History of Finland

This is the history of Finland, please enjoy!
Reupload due to mistake in first video.
When compressing 1000s of years of history into one video some concepts have been greatly simplified.
Please subscribe and like to help the channel. If you have any suggestions for future videos leave a comment. I read all of them :D
If you find any factual errors, please leave a comment with the source included.
All images are under a Creative Commons license or fair use.
Music:
First Light - Futuremono
Krishna's Calliope - Jesse Gallagher
Pure Potentiality - Benjamin Martins
Satya Yuga - Jesse Gallagher
Vishnu - Patrick Patrikios
Some keywords:
Suomen historia, nokia, lakes, Moomins, Finno-Ugric, pontic steppes, indo European culture, Swedish Vikings, crusades, Tavastians and Karelians, Birger Jarl, Novgorod Republic, Viborg, Christian II, Treaty of Nöteborg, the Grand Duchy of Moscow, Kalmar Union, Riksdag in Västerås, Ivan the Terrible, King Gustav Vasa, Karl 9, Treaty of Stolbovo, Kexholms län, Käkisalmi, Ladoga, thirty-year war, Kristina Queen of Sweden, Per Brae, Turku, Karl 12, Peter the Great, fortress of Sveaborg, Soumenlinna, Napoleonic war, Grand Duchy of Finland, The Kalevala, Russificate, Russo-Japanese war, Parliament of Finland, Kingdom of Finland, Republic of Finland, World War II, the White Death, Simo Häyhä, Murmansk bank, Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance, Soviet Union, NATO

[@sagastube]

Had to reupload due to a sloppy error. This comment is pinned, and I will add any factual mistakes that are uncovered here. It took a while to make this, hope you like it. I have also been working a lot on improving audio quality, hope the improvement is audible. Let me know if you have any video suggestions! I'm most likely doing Russia next. Edit: Still working on Russia, videos about the Baltics will come first instead :)

[@ibamINV]

May I suggest any video on Russia be broken into segments covering specific periods of history, in order to allow greater detail and explanation. The history of Russia is so long and complex and the details so important and fascinating. I think breaking it up into multiple videos is better than making one very long video. Just a suggestion. I very much like what I have seen of your work so far.

[@sagastube]

@@ibamINV Sorry for the late reply, and thank you for the kind words. I hope to make shorter overview videos in the length of 10-20 minutes like this one, but then I would like to make more in-depth videos as well. With the example of Russia the main video will be around 15-20 minutes, but then I would add additional videos going in-depth on for example the Soviet era.

[@keboonplumeria5266]

Love.... Finland people are polite. Love from Malaysia

[@sagastube]

They are nice :D

[@villagedesigninstitute4135]

thanks for your great work - I'm starting to love Finland!

[@Jo_la1]

What a goldmine of content! How so few views? I love the memes! But seriously speaking, this is the only home that we'll ever have, and the only home we've ever wanted. Sure there are many political disagreements going on like in any other country, but like we saw in the WW2, we still had the ability to come together as one. Both women and men included. Whatever the case, the message from history is clear; if you want our land, you'll have to pave your way to Helsinki with your own blood.

[@sagastube]

Thank you, that really means a lot! I don't upload very often as the scripts takes a while to do, and it's a bit hard to get tracktion on the channel then. But when enough people like and comment the views go up quite a bit, as it did for the one I did on Norway. I really admire your country's fighting spirit, no one should dare poking the Finnish nation again :D

[@ibamINV]

@@sagastube -- Yes, the video on Norway popped up unexpectedly, and was impressive, so that led me to this on Finland. Both very well done, although I had to slow it down to 75% in order to follow the narration and read the various names and pop-up texts, all of which is too fast for me at normal speed. But hey, I'm 79 with significant hearing loss, so that is to be expected. I'm just grateful YT offers that option to slow it down. Probably 60% or 65% would be better, with less distortion of your voice -- maybe in future they will offer such options. Still, I watched it twice, stopped a few places where closed captions didn't make sense and to turn off cc to enable reading what you had on screen. Overall an excellent presentation and I subscribed and look forward to seeing more of your work.

