livonian Crusade<\/a> was ongoing and the Finnish tribes such as the Tavastians<\/a> and Karelians<\/a> were in frequent conflicts with Novgorod<\/a> and with each other. Also, during the 12th and 13th centuries several crusades from the Catholic realms of the Baltic Sea area were made against the Finnish tribes. According to historical sources, Danes<\/a> waged two crusades on Finland, in 1191 and in 1202, and Swedes<\/a>, possibly the so-called second crusade to Finland<\/a>, in 1249 against Tavastians and the third crusade to Finland<\/a> in 1293 against the Karelians. The so-called first crusade to Finland<\/a>, possibly in 1155, is most likely an unreal event. Also, it is possible that Germans made violent conversion of Finnish pagans in the 13th century. According to a papal letter from 1241, the king of Norway was also fighting against “nearby pagans” at that time.<\/p>\n As a result of the crusades and the colonization of some Finnish coastal areas with Christian Swedish population<\/a> during the Middle Ages, Finland gradually became part of the kingdom of Sweden and the sphere of influence of the Catholic Church. Due to the Swedish conquest, the Finnish upper class lost its position and lands to the new Swedish and German nobility and to the Catholic Church. In Sweden even in the 17th and 18th centuries, it was clear that Finland was a conquered country and its inhabitants could be treated arbitrarily. Swedish kings visited Finland rarely and in Swedish contemporary texts Finns were portrayed to be primitive and their language inferior.<\/p>\n Swedish<\/a> became the dominant language of the nobility, administration, and education; Finnish was chiefly a language for the peasantry, clergy, and local courts in predominantly Finnish-speaking areas. During the Protestant Reformation<\/a>, the Finns gradually converted to Lutheranism<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the 16th century, Mikael Agricola<\/a> published the first written works in Finnish. The first university in Finland, the Royal Academy of Turku<\/a>, was established in 1640. Finland suffered a severe famine in 1696\u20131697<\/a>, during which about one third of the Finnish population died, and a devastating plague<\/a> a few years later.<\/p>\n In the 18th century, wars between Sweden and Russia twice led to the occupation of Finland by Russian forces, times known to the Finns as the Greater Wrath (1714\u20131721)<\/a> and the Lesser Wrath (1742\u20131743)<\/a>. It is estimated that almost an entire generation of young men was lost during the Great Wrath, due mainly to the destruction of homes and farms, and to the burning of Helsinki. By this time Finland was the predominant term for the whole area from the Gulf of Bothnia to the Russian border.<\/p>\n Two Russo-Swedish wars in twenty-five years served as reminders to the Finnish people of the precarious position between Sweden and Russia. An increasingly vocal elite in Finland soon determined that Finnish ties with Sweden were becoming too costly, and following Russo-Swedish War (1788\u20131790)<\/a>, the Finnish elite’s desire to break with Sweden only heightened.<\/p>\n Even before the war there were conspiring politicians, among them Col G. M. Sprengtporten<\/a>, who had supported Gustav III’s coup in 1772<\/a>. Sprengporten fell out with the king and resigned his commission in 1777. In the following decade he tried to secure Russian support for an autonomous Finland, and later became an adviser to Catherine II. In the spirit of the notion of Adolf Ivar Arwidsson (1791\u20131858)<\/a>, “we are not Swedes, we do not want to become Russians, let us therefore be Finns”, the Finnish national identity started to become established.<\/p>\n Notwithstanding the efforts of Finland’s elite and nobility to break ties with Sweden, there was no genuine independence movement in Finland until the early 20th century. As a matter of fact, at this time the Finnish peasantry was outraged by the actions of their elite and almost exclusively supported Gustav’s actions against the conspirators. (The High Court of Turku condemned Sprengtporten as a traitor c. 1793.) The Swedish era ended in the Finnish war in 1809<\/a>.<\/p>\n On 29 March 1809, having been taken over by the armies of Alexander I of Russia<\/a> in the Finnish War, Finland became an autonomous Grand Duchy in the Russian Empire until the end of 1917. In 1811, Alexander I incorporated the Russian Vyborg province<\/a> into the Grand Duchy of Finland. During the Russian era, the Finnish language began to gain recognition. From the 1860s onwards, a strong Finnish nationalist movement known as the Fennoman movement<\/a> grew. Milestones included the publication of what would become Finland’s national epic \u2013 the Kalevala<\/a> \u2013 in 1835, and the Finnish language’s achieving equal legal status with Swedish in 1892.