It lies in the heart of Scandinavia. A land of forests and lakes, farms and industry, and
cities steeped in history. Where once warriors and raiders exported their terror, now only
peace radiates from here. A land of liberty, innovation and art, it influences the world
like no other small population country does. And what is this country? It could only be Sweden.
Sweden is a country that is the home of the
North Germanic people of the same name, the Swedes, and occupies the central part of Scandinavia
in northern Europe. Germanic tribes have been living in Scandinavia
as far back as written sources go, with the first mention of Swedes as the Suiones by
the Roman historian Tacitus in 98AD. The word for this country used by most languages
in some variant or other - Sweden – is thought to come from proto-Norse Swihoniz meaning
“one’s own” – referring to one’s own Germanic tribe. But the Swedes themselves
call their own country Sverige, a name first recorded as Sweorice in the earliest of all
English written works – Beowulf. It literally means “realm of the Swedes”.
The most famous part of their history took place between the 8th and 11th centuries – the
Viking Age, denoted by a fierce warrior culture that expanded across Europe through the development
of the most advanced ships of that time. Whereas the Norwegian and Danish Vikings expanded
west to terrorise Britain and France, the Swedes went east, across the Baltic and along
the main rivers of what is now Poland, European Russia and Ukraine, to the Black Sea, where
they traded with the Byzantines. The Swedish Vikings were known as the Rus and those that
settled in the East founded dynasties, one of which was believed to have been the Kieven
Rus, and the word Russia comes from this line. As to when Sweden finally became a united
state – that’s unclear from the records – but it’s believed to be at the latest
in the 10th Century. The nation abandoned the old Norse gods in 1050, becoming officially
Christian in that year. But the old gods still live on in our English days of the week - Wednesday,
Thursday and Friday being named after Odin, Thor and Frigga.
In the early 14th Century, the Swedish and Norwegian crowns were united, and then joined
to Denmark’s at the end of that century in what became known as the Kalmar Union – for
another century or so after that, all of Scandinavia was under one monarch. But Sweden rebelled
in 1523 under Gustav I, who also resisted the influence of the Germanic states through
the Hanseatic League that hitherto had dominated the Baltic. In so asserting Swedish political
and economic independence, Gustav is regarded as the founder of the modern Swedish nation.
With its new independence, Sweden then began to assert itself as the master of Scandinavia
and the Baltic, adding many lands to its empire, and reaching a zenith in the middle of the
17th Century, third only to Russia and Spain in power in Europe at that time. But such
military expansion came at a huge cost economically, and over the next century and a half, with
other powers conniving to reign in the upstart nation, Sweden lost much territory, holding
on to that core which forms their borders today.
Perhaps so tired of two centuries of almost constant war, Sweden changed policy, and became
neutral in every European conflict since the Napoleonic Wars. 1814 was the last time Sweden
was at war – a record unbeaten in Europe, longer even than that of legendary neutral
Switzerland, although many would argue that Swedish neutrality in both World Wars was
questionable, with help to Germany being provided each time, no doubt under threat of invasion
otherwise. Post war, Sweden has remained mostly neutral,
refusing to join NATO, and only joining the European Union in 1995 after a close referendum.
It did not join the Euro, and so has retained the Krone as its own currency. That’s not
to say that it is not active on the international scene. Indeed Sweden has often acted as a
peace broker in various international conflicts, leveraging its renowned status as a neutral
nation. Today, Sweden is a constitutional monarchy,
with the head of state being Carl XVI Gustaf occupying only a ceremonial role with no political
power. Real legislative power is in the single national 349-member parliament, the Riksdag,
elected every four years through a system of proportional representation. While Sweden
has no federal structure like the USA, Canada or Germany, local counties and municipalities
are provided with considerable autonomy from the central government by Sweden’s constitution
and in fact make up the majority of the public sector.
For a hundred years, the centre-left Social Democratic Party has been the most dominant
voice in Swedish party politics, and this is no surprise, as Sweden’s extensive and
widely known welfare state developed under this dominance. Coalitions are the norm, however,
in a country that has between five and eight active parties vying for control, with none
getting an overall majority since the 1960s. If you don’t count Russia, Sweden is the
tallest country in Europe, spanning almost 14 degrees of latitude from 55 to 69°N, and
as a result experiences four distinct climate zones. If you travelled the 2000km by road
from the southernmost to northernmost tips, it would take you over 20 hours. By comparison,
the maximum east-west distance is only 600km and would take you just 6½ hours to travel.