[@arttulehtinen5527]

Finland: gets MiG 21s USA: *That wasn't very freedom of you, young man*

[@sagastube]

Hahah :D

[@JohnTavastian]

How i have only now been informed of this video? Anyway, good work.

[@sagastube]

The algorithm works in mysterious ways :D Thanks a lot!

[@stevengiocondo6060]

Thank you for this documentary!!!

[@sagastube]

You're welcome 😊 Glad you liked it!

[@mariasirona1622]

What a great video!

[@sagastube]

Thank you so much 😊

[@mariasirona1622]

@@sagastube :3

[@mathiaslambing9112]

Nice video. Could you make video "History of Estonia"?🙃🇪🇪

[@sagastube]

Would love to! What makes you most proud to be Estonian?

[@sagastube]

I've made it now 😊 @mathiaslambing9112

[@TobiasEngstrom]

1:21 the Finno-Ugric languages also include Sámi languages as well as, to an extent, Volga finnic such as mordvinic while the Permic ones are more divergent and more alike to Hungarian in some ways

[@companyjoe]

As a Finn I found this educational. Omena gets a much better overview of our history this way rather than getting bogged down with details when talking with other Finns. Bra jobb!

[@sagastube]

Sorry for the late response, but thank you for your kind word ☺

[@companyjoe]

@@sagastube Oh gosh I've written "omena". Thanks autocorrect! I meant "One gets..."

[@sagastube]

@@companyjoe F__ing autocorrect 😅 But I figured as much ☺

[@jokemon9547]

Agriculture and animal husbandry among Finns likely developed far before migrations into the eastern Baltic and Finland through the Indo Iranians as can be seen through loanwords relating to domesticated animals and labor found in Finnish and other Baltic-Finnic language, but also in Volga Finnic and Permic languages. Although there definitely was influence from Proto-Germanic people as we can see from the farming related loanwords, but Proto-Germanic people did not introduce farming to proto-Finnic people. I am not sure if you meant that farming was adopted from Proto-Germanic people, or just farming from Indo-Europeans in general.

[@sagastube]

Thats interesting, you seem to know quite a bit about this :) It's a while since I researched that bit, but from what I remember my understanding was that farming spread from indo-european influence, which again spread indo-e languages to most of Europe. This is up for debate, but I have to simplify a bit for the video format. An article shedding some light on this if your feel up for it: www.jstor.org/stable/41465409

[@jokemon9547]

@@sagastube Yes, agriculture most likely spread mainly through Indo Europeans to other groups, such as the Finno-Ugric people. Although Europe before Indo Europeans did have neolithic farming depending on the time and region. My point was mainly that it wasn't specifically proto-Germanic people who spread it to the ancestors of Finns, but rather this happened much earlier through (proto) Indo-Iranians, meaning the proto-Finns, if you want to call them that, already knew and practiced agriculture before contact with proto-Germanic groups. I was just addressing this since you mention agricultural ideas being adopted from Indo Europeans right after bringing up proto-Germanic, somewhat implying proto-Germanic people were those Indo Europeans specifically.

[@sagastube]

@@jokemon9547 Ok, I see, yes maybe I could have phrased that better :) Do you know anything about how it affected the farming? Did they for example use Svedjebruk before the indo europen influence, or are we speaking of even simpler forms of farming?

[@jokemon9547]

@@sagastube I do not personally know the extent of influence on the methods of farming before and after different Indo-European contacts. But it seems that Baltic-Finnic people and Volga-Finnic + Permians had different methods of slash-and-burn. Baltic Finns mainly used deciduous forests for their slash-and-burn while Volga Finns and Permians used mainly coniferous forest for their slash-and-burn. It wouldn't be until the middle ages, when Baltic-Finnic people would also start using coniferous forests for farming. This would suggest slash-and-burn farming has been known since at least the proto Finno-Permic era. Slash-and-burn farming also lead to land division going from collective lands owned by the clan/tribe to individual families within a clan/tribe owning their own portions of land. The current understanding seems to be that farming became a thing in the early bronze age, with some areas showing evidence of neolithic farming.

