Scandinavia

== History ==
{{For|a more in-depth look at the history of the region|History of Scandinavia}}

=== Ancient descriptions ===
A key ancient description of Scandinavia was provided by [[Pliny the Elder]], though his mentions of {{lang|la|Scatinavia}} and surrounding areas are not always easy to decipher. Writing in the capacity of a Roman admiral, he introduces the northern region by declaring to his Roman readers that there are 23 islands "Romanis armis cognitae" ("known to Roman arms") in this area. According to Pliny, the "clarissima" ("most famous") of the region's islands is {{lang|la|Scatinavia}}, of unknown size. There live the ''[[Hilleviones]]''. The belief that Scandinavia was an island became widespread among classical authors during the 1st century and dominated descriptions of Scandinavia in classical texts during the centuries that followed.

Pliny begins his description of the route to {{lang|la|Scatinavia}} by referring to the mountain of Saevo ({{lang|la|mons Saevo ibi}}), the Codanus Bay ("Codanus sinus") and the Cimbrian promontory.<ref>Pliny the Elder. ''Naturalis Historia''. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0138&query=book%3D%235&chunk=book, Book IV, chapter XXXIX] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514175826/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0138&query=book%3D%235&chunk=book, |date=14 May 2008 }}. Ed. Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff. Online version at Persus. Retrieved 2 October 2007.</ref> The geographical features have been identified in various ways. By some scholars, {{lang|la|Saevo}} is thought to be the mountainous [[Norway|Norwegian]] coast at the entrance to [[Skagerrak]] and the [[Cimbri]]an peninsula is thought to be [[Skagen]], the north tip of [[Jutland]], Denmark. As described, {{lang|la|Saevo}} and {{lang|la|Scatinavia}} can also be the same place.

Pliny mentions Scandinavia one more time: in Book VIII he says that the animal called {{lang|la|achlis}} (given in the accusative, {{lang|la|achlin}}, which is not Latin) was born on the island of Scandinavia.<ref>Pliny the Elder. ''Naturalis Historia''. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0138&query=book%3D%239 Book VIII, chapter XVII] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514143823/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0138&query=book%3D%239 |date=14 May 2008 }}. Ed. Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff. Online version at Persus. Retrieved 2 October 2007.</ref> The animal grazes, has a big upper lip and some mythical attributes.

The name {{lang|la|[[Scandza|Scandia]]}}, later used as a synonym for {{lang|la|Scandinavia}}, also appears in Pliny's {{Lang|la|[[Natural History (Pliny)|Naturalis Historia]]}} (''Natural History''), but is used for a group of Northern European islands which he locates north of [[Britannia]]. {{lang|la|Scandia}} thus does not appear to be denoting the island Scadinavia in Pliny's text. The idea that {{lang|la|Scadinavia}} may have been one of the {{lang|la|Scandiae}} islands was instead introduced by [[Ptolemy]] ({{Circa|90|168&nbsp;AD}}), a mathematician, geographer and astrologer of Roman Egypt. He used the name {{lang|la|Skandia}} for the biggest, most easterly of the three {{lang|la|Scandiai}} islands, which according to him were all located east of [[Jutland]].<ref name="Helle" />