Sweden’s total land area is just under half a million square kilometres which ranks it 55th largest
in the world. The highest and lowest points are 2,097m
above and -2.4m elow sea level. Most of its coastline is within the Baltic sea, with the
part facing Finland known as the Gulf of Bothnia. A comparatively small stretch faces west into
the portions of the North Sea around Denmark known as Skagerrak and Kattegat. In terms
of land borders, Norway’s dominates, stretching for most of the country’s length along its
western side. A smaller land border is with Finland in the north east. The far south-west
faces Denmark along the Oresund straight. If we look at Sweden’s climate zones and
biomes, they roughly follow the lines of latitude, with the far north-west of the country experiencing
a mix of alpine and arctic tundra, while subarctic boreal forest, or taiga, dominates the upper
two-thirds of the country. In these two northern zones, winters are severe, while summers are
warm in the taiga, but cool in the tundra. Further south, a sizeable band of continental
climate exists, where the winters are less severe, and the summers a little warmer. The
natural biome of this band was mixed broadleaf and coniferous forest, but today is largely
given over to agriculture. Unlike the rest of the country, the southernmost part is unshielded
from moderating Atlantic westerly winds by the mountains bordering Norway and so experiences
an Oceanic climate where winters are mild and summers warm. The natural biome here was
temperate broadleaf forest, but like with the continental zone, agriculture dominates
here today. Sweden has a population of over 10 million
people today, ranked 89th in the world, with the vast majority of them living in the bottom
third of the country. One third of Swedes live in the three largest cities, the capital
Stockholm, the main port and industrial centre of Gothenburg, and the southern city of Malmo,
where a rail and road bridge/tunnel connects the city with Denmark’s capital, Copenhagen.
Sweden’s own capital, Stockholm is about a third the way up the Baltic coast and is
notable for lying on an archipelago of thousands of islands. 85% of the population live in
urban areas. The vast majority of the population are ethnic
Swedes with ethnic Finns making up the largest minority at just under half a million. The
indigenous reindeer-herding Sami people of the north are a recognised minority also.
In the last decade, a large number of immigrants from the Middle East were granted asylum,
and now comprise almost a third of a million. The Swedish language belongs to the North
Germanic branch of Indo-European languages that include Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic
and Faroese. Swedes, Norwegians and Danes can understand each other’s written languages
relatively easily, and by and large the spoken languages also. But in the latter case, this
may depend upon the dialect spoken, which varies from the south in Scania to the main
population areas around Stockholm. And, yes, it is true. Most Swedes are blondes,
and with neighbouring Finland, Sweden has the highest proportions of people with light
hair in the world. Considering how successful Sweden is in its economy and global influence,
as we’ll see shortly – well, I think we should start questioning the accuracy of jokes
about blondes. Sweden’s flag is one of the most recognisable
in the world, having an offset cross, which represents Christianity in common with all
Nordic countries, and in the colours of light blue and gold. These colours have been associated
with the country since medieval times and also dominate the coat of arms. The three
crowns are the symbol most commonly associated with the Swedish state, appearing on government
stationary, buildings and in military insignia. Sweden did not join the Euro and so retained
its currency of the Krona, a word in common with the Danish and Norwegian currencies,
which simply means “crown”. It dates back to an earlier monetary union with Denmark
and Norway that ended in 1914. Sweden’s economy is the sixteenth largest
in the world by GDP and its highly diversified nature is fairly typical of the developed
world. It is export oriented, in the same way that Germany, Japan and South Korea are,
with a strong manufacturing sector, but differs in that it also has sizeable exports derived
from locally sourced primary industries, including mining, fishing and wood.
It is home to many world famous brands with global reach, including IKEA, Volvo, Spotify,
H&M, Ericsson, Saab, Scania and Sandvik and in general its economy is dominated by privately-owned
larger companies, although in recent decades many innovative startups have arisen here.
It ranked as number one best place in the world for doing business by Forbes magazine
in 2017. Like all other Scandinavian countries, Sweden
has embraced the “Nordic model” of a large welfare state, which admittedly comes at the
price of high taxation. The total amount of taxes paid by an average income worker, whether
through income tax, sales tax or otherwise is about 50%, and ranks ninth highest in the
world. In the past this had been higher, but with a struggling economy in the 1980s, reforms
were introduced in 1990 that eased the overall tax burden.
Personal freedom and liberalism are and always have been the hallmark of Swedish culture.
Unlike almost all other European nations during the medieval period, Sweden never adopted
the feudal system, which otherwise condemned the peasantry to a life only one step above
slavery, and so private ownership of land property by the majority has always existed.
In the present day this approach toward liberty is expressed in many ways, from the rise of
the Pirate Party - which advocates less restrictive copyright laws, early relaxation of laws concerning
sexually explicit material, to one of only a handful of countries that did not impose
a lockdown or quarantine during the coronavirus outbreak of 2020. In the 2019 Edition of the
Human Freedom Index by the Cato Institute, Sweden ranked as number one in the world for
Personal Freedom. Sweden’s influence around the world is not
just through its well-known corporations. Culturally, Sweden has produced many influencers
in art, science and music throughout its history. The botanist Carl Linneaus developed the system
of plant and animal species categorisation that is used globally today. Alfred Nobel,
the chemist who invented modern explosives, saw an early obituary of himself that was
critical of him profiting from his discovery being used in warfare, and so feeling guilt,
used the proceeds of his fortunes after his death to benefit future generations through
the foundation of the Nobel Prize system. In more recent times, the Swedish pop group
ABBA took the world by storm in the 1970s, and are second only to the Beatles in terms
of global album sales by a musical group. Sweden’s global reach overall is really
rather astonishing considering its relatively tiny population compared to giants such as
the US or China. So if we should look to somewhere for inspiration on how to improve our own
systems or enrich our lives, then perhaps the first stop should be that tall country
in the heart of Scandinavia.
And that’s Sweden. I hope you enjoyed this
whirlwind tour of that country in this new series about nations around the world. If
you did, then please like and share this video. Let me know your thoughts in the comments,
especially if you’re from this country, and if I missed out anything you feel is important.
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