Åland Islands are sandwiched between Finland and Sweden - and there is not a gun in sight (Source: own photo)
Today I racked up yet another “lifer”: the Åland Islands! This is my 177th conquest in my bid to visit all 266 countries and autonomous territories on Earth.
The Åland Islands is one of just three autonomous regions in the Nordics, the other two being the Faroe Islands and Greenland. The achipelago consists of 6,757 islands roughly equidistant between Sweden and Finland.
Ålanders speak Swedish, because the islands were an integral part of the Kingdom of Sweden for roughly six centuries. In 1809, Sweden lost the eastern part of its realm in the Finnish War and the islands became the westernmost outpost of Russia.
The Russian presence in the strategically important Åland Islands became a major geo-political concern in the run-up to the Crimean War of 1853, due to the proximity of the islands to Stockholm. When Russia began to build fortifications on the islands, British and French forces bombed the Russian installations, leading to calls for clarification of the legal status of the islands to prevent further conflict.
In 1856, Russia, Britain, and France signed a treaty to demilitarise the islands.
However, the treaty did not satisfy the Swedish-speaking inhabitants, who worried about their cultural independence. In 1921, the issue came before the League of Nations, which produced a convention declaring the neutrality of the Åland Islands in addition to upholding their demilitarised status. Since it was not a member of the League of Nations, the Soviet Union did not sign the convention.
In 1938, as war approached in Europe, Sweden and Finland sought to remilitarise the islands, which prompted the Soviet Union to demand a presence on the islands to monitor that all international agreements were being honoured. The Russian demand was met in 1940 as part of the settlement to end the Winter War.
The Russian consular presence on the Åland Islands survived the entire Cold War and remains to this day.
When Finland applied for European Union (EU) membership in 1992, the Åland Islanders were able to secure certain concessions, including special tax arrangements. The Åland Islands held on to these special arrangements during the Lisbon Treaty negotiations in 2009. In return, the Åland Islanders agreed to join the EU, unlike the peoples of the Faroe Islands and Greenland.
The Åland Islands issue resurfaced most recently in the context of Sweden’s and Finland’s decisons to join NATO after Russia invaded Ukraine in February of 2022. It was agreed that the islands’ neutral and demilitarised status is consistent with Finland’s NATO accession and that Finland will protect the islands if required.
Travel tip: Catch the Eckero Linjen bus from Stockholm to the ferry port at Grisslehamn. Buy the tickets online. You can do the return journey in just one day for the shockingly low price of just SEK 200 per person, which includes the return bus and ferry journeys. The trip is not just great value for money, but also gives an excellent insight into Swedish working class booze cruising. Not since Buenos Aires have I seen so many mullet haircuts!
The End
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