From the time of the
Vikings in the 8th century, an eastern road ran along the
Gulf of Finland. The first inhabitants were
nomads. The place name of
Nuuksio derives from the
Sami word which means '
swan'
. Later
Finns proper and
Tavastians inhabited the area. Some place names have traces of Tavastian village names, like
Konala, which likely derives from the older Tavastian village name
Konhola.
Estonians inhabited the region to a smaller extent, specifically for seasonal fishing. Swedish colonisation of coastal Uusimaa started after the
second crusade to Finland in the 13th century. The colonisation was part of converting pagan areas to
Catholicism. Eastern Uusimaa had its first Christian Swedish colonialists earlier than the western part, which got its colonialists in one mass transfer of people to
Porvoo in the 14th century. The colonisation was supported by the Swedish kingdom and the immigrants were provided with grain seeds and cattle. They also got a four-year tax exemption from the crown. The names and , meaning 'new land' in English, derived from the Swedish colonisation era. The Swedish-language name appears in documents from the 14th century. The Finnish-language name appears for the first time in 1548 as in
the first translation of the
New Testament to Finnish by
Mikael Agricola. Much of Uusimaa is literally new – it has risen off the
Baltic Sea due to
post-glacial rebound. The
Finnish provinces (, ) were ceded to
Russian Empire after the
Finnish War in 1809, when they were organized as the
Grand Duchy of Finland. Finland became independent in 1917. The provincial system was restructured in 1997, and from 1997 to 2010 Uusimaa formed a part of the
Southern Finland Province. The provincial system was abolished in 2010 in favour of
regions (, ). The regions had traditionally existed as cultural units but were made into administrative units in 1994. Initially, Uusimaa was divided into the regions of Uusimaa and
Eastern Uusimaa, but in 2011 the two regions were merged into a single region, Uusimaa. == Heraldry ==