middle ages

1

Middle Ages

www.nordicwebstore.com

2www.nordicwebstore.com

• 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 of Turku


• 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


• 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 inside Turku castle


• 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


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)


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

Old Turku is now a museum area.


Oldest Cities in Finland

Turku

Viipuri

Ulvila

Porvoo

Rauma

Naantali


• 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 Gustav Vasa (Kustaa Vaasa) was elected King of Sweden.

Kalmar Union


ItämaaÖsterland (Swedish) Itämaa (Finnish)Eastern Country

This map was made in 1880.


• 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 Finnish Tribes slowly.

• Languages evolved, Pre- Finnish and Pre-Sami-language were formed.


• 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


• 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


Sàmi people

Sàmi people's living area in 1100. After that it decreased!


• In the end of the Middle Age, Finnish people consisted of different tribes:• Karjalaiset• Savolaiset• Etelä-Pohjalaiset• Hämäläiset• Lounais-Suomalaiset

Tribes

TurkuÅland

middle ages

Education