The runic script was in use among the south Scandinavian elite by at least the second century AD, but all that has survived from the Roman Period is curt inscriptions demonstrating that the people of south Scandinavia spoke Proto-Norse at the time, a language ancestral to Swedish and other North Germanic languages. Which kings ( * kuningaz) ruled these Suiones is unknown, but Norse mythology presents a long line of legendary and semi-legendary kings going back to the last centuries BC. In Germania 44 and 45 he mentions the Swedes ( Suiones) as a powerful tribe with ships that had a prow at each end ( longships). Sweden and its people were first described by Publius Cornelius Tacitus in his Germania (98 AD). This period was characterised by small clans of hunter-gatherers who relied on flint technology. Sweden's prehistory begins in the Allerød oscillation, a warm period around 12,000 BC, with Late Palaeolithic reindeer-hunting camps of the Bromme culture at the edge of the ice in what is now the country's southernmost province, Scania. Main article: Prehistoric Sweden A Vendel-era helmet, at the Swedish Museum of National Antiquities Some Finnic languages, such as Finnish and Estonian, use the terms Ruotsi and Rootsi these variations refer to the Rus' people who inhabited the coastal areas of Roslagen in Uppland and who gave their name to Russia. In Old English the country was known as Swéoland or Swíoríce, and in Early Modern English as Swedeland. As early as 1287, references are found in Middle Dutch referring to a lande van sweden ("land of Swedes"), with swede as the singular form. The contemporary English variation was derived in the 17th century from Middle Dutch and Middle Low German. The native Swedish name, Sverige (a compound of the words Svea and rike, first recorded in the cognate Swēorice in Beowulf), translates as "realm of the Swedes", which excluded the Geats in Götaland. The name for Sweden is generally agreed to derive from the Proto-Indo-European root * s(w)e, meaning "one's own", referring to one's own tribe from the tribal period. It is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, the Schengen Area, the Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 but rejected Eurozone membership following a referendum. It has the world's 14th highest GDP per capita and ranks very highly in quality of life, health, education, protection of civil liberties, economic competitiveness, income equality, gender equality and prosperity. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides universal health care and tertiary education for its citizens. It is a unitary state, divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden is a highly developed country ranked seventh in the Human Development Index, it is a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy, with legislative power vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. When Sweden became involved in the Thirty Years' War on the Protestant side, an expansion of its territories began, forming the Swedish Empire, which remained one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. This led to the formation of the Scandinavian Kalmar Union in 1397, which Sweden left in 1523. After the Black Death in the middle of the 14th century killed about a third of the Scandinavian population, the dominance of the Hanseatic League in Northern Europe threatened Scandinavia economically and politically. An independent Swedish state emerged during the early 12th century. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats (Swedish: Götar) and Swedes ( Svear) and constituting the sea peoples known as the Norsemen. With the country ranging from 55°N to 69°N, the climate of Sweden is diverse due to the length of the country. It has an extensive coastline and most of the population lives near a major body of water. Many long rivers run from the Scandes range, primarily emptying into the northern tributaries of the Baltic Sea. Nature in Sweden is dominated by forests and many lakes, including some of the largest in Europe. Sweden has a population of 10.5 million, and a low population density of 25.5 inhabitants per square kilometre (66/sq mi), with around 87% of Swedes residing in urban areas, which cover 1.5% of the entire land area, in the central and southern half of the country. The capital and largest city is Stockholm. It borders Norway to the west and north, Finland to the east, and is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge–tunnel across the Öresund.Īt 447,425 square kilometres (172,752 sq mi), Sweden is the largest Nordic country and the fifth-largest country in Europe. Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |