The history of Sweden and Öckerö

The first people in Sweden The first people came to Sweden approximately 14000 years ago.

They moved slowly into Sweden and settled down in the southern parts after the ice sheet had started to melt. We can find rock paintings about their way of living.

When Sweden became a kingdom The first time Sweden was mentioned was in the story of Beowulf. Sweden was named Svitjod,

which means the Swedish people.

Sweden was not a stable state until the 13 th century. Because "Götar“( from the south) and "Svear“ ( from the middle part) fought about the power in Sweden. At the same time Sweden annexed Finland and it was a part of Sweden until 1809.

When Gustav Vasa was the king of Sweden in the 16th century it became an inherited kingdom.

Öckerö

Sweden's borders

During the 17th century, Sweden was involved in The Thirty Years´War and Sweden expanded their borders.

The empire of Sweden had for example land in Finland, Russia, Norway and even a part in Germany.

Sweden got it's current border in 1905 when our alliance with Norway got disbanded.

The history of Öckerö People found their way to the Öckerö islands many thousand years ago. When the ice was melting

and people could see the islands it created a place where many people fished and hunted.

The Viking era is an important part of Swedens history and maybe the name of the islands is from that time. The main island Öckerö was called Ekön (oak island) because there was a grove of oaks were they built the first church. The typical Viking ship was slim and elastic and therefore well suited fore the tuff conditions at sea. The most suitable timber, oak, was found on our islands. The location of Öckerö made it natural for a market place where goods from forays were sold.

Öckerö islands becomes a part of Sweden

The most important meeting in the history of our islands is when there was a peace meeting year 1253 between Norwegians and Danish, lead by the Swedish. About ten thousands of people took part in this meeting. That´s about the same number who lives on the islands today.

Öckerö islands weren´t part of Sweden until 1658, when the Danish king was forced to leave some provinces like the Öckerö islands to the Swedish king Karl X.

Transport to the islands About 1880 a period begun where the upper class started to spend their summer holidays out in the

archipelago with salty bath and a beautiful enviroment. Islander realized that they could earn some money from this. If they moved to their basement they could let the wealthy summer guests rent their home during the summer and then have some extra income for the long cold winter. In the same period a steam boat company started with ferry trips once a week to the islands from Gothenburg city.

In 1962, the first state car ferry came to Öckerö. A berth at Öckerö was built and a route with a ferry that took 16 cars was opened.

Two years later Öckerö Municipality received two car ferries destined for the northern islands (Knippla, Hyppeln och Rörö) of the archipelago . With the car ferries the population increased.