Sweden

Sweden, a kingdom of Europe, occupying the eastern, the more fertile and populated, part of the Scandinavian peninsula. It lies between lat. 55° 20' 18" and 69° 3' 21" N., and long. 28° 46; 8" and 41° 44' 23" E., and is bounded by Norway and Russia on the N., by Norway, the Cattegat, and the Skagerrak on the W., by the Baltic on the S., and by the Baltic, the Gulf of Bothnia, and Russia on the E. It has an area of 170,644 square miles; its longest line measures nearly 1,000 English miles, the greatest breadth being 280 miles. The length of the coast-line is about 1,550 miles.

Physical features. Only the northern and northwestern parts of Sweden can be called mountainous. About one-third of the area of the whole country lies lower than 300 feet above the level of the sea, and scarcely a twelfth part lies higher than 2,000 feet above the sea. From the Kjolen range, which forms the boundary between Norway and Sweden, the country stretches as a broad plain, sloping towards the Gulf of Bothnia on the east and towards the large lakes and flat districts in the southern provinces. The most important range of mountains commences on the Norwegian border near Lake Faemundso, and extends first in an easterly and afterwards in a southerly direction through the whole of Central and South Sweden down to Scania, the most southerly province. Near the Norwegian border is sitnated Sulijelma, the highest peak in Sweden (6,000 feet). The central part of the country is a land of large and extensive lakes, occupying about an eighth of the total area. The most important of these are the Vener, Vetter, Malar, and Hjelmar lakes. They are connected by rivers and canals, and communicate on the west with the Cattegat and on the east with the Baltic. Sweden is rich in rivers, the largest being the Angerman and Gotaelf. On the latter, and not far from Gothenburg, is the celebrated waterfall, the Trollhattan. Geographically and politically Sweden is divided into three divisions - Norrland Svealand, and Gothland. The first is full of large forests ftnd mountainous districts, through which run numerous streams and rivers. The Laplanders (a Mongolian race), with their reindeer, chiefly inhabit this part of the country, where a large number of wild animals - reindeer, bears, wolves, foxes, many kinds of birds of prey, game birds, ptarmigan, snipes, etc. - abound. In Svealand, the central part, the large lakes and large tracts of forests are found. This part is also known for its large iron and copper mines. Gothland is the most southerly division, and contains the best and the greater part of cultivated land in Sweden. The fundamental rocks of Sweden consist mostly of crystalline gneisses and granite of the Azoic period, and may be classed into three divisions - the grey gneiss, the red iron gneiss, and the granulite. The iron deposits occur in more or less fine-grained gneiss or granulite. Gold, silver, copper pyrites, and zinc blende are also found in the country. During the Glacial period Sweden was wholly covered with ice, and the most recent deposits date from that period. The Skargard is a collection of small and low islands, or skerries, on different parts of the coast.

Climate. The climate of Sweden varies very much on account of the great extent of the country from north to south. In the northern parts and a1ong the Norwegian border the winters are very severe. On the eastern coast the winter is much colder than on the western. The south of Sweden enjoys, as a rule, long and warm summers, but both summer and winter are in all parts liable to great fluctuations from year to year.