<\/p>\n The Finnish famine of 1866\u20131868<\/a> killed 15% of the population, making it one of the worst famines in European history. The famine led the Russian Empire to ease financial regulations, and investment rose in following decades. Economic and political development was rapid. The gross domestic product (GDP) per capita was still half of that of the United States and a third of that of Britain.<\/p>\n In 1906, universal suffrage was adopted in the Grand Duchy of Finland. However, the relationship between the Grand Duchy and the Russian Empire soured when the Russian government made moves to restrict Finnish autonomy. For example, the universal suffrage was, in practice, virtually meaningless, since the tsar did not have to approve any of the laws adopted by the Finnish parliament. Desire for independence gained ground, first among radical liberals and socialists.<\/p>\n After the 1917 February Revolution<\/a>, the position of Finland as part of the Russian Empire was questioned, mainly by Social Democrats<\/a>. Since the head of state was the tsar of Russia, it was not clear who the chief executive of Finland was after the revolution. The Parliament, controlled by social democrats, passed the so-called Power Act to give the highest authority to the Parliament. This was rejected by the Russian Provisional Government<\/a> which decided to dissolve the Parliament.<\/p>\n New elections were conducted, in which right-wing parties won with a slim majority. Some social democrats refused to accept the result and still claimed that the dissolution of the parliament (and thus the ensuing elections) were extralegal. The two nearly equally powerful political blocs, the right-wing parties and the social democratic party, were highly antagonized.<\/p>\n The October Revolution<\/a> in Russia changed the geopolitical situation anew. Suddenly, the right-wing parties in Finland started to reconsider their decision to block the transfer of highest executive power from the Russian government to Finland, as the Bolsheviks took power in Russia. Rather than acknowledge the authority of the Power Act of a few months earlier, the right-wing government declared independence<\/a> on 6 December 1917.<\/p>\n On 27 January 1918, the official opening shots of the war were fired in two simultaneous events. The government started to disarm the Russian forces in Pohjanmaa<\/a>, and the Social Democratic Party<\/a> staged a coup. The latter gained control of southern Finland and Helsinki, but the white government continued in exile from Vaasa<\/a>. This sparked the brief but bitter civil war.<\/a> The Whites, who were supported by Imperial Germany, prevailed over the Reds. After the war, tens of thousands of Reds and suspected sympathizers were interned in camps, where thousands died by execution or from malnutrition and disease. Deep social and political enmity was sown between the Reds and Whites and would last until the Winter War and beyond. The civil war and activist expeditions into Soviet Russia<\/a> strained Eastern relations.<\/p>\n After a brief experimentation with monarchy, Finland became a presidential republic, with Kaarlo Juho St\u00e5hlberg<\/a> elected as its first president in 1919. The Finnish\u2013Russian border was determined by the Treaty of Tartu<\/a> in 1920, largely following the historic border but granting Pechenga<\/a> (Finnish: Petsamo) and its Barents Sea<\/a> harbor to Finland. Finnish democracy did not see any Soviet coup attempts and survived the anti-Communist Lapua Movement<\/a>. The relationship between Finland and the Soviet Union was tense. Army officers were trained in France, and relations with Western Europe and Sweden were strengthened.<\/p>\n In 1917, the population was 3 million. Credit-based land reform was enacted after the civil war, increasing the proportion of capital-owning population. About 70% of workers were occupied in agriculture and 10% in industry. The largest export markets were the United Kingdom and Germany.<\/p>\n Finland fought the Soviet Union in the Winter War of 1939\u20131940<\/a> after the Soviet Union attacked Finland and in the Continuation War of 1941\u20131944<\/a>, following Operation Barbarossa<\/a>, when Finland aligned with Germany following Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union. For 872 days, the German army, aided indirectly by Finnish forces, besieged Leningrad<\/a>, the USSR’s second-largest city. After resisting a major Soviet offensive<\/a> in June\/July 1944 led to a standstill, Finland reached an armistice with the Soviet Union. This was followed by the Lapland War of 1944\u20131945<\/a>, when Finland fought retreating German forces in northern Finland.