The origins of the provincial divisions lay in the
petty kingdoms that gradually became more and more subjected to the
central monarchy during the
consolidation of Sweden. Until the
country law of Magnus Eriksson in 1350, each of these lands still had its own laws and its own assembly (
thing), and in effect governed itself. The first provinces were considered
duchies, but newly conquered provinces received the status of duchy or
county, depending on importance. After the separation from the
Kalmar Union in 1523, the Kingdom incorporated only some of its new conquests as provinces. The most permanent acquisitions stemmed from the
Treaty of Roskilde in 1658, in which the former
Danish Scanian lands (
Skåne,
Blekinge and
Halland), along with
Gotland and the Norwegian
Bohuslän,
Jämtland and
Härjedalen, became Swedish and gradually integrated. Other foreign territories were ruled as
Swedish Dominions under the Swedish monarch, in some cases for centuries.
Norway, in
personal union with Sweden from 1814 to 1905, never became an integral part of Sweden. When Sweden ceded Finland to the
Russian Empire in 1809,
Västerbotten was divided up so that
Norrbotten first emerged as a county. Eventually, it came to be recognized as
its own province. It was granted a coat of arms as late as in 1995. Some scholars suggest that Sweden revived the concept of provinces in the 19th century.
The lands of Sweden Historically, Sweden was seen as containing four ”lands” (larger regions): •
Götaland (southern Sweden) •
Svealand (central Sweden) •
Österland (Finland, from the 13th century to 1809) •
Norrland (northern parts of present-day Sweden and north-western Finland) In the
Viking Age and earlier, Götaland and Svealand were home to a number of
petty kingdoms that were more or less independent; Götaland in the Iron Age and Middle Ages did not include
Scania and other provinces in the far south, which were then part of
Denmark. The leading tribe of Götaland in the Iron Age was the
Geats; the main tribe of Svealand, according to
Tacitus ca 100 AD, was the
Suiones (or the ”historical Swedes”). ”Norrland” was all the unexplored northern parts, the boundaries and Swedish control over which were weakly defined into the early modern age. Due to the
Northern Crusades against
Finns,
Tavastians and
Karelians and
colonisation of some coastal areas of the country, Finland fell under the Catholic Church and Swedish rule.
Österland ("Eastern land"; the name had early gone out of use) in southern and central Finland formed an integral part of Sweden. Russia annexed Finland in 1809, and reunited it with some frontier counties annexed earlier to form the
Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1917, Finland became
an independent country. The regional borders have changed several times throughout history with changing national borders. Norrland, Svealand and Götaland are only
parts of Sweden, and have never superseded the concept of the provinces. == Heraldry ==