1. The Swedish History In Sweden the Viking Age became the Middle Ages around the 11th century. During the viking age Sweden was divided in counties and every county had its own laws and the counties were self- governing.

2. When Sweden became Sweden During the 16th century the feudal society existed and important decions were made during the so-called ”Lords´ days”. This was the beginning of the Swedish parliament and all four estates were represented (the representation of the farmers was unique for Sweden).

3. The ”first” King In 1521 Sweden chose a king called Gustav Wasa. He introduced protestantism in Sweden and also made Sweden a hereditary kingdom, where the eldest child was supposed to inherit the throne, when he died.

4. The great power Sweden Believe it or not, but during the 17th century Sweden became a great power in Europe. In 1618 war broke out in the Holy Roman Empire of German nation. Sweden entered the war against the Germann emperor in 1630. Gustav II Adolf´s excuse was to prevent Catholics from enforcing their religion. In fact, he was probably just trying to make Sweden more powerful.

5. The war ended in1648 but the king had already died in 1632. Almost all European countries were sometime during the 30 years involved in the war. This was the first great war in Europe.

6. The Warrior King Some kings and one queen later we had a king named Karl XII. He fought against Russia and fled to Turkey. From there he took some food home to Sweden, which we now regard as traditional Swedish food. He was shot in the head with a button and died in 1718.

7. The end of the 18th century Sweden had had kings and queens with and without power. In 1771GustavIII became king and made him self autocratic in a Coup d´etat. Of course there were people who didn´t like this. So, one evening when he was at the opera, they shot him. He died three weeks later in sepsis.

8. No heir! Two kings later Sweden did not have any heir. What to do? Well, we went to France and got ourselves a new king, Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. This was in 1818. He got the name Karl XVI Johan.

9. The industrialisation In the middle of the 19th century Sweden was industrialised. Our railways were built between 1850 and 1880.

10. Swedes as emigrants During 1840 and 1930 more than one million Swedes emigrated to the States. The reasons were crop failure, poverty and the dream of freedom.

11. The long way towards democracy. In 1865 the feudal Society was abolished and the first step towards democracy was taken. At the end of World War I, Europe was shaken by a lot of revolts and revolutions. Unrest spread to Sweden and to calm things down universal suffrage was introduced. In the year 1921 it was the first time that both men and women got to vote in general elections.

12. Was the work towards democracy done? Don´t think that the work was done. The definition of democracy is that ”all people have the same value”. In 1927 girls were allowed into schools for higher education and poor and rich children went in the same schools.

13. The ”modern” Sweden In 1932 the Social democrats were elected and they were in power until1976! They wanted to create the Swedish welfare state where everyone could feel safe. In 1995 Sweden became a member of the EU.

14. The Coat of Arms The three crowns It has been used since 1330. The king Magnus Eriksson became king over three kingdoms, Norway, the southern part of Sweden (Skåne, which belonged to Denmark) and Sweden. He started to call himself the king of Sweden, Skåne and Norway. This can be the reason.

15. Albrekt of Mecklenburg He was the first king who used it as a royal seal and made it the most important symbol of Sweden

16. The Flag The colors of the flag of Sweden symbolize the lesser coat of arms and the three golden crowns. The flag became the flag of Sweden in1906, 21 June. Eric the holy designed the flag, because he saw a cross in the blue sky. The blue color represents water and the yellow color represents the sun.

17. The National Anthem The National Anthem is called ’’ You old, you free’’ and it’s written by Richard Dybeck. He wrote it in 1844. The song consists of 4 verses but you only learn 2 verses in school. The National Anthem is about Scandinavia but Sweden is mentioned shortly in the fourth verse. The original text for the National Anthem was published in 1865. Our national anthem has not officially been declared the national anthem. One reason,why we started using it as a national anthem is, that King Oskar II at a dinner at the university of Uppsala in 1893, rose when they started playing the song. Another reason is that the Swedish Radio in 1938 started playing the song to end the evening´s program. The national anthem

18. The National Day Sweden has had its national day since 1983. Sweden’s nationalday was the day of the Swedish flag since 1916 until it got changed to Sweden’s nationalday in 1983. The national day is the sixth of June. We celebrate it this day, because it was when Gustav Vasa became the king of Sweden and it was on this day we got the Form of Government in 1809. On Sweden’s national day the buses have flags on their roofs. Some people celebrate the day but not everyone. The Swedish king and the queen participate in a ceremony in Stockholm´s open-air museum, Skansen.

19. The Swedish language Sweden's official language is Swedish. The minority languages in Sweden are Finish, Meänkieli, Romani, Sami and Jiddisch. We learn English, French, Spanish and German in school. English is a language that we have to learn because it is used all over the world. French, Spanish and German are also good to learn because they are big languages that many people speak in Europe. We are also given the choice of reading and improving our native languages. The Swedish language’s history begins in the 800’s, called the viking age. In that time Swedish began to sound like an own language. The time between year 800- 1225 is called the Swedish time of runes. After that from 1375-1526 it is called the Old Swedish, and between 1526-1732it is called younger New-Swedish. Nowadays the Swedish language is called Now-Swedish. This rock is from the time between 800-1225.