Scandinavia

=== 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>