Influencing the environment The events that have had an impact on our ecological state

1. The end of Ice age Ice age began about years ago and ended about years ago During this period all of Finland was covered with 2 km of ice and snow When the ice and snow started melting they also began to move towards the seas, thus greatly changing and molding the landscape

Glacial erraticGiant's kettle Retreat of the ice Esker of Jyväskylä

2. From forests to fields Before the Bronze age people lived mostly from hunting, fishing and gathering – People lived in goahtis, which were easy to move around while going after the food Agriculture arrived to Finland with some new inhabitants from the east and the south around 3000–2500 BCE, but it wasn’t of much importance back then During the Bronze age (1550/ BCE) people learned how to produce bronze and farming’s importance grew – People settled down more and small villages started to form, since it was sensible to live near your crops A goahti = Kota

In 1809 Finland, which had been a part of Sweden before, became an autonomous part of the Russian Empire due to the Finnish war Being “a backward giant,” Russia was very slow to industrialize and it studied carefully as its “laboratory,” Finland, industrialized Cities started to form around the areas of industry (for ex. Tampere) Nicholas I of Russia gave the permission to build Jyväskylä in The improved infrastructure by Russia

In the 1880’s the factories started to require better and more efficient transportation lines, since materials had to be taken to factories and products had to be brought to consumers The channel of Saimaa – Alexander II wanted to improve the state of Finnish roads and channels – The channel of Saimaa finished building in 1856 and it immediately increased the amounts of passengers and merchandice

The railways – In 1857 it was decided that a railway would be built in between Helsinki and Hämeenlinna. It opened in 1862 – The railways were used to transport wood from inland to the coastal regions – The ports of Helsinki were connected to each others with railways Railways and channels were also a great help in delivering big amounts of merchandise to the inland Slowly the importance of passenger transport also increased s railways in the 19th cen. Petrograd Vyborg

4. The wars in Finland A.Under Swedish rule ( ) parts of Finland were demolished multiple times in the wars between Sweden and Russia (towns, cities and forests burned etc.) – The armies lived by robbing the areas they were moving through – Enemies destroyed and burned down cities and villages – After Russia got Finland in 1809 the wars between S & R stopped B.During the Crimean war ( ) Finnish coasts and archipelagoes suffered great destruction in several bombardments done by the French and the English C.In the Finnish civil war (1918 (independence in 1917)) a total of people were killed and many cities (especially Tampere) suffered heavy damage

D. Winter War The Winter War began with an attack from the Soviet Union (without declaring a war) and ended 105 days later with the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty Finland lost 11% of its territory and 30 percent of its economic resources The Karelia's evacuees had to be re-homed in other parts of Finland – Deserted areas were inhabited (for ex. Central-Finland’s small farms) – between Finland and the Soviet Union

E. Continuation War – between Finland and the Soviet Union at 07:00 the cease-fire ended military actions on the Finnish side and a day later the Soviet Union stopped as well The Moscow Armistice was signed on and the war was formally concluded by the ratification of the Paris peace treaty Finland lost again the territories it had gotten back during the war and a few areas more (Map) (homes, towns, factories, farms etc.) – About more evacuees arrived in other parts of Finland During the Lapland War about % of all the buildings in Lapland were burnt down by the retreating Germans (insisted by Russians)

Urbanization is when people live increasingly more in the cities than in the countryside This started to really occur in Finland after WWII – The reparation industry offered work in the cities, machines replaced people in the countryside  In the 60’s big amounts of people moved to cities and in the 70’s to Sweden  Countryside was deserted  Concrete suburbs were built around cities – The new use of free time – driving to summer cottages, “to our roots” Building near beaches and by lakes Around 1 milj. summer cottages in Finland nowadays 5.Urbanization

Because of the urbanization also the amount of cars has increased – The air gets polluted – But our problems are not (yet) as bad as in some cities (Bangkok, Thailand) Urbanization, bringing us globalization as well, also turns our attention to global and local environmental issues Also the membership of the EU brings certain obligations, like taking care of the environment, our agriculture and our ability to compete in the international markets The End