 Hi,
Here is a lot of Information on the Scandinivian country: Sweden;
a country with a High Standard of Living, High life expectancy and
Incomes:
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Konungariket Sverige
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Kingdom of Sweden
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Flag of Sweden Coat of arms of Sweden
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: (Royal) "För Sverige - I tiden" 1
"For Sweden – With the Times" ²
Anthem: Du gamla, Du fria
Thou ancient, Thou free
Royal anthem: Kungssången
The Song of the King
Capital
(and largest city) Stockholm
59°21'N, 18°4'E
Official languages None
Demonym Swedish
Government Parliamentary democracy and Constitutional monarchy
- King Carl XVI Gustaf
- Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt
- Speaker of
the Riksdag
Per Westerberg
Consolidation Prehistoric
EU accession 1 January 1995
Area
- Total 449,964 km² (55th)
173,732 sq mi
- Water (%) 8.7
Population
- 2007 estimate 9,142,8174 (88th)
- 1990 census 8,587,353
- Density 20/km² (158th)
52/sq mi
GDP (PPP) 2006 estimate
- Total $291 billion (34th)
- Per capita $32,200 (18th)
GDP (nominal) 2006 estimate
- Total $385 billion (19th)
- Per capita $42,400 (9th)
Gini (2005) 23 (low)
HDI (2004) 0.956 (high) (6th)
Currency Swedish krona (SEK)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
- Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Internet TLD .se5
Calling code +46
Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: Konungariket Sverige (help·info)), is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It has been a member of the European Union since 1 January 1995. Its capital city is Stockholm.
At 449,964 km² (173,720 square miles), Sweden is the third largest country by area in Western Europe and fifth in all of Europe. Sweden has a low population density of 20 people per square kilometre, except in its metropolitan areas; 84% of the population lives in urban areas, which comprise only 1.3% of the country's total land area.
The inhabitants of Sweden enjoy a high standard of living, and the country is generally perceived as modern and liberal,with an organizational and corporate culture that is non-hierarchical and collectivist compared to its Anglo-Saxon counterparts. Nature conservation, environmental protection and energy efficiency are generally prioritized in policy making and embraced by the general public in Sweden.
Sweden has a long been a major exporter of iron, copper and timber. Improved transportation and communication has allowed for the large scale utilization of remote natural assets, most notably timber and iron ore. In the 1890s, universal schooling and industrialization enabled the country to develop a successful manufacturing industry and by the twentieth century, Sweden emerged as a welfare state, consistently achieving high positions among the top-ranking countries in the UN Human Development Index (HDI). Sweden has a rich supply of water power, but lacks significant oil and coal deposits.
Modern Sweden emerged out of the Kalmar Union formed in 1397, and by the unification of the country by King Gustav Vasa in the 16th century. In the 17th century the country expanded its territories to form the Swedish empire. Most of the conquered territories, including Finland and the territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula, were lost during the 18th and 19th centuries. The last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when it entered into a personal union with Norway, a union which lasted until 1905. Since 1814, Sweden has been at peace, adopting a non-aligned foreign policy in peacetime and neutrality in wartime.
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History
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Late Palaeolithic and Mesolithic, 12,000-4,000 BC
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The Pleistocene glaciations scoured the landscape clean and covered much of it in deep quaternary sediments. Therefore no undisputed Early or Middle Palaeolithic sites or finds are known from Sweden. As far as it is currently known the country's prehistory begins in the Allerød interstadial c. 12,000 BC with Late Palaeolithic reindeer-hunting camps of the Bromme culture at the edge of the ice in what is now the country's southernmost province. People continued to populate the land as the ice drew back. Archaeological, linguistic and genetic evidence suggests that they arrived first from the south-west and, in time, also from the north-east and met half-way.