<\/p>\n The treaties signed in 1947 and 1948 with the Soviet Union included Finnish obligations, restraints, and reparations\u2014as well as further Finnish territorial concessions in addition to those in the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940<\/a>. As a result of the two wars, Finland ceded most of Finnish Karelia<\/a>, Salla<\/a>, and Petsamo, which amounted to 10% of its land area and 20% of its industrial capacity, including the ports of Vyborg<\/a> (Viipuri) and the ice-free Liinakhamari<\/a> (Liinahamari). Almost the whole population, some 400,000 people<\/a>, fled these areas. The former Finnish territory now constitutes part of Russia’s Republic of Karelia<\/a>. Finland was never occupied by Soviet forces and it retained its independence, but at a loss of about 93,000 soldiers.<\/p>\n Finland rejected Marshall aid<\/a>, in apparent deference to Soviet desires. However, the United States provided secret development aid and helped the Social Democratic Party, in hopes of preserving Finland’s independence. Establishing trade with the Western powers, such as the United Kingdom, and paying reparations to the Soviet Union produced a transformation of Finland from a primarily agrarian economy to an industrialised one. Valmet<\/a> was founded to create materials for war reparations. After the reparations had been paid off, Finland continued to trade with the Soviet Union in the framework of bilateral trade.<\/p>\n In 1950, 46% of Finnish workers worked in agriculture and a third lived in urban areas. The new jobs in manufacturing, services, and trade quickly attracted people to the towns. The average number of births per woman declined from a baby boom peak of 3.5 in 1947 to 1.5 in 1973. When baby-boomers entered the workforce, the economy did not generate jobs quickly enough, and hundreds of thousands emigrated to the more industrialized Sweden, with emigration peaking in 1969 and 1970. The 1952 Summer Olympics<\/a> brought international visitors. Finland took part in trade liberalization in the World Bank<\/a>, the International Monetary Fund<\/a> and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.<\/a><\/p>\n Officially claiming to be neutral, Finland lay in the grey zone between the Western countries and the Soviet Union. The YYA Treaty (Finno-Soviet Pact of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance)<\/a> gave the Soviet Union some leverage in Finnish domestic politics. This was extensively exploited by president Urho Kekkonen<\/a> against his opponents. He maintained an effective monopoly on Soviet relations from 1956 on, which was crucial for his continued popularity. In politics, there was a tendency of avoiding any policies and statements that could be interpreted as anti-Soviet. This phenomenon was given the name “Finlandization<\/a>” by the West German press.<\/p>\n Despite close relations with the Soviet Union, Finland maintained a market economy. Various industries benefited from trade privileges with the Soviets, which explains the widespread support that pro-Soviet policies enjoyed among business interests in Finland. Economic growth was rapid in the postwar era, and by 1975 Finland’s GDP per capita was the 15th-highest in the world. In the 1970s and ’80s, Finland built one of the most extensive welfare states in the world. Finland negotiated with the European Economic Community (EEC, a predecessor of the European Union) a treaty that mostly abolished customs duties towards the EEC starting from 1977, although Finland did not fully join. In 1981, President Urho Kekkonen’s failing health forced him to retire after holding office for 25 years.<\/p>\n Finland reacted cautiously to the collapse of the Soviet Union, but swiftly began increasing integration with the West. On 21 September 1990, Finland unilaterally declared the Paris Peace Treaty<\/a> obsolete, following the German reunification decision nine days earlier.<\/p>\n Miscalculated macroeconomic decisions, a banking crisis, the collapse of its largest trading partner (the Soviet Union), and a global economic downturn caused a deep early 1990s recession<\/a> in Finland. The depression bottomed out in 1993, and Finland saw steady economic growth for more than ten years. Like other Nordic countries, Finland decentralised its economy since the late 1980s. Financial and product market regulation were loosened. Some state enterprises have been privatized and there have been some modest tax cuts. Finland joined the European Union in 1995, and the Eurozone in 1999. Much of the late 1990s economic growth was fueled by the success of the mobile phone manufacturer Nokia<\/a>, which held a unique position of representing 80% of the market capitalization of the Helsinki Stock Exchange.<\/a><\/p>\n Finland is one of the world’s northernmost countries. Of world capitals, only Reykjav\u00edk<\/a> lies more to the north than Helsinki<\/a>. The distance from the southernmost point \u2013 Hanko<\/a> in Uusimaa \u2013 to the northernmost \u2013 Nuorgam<\/a> in Lapland \u2013 is 1,160 kilometers (720 mi).