Population; Industries and Commerce; Communications. The population of Sweden has increased steadily during the last hundred years. In 1898 there were over 5,000,000 inhabitants, of which 19,000 were Finns, 6,800 Lapps, and 3,400 Jews. the greater part of the population, about 80 per cent., live in the rural districts. The largest towns are Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmo, and Norrkoping. Agriculture is the most important industry of the country, although only 8 per cent. of the total area of it is under cultivation. In the southern districts the crops consist principally of rye, barley, wheat, and potatoes, in the less fertile districts of oats, which of late have found a good market in England. The country produces more corn than it consumes; it has also a large export of butter to England. The forests (mostly pine and fir) occupy more than half of the entire area, and timber is therefore one of the most important articles of export. About one-half goes to English ports. Mining is also one of the great industries of Sweden, and gives employment to about 26,000 persons. Of the iron-mines those of Dannemora in Upland, Norberg in Westmannland, and Grangarde in Dalarne are the most important. There are also several copper, zinc, nickel, and silver-mines in the country. The inhabitants on the coast and the small islands, the Skargard, are mostly fishermen. Herrings, sprats, salmon, mackerel, haddock, and cod are the principal fisheries. During the last 50 years the other industries of Sweden have grown considerably and rapidly. The most important branches are ironworks, foundries, cotton and paper mills, sugar refineries, breweries, clothing and tobacco factories, tanneries, match manufactories, glass and porcelain works, etc. The trade and shipping have also made great progress during the last half-century. The conntry possesses a merchant fleet of 2,763 vessels of about 480,000 tons burden. The exports from Sweden in 1898 amounted to £18,992,795 sterling, and the imports to £25,068,797. Sweden has an excellent and extensive system of roads, railways, canals, and telegraphs.

Government; Army and Navy; Finance. Sweden is a constitutional monarchy, united with Norway since 1814 under one king, in whom the executive power is vested. The king is advised by a Council of State, consisting of ten members, and shares the legislative power with the Riksdag. There are two chambers in the National Assembly, the members of the first being elected for nine years by provincial councils and by the municipal councils of some of the large towns (one member for every 30,000 inhabitants). Candidates for the first chamber must be 35 years of age and possess property to the amonnt of at least. £4,500. The members for the second chamber are elected for three years, one for every rural district of less than 40,000 inhabitants, two for every district with a population exceeding that number, and one for every 10,000 in the towns. The right of vote for the second chamber belongs to every male adult who possesses property to the amount of £55, or for at least five years has held a lease of property valued at least at £330, or who pays taxes on an income of and above £45 a year. The members of the second chamber are paid, while the members of the first receive no remuneration, The 24 lans, or provinces of Sweden, and the city of Stockholm are administered by a Landshofding, or governor, and a provincial conncil for the purpose of collecting taxes and the preservation of peace, the lans are divided into altogether 117 Fogderier or bailiwicks. The parishes and towns have a large measure of self-government vested in their local, parish, or town councils. For judicial purposes the country is divided into karaas, or districts, each administered by a haraashofding, or president, and 7 to 12 Namndemanor jurymen, generally elected from among the peasant proprietors of the district. In the towns the judicial authority is vested in the magistrate. There are three superior courts of justice - Svea Hofrat in Stockholm, Gota Hofrat in Jonkoping, and Skane and Blekinqe Hofrat in Kristianstad. The highest court of appeal is the king's Hogsta Domstol in Stockholm. In Sweden trial by jury is only legalised in cases of offences by the press. The army consists of a standing army and a militia. The first is recruited from men who are enlisted for 3 to 4 years and from a class, called the Indelta, wbo receive a yearly pay and a free cottage. In times of peace the standing army numbers about 38,000 men and 1,900 officers. The number available in war is unknown. The militia is made up by conscription of all able-bodied men in the country, who are obliged to serve from the age of 21 to 33. The militia numbers about 125,000 men. The navy consisted in 1896 of 17 ironclads, 11 gunboats, and a considerable number of unarmoured steam-vessels, torpedo-boats, and training vessels, manned in all by 3,290 men and 760 officers. The king is the highest in command of the army and the navy. The public revenue, estimated for 1900, amounted to £7,560,958, while on Jan. 1, 1899, the public debt was £15,624,625.

Character of the People; Religion and Education. The Swedish peasantry is a hardy, intelligent, and industrious people, very religious and loyal to their sovereign. The State religion is that of the Lutheran Church, ruled by the Archbishop of Upsala and eleven bishops. Nearly the whole of the population belongs to the State Church. At present there are only about 44,000 Dissenters (Baptists, etc.) and about 3,400 Jews. Sweden stands high in education, which is compulsory but free. Besides excellent elementary schools, there are numerous high and technical schools and two universities (Upsala and Lund).

History. Sweden has only gradually acquired its present boundaries, and developed into one complete state. The southern part (Scania, Halland, and Blekinge) was originally united to Denmark; other parts (Bohuslan, Jamtland, and Herjedal) have at times belonged to Norway, at other times to Sweden. The conntry was first inhabited by the Lapps, who, according to Montelius, about 1500 B.C. were driven into the forests in the northern part of the country by two invading Teutonic races, the Gautar, or Goths, who settled in the south (Gothland), and the Svear, or Swedes, who settled in the central part of the country around the great lakes (Svealand). Their manners, customs, and language were the same, but at the dawn of Swedish history we find them at war with one another, and the enmity continued till they, in the 13th and 14th centuries, gradually melted into one nation. In 1397 Sweden became one of the confederate kingdoms of Scandinavia (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) under the Treaty of Kalmar, but this union only brought Sweden trouble and disaster, and was at last blotted out by the fearful massacre of Stockholm in the reign of Christian II, (1520). At this time Gustav Vasa came to the fore as the saviour of his country; he succeeded eventually in driving the Danes out of the country. He was elected king in 1523, and reigned for 41 years, during which time the country prospered and made great progress. His successors were less fortunate in maintaining peace in the country, till at last the great qualities of the founder of the Vasa dynasty revived in Gustavus Adolphus II., whose name as a statesman and general soon became known throughout Europe, and who eventually lost his life on the battlefield of Lutzen. During the reign of his son, Charles XI., and his immediate successors, Sweden was again troubled with internal strife and discord, and lost also several of its provinces beyond the sea - Bremen, Verden, Hither-Pomerania, Livonia, Esthonia, etc. Thus Sweden fell from the rank of a leading Power, which it had held for nearly a century, till the gifted Gustavus III. in 1772 put an end to the deplorable state of affairs and reframed the constitution. He was a great patron of learning, and founded the Swedish Academy. His war with Russia (1788-90) brought the country, however, only loss and no advantages. In spite of his ability and all he did for Sweden, he could not be called a wise or successful king. Under his two successors the misfortunes of Sweden came to a final end by the loss of Finland in 1809. In 1810 Bernadotte, the well-known French general, was adopted by the feeble and childless Charles XIII. as heir to the Swedish Crown, and succeeded in 1818 the latter as Charles Johan IV. In 1814 Sweden entered iuto the present union with Norway under one king, each country remaining a free and independent kingdom with its own constitution, government, parliament, army, etc. Considerable friction between the two conntries arose, however, from the demand for greater independence for Norway in her foreign policy, and in 1892 a political deadlock was almost reached. Since then matters have but little improved. On the death of Charles Johan in 1844 his son, Oscar I., succeeded to the throne, who again was succeeded by his eldest son, Charles XV. During his reign an important reform in the constitution took place. Instead of the four Stander or estates of the realm - that of the atristocracy, the clergy, the burghers, and the peasants - the Diet was divided into two chambers - the first and the second chamber. Charles XV. died in 1872, when his brother, the present king, Oscar II., ascended the throne.

Literature. The oldest productions in the Swedish language are a series of manuscripts of common laws or codes, some folk-songs, etc. The first printed book in Swedish appeared in 1495. The 16th century added but little to the literature of the country, but the reign of Adolphus II. was adorned by one great writer, Georg Stjernhjelm (1598-1672), "the father of Swedish poetry." After the king's death he was attached to the Court as poet-laureate by Queen Christina. A more brilliant period fo11owed the death of Charles XII., to which belonged Olaf von Dalin (1708-63), a writer of great elegance in prose and verse, Hedwig Charlotta Nordenflycht (1718-63), a graceful poetess, and the two poets Gustaf Creutz (1729-85) and Gustaf F. Gyllemberg (1731-1808). Karl von Linne or Linnaeus (1707-78), the great scientist, wrote almost entirely in Latin, and Emanuel Swedenborg (1685-1772), the visionary, wrote also in the same language. The so-called Gustavian period (1771-1809) was rich in literary talent. the Swedish Academy was founded, and literature began to partake more of a national character. In 1773 the National Theatre in Stockholm opened with an opera written by the king himself. To this period belong: Anna Maria Lenngren (1754-1817), a popular writer of verse, Karl Mikaael Bellman (1740-95), one of the most original and popular of Swedish poets, and Johan Henrik Kellgren (1751-95), a writer of great power and versatility. Frans Mikael Franzen (1772-1847), the great lyrical poet, fills up the space between the Gustavian and the Romantic period. In the early part of the present century appeared the works of Erik Gustaf Geijer (1783-1847), the famous historian, and of Essaias Tegner (1782-1846), the well-known poet. The latter's Frithjofs Saga is known in England through several translations. Erik J. Stagnelius (1793-1823) and Erik Sjoberg (Vitalis) (1794-1828) were two gifted poets, whose works are still much read.

