Editing Provinces of Sweden (section)

== History ==

[[File:Svpmap blank.png|right|thumb|170px|Sweden's provinces from 1658 to 1809]]

The origins of the provincial divisions lay in the [[petty kingdom]]s that gradually became more and more subjected to the [[King of Sweden|central monarchy]] during the [[consolidation of Sweden]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Clemensson |first1=Per |title=Your Swedish roots: a step by step handbook |last2=Andersson |first2=Kjell |date=2004 |publisher=Ancestry |isbn=978-1-59331-276-3 |location=Provo, UT |pages=30}}</ref> Until the [[Magnus Erikssons landslag|country law of Magnus Eriksson]] in 1350, each of these lands still had its own laws and its own assembly ([[thing (assembly)|thing]]), and in effect governed itself. The first provinces were considered [[duchy|duchies]], but newly conquered provinces received the status of duchy or [[county]], depending on importance.{{Cn|date=March 2025}}

After the separation from the [[Kalmar Union]] in 1523, the Kingdom incorporated only some of its new conquests as provinces. The most permanent acquisitions stemmed from the [[Treaty of Roskilde]] in 1658, in which the former [[Denmark|Danish]] [[Scanian lands]] ([[Skåne]], [[Blekinge]] and [[Halland]]), along with [[Gotland]] and the Norwegian [[Bohuslän]], [[Jämtland]] and [[Härjedalen]], became Swedish and gradually integrated. Other foreign territories were ruled as [[Dominions of Sweden|Swedish Dominions]] under the Swedish monarch, in some cases for centuries. [[Norway]], in [[personal union]] with Sweden from 1814 to 1905, never became an integral part of Sweden.

When Sweden ceded Finland to the [[Russian Empire]] in 1809, [[Västerbotten]] was divided up so that [[Norrbotten County|Norrbotten]] first emerged as a county. Eventually, it came to be recognized as [[Norrbotten|its own province]]. It was granted a coat of arms as late as in 1995.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Nevéus |first=Clara |title=Ny svensk vapenbok |date=1992 |publisher=Streiffert i samarbete med Riksarkivet |isbn=978-91-7886-092-0 |location=Stockholm |language=sv}}</ref>

Some scholars suggest that Sweden revived the concept of provinces in the 19th century.<ref>Jacobsson, Benny (2000). [http://people.su.se/~benny/Uppland.htm "Konstruktion av landskap. Exemplet Uppland"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090202114846/http://people.su.se/~benny/Uppland.htm |date=2 February 2009 }}. ''Idéhistoriska perspektiv''. Ed. Ingemar Nilsson, Arachne 16, Göteborg 2000, p. 109-119. Retrieved 20 October 2006. (In Swedish).
</ref>

=== The lands of Sweden===
Historically, Sweden was seen as containing four ”lands” (larger regions):
* [[Götaland]] (southern Sweden)
* [[Svealand]] (central Sweden)
* [[Österland]] (Finland, from the 13th century to 1809)
* [[Norrland]] (northern parts of present-day Sweden and north-western Finland)

In the [[Viking Age]] and earlier, Götaland and Svealand were home to a number of [[petty kingdom]]s that were more or less independent; Götaland in the Iron Age and Middle Ages did not include [[Scania]] and other provinces in the far south, which were then part of [[Denmark]]. The leading tribe of Götaland in the Iron Age was the [[Geat]]s; the main tribe of Svealand, according to [[Tacitus]] ca 100 AD, was the [[Suiones]] (or the ”historical Swedes”). ”Norrland” was all the unexplored northern parts, the boundaries and Swedish control over which were weakly defined into the early modern age.

Due to the [[Northern Crusades]] against [[Finns proper|Finns]], [[Tavastians]] and [[Karelia (historical province of Finland)|Karelians]] and [[Swedish colonisation of Finland|colonisation of some coastal areas]] of the country, Finland fell under the Catholic Church and Swedish rule. ''Österland'' ("Eastern land"; the name had early gone out of use) in southern and central Finland formed an integral part of Sweden. Russia annexed Finland in 1809, and reunited it with some frontier counties annexed earlier to form the [[Grand Duchy of Finland]]. In 1917, Finland became [[Finland|an independent country]].

The regional borders have changed several times throughout history with changing national borders. Norrland, Svealand and Götaland are only ''parts'' of Sweden, and have never superseded the concept of the provinces.