<\/p>\n Finland has about 168,000 lakes (of area larger than 500 m2 or 0.12 acres) and 179,000 islands. Its largest lake, Saimaa<\/a>, is the fourth largest in Europe. The Finnish Lakeland<\/a> is the area with the most lakes in the country. The greatest concentration of islands is found in the southwest, in the Archipelago Sea<\/a> between continental Finland and the main island of \u00c5land<\/a>.<\/p>\n Much of the geography of Finland is a result of the Ice Age. The glaciers were thicker and lasted longer in Fennoscandia<\/a> compared with the rest of Europe. Their eroding effects have left the Finnish landscape mostly flat with few hills and fewer mountains. Its highest point, the Halti<\/a> at 1,324 meters (4,344 ft), is found in the extreme north of Lapland at the border between Finland and Norway. The highest mountain whose peak is entirely in Finland is Ridnit\u0161ohkka<\/a> at 1,316 m (4,318 ft), directly adjacent to Halti.<\/p>\n The retreating glaciers have left the land with morainic<\/a> deposits in formations of eskers<\/a>. These are ridges of stratified gravel and sand, running northwest to southeast, where the ancient edge of the glacier once lay. Among the biggest of these are the three Salpausselk\u00e4<\/a> ridges that run across southern Finland.<\/p>\n Having been compressed under the enormous weight of the glaciers, terrain in Finland is rising due to the post-glacial rebound<\/a>. The effect is strongest around the Gulf of Bothnia<\/a>, where land steadily rises about 1 cm (0.4 in) a year. As a result, the old sea bottom turns little by little into dry land: the surface area of the country is expanding by about 7 square kilometers (2.7 sq mi) annually. Relatively speaking, Finland is rising from the sea.<\/p>\n The landscape is covered mostly by coniferous taiga<\/a> forests and fens<\/a>, with little cultivated land. Of the total area 10% is lakes, rivers and ponds, and 78% forest. The forest consists of pine<\/a>, spruce<\/a>, birch<\/a>, and other species. Finland is the largest producer of wood in Europe and among the largest in the world. The most common type of rock is granite<\/a>. It is a ubiquitous part of the scenery, visible wherever there is no soil cover. Moraine or till<\/a> is the most common type of soil, covered by a thin layer of humus<\/a> of biological origin. Podzol<\/a> profile development is seen in most forest soils except where drainage is poor. Gleysols<\/a> and peat bogs<\/a> occupy poorly drained areas.<\/p>\n The economy of Finland has a per capita output equal to that of other European economies such as those of France, Germany, Belgium, or the UK. The largest sector of the economy is the service sector at 66% of GDP, followed by manufacturing and refining at 31%. Primary production represents 2.9%. With respect to foreign trade, the key economic sector is manufacturing. The largest industries in 2007 were electronics (22%); machinery, vehicles, and other engineered metal products (21.1%); forest industry (13%); and chemicals (11%). The gross domestic product peaked in 2008. As of 2015, the country’s economy is at the 2006 level.<\/p>\n Finland has significant timber, mineral (iron<\/a>, chromium<\/a>, copper<\/a>, nickel<\/a>, and gold<\/a>), and freshwater resources. Forestry<\/a>, paper factories, and the agricultural sector (on which taxpayers spend around 3 billion euros annually) are important for rural residents so any policy changes affecting these sectors are politically sensitive for politicians dependent on rural votes. The Greater Helsinki area<\/a> generates around one third of Finland’s GDP. In a 2004 OECD comparison, high-technology manufacturing in Finland ranked second largest after Ireland. Knowledge-intensive services have also resulted in the smallest and slow-growth sectors \u2013 especially agriculture and low-technology manufacturing \u2013 being ranked the second largest after Ireland. The overall short-term outlook was good and GDP growth has been above that of many EU peers.<\/p>\n Finland is highly integrated into the global economy, and international trade produces one third of GDP. Trade with the European Union makes up 60% of Finland’s total trade. The largest trade flows are with Germany, Russia, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands, and China. Trade policy is managed by the European Union, where Finland has traditionally been among the free trade supporters, except for agricultural policy. Finland is the only Nordic country to have joined the Eurozone.