Fostering Friendships - Enhancing Social Bonds in the Classroom
Middle Ages
1.
2. • The Middle Ages is called Historical time because the history of this
period is available in written texts, compared with the prehistorical time
which has no available written texts.
• In Finland Middle Ages was the time of The Roman Catholic Church
• Finns had already received information of Christianity in the Viking Age .
One example of this is that Finns had already stopped putting objects in
graves.
• At the end of the Middle Age 300,000 people lived in Finland.
Middle Ages (1150-1520 A.D.)
Castle ofTurku
3. • The Roman Pope executed the crusades to the Nordic countries.
• The Pope’s goal was to Christianize Nordic people.
• The first crusades took place in Sweden and Denmark.
• There were three Crusades in Finland.The first was in 1155 and it was
ordered by the Swedish King Erik Holy (Erik Pyhä) and Bishop Henrik.
• The Swedish regent Birger-Jarl (Birger Jaarli) made the second crusade
in 1248. He connected the Tribe of Hämäläiset to the Swedish empire.
He also organized Swedish people to move permanently to live on
Finland’s west coast.
• The third crusade happened in Karelia in 1293. After this Finland was
connected to the Swedish empire totally. Finland became part of the
Roman Catholic Church region and cultural area. Swedish laws came
into effect too.
Crusades
4. • Orthodox Church from the Novgorod (Russia) also Christianized Finns.
• Finns rebelled against the Roman Catholic Church and the Swedish
empire because of tax collections (tithe) and Finnish peasantry were
forced to build churches and castles.
• The words pappi, risti and pakana are based on the Russian language
from that time.
• Pappi = priest
• Risti = cross
• Pakana = Pagan
Middle Age church in Finland
Church insideTurku
castle
5. • Finland was a battlefield of the Catholich church and the Ortohodox
church (from Russia) during the Middle Ages.
• The First agreement between Sweden and Novgorod (Russia) was signed
in 1323. It was the first agreement that sought to define the Finnish
eastern border.The name of that agreement is the peace of
Pähkinänsaari.
• After the agreement, western Finland became part of Sweden and the
rest was under Russian power.
• The border line wasn’t exact because Finnish people moved North across
it in the backwoods all the time.
First border
6. Sweden built castles to secure its border in the east.
Castles
The most important
castles were Olaf’s
Castle (Olavinlinna) in
Savonlinna City and
Viaborg’s Castle in
Viaborg, which is
located in modern
Russia.
(Lower left)
7. Finland’s oldest cities are Turku, Viipuri, Ulvila, Porvoo, Rauma and Naantali.
Turku is the oldest. It received city rights in 1290.
Oldest Cities in Finland
OldTurku is now a museum area.
8. Oldest Cities in Finland
Turku
Viipuri
Ulvila
Porvoo
Rauma
Naantali
9. • Kalmar Union was a confederation between Norway, Sweden and
Denmark. It was established (1397-1523) to strengthen their power in
Nordic areas against Hansa Union. Hansa was a German based trade
association which operated actively also in Nordic area.
• Kalmar Union’s administration was in Denmark and Sweden had to
protect their interest actively there. During that period Finnish
aristocracy increased in power which allowed for them more
independence in Finland. Finland was often called Eastern Country
(Itämaa) in Kalmar Union. Finland was still a part of Sweden but ties with
Sweden were slackened and Finnish identity was strengthened.
• Fighting between Denmark and Sweden escalated a massacre in
Stockholm.Then Swedish people expelled the Danes out of Stockholm
and the Rebel Director GustavVasa (Kustaa Vaasa) was elected King of
Sweden.
Kalmar Union
11. • At the end of the Middle Age, Sámi people populated the largest part of
the area which is now Finland. Finnish people populated the green area of
the map and Sámi people populated the white area.
• Cultural polarization between Finnish and Sámi people began over four
thousand years ago when people on the west coast begin farming and
inland people continued only hunting and gathering.
Finnish population
• Despite the polarization some southern Sámi
people begin farming too and they
assimilated to the FinnishTribes slowly.
• Languages evolved, Pre- Finnish and Pre-
Sami-language were formed.
12. • In the Middle Age Finnish population expanded and livelihood
became more difficult in old living areas. Due to this Finns moved
inland and North.
• Finnish people continually made trips to the Northern woods for
hunting and fishing. Northern backwoods was their usufruct area.
• A New border which was defined in 1323 did not really prevent the
spread of the Finnish population.
• Despite that, the Middle Age Finns still lived mostly near the coast.
• During the Middle Age more Swedish people moved to the west
coast and Finland became a bilingual country.
Finnish population
13. • In the 1500’s, the Swedish administration became more interested in
northern Finland/Lapland.They began to collect taxes and the church
expanded their actions in Lapland. International trade expanded to
Lapland when Finnish, Swedish and German traders became interested
in buying furs from Sámi people.The effects of these things were not
entirely positive for the Sámi people and that created conflicts.
• In the 1500’s Sweden and Russia also had battles in Lapland and they
shared Sámi peoples living areas. (more in the next section – peace of
Täyssinä)
• So all these groups; Finnish people, Swedish administration, Church,
traders and finally the battles between Russia and Sweden forced Sámi
people to move more north and inland to areas where they could live
peacefully..
• Unfortunately Sámi history has very little written information and
therefore investigation of it has been limited.
Sàmi people
15. • In the end of the Middle Age, Finnish people consisted
of different tribes:
• Karjalaiset
• Savolaiset
• Etelä-Pohjalaiset
• Hämäläiset
• Lounais-Suomalaiset
Tribes
TurkuÅland
