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Obverse of 1967 Finland 10 Markkaa
Obverse of 1967 Finland 10 Markkaa

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Reverse of 1967 Finland 10 Markkaa
Reverse of 1967 Finland 10 Markkaa

A Brief History of Finland
Finland is a Nordic country to the east of Sweden and Norway. Formerly a part of the Swedish and then Russian Empires, Finland retains cultural influences from both countries. Its capital is Helsinki.

Early History
Little is known of ancient Finland, although the Roman historian Tacitus referred to a people known as the Fenni, who lived somewhere in what the Romans called 'Germania' (which included, but was not limited to modern day Germany). The lack of written evidence left by the Finns themselves means that what is known about them is derived either from either archaeological evidence or from the often semi-mythological accounts of third parties (particularly Swedish Vikings).

Medieval Finland
A legend suggests that the Swedes attempted to conquer and Christianise the pagan Finnish tribes in the 1150s, however, very little in the way of concrete evidence that this crusade ever took place exists. What is known is that Sweden, led by Birger Jarl, Jarl of Sweden, lead a successful second (or first) crusade against the pagan tribes of Finland and brought them under Swedish control. The Republic Novgorod (a state that constituted the core of modern Russia) meanwhile, was launching its own wars of conquest against Eastern Finnic tribes.

Swedish Rule
Finland was ruled by Sweden for centuries afterwards, and Swedish became the official language of administration, with Finnish relegated to that of secondary status. Swedish settlers also arrived in Finland, primarily settling down in the coastal and border areas, whilst Finns remained largely predominant within the interior. The Protestant Reformation in the 16th Century spread into Sweden, and from there into Finland. Finland was often used as a battleground in wars between Sweden and Novgorod (and later Russia).

Russian Conquest of Finland
In 1808, Russia had been defeated by Napoleonic France, and forced to sign a treaty to join the continental system boycotting trade with Britain. Sweden meanwhile, who’s King, Gustav IV Adolf held a personal antipathy towards Napoleon refused to join France's Continental blockade. Napoleon put pressure on Russia to declare war on Sweden in order to enforce the blockade, and Alexander I, seeing the advantages of being able to conquer Swedish territory whilst avoiding another war against Napoleon, declared war in February of 1808. By September 1809, Russia had overrun the whole of Finland, and Alexander's forces were also camped in Swedish territory. Despite some Swedish naval victories (fought with the aid of Britain) the Swedish position was hopeless. The new Swedish King, Charles XIII (who had deposed his nephew in June of 1809) sued for peace, and as part of the settlement, ceded Swedish Finland to Russia. Russia incorporated Former Swedish Finland along with its own priorly owned Finnish territories to form the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland, with the Tsar styling himself as Finland's Grand Duke.

Grand Duchy
For most of Finland's history under Russian sovereignty, the Russian Empire largely left Finland to govern itself under its own laws, using its own language as the official language of administration and with its own legislative diet (parliament). This liberal policy survived even under autocratic tsars such as Nicholas I and Alexander III. However, during the reign of Nicholas II, an autocratically inclined but weak tsar, Russia did attempt to Russify Finland by hamstring its autonomous institutions, impose the Russian language and centralise authority over the Duchy.

Independence
In 1917, the tsarist government in Russia collapsed, leading to the abdication of Nicholas II. With the abdication of the Tsar, many Finns considered that their union with Russia had been on the basis of a personal union of the Tsar of all the Russias and the Grand Duke of Finland. Now that this link had been severed, Finland's Parliament officially declared independence in December 1917.
Finnish Civil War
Unfortunately, Finnish society was divided over what the nature of Finland's future government should be. Many working class and urban Finns in the industrial heartlands, inspired by the Bolshevik coup in neighbouring Russia wanted to impose a similar government in Finland. However, the provisional Finnish Government, supported by the middle and rural classes, were fiercely opposed to this. A brief but bloody civil war between the conservative 'Whites' and the socialist/Bolshevik 'Reds' was fought between January and May of 1918 resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of Finns, many of whom were executed by their captors having already been taken prisoner.
The Red side enjoyed the support of the nascent Bolshevik Government of Russia. Unfortunately for them, the Russian Bolsheviks were struggling in their own civil war against Russian 'Whites', and where unable to support them in any decisive manner. The Whites on the other hand, did enjoy the decisive support of Imperial Germany, and by May of 1918, had succeeded in defeating the Reds. Finland briefly elected a German Prince Frederick Charles Louis Constantine, to reign as King Frederick I, but the defeat of Germany in that year made the position of a German Prince as King of Finland untenable. Prince Frederick therefore renounced the Throne and Finland officially became a republic.