<\/p>\n Forests play a key role in the country’s economy, making it one of the world’s leading wood producers and providing raw materials at competitive prices for the crucial wood-processing industries. As in agriculture, the government has long played a leading role in forestry, regulating tree cutting, sponsoring technical improvements, and establishing long-term plans to ensure that the country’s forests continue to supply the wood-processing industries. To maintain the country’s comparative advantage in forest products, Finnish authorities moved to raise lumber output toward the country’s ecological limits. In 1984, the government published the Forest 2000 plan, drawn up by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. The plan aimed at increasing forest harvests by about 3% per year, while conserving forestland for recreation and other uses.<\/p>\n The extensive road system is utilized by most internal cargo and passenger traffic. The annual state operated road network expenditure of around 1 billion euro is paid with vehicle and fuel taxes which amount to around 1.5 billion euro and 1 billion euro.<\/p>\n The main international passenger gateway is Helsinki Airport<\/a> with about 17 million passengers in 2016. Oulu Airport<\/a> is the second largest, while another 25 airports have scheduled passenger services. The Helsinki Airport-based Finnair<\/a>, Nordic Regional Airlines<\/a>, and Norwegian Air Shuttle<\/a> sell air services both domestically and internationally. Helsinki has an optimal location for great circle<\/a> (i.e. the shortest and most efficient) routes between Western Europe and the Far East.<\/p>\n Despite low population density, the Government spends annually around 350 million euro in maintaining 5,865 kilometers (3,644 mi) of railway tracks. Rail transport is handled by state owned VR, which has 5% passenger market share (out of which 80% are urban trips in Greater Helsinki) and 25% cargo market share. Since 12 December 2010, Karelian Trains<\/a>, a joint venture between Russian Railways<\/a> and VR (Finnish Railways)<\/a>, has been running Alstom Pendolino<\/a> operated high-speed services between Saint Petersburg’s Finlyandsky<\/a> and Helsinki’s Central<\/a> railway stations. These services are branded as “Allegro” trains. The journey from Helsinki to Saint Petersburg takes only three and a half hours. A high-speed rail line is planned between Helsinki and Turku<\/a>, with a line from the capital to Tampere<\/a> also proposed.<\/p>\n The majority of international cargo utilizes ports. Port logistics prices are low. Vuosaari Harbour<\/a> in Helsinki is the largest container port after completion in 2008 and others include Kotka<\/a>, Hamina<\/a>, Hanko<\/a>, Pori<\/a>, Rauma<\/a>, and Oulu<\/a>. There is passenger traffic from Helsinki and Turku<\/a>, which have ferry connections to Tallinn<\/a>, Mariehamn<\/a>, Stockholm<\/a> and Travem\u00fcnde<\/a>. The Helsinki-Tallinn route – one of the busiest passenger sea routes in the world – has also been served by a helicopter line, and the Helsinki-Tallinn Tunnel<\/a> is proposed to provide rail travel between the two cities.<\/p>\n The flag of Finland, also called siniristilippu (“Blue Cross Flag”), dates from the beginning of the 20th century. On a white background, it features a blue Nordic cross<\/a>, which represents Christianity.<\/p>\n Like Sweden’s, Finland’s national flag is based on the Scandinavian cross. It was adopted after independence from Russia, when many patriotic Finns wanted a special flag for their country, but its design dates back to the 19th century. The blue coloring is said to represent the country’s thousands of lakes and the sky, with white for the snow that covers the land in winter. This color combination has also been used over the centuries in various Finnish provincial, military, and town flags.<\/p>\n The first known “Flag of Finland” was presented in 1848, along with the national anthem Maamme<\/a>. Its motif was the coat of arms of Finland, surrounded by laurel leaves, on a white flag.<\/p>\n The current blue-crossed design was first used in Finland by Nyl\u00e4ndska Jaktklubben<\/a>, a yacht club founded in Helsinki in 1861. In addition to the blue cross on the white background, the yacht club flag had the crowned arms of the province of Uusimaa within two crossed branches in the upper hoist quarter. Except for the position of the cross, the flag was similar to the flag of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club<\/a>, founded the previous year. The design can be traced to the Russian Navy ensign, which has a blue cross saltire on a white background. During the Crimean War<\/a>, Finnish merchant ships captured by the British-French fleet flew a flag called Flag of St. George, which was based on the Russian Customs flag. In this variant, the cross was thinner than in the modern flag, and the proportions were equal. Another blue-cross flag was made official in 1861 for private vessels.<\/p>\n In 1910, in connection with Russification of Finland<\/a>, the Russian authorities decreed that a Russian flag was to be added to the canton. However, this was met with resistance; the flag was derided as the “slave’s flag” (orjalippu), and most Finns refused to fly it. Instead, a triangular pennant without this modification was flown, thereby circumventing the decree concerning flags.