# REDIRECT Åland Islands

On the Danish flag, the cross design, which represents Christianity, was subsequently adopted by the other Nordic countries ; Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Åland Islands and the Faroe Islands, as well as the Scottish archipelagos of Shetland and Orkney.

It includes the strategically significant Åland Islands, positioned at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia.

For strategic reasons, however, the League of Nations awarded the Åland Islands to Finland in 1921.

This flag, called the Dannebrog, inspired the cross design of the other Nordic countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, and regional Scandinavian flags for the Faroe Islands, Åland, Scania and Bornholm, as well as flags for the non-Scandinavian Shetland and Orkney.

On 5 March a German naval squadron landed in the southwestern archipelago of Finland, on the Åland Islands, which the Swedish military expedition had taken over in mid-February.

The archaeological culture of the Åland Islands had a more prominent Swedish character than the rest of the country, possibly suggesting Scandinavian settlement.

* 1854 – The first Victoria Cross is awarded during the bombardment of Bomarsund in the Åland Islands.

* Autonomy Day ( Åland Islands )

The islands are almost exclusively Swedish-speaking, but in 1809, Sweden had lost both Finland and the Åland Islands to Imperial Russia.

The Nordic countries all have the same design ( Iceland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, in addition to the autonomous regions of the Faroe Islands and Åland ), a horizontal cross on a single-colored background.

* June 21 – Battle of Bomarsund in the Åland Islands ( which later became part of Finland-in 1920 :) The Royal Navy seaman's mate Charles D. Lucas throws a live Russian artillery shell overboard by hand before it explodes, for which he was awarded the first Victoria Cross in 1857.

There are also daily ferry services from the Port of Turku to Sweden and the Åland Islands, operated by Silja Line, Viking Line and SeaWind Line.

# REDIRECT Åland Islands

* Åland Islands, Finland

* Åland Islands

During the Finnish Campaign of 1808, by a daring march across the frozen Gulf of Finland, Bagration captured the Åland Islands, and in 1809 he led the Russian army against the Turks at the battles of Rassowa and Tataritza.

## Björkö, an island and a village in Kumlinge Municipality in the Åland Islands.

* Åland Islands, Finland

* Mariehamn, Åland Islands, Finland

In the south of the gulf lie the Åland Islands, between the Sea of Åland and the Archipelago Sea.

The treaty also demilitarised the Åland Islands in the Baltic Sea, which belonged to the autonomous Russian Grand Principality of Finland.

However, the Finnish government considered the islands to be a part of their new nation, as the Russians had included Åland in the Grand Duchy of Finland, formed in 1809.

Although Swedish-speaking culture had been expanding eastwards through the Åland islands and along what are now the coastal regions of Finland for several centuries, the Second Swedish Crusade, undertaken by Birger Jarl in the later 1240s, is generally taken as the moment when the region now called Finland was incorporated into the Swedish state.

The arms granted had been blazoned not for Öland, but for the similar sounding island province of Åland.

At the same time, in the 16th century, Åland had been awarded a coat of arms displaying a deer.

An odd fact since the Åland fauna did not include larger deer, but had the smaller roe deer.

During the negotiations, Swedish representatives had namely endeavoured to escape the loss of the Åland islands, " the fore-posts of Stockholm ," as Napoleon rightly described them.

Czar Alexander of Russia had demanded all of Österland, Åland, the parts of Norrland in present day Finland and parts of Norrland in present day Sweden.

The arms granted to Öland had been mixed up with the arms granted to Åland and this was not discovered until the 20th century.

By the end of the Civil War, the Finnish Air Force had 40 aircraft, of which 20 had been captured from the Reds ( the Reds did not operate this many aircraft, but some had been found abandoned by the Russians on the Åland Islands ).

The arms granted to Åland had originally been intended for Öland.

After Sweden had lost the Finnish War of 1808 – 09, fought against Russia, both Åland and Finland became part of the Russian Empire.

The council decided unanimously, that the islands would remain under Finland's sovereignty, but stated that the native population's rights to their own language had to be preserved, that the area had to stay demilitarized and that Åland was granted autonomy during peace time.

vWF is named after Dr. Erik von Willebrand ( 1870 – 1949 ), a Finnish doctor who in 1924 first described a hereditary bleeding disorder in families from the Åland islands, who had a tendency for cutaneous and mucosal bleeding, including menorrhagia.

However, no formal alliance had been concluded, and a proposed official recognition of cooperative defense of the de-militarized Åland Islands had been rebuffed by Sweden's parliament in June 1939.

Returning home from Åland at summer's end, it seemed that Värttinä had come to the end of its journey.

Unlike in Åland, in the previous twenty years social tensions had also worsened considerably in Finland.

Bomarsund was a 19th century fortress, the construction of which had started in 1832 by Russia in Sund, Åland Islands, in the Baltic Sea.

The autonomous island province of Åland is an exception, being monolingually Swedish speaking according to international treaties.

It is a matter of definition whether the Swedish dialects spoken on Åland are to be considered a kind of Finland Swedish or not.

* Åland Swedish

Swedish army retook Åland already in March 1743 and in start of May fleet of 16 ships of the line and 5 frigates under Admiral Jean von Utfall arrived to block the coastal sea route past Hangö.

The Swedish galley fleet attacked the Russian galley fleet at narrows of Korpoström, just south of island of Korpo, where the Swedish attack was repulsed and Falkengren returned back to Åland.

Result was overwhelming Russian naval superiority in south-western Finland and areas near Åland which forced Swedish fleet to move to west of Åland and hastened the peace negotiations.

Six Regional State Administrative Agencies were created by the state of Finland in 2010, each of them responsible for one of the regions called in Finnish and in Swedish ; in addition, Åland was designated a seventh region.

* Swedish svartbröd " black bread " is eaten in Swedish-speaking Åland ; similar dark bread, known as skärgårdslimpa (" islander's bread ", referring to Åland ), is made on southern coast, and in Malax on the Ostrobothnian coast ( malaxlimpa ).

But the defeats of at the Battle of Sävar and Battle of Ratan August 19 and August 20, 1809 broke the spirit of the Swedish Army ; and peace was obtained by the surrender of the entire Finland, the Åland islands, " the fore-posts of Stockholm ," as Napoleon described them, and Västerbotten and Lappland as far as the rivers of Torneå and Muonio at the Treaty of Fredrikshamn, on September 17, 1809.

This is because the political parties in Åland have no counterparts in Mainland Finland, but the SFP's interests have much in common with those of Åland as far as the Swedish language is concerned.

, 19 municipalities were unilingually Swedish ( 16 in the autonomous Åland and three in Ostrobothnia ).

In May, the Russians suffered further setbacks when they were driven from Gotland and Åland, where a Swedish flotilla, supported by the local population, compelled Colonel Vuich and his garrison to surrender.

Four days later, Bagration's corps of 17, 000 men occupied the strategic Åland Islands, while Kulnev led the vanguard further across the frozen sea and on March 19 reached the Swedish shore within 70 km from Stockholm.

The Åland islands were culturally, ethnically and linguistically purely Swedish, but such facts were of no significance at that time.