[@jokemon9547]

@@sagastube By the way, "early bronze age" is not really specified, but I would assume it to mean the time around the Seima-Turbino phenomenom, which is dated to 2100s to 1900s BCE. Seima-Turbino, in case you do not know, is an area stretching across Eurasia from Finland to Mongolia on which similarly made bronze age artifacts have been discovered. It has also been linked to western migrations of Finno-Ugric people.

[@PalkkiTT]

The video was quit good. What I have understud is that the genetics of Fins are not that Uralic and are mostly Indo Europan becose of thousands of years of migration. I think you could have had something about swedish-fins (Im a Swedish - Finn myself) who are decendents of the swedish colonialist in the midle ages. Fun fact: The leader of the club war (Jaakko Ilkka) is my ancestor. 🇫🇮🇸🇪

[@sagastube]

Thanks, good additions :) That's a cool funfact :D

[@jokemon9547]

All Fennoswedes aren't necessarily the descendants of just Swedish colonists and settlers. Some can trace their lineage back to Finnish tribal leaders and warlords who converted to Christianity and eventually adopted Swedish as their main language forming into some of the Finnish nobility of Sweden during the middle ages. Some are also descended from German and other merchants who settled in Finland. Also the Indo European DNA among Finns most likely came mainly from the Indo Iranians (proto Finno-Permic era) and later proto-Balts (proto-Finnic era) during the bronze and iron ages.

[@PalkkiTT]

@@jokemon9547 I know that. But we are partly.

[@jokemon9547]

@@PalkkiTT Some more or less than others, some not at all. Really depends on the given region and the particular person and their family.

[@PalkkiTT]

@@jokemon9547 Im actually only half a Finnish-swed and my family is from the northern part of Osterbothnia. So I have less than most.

[@kaarlimakela3413]

Aauugh you got me with that Martin Luther gangsta graphic! 😂😂😂😂😂

[@sagastube]

Glad you liked it 😂😁

[@jokemon9547]

A thing on the "crusades" being launched on already Christian Finns. While yes, there definitely were Christians in Finland and Christianity was known before the first crusade, it was not widespread. Most of the land was still predominately "pagan". Also out of the 3 crusades, only the 2nd one against the Tavastians was sanctioned and approved by the Pope, the other 2 were just for expansion and to grab as much land before Novgorod took it all.

[@sagastube]

Great additional info, thanks for sharing :D

[@sampohonkala4195]

@@sagastube The first crusade was possibly not even a historical fact. The second crusade was hardly a crusade, as there already was a bishop in Turku, the old capital. However, just like in 'mainland' Sweden this was the point in history when the king won a civil war, got the ultimate power, forced the people to pay taxes and formed a regular army. Instead of a crusade, this was the beginning of state taxation in Finland and made Finland an integral part of the kingdom. There is no evidence of any kind of fighting in Finland and even the oldest sources tell how Jarl Birger left the castle of Tavastland in the hands of friends, meaning the Swedish crown had support among the Finns already at that time.

[@sagastube]

@@sampohonkala4195 great additional information, thanks :D

[@vinkuu]

I would like to know how Finland got populated. Where is the Finnish diaspora from? Ie. how Finns got to where they're at geographically.

[@sagastube]

No expert on this unfortunately, but there is a lot of genetic research on the Finns, as you saw in the video I used some of it to explain at least one of the migration patterns :) As far as I understand all the major migrations were from the east, so this is in essence how they got there.

[@roban2799]

They most likely followed migrating reindeer west in their pre-agricultural history. It would be same case as with the Sami people, I think

[@user-ce6iy2nw5o]

volga > estonia > finland

[@blackcoffeebeans6100]

@@sagastube All europians came from east.