=== Viking Age ===
{{see also|Viking Age|Vikings}}
The Viking age in Scandinavia lasted from approximately 793–1066 AD and saw Scandinavians participate in large scale raiding, colonization, conquest and trading throughout Europe and beyond.<ref name="Mawer">{{cite book |last=Mawer |first=Allen |author-link=Allen Mawer |year=1913 |title=The Vikings |url=https://archive.org/details/vikings00mawe |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/vikings00mawe/page/1 1] |quote=The term 'Viking' is derived from the Old Norse {{lang|non|vík}}, a bay, and means 'one who haunts a bay, creek or fjord'. In the 9th and 10th centuries it came to be used more especially of those warriors who left their homes in Scandinavia and made raids on the chief European countries. This is the narrow, and technically the only correct use of the term 'Viking,' but in such expressions as 'Viking civilisation,' 'the Viking Age,' 'the Viking movement,' 'Viking influence,' the word has come to have a wider significance and is used as a concise and convenient term for describing the whole of the civilisation, activity and influence of the Scandinavian peoples, at a particular period in their history…}}</ref><ref name="Sawyer_1995">{{cite book |last=Sawyer |first=Peter H. |author-link=Peter Sawyer (historian) |year=1995 |title=Scandinavians and the English in the Viking Age |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=owygAAAAMAAJ |publisher=[[University of Cambridge]] |page=3 |isbn=095173394X |quote=The Viking period is, therefore, best defined as the period when Scandinavians played a large role in the British Isles and western Europe as raiders and conquerors. It is also the period in which Scandinavians settled in many of the areas they conquered, and in the Atlantic islands... |access-date=23 April 2023 |archive-date=23 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423132203/https://books.google.com/books?id=owygAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}</ref> The period saw a big expansion of Scandinavian-conquered territory and of exploration. Utilizing their advanced [[longship]]s, they reached as far as North America, being the first Europeans to do so.<ref>{{Cite web|agency=Reuters|date=20 October 2021|title=Solar storm confirms Vikings settled in North America exactly 1,000 years ago|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/oct/20/vikings-settled-north-america-1000-years-ago-solar-storm|access-date=21 October 2021|website=The Guardian|language=en|archive-date=7 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211107012357/https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/oct/20/vikings-settled-north-america-1000-years-ago-solar-storm|url-status=live}}</ref> During this time Scandinavians were drawn to wealthy towns, monasteries and petty kingdoms overseas in places such as the British Isles, Ireland, the Baltic coast and Normandy, all of which made profitable targets for raids. Scandinavians, primarily from modern day Sweden, known as [[Varangians]] also ventured east into what is now Russia raiding along river trade routes. During this period unification also took place between different Scandinavian kingdoms culminating in the peak of the [[North Sea Empire]] which included large parts of Scandinavia and Great Britain.<ref name="annals R.20">"Franques Royal Annals" cited in Sawyer, Peter (2001) ''The Oxford Illustrated History of the Vikings''. {{ISBN|0-19-285434-8}}. p. 20</ref>

This expansion and conquest led to the formation of several kingdoms, earldoms and settlements throughout Europe such as the [[Kingdom of the Isles]], [[Earldom of Orkney]], [[Scandinavian York]], [[Danelaw]], [[Kingdom of Dublin]], the [[Duchy of Normandy]] and the [[Kievan Rus']]. The Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland were also settled by the Scandinavians during this time. The [[Normans]], [[Rus' people]], [[Faroe Islanders]], [[Icelanders]] and [[Norse–Gaels|Norse-Gaels]] all emerged from these Scandinavian expansions.

=== The Middle Ages ===
During a period of [[Christianization of Scandinavia|Christianization]] and state formation in the 10th–13th centuries, numerous [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] [[petty kingdom]]s and [[chiefdom]]s were unified into three kingdoms:

* Denmark, forged from the [[lands of Denmark]] (including [[Jutland]], [[Zealand]] and Scania ([[Skåneland]]) on the Scandinavian Peninsula)<ref>{{cite book| author = Oskar Bandle| title = The Nordic languages: an international handbook of the history of the North Germanic languages| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=RqkBXIJkkuEC| year = 2002| publisher = Mouton De Gruyter| isbn = 978-3-11-014876-3 }}</ref>
* Sweden, forged from the [[lands of Sweden]] on the Scandinavian Peninsula (including most of modern Finland, but excluding the provinces [[Bohuslän]], [[Härjedalen]], [[Jämtland]] and [[Älvdalen Municipality|Idre and Särna]], [[Halland]], [[Blekinge]] and [[Scania]] of modern-day Sweden)
* Norway (including Bohuslän, Härjedalen, Jämtland and Idre and Särna on the Scandinavian Peninsula and its island colonies Iceland, Greenland, Faroe Islands, [[Shetland]], [[Orkney]], [[Isle of Man]] and the [[Hebrides]])

According to historian [[Sverre Bagge]], the divisions into three Scandinavian kingdoms (Denmark, Sweden, Norway) makes sense geographically, as forests, mountains, and uninhabited land divided them from one another. Control of Norway was enabled through seapower, whereas control of the great lakes in Sweden enabled control of the kingdom, and control of Jutland was sufficient to control Denmark. The most contested area was the coastline from Oslo to Öresund, where the three kingdoms met.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bagge|first=Sverre|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NFJNAgAAQBAJ|title=Cross and Scepter: The Rise of the Scandinavian Kingdoms from the Vikings to the Reformation|date=2014|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-5010-5|pages=29|language=en|access-date=23 April 2023|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423120140/https://books.google.com/books?id=NFJNAgAAQBAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>