The Winter War
Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union, eyed Finland with covetous eyes, as he generally did with most former provinces of the Russian Empire. Encouraged by his success with the Polish Partition in conjunction with Nazi Germany in September 1939, he engineered a border incident involving the shelling a Soviet border guards in November 1939, following which he declared war with Finland, with the intention of overrunning and annexing the whole country.
However, the Soviet Military had suffered a devastating loss of morale and quality of leadership thanks to Stalin's purges in the preceding years, and Finnish military forces inflicted extremely heavy losses on the numerically superior Soviet forces. Although the vast numerical superiority of Soviet forces was too much for the Finns to overcome entirely, the Finns did succeed in preventing the complete Soviet takeover of Finland, although she was forced to cede approximately 11% of her territory to the USSR, including the Karelian Isthmus and the city of Viipuri, following an interim peace agreement in March 1940. The pathetic performance of the Soviet Army during the Winter War is considered by some historians to have encouraged Hitler to declare war on the Soviet Union in May 1941.

The Continuation War
When Germany invaded the USSR and inflicted a series of devastating defeats on the Red Army and advancing rapidly and deeply into Soviet territory, Finland saw an opportunity to recover its lost territory, and declared war on the USSR the following month. Finnish forces quickly overran and occupied their former territories, but were reluctant to advance any further into Soviet territory.
Although Finland had enjoyed considerable military success against the weakened Soviet Union, they had expected a quick victory followed by peace with the Soviet Union whilst retaining possession of its pre-1939 territories. However, the USSR had managed to slow down the German advance as it entered its Russian heartlands by October 1941, and Finland, with a comparatively tiny population was forced to demobilise much of its army in order to return manpower to its industries, which were threatening to collapse in the face of a catastrophic labour shortage.
Despite attempts to keep the western allies on side in spite of Finland's cooperation with Nazi Germany, relations between the West and Finland deteriorated, and on December 6th 1941, in what was perhaps not Britain's finest hour, Britain declared war on Finland in support of its essential ally against Nazi Germany, the USSR. This declaration of war was largely token, but is one of the few instances of two liberal democracies waging war against each other.
By 1944, it was very clear that Germany was losing the war, and after a series of offensives against Finnish Lines, which the Finns realised they could not hold off indefinitely. Risto Ryti, the Finnish President resigned in August 1944, paving the way for General Mannerheim to take over as leader and head of state. Ryti's resignation gave the Finnish government the freedom to honourably sue for a separate peace with the USSR, as Ryti had given the Nazi's his personal guarantee that he would not sue for a separate peace in order to secure anti-tank weaponry and other supplies to hold off the Soviets.
The Soviet Peace terms were harsh; they were to regain all of the territory ceded to them in the aftermath of the Winter War, as well as further territorial concessions and financial reparations. She was also to expel all German forces from her territory within 14 days, and Finland was forced to fight her former German allies in order to ensure that they were expelled, in a brief conflict known as the Lapland War.

Modern Finnish History
Finland was compelled by treaty with the Soviet Union to remain neutral, and was thus banned from joining NATO during the Cold War. However, Finland did enjoy rapid economic development during the post-war period and transformed itself from a primarily agrarian economy into a modern industrial one. She joined the Nordic Council in 1955 promoting Free Trade and movement within the Scandinavian region, and entered into a free trade agreement with the EEC in 1973, becoming a full member of the European Union in 1995. Today, Finland is one of the most prosperous countries in Europe in terms of per capita income.

Coinage of Finland
The first coins used what is now Finland are likely to have been Scandinavian or English pennies, as the result of economic interactions with the Vikings. Swedish currency was used during Swedish Rule, followed by Russian currency following its annexation by Russia. However, the first uniquely Finnish currency was the markkaa, introduced in 1860 to replace the Russian Rouble at the rate of 4 markkaa to the rouble. The markkaa was divided into 100 pennia. 5 years after its introduction, the markkaa was de-pegged from the rouble and placed on the silver standard. In 1917, the newly independent Finnish government placed the markkaa on the gold standard, and this survived the trauma of the Finnish Civil War and the abandonment of the gold standard by other countries such as Britain. The gold standard was finally abandoned in 1940, largely as the result of the Winter War. Inflation over the next two decades saw the replacement of the old markka by the new markkaa in 1963 at the rate of 100-1.
Upon the initial introduction of the markkaa, copper 1, 5 and 10 pennia were introduced, alongside silver 25 and 50 pennia, 1 and 2 markkaa and gold 10 and 20 markkaa. The coinage was debased following the First World War, and during the Second World War, iron was used to strike the 10, 25, 50 pennia and 1 markka coins in order to conserve metals such as copper, nickel and silver needed for the war effort. Inflation saw the removal of all coins below 1 markka by 1948 and the compositions changed to reflect the depreciating value of the markkaa.
With the introduction of the new markkaa in 1963, coins of 1, 5, 10, 20 and 50 pennia were issued, alongside a silver 1 markkaa coin (the composition of this coin later changed to cupro-nickel) followed by the introduction of the 5 markkaa in 1972. In 2002, Finland replaced the markkaa with the euro, and its final issue of coins, consisting of the 10, 50 pennia and 1, 5 and 10 markkaa featured the value of the coins in euros as well as markkaa.

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