[@veronicajensen7690]

yes but there have been both migration from the middle east/Levant and Siberia and other areas into Europe and different kind of mixing @@blackcoffeebeans6100

[@jwhill7]

My father grew up in Finland, and I have visited my Finnish relatives there. Currently, the Finns have their political economy just about right, which is why they are so happy--avoiding perceived deprivation, or economic inequality. Finland's greatest resource is the character of its people. Its greatest threat comes from immigration.

[@sagastube]

Their economy do look very promising!

[@ville9756]

Maybe you could have emphasized more some of the negative aspects of getting drawn in all the Sweden's wars when the war was commonly fought on the Finnish area. Common war strategy often was to desolate the civilian population until a countering force could be mustered.

[@sagastube]

Indeed! Thanks for sharing 😊

[@sabinab7981]

Crusades were also against other distant European Lands like current Poland, Belarus and Lithuania...as those lands had ancient beliefs and their own Gods and were not eager to take on Christianity

[@Kalleskaviarriddare]

Sorry but what. So many wrong things here. Since when did Tsar Peter conquer finland? Was not done until 1800s.

[@sagastube]

Thank you for the feedback, I work very hard on not having mistakes in my videos. I think I could have phrased it better as I see you misunderstood what I was saying here. Peter occupied most of Finland, but as I clearly state in the video they did not cede all of Finland. It should be even clearer as I cover the loss of Finland later in the video. I hope this cleared it up, and please let me know if there are any other mistakes.

[@diegokorhonen]

In finland (and sweden ofc) peasants were the land owners which was pretty unheard of in feudal europe. The difference between finns and swedes wasnt a thing back then in fact swedes fought more wars with danes than with russians. Most finns forget that, danes are the real enemy :D

[@butterflies655]

For heaven's sake. Danes are not real enemy.

[@diegokorhonen]

@@butterflies655 Yes :D ofc not (dont tell the swedes)

[@patpongmichiko]

Agreed. Feudalism did not take hold (Sweden-Finland, Norway, Denmark) as in Continental Europe. Peasant farmers owned land. England was also not completely Feudal as was the Continent.

[@mikaveekoo]

​​@@patpongmichiko England is nowadays Feudal. No everyman's rights.

[@sergioacevedo2254]

Another reason that I love Finland, it produced Linux!

[@sagastube]

Haha yeah, absolutely 😁

[@salainenkanava5467]

Finland's history might be young but finnish history is much longer tham 106 years

[@sagastube]

It sure is, hope you liked the video :)

[@ilokivi]

Vaikka en ole Suomalainen, vaikka olen ulkonalainen, koska mä asuin ja työskentelin Suomessa ja rakastin sen harjut, mäet, järvet ja metsät on vielä paikka sydämessäni Suomen kansalle ja heidän vapaudensa.

[@sagastube]

Suomalaiset ovat mahtavia ja ansaitsevat vapautensa 😊

[@kaarlimakela3413]

Huh. Dad always called us Suomolinnen i think. 🤔 👵

[@sagastube]

Maybe he said suomalainen? 😊 It means Finn, or I'm Finnish (sort of)

[@cristinadobrota5165]

Moomin no trolls

[@sagastube]

Moomin are trolls 😊 but they look more like hippos 😁

[@nemesis1970]

correct this! swedish !

[@sagastube]

What needs to be corrected?

[@butterflies655]

A part of Finland locates on Scandinavian peninsula. Also Scandinavia means Nordic in many languages. Finland 🇫🇮 is a Nordic country with Sweden 🇸🇪 Norway 🇸🇯 Denmark 🇩🇰 and Iceland 🇦🇽. All of them are members of Nordic council and all of them are prosperous countries with high standard of living. You cannot see much differences.