The first prosaist of the time was Karl J. L. Almqvist (1793-1866), and the most popular novelist Fredrika Bremer (1801-65), whose stories are translated into all European languages. Anders Fryxel (1795-1881) was the most popular of all Swedish historians. Of the last generation of writers Johan Ludwig Runeberg (1804-77) stands highest as a poet of the first rank, Wilhelm von Braun (1813-60) as a pupular lyrist, and August Theodor Blanche (1811-68) as a popular dramatist and novelist. Other novelists of reputation are Emilie Flygare Carlen (b. 1807) and Maria Sofia Schwartz (b. 1819). Z. Topelius (b. 1818) is also a popular and highly-successful novelist and poet. The most recent school of writers consists of A. Strindberg (q.v.), novelist and dramatist, Anna Charlotta Edgren (1849-92), a highly popular novelist and dramatist, Tor Hedberg (b. 1861), G. von Geijerstamm (b. 1858), novelist, Fru Agrell (b. 1849), dramatist, and several other rising poets and writers of fiction. One of the first living Swedish authors is undoubtedly Viktor Rydberg (b. 1829), a writer of masterly novels and historical romances.

Ethnology. Of the 5,000,000 ihhabitants of sweden (1899), all but 19,000 Quains (Finns), 6,800 Lapps, and about 20,000 foreigners (Norwegians, Danes, Germans, Russians, etc.) are Svenskar, true Swedes, descendants of the Gautar and Svear, two kindred Low German peoples in occupation of the southern districts since the Bronze epoch. Throughout the historic period the country appears to have remained in almost exclusive possession of these first immigrants, who, after many ages of incessant struggles for the ascendency, were at last merged in a single homogeneous nationality towards the middle of the 13th century. The inhabitants of Sweden are thus one of the most uniform in Europe, being essentially Low Germans in physique, speech, and traditions, and presenting no differences traceable tot he two original elements, except perhaps some local usages and provincial dialects. Such contrasts are most pronounced amongst the Dalecarlians of the Upper Dal basin, best representatives of the Svears as opposed to the Gautar or "Goths" of the extreme south. Physically the Swedes are tall (mean 5 feet 10 inches), with slim figure, stout frame, oval head, broad open forehead, regular features, deep blue eyes, florid complexion, frank and perhaps somewhat haugty expression. They are a brave, lively, and courteous people, the "French of the North," as they are fond of calling themselves. Intellectually they yield to none, and display a marked aptitude especially for the physical and natural sciences, as shown by such names as Linne, Fries, Celsius, Berzelius, Retzius, and many others. The Swedish language, a direct descendant of Old Norse, appears to have taken decided shape about the 13th century, from which period date the oldest extant national songs and laws of the land. It has been sedulously cultivated, especially since the Reformation, and is distinguished from the sister Dano-Norwegian tongue by greater harmony, a distinct musical accent or intonation, and some minor grammatical features. Outside Sweden it is current on the the south-west and west coast of Finland, where the Swedes have settled in compact masses for several centuries. J. L. Runeberg, perhaps the greatest of Swedish poets (ob. 1877), was a Finlander.