According to the treaty Sweden ceded parts of the provinces
Lappland and
Västerbotten (east of
Tornio River and
Muonio River),
Åland, and all provinces east thereof. The ceded territories came to constitute the
Grand Duchy of Finland, to which also the Russian 18th century conquests of parts of
Karelia and
Savonia (later to be called
Old Finland), were joined in 1812 as
Viborg County. Together with the
Diet of Porvoo (1809), and the Oath of the Sovereign, the Treaty of Fredrikshamn constitutes the cornerstone for the
autonomous grand duchy, its own administration and institutions, and thereby a start of the development which would lead to the revival of Finnish culture, to equal position of the
Finnish language, and ultimately in 1917 to Finland's
independence. A reference to Emperor
Alexander's promise to retain old laws and privileges in Finland was included, but the treaty overstepped any formal guarantees of the legal position of Finland's inhabitants. The Russians refused, and the Swedes were not in a position to insist. Similar clauses had been common in peace treaties, but they were also regularly circumvented. At the period of
Russification of Finland, 90 years later, the Russian government argued that the treaty was not violated and hence no outside party had any right to intervene, the question being solely a matter of the
Emperor who had granted the original promise. During the negotiations, Swedish representatives had namely endeavoured to escape the loss of the Åland islands, "the fore-posts of Stockholm," as
Napoleon rightly described them. The Åland islands were culturally, ethnically and linguistically purely Swedish, but such facts were of no significance at that time. In the course of the 19th century, it would also turn out that the Åland islands were a
British interest, which, after the
Crimean War, led to the
demilitarization of the islands according to the
Åland Convention included in the
Treaty of Paris (1856). During the
War of the Sixth Coalition, Russia and Sweden concluded an alliance directed against
France (5 April 1812). They planned to effect a landing in
Swedish Pomerania, which had been overrun by the French. Russia promised to press Denmark into ceding Norway to Sweden. It was understood that the United Kingdom would join the treaty too, but that never came to pass. Other plans failed to materialise due to
Napoleon's invasion of Russia. == Notes ==