[@veronicajensen7690]

Scandinavia does not mean Nordic in any language as far as I know, however some people (mainly Americans) don't know the difference between Nordic and Scandinavia , the term Scandinavia comes from Scania/Skania in Southern Sweden now called Skåne a Danish name because it was part of Denmark once, 3 men 1 Norweigian, 1 Swede and 1 Dane decided to form Scandinavia due to our shared language, culture and history,(it's not about "Scandinavian peninsula as Americans think) but if that is difficult for some they can just say Nordic that includes Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland,, Iceland, Åland, Faroe Islands and Greenland

[@nemesis1970]

since 1917 we have been independent

[@sagastube]

Yes 😊

[@jannegranlund2230]

There are a lot of facts wrong here

[@jannegranlund2230]

but in general its ok

[@sagastube]

Thanks for the feedback. Could you please let me know what facts are wrong? So I can add it to my pinned comment with corrections 😊

[@jannegranlund2230]

@@sagastube Ok, first I want to thank you for a well done video. Much info. some minor details are not quite correct, but as i said minor details. If you want answers you will get answers, so here we go.. 1. It is hard to belive that the split between hungarian and "finnish" happened 6000 years ago. Thats a long time ago. The origin of the "finnish" language is traced back 3000 years to Volga river and the genetics arrived 2000 years ago to "Finland" Or so I have been informed. 2. You cannot say that finns migrated since the finns are not a homogenic group. Tavastian language which s the basis for moderrn finnish has a lot of east gothic words living since 4000 years on the west coast and the speakers were east goths who mixed with estern "finnish" tribes maybe 2000 years ago. The inhabitants of the Turku region are called real Finns, though their name Suomi probably is refering to land of the Saami since the real finns are originally balts, estonians. The word finnar in scandinavian means people who are wandering in the wilderness 3. You cant call the Neaderthals "Finns"!! 4. The swedes conquered part of Finland under the fist crusade?. No, they conquered the whole of Finland as it was then only the name of the Turku region. Tavastians and Carelians were at war much of the time, as being genetically and culturally similar the tavastians allied with the vikings agaisnt the Carelians. 5. Lonnroth gathered Carelian stories not finnish stories. 6. Helsinki was not founded then by Gustaf Vasa but Helsingfors. Helsinki probably refers to Helsinge socken The town founded was Helsingfors in the Helsinge socken and "Helsinki is a later finnish adaptation. 7. I think it would probably be more accurate to use the name Viipuri in english about the town that was surrendered, not Viborg eventhough it was founded by this name. sorry bout this but since you asked..regards J

[@sagastube]

@@jannegranlund2230 thanks for getting back to me. Not sure if I agree that all your points can be considered mistakes, but please let me know and I'll add them to the pinned comment. I'll try to cover each point here: 1. The timeline for the divergence of Finno-Ugric languages, including Finnish and Hungarian, is indeed a subject of scholarly debate. While some suggest an early split, the exact timing is complex and intertwined with linguistic and genetic studies. Your mention of a more recent timeline aligns with the nuanced understanding of these historical processes. So essentially it varies between sources, if you know of any conclusive genetic research for example that would be interesting. 2. This is one of the simplifications I felt necessary for the context of a video such as this. 3. I don't think I do, do you have a timestamp? 4. This was simplified for the video. 5. Elias Lönnrot compiled the Kalevala from various Finnish and Karelian oral traditions, not exclusively "Karelian stories." The Kalevala is considered a foundational work of Finnish literature and cultural identity, incorporating elements from across the Finno-Ugric linguistic and cultural landscape. So here I don't really agree with you. 6. Gustav Vasa founded the city in the 16th century, and it was indeed originally called Helsingfors, the Swedish name. "Helsinki" is the Finnish adaptation of this name, reflecting the bilingual history of Finland. The reference to Helsinge socken (parish) relates to the etymology of the city's name. 7. The use of "Viipuri" (Finnish) or "Viborg" (Swedish) for the city surrendered to the Soviet Union after the Winter War is context-dependent. "Viipuri" is commonly used in Finnish contexts, while "Viborg" might be used in historical or Swedish contexts. The choice between names often depends on the linguistic or national perspective being emphasized. For an international audience I chose to use the name Viborg as it is more commonly known. Thanks again for your feedback ☺