Norrland

Categories: Lands of Sweden | Norrland

Norrland is a name for the northernmost part of Sweden, historically one of the four lands of Sweden. It is not used for any administrative purpose, but is common in everyday language. Among people in the southern part of the country, "Norrland" is often a vague denomination for "northern Sweden" while among the local population, this vague denomination is scorned since such vagueness is seldom used about the Southern parts of the country.

Geography

Norrland comprises of the historical provinces (landskap) Gästrikland, Medelpad, Ångermanland, Hälsingland, Jämtland, Härjedalen, Västerbotten, Norrbotten and Lappland, roughly 59% of Sweden's total area. Except for the coast areas, the area is sparsely populated. 12% of the population in Sweden live in Norrland.

Norrland contains wide forests, that during 19th century became the source for the important wood and pulp industry. All of the Norrland rivers but four have been exploited for water power. The rivers in Norrland accounts for almost all water power in Sweden - in many countries a small energy form, but in Sweden water power as a total accounts for 40% of Swedens total production of electricity.

Mines for producing precious metals have also been located in Norrland. In older history, the administration in Stockholm viewed Norrland pretty much as a colony consisting of natural resources to be exploited. "In Norrland we have an India within our borders, if we understand how to use it" (I Norrland hava vi inom våra gränser ett Indien, blott vi förstå att bruka det) is a quote attributet to Axel Oxenstierna that fairly well describes the attitude. At the same time the territory was seen as unimportant and uncivilized, and in the official history of Sweden not much is written about the northern parts of the country.

History

In older history, Norrland is one of the four lands of Sweden. To the west it represented the northern half of Sweden bounded to the south by Svealand and to the east it represented the northern half of Finland - which was then a part of Sweden - bounded to the south by Österland. In Svealand and Götaland, the land boundaries were of major juridical and administrative importance, but this was not the case with Norrland. The name Norrland just gradually became a denomination of everything north of Svealand. As a result of the changing relations to Finland, The northern border of Norrland have shifted. While the word Finland meant only the southern parts of what is now the country Finland, the border of Norrland was drawn at the river Oulujoki. This changed when Sweden lost Finland to Russia, and the new border was drawn at Torne River. The southern border was first everthing north of the Uppland province, then further north to Gästrikland, where it usually is counted as today, sometimes also more specifically to the town of Gävle, as this is the oldest and most significant city in Gästrikland. The name can be first traced from Karl's Chronicle, explaining how Engelbrekt Engelbrektsson in 1433 sent a letter to Erik Puke requesting assistance to conquer entire Norrland (al norland vnte han honom wolla).

See also

• Historical provinces of Finland
• Norrland Grand Regiment

References

• article Norrland from Nordisk familjebok. In Swedish.ca:Norrland

de:Norrland es:Norrland eo:Norrland hu:Norrland simple:Norrland sv:Norrland