Sweden
Sweden has one of the world's longest life expectancies and lowest
birth rates. The country counts at least 20,000 indigenous Sami
among its population. About one in every five Swedes is an immigrant
or has at least one foreign-born parent. The largest immigrant
groups are from Finland, Iraq, Serbia, Montenegro,
Bosnia-Herzegovina, Somalia, Iran, Norway, Denmark, and Poland. This
reflects Nordic immigration, earlier periods of labor immigration,
and more recent refugee and family immigration.
Swedish is a Germanic language related to Danish and Norwegian but
different in pronunciation and orthography. English is widely
spoken, particularly by Swedes under the age of 50.
Sweden has an extensive child-care system that guarantees a place
for all young children ages two through six in a public day-care
facility. From ages seven to 16, children participate in compulsory
education. After completing the ninth grade, 90% attend upper
secondary school for either academic or technical education.
Swedes benefit from an extensive social welfare system, which
provides childcare and maternity and paternity leave, a ceiling on
health care costs, old-age pensions, and sick leave, among other
benefits. Parents are entitled to a total of 480 days' paid leave at
80% of a government-determined salary cap between birth and the
child's eighth birthday. The parents may split those days however
they wish, but 60 of the days are reserved specifically for the
father. The parents may also take an additional five months of
unpaid leave. |
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During the seventh and eighth centuries, the Swedes were merchant
seamen well known for their far-reaching trade. In the ninth
century, Nordic Vikings raided and ravaged the European continent as
far as the Black and Caspian Seas. During the 11th and 12th
centuries, Sweden gradually became a unified Christian kingdom that
later included Finland. Queen Margaret of Denmark united all the
Nordic lands in the "Kalmar Union" in 1397. Continual tension within
the countries and within the union gradually led to open conflict
between the Swedes and the Danes in the 15th century. The union's
final disintegration in the early 16th century brought on a
long-lived rivalry between Norway and Denmark on one side and Sweden
and Finland on the other.
In the 16th century, Gustav Vasa fought for an independent Sweden,
crushing an attempt to restore the Kalmar Union and laying the
foundation for modern Sweden. At the same time, he broke with the
Catholic Church and established the Reformation. During the 17th
century, after winning wars against Denmark, Russia, and Poland,
Sweden-Finland (with scarcely more than 1 million inhabitants)
emerged as a great power. Its contributions during the Thirty Years
War under Gustav II Adolf (Gustavus Adolphus) determined the
political as well as the religious balance of power in Europe. By
1658, Sweden ruled several provinces of Denmark as well as what is
now Finland, Ingermanland (in which St. Petersburg is located),
Estonia, Latvia, and important coastal towns and other areas of
northern Germany.
Russia, Saxony-Poland and Denmark-Norway pooled their power in 1700
and attacked the Swedish-Finnish empire. Although the young Swedish
King Karl XII (also known as Charles XII) won spectacular victories
in the early years of the Great Northern War, his plan to attack
Moscow and force Russia into peace proved too ambitious; he fell in
battle in 1718. In the subsequent peace treaties, the allied powers,
joined by Prussia and England-Hanover, ended Sweden's reign as a
great power.
Sweden suffered further territorial losses during the Napoleonic
wars and was forced to cede Finland to Russia in 1809. The following
year, the Swedish King's adopted heir, French Marshal Bernadotte,
was elected Crown Prince as Karl Johan by the Riksdag (Parliament).
In 1813, his forces joined the allies against Napoleon. The Congress
of Vienna compensated Sweden for its lost German territory through a
merger of the Swedish and Norwegian crowns in a dual monarchy.
Sweden's last war was fought in 1814. A brief confrontation with
Norway to restrain its demands for independence resulted in Norway
entering into a union with Sweden, but with its own constitution and
Parliament. The Sweden-Norway union was peacefully dissolved at
Norway's request in 1905.
Sweden's predominantly agricultural economy shifted gradually from
village to private, farm-based agriculture during the Industrial
Revolution. This change failed to bring economic and social
improvements commensurate with the rate of population growth; as a
result about 1 million Swedes immigrated to the United States
between 1850 and 1890.
In the 19th century liberal economic influences emerged, which
ultimately let to the abolition of guild monopolies in favor of free
enterprise. Other modernizing reforms included new taxation laws,
voting reforms, and a national military service. This period of time
also marked the birth of Sweden's three major political parties: the
Social Democratic, Liberal and Conservative parties.
During and after World War I, in which Sweden remained neutral, the
country benefited from the worldwide demand for Swedish steel, ball
bearings, wood pulp, and matches. Postwar prosperity provided the
foundations for the social welfare policies characteristic of modern
Sweden. Foreign policy concerns in the 1930s centered on Soviet and
German expansionism, which stimulated abortive efforts at Nordic
defense cooperation. Sweden followed a policy of armed neutrality
during World War II and currently remains nonaligned.
Sweden became a member of the European Union (EU) in 1995. In
September 2003 Sweden held a referendum on entering the European
Monetary Union. The Swedish people rejected participation, with 56%
voting against and 42% for. All parliamentary parties pledged to
respect the outcome of the referendum. No new referendum is
currently planned. |
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