Scandinavian

Scandinavia is a historical and geographical region centered on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It is most commonly defined as the three kingdoms that historically shared the Scandinavian Peninsula, namely Norway, Sweden and Denmark. more...

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In linguistics and cultural studies, the definition of Scandinavia is expanded to include the areas where Old Norse was spoken and where the North Germanic languages are now dominant. As a linguistic and cultural concept, Scandinavia thus also includes Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

As a cultural and historical concept, Scandinavia can include Finland as well (of the larger region Fenno-Scandinavia), often with reference to the nation's long history as a part of Sweden. Although Finland is culturally closely related to the other Scandinavian countries, it also has a distinct Finno-Ugric identity shaped by both Eastern and Western European influences. The creation of a Finnish identity is unique in the region in that it was forged in the decolonization struggles against two different imperial models, the Swedish and the Russian.

Since the rise of the Fennoman movement in the 1830s and the political movement Scandinavism in 1850s, the inclusion of Finland and Iceland divides opinions in the respective states. Although it depends on context which countries are considered Scandinavian, the term the Nordic countries is used unambiguously for Norway, Sweden, Denmark (including the Faroe Islands and Greenland), Finland (including Åland) and Iceland.

Terminology and usage

Being a purely historical and cultural region, Scandinavia has no official political borders. The region is therefore often defined according to the conventions of different disciplines or according to the political and cultural aims of different communities of the area. One example of the Scandinavian region as a political and cultural construct is the unique position of Finland, as described by the University of Jyväskylä based editorial board of the Finnish journal "Yearbook of Political Thought and Conceptual history": "The construction of a specific Finnish polity is the result of successful decolonization. The location of Finland is a moving one. It has shifted from being a province in the Swedish Empire to an autonomous unit in Eastern Europe, then to an independent state in Northern Europe or Scandinavia. After joining the European Union, Finland has recently been included in Western Europe."

Geographically the Scandinavian Peninsula includes what is today mainland Sweden and mainland Norway. However, Denmark has historically included various regions of the Scandinavian Peninsula, such as Norway and the historic region of Scania. As a result, Denmark – Jutland on the Jutland peninsula, along with Zealand and the other islands in the Danish archipelago – is considered part of the Scandinavian region.

Read more at Wikipedia.org