<\/p>\n Shortly after Finland gained independence in 1917, a competition was held for the design of the Finnish flag. Several different designs were submitted. Regarding the colors, the entries fell mainly into two categories \u2013 one using the red and yellow from the Finnish coat of arms,<\/a> and the other using the present blue and white colors.<\/p>\n One entry had the Dannebrog cross<\/a> design, but with a yellow cross on a red background. Another entry had diagonal blue and white stripes, but it was criticized as being more suitable for a barber shop than a newly independent country. Akseli Gallen-Kallela<\/a> proposed a similar cross flag, but with colors inverted (white cross on blue), but this was considered too similar to the Swedish flag<\/a> and particularly the Greek flag<\/a> of the time. Finally, artists Eero Snellman<\/a> and Bruno Tuukkanen specified the final form of the flag.<\/p>\n The state flag was further modified in 1922, when the coronet was removed, and again in 1978 when the shield-shaped coat of arms was changed into a rectangular shape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The flag of Finland, also called siniristilippu (“Blue Cross Flag”), dates from the beginning of the 20th century. On a white background, it features a blue Nordic cross, which represents Christianity.<\/p>\n Like Sweden’s, Finland’s national flag is based on the Scandinavian cross. It was adopted after independence from Russia, when many patriotic Finns wanted a special flag for their country, but its design dates back to the 19th century. The blue colouring is said to represent the country’s thousands of lakes and the sky, with white for the snow that covers the land in winter. This colour combination has also been used over the centuries in various Finnish provincial, military, and town flags.<\/p>\n The first known “Flag of Finland” was presented in 1848, along with the national anthem Maamme. Its motif was the coat of arms of Finland, surrounded by laurel leaves, on a white flag.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5449,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[89,59,26,5,6,7,60],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5081"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/Major-Cities-and-Towns-in-Finland-138x300.gif\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>History:<\/h2>\n
Prehistory:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/Reconstruction-of-Stone-Age-Dwelling-from-Kierikki-Oulu-300x184.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/Late-Iron-Age-Swords-Found-in-Finland-300x217.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/Northern-Europe-in-814-300x192.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Swedish Era:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/Swedish-Empire-244x300.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/Mikael-Agricola-229x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/Adolf-Ivar-Arwidsson-264x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Russian Empire Era:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/Kalevala-170x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Civil War and Early Independence:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/February-Revolution-300x190.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/Red-Guard-Vulkan-Factory-300x193.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/Ruins-of-Tampere-After-Civil-War-Battle-300x178.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>World War II and After:<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/Winter-War-300x197.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/1952-Summer-Olympics-239x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/Urho-Kekkonen-250x300.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Geography:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/Topographic-and-Transport-Map-of-Finland-205x300.png\" "\\"\\""){kind=spacer}
<\/a>Economy:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/Export-Map-of-Finland-300x235.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/Nokia-Headquarters-300x180.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/Finnish-Forest-300x167.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Transportation:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/Helsinki-Airport-300x225.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/High-Speed-Helsinki-to-St-Petersburg-Train-300x184.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>Flag of Finland:<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.smoketreemanor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2020\/05\/Flag-of-Finland-300x183.png\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>