The three Scandinavian kingdoms joined in 1397 in the [[Kalmar Union]] under Queen [[Margaret I of Denmark]].<ref name="Möt medeltiden">{{cite web | title=The Kalmar Union | website=Medeltiden | url=http://www.medeltiden.kalmarlansmuseum.se/en/society/the-kalmar-union/ | access-date=28 April 2022 | archive-date=26 March 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326031250/http://www.medeltiden.kalmarlansmuseum.se/en/society/the-kalmar-union/ | url-status=live }}</ref> Sweden left the union in 1523 under King [[Gustav I of Sweden]]. In the aftermath of Sweden's secession from the Kalmar Union, civil war broke out in Denmark and Norway—the Protestant [[Reformation]] followed. When things had settled, the Norwegian [[privy council]] was abolished—it assembled for the last time in 1537. A [[personal union]], entered into by the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway in 1536, lasted until 1814. Three sovereign [[succession of states|successor state]]s have subsequently emerged from this unequal union: Denmark, Norway and Iceland.

The borders between Denmark, Norway and Sweden acquired their present shape in the middle of the 17th century: In the 1645 [[Second Treaty of Brömsebro (1645)|Treaty of Brömsebro]], [[Denmark–Norway]] ceded the Norwegian provinces of Jämtland, Härjedalen and Idre and Särna, as well as the Baltic Sea islands of Gotland and [[Saaremaa|Ösel]] (in Estonia) to Sweden. The [[Treaty of Roskilde]], signed in 1658, forced Denmark–Norway to cede the Danish provinces Scania, Blekinge, Halland, [[Bornholm]] and the Norwegian provinces of [[Bohuslän|Båhuslen]] and [[Trøndelag]] to Sweden. The 1660 [[Treaty of Copenhagen (1660)|Treaty of Copenhagen]] forced Sweden to return Bornholm and Trøndelag to Denmark–Norway, and to give up its recent claims to the island [[Funen]].<ref>"Treaty of Copenhagen" (2006). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 9 November 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online.</ref>

In the east, Finland was a fully incorporated part of Sweden from medieval times until the Napoleonic wars, when it was ceded to Russia. Despite many wars over the years since the formation of the three kingdoms, Scandinavia has been politically and culturally close.<ref name="InfoFinland 2019">{{cite web | title=Finnish history | website=InfoFinland | date=28 August 2019 | url=https://www.infofinland.fi/en/information-about-finland/basic-information-about-finland/finnish-history | access-date=20 February 2022 | archive-date=6 December 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201206081117/https://www.infofinland.fi/en/information-about-finland/basic-information-about-finland/finnish-history | url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Scandinavian unions ===
[[File:Kalmar Union ca. 1400.svg|thumb|The [[Kalmar Union]] ({{circa|1400}})]]
[[Denmark–Norway]] as a historiographical name refers to the former political union consisting of the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway, including the Norwegian dependencies of Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The corresponding adjective and [[demonym]] is [[Dano-Norwegian (disambiguation)|Dano-Norwegian]]. During Danish rule, Norway kept its separate laws, coinage and army as well as some institutions such as a royal [[chancellor]]. Norway's old royal line had died out with the death of [[Olaf II of Denmark|Olav IV]]<ref>[http://www.kongehuset.no/dt_kongehuset_allAtOnce.asp?ogid=20&mgid=20&gid=51&aid= The Monarchy: Historical Background]{{dead link|date=December 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. The Royal House of Norway. Official site. Retrieved 9 November 2006. {{dead link|date=June 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> in 1387, but Norway's remaining a [[history of the Norwegian monarchy|hereditary kingdom]] became an important factor for the [[House of Oldenburg|Oldenburg dynasty]] of Denmark–Norway in its struggles to win elections as kings of Denmark.

The [[Treaty of Kiel]] (14 January 1814) formally dissolved the Dano-Norwegian union and ceded the territory of Norway proper to the King of Sweden, but Denmark retained Norway's overseas possessions. However, widespread Norwegian resistance to the prospect of a union with Sweden induced the governor of Norway, crown prince Christian Frederick (later [[Christian VIII of Denmark]]), to call a constituent assembly at [[Eidsvoll]] in April 1814. The assembly drew up a liberal constitution and elected Christian Frederick to the throne of Norway. Following a Swedish invasion during the summer, the peace conditions of the [[Convention of Moss]] (14 August 1814) specified that king Christian Frederik had to resign, but Norway would keep its independence and its constitution within a personal union with Sweden. Christian Frederik formally abdicated on 10 August 1814 and returned to Denmark. The Norwegian parliament [[Storting]] elected king [[Charles XIII]] of Sweden as king of Norway on 4 November.

The Storting [[dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden|dissolved]] the [[union between Sweden and Norway]] in 1905, after which the Norwegians elected Prince Charles of Denmark as king of Norway: he reigned as [[Haakon VII]].