Swedish Culture

Swedes have a very unique culture. From their food to their clothes and everything in between like music and arts, they have strong and defined culture.

Swedish people have a vast cuisine. Traditionally, on special occasions they eat the smörgåsbord. This is a small buffet style meal of small side dishes. For normal everyday meals, they eat a lot of fish, veggies, and starches (bread, pasta, etc...).

Normally today, Swedish people wear very western clothes, but traditional clothes are a whole 'nother story. About 150 years ago, women would wear aprons, bonnets, and a white blouse. The men would wear tight breeches ad a linen shirt. This would be typical attire back then, contrary to today's modern styled clothing.

Swedish art has had a long history beginning with the cave men. From the hunter gatherer's cave etchings, to the Renaissance's era of medieval paintings all the way to the post WWII art boom. Many artists including Torsten Renqvist and Rune Jansson emerged.

Swedish music is very unique. It includes Nordic music which is a dreary dance formally used by European royalty for dancing. Common insturments are the accordion, the clarinet, and the fiddle. The biggest Swedish music sensation was ABBA. This group had world-wide hits like "Mamma Mia!" and "Dancing Queen".

Like previously stated, Sweden has a strong culture ad will stick around for a while.

Sweden's Government

Sweden has a Constitutional Monarchy. This means that Sweden has a monarchy, like a king and queen, but a Constitution limits their power. Sweden's government is based on 4 main laws. These laws are: The Instrument of Government, The Act of Succession, The Freedom of the Press Act, and the Riksdag Act. The instrument of Government explains how to set up a democracy and how to divide power equally between the different sectors. The Act of Succession explains where the power will be transferred to if someone is to leave power. The Freedom of the Press Act gives media the right to publish whatever they want and express their opinions freely. Finally the Riksdag Act tells how government meetings are to be run. These 4 laws set up a good portion of Sweden's government.

Sweden's Executive branch is headed by: The Royal Family, the Prime Minister (Fredrik Reinfeldt), and the Cabinet. The Legislative Branch consists of the Parliament. And the Judicial Branch has 84 district courts, 10 appeal courts, and 2 superior courts.

Swedish Economy

Sweden has very strong economy. It has good natural resources and strong industries. It sells a lot of goods earning it a $406.072 billion in 2009.

Sweden's main industry is metals. It is one of the World's leading Iron ore producer and has many other metals it relies on. Sweden has other industries such as pharmaceuticals, timber, machines, tools, and communications. Although it has many industries Sweden attains most of its revenue from taxes half to be exact. Despite Sweden's high taxes, it has one of the highest living standards in the world.

Sweden has had great movement from agriculture to industry in the last 50 years. More people are moving from small owns to big cities. This has increased production in modern day things but still agriculture had grown bigger with new scientific methods. Industry contributed 28% of income, and agriculture barely alive with 1%.

Sweden's Plant & Animal Life

Sweden has a flora and fauna typical of an alpine climate. Different regions of Sweden have different types of plants and animals, although it is mostly consistent.

Sweden's trees are quite varying. In the north and most of Sweden, you will find more coniferous trees such as pine and fir. In the southern regions you will find more deciduous trees like oak, ash and maple. Despite its name, the Norway Spruce is a native tree in Sweden. It is the largest spruce in the world and can grow to be over 100 feet tall and 40 feet wide. In good conditions they can grow 2-3 feet per year. A real life example of the Norway Spruce is the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center in New York City.

Sweden's animals are quite common in Northern Europe. The moose is the most common forest animal in Sweden. It is smaller in size compared to the North American Moose, but still quite tall at 2 meters in height. Other common animals are wolves, wolverines, bears, and lynxes.

Swedish birds are quite varied. In the forests they have all types of birds: owls, hawks, eagles, and many more. On the coastline they have swans, herons, ducks, and pelicans. Some birds are endangered in Sweden such as the stork.

Sweden's economy has a big fish industry and obviously they have many varieties of fish. Their main species include: trout, salmon, carp, and cod. The Swedes have many fishing areas considering they have many lakes, and the Baltic sea. Therefore you can only imagine how much fish they catch in a year!

Swedish Geography

Sweden is located in a very cultural part of the world, Scandinavia, or Northern Europe. It's exact coordinates are 62° North and 15° East. It's total land area is 279594.667 miles ².

Mount Kebnekaise-


Sweden has a pretty much cold climate. It is colder, almost freezing, in the north because it is closer to the Arctic. Due to the cold climate, Sweden has more metal based natural resources. Sweden has a relatively flat surface. The highest point is in the northern part of the country. This mountain is called Kebnekaise, it is 2,111 meters high. The lowest point is in the south. It is called Lake Hammarsjön, it is -2.41 meters below sea level.