An important consequence of de-glaciation was a continual land upheaval as the Earth's crust rebounded from the pressure exerted by the ice. This process, which was originally very rapid, continues to this day. It has had the consequence that originally shore-bound sites along much of Sweden's coast are sorted chronologically by elevation. Around the country's capital, for instance, the earliest seal-hunter sites are now on inland mountain tops, and they grow progressively later as one moves downhill toward the sea.
The Late Palaeolithic gave way to the first phase of the Mesolithic in c. 9,300 BC. This age, divided into the Maglemosian, Kongemosian and Ertebølle Periods, was characterised by small bands of hunter-gatherer-fishers with a microlithic flint technology. Where flint was not readily available, quartz and slate were used. In the later Ertebølle, semi-permanent fishing settlements with pottery and large inhumation cemeteries appeared.
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Neolithic, 4,000-1,700 BC
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Farming and animal husbandry, along with monumental burial, polished flint axes and decorated pottery, arrived from the Continent with the Funnel-beaker Culture in c. 4,000 BC. Whether this happened by diffusion of knowledge or by mass migration or both is controversial. In a century or two, all of Denmark and the southern third of Sweden became neolithised and much of the area became dotted with megalithic tombs. The people of the country's northern two thirds retained an essentially Mesolithic lifestyle into the 1st Millennium BC. Coastal south-eastern Sweden, likewise, reverted from neolithisation to a hunting and fishing economy after only a few centuries, with the Pitted Ware Culture.
In c. 2800 BC the Funnel Beaker Culture gave way to the Battle Axe Culture, a regional version of the pan-European Corded Ware phenomenon. Again, diffusion of knowledge or mass migration is disputed. The Battle Axe and Pitted Ware people then coexisted as distinct archaeological entities until c. 2,400 BC, when they merged into a fairly homogeneous Late Neolithic culture. This culture produced the finest flintwork in Scandinavian Prehistory and the last megalithic tombs.
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Bronze Age, 1,700-500 BC
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Sweden's southern third was part of the stock-keeping and agricultural Nordic Bronze Age Culture's area, most of it being peripheral to the culture's Danish centre. The period began in c. 1700 with the start of bronze importation; first from Ireland and then increasingly from central Europe. Copper mining was never tried locally during this period, and Scandinavia has no tin deposits, so all metal had to be imported though it was largely cast into local designs on arrival. Iron production began locally toward the period's end, apparently as a kind of trade secret among bronze casters: iron was almost exclusively used for tools to make bronze objects.
The Nordic Bronze Age was entirely pre-urban, with people living in hamlets and on farmsteads with single-story wooden long-houses. Geological and topographical conditions were similar to those of today, but the climate was milder.
Rich individual burials attest to increased social stratification in the Early Bronze Age. A correlation between the amount of bronze in burials and the health status of the deceased's bones shows that status was inherited. Battle-worn weapons show that the period was warlike. The elite most likely built its position on control of trade. The period's abundant rock carvings largely portray long rowing ships: these images appear to allude both to trade voyages and to mythological concepts. Areas with rich bronze finds and areas with rich rock art occur separately, suggesting that the latter may represent an affordable alternative to the former.
Bronze Age religion as depicted in rock art centres upon the sun, fertility and public ritual. Wetland sacrifices played an important role. The later part of the period after about 1100 BC shows many changes: cremation replaced inhumation in burials, burial investment declined sharply and jewellery replaced weaponry as the main type of sacrificial goods.
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Iron Age, 500 BC - AD 1100
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In the absence of any Roman occupation, Sweden's Iron Age is reckoned up to the introduction of stone architecture and monastic orders about AD 1100. Much of the period is proto-historical, that is, there are written sources but most hold a very low source-critical quality. The scraps of written matter are either much later than the period in question, written in areas far away, or local and coeval but extremely brief.
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Pre-Roman Iron Age, 500-1 BC
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The archaeological record for the 5th-3rd centuries BC is rich in rural settlements and remains of agriculture but very poor in artefacts. This
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