Swedish History

Sweden, the largest country in Scandinavia, is a very interesting country. Its history and government are very complex. It has been around for a very long time.

Sweden has had a long history. It started way back with the Vikings. The Vikings were sea savvy peoples of Scandinavia. They are most associated with big, burly robbers but in fact they were mostly just farmers. The trips they took, unlike modern belief that they were looting expeditions, were just trading trips. Unfortunately there were a lot of the trips that ended in looting. Swedish Vikings were more associated with the eastern countries for trade purposes such as Russia. Some believe that the name Russia came from a Swedish Viking name "Ruser". The Swedish state started taking form when small chiefdoms were formed during the Viking period. A chiefdom is a small area ruled by a chief. Over time 2 main "tribes" were Göter and Svear. These tribes eventually became individual states and then merged into the country we know today, Sweden.

After the Vikings, Sweden had a very rocky period politically. Powerful families fought for the King position. Due to the fact that Sweden did not have a succession of royalty, the aristocrats voted for the Kings, powerful families could fight over the throne. Although they had a monarchy, the aristocrats had more power. The King relied on the wealthier families for political support. Then it got more complicated. In 1397, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark formed a union and called it the Kalmar Union. They did this to balance the power that Germany's Hanseatic League had. The countries all agreed to elect a common king from Denmark. This created a new tension between Sweden and Denmark. This struggle was later resolved. It is believed that then Sweden went into a political Anarchy. The constant power struggle between the powerful families and King Kristian II caused conflict. This ended in ,"The Bloodbath of Stockholm" in 1520. "The Bloodbath of Stockholm" was a horrendous event in which 100 Swedish nobles were executed. When this was over Gustav Vasa became king in 1521.

During the reign of Gustav Vasa, he made many changes. He made the tax system much better. Before, a group of farms would form a "tax unit". Gustav Vasa changed it to where each farm payed taxes individually. Some people rebelled but the King handled these rebellions. The most important change Gustav made was religious. He reformed the national church from Catholic, to Protestant.

Sweden became a power state during the 17th century. This happened because of many reasons. One of these is the fight over the Baltic Sea territories. Sweden took control of Northern Estonia in that fight. Sweden then took advantage of the Russian Civil War and participated in the war. The end result was a peace treaty. The peace treaty was helpful because it added new territory to the Finnish part of Sweden. The growth to a great power was made possible by a successful economy, strong industries, and an increasing population.

The period of great power was still in focus and a constant warring state was also hailed in. This led to involvement in the 30 Years war by King Gustav II Adolf in 1630. They only entered the war because the German Emperor's influence was increasing and the Swedes were threatened. During the Swedish Intervention in the 30 Years war, two of the most famous battles were the Battle at Breitenfelt and the Battle of Lützen. During the Battle at Breitenfelt the Swedes won an amazing victory despite the odds. At the Battle of Lützen, the King Gustav II Adolf was killed, although the Swedish troops still won. At the height of Sweden's great power period, Sweden's territories grew to include Finland, Latvia, Estonia, and regions of northern Germany. The end of the power period started with the Great Nordic War. The attacks on other countries by King Karl XII proved to be disastrous and when he was killed in the trenches in Norway, this led to the end of the great power period.

After the end of the great power period, the Council of Aristocrats pretty much took over. In 1772, the new king, Gustav III, reformed the country to an almost full on monarchy. King Gustav soon was murdered and King Gustav IV Adolf was dethroned shortly after they lost their Finnish territory to Russia in a war. The parliament then created a constitution that allowed the King, the parliament, and the courts to have equal power. This didn't change until 1974.

In the late 1800's, Sweden started seeing change. Their Parliament was now two-chambered, and people could vote, but with restrictions. Such as only the upper class could vote but this still broadened the field. In 1907, the Social Democrats won the 2nd-chamber election. They wanted to speed up the process to become a full Democracy. The Social Democrats and the Liberals agreed on the agenda and worked toward reform. Into the 1900's the Swedish people became more literate. With their expanding knowledge, they started to form groups and organizations. This was called the Revivalist movement.

During the 20th century many things happened to the Swedes. During both WWI and WWII Sweden stayed neutral and although they were neutral, they still were affected by the repercussions. Their economy also had a Depression in the 1930's, but in the later 30's they experienced an industrial boom.

Sweden has had a very long, hard, and yet prosperous history. From the Vikings, to WWII they have been a complex country filled with many different ideas yet one solution. The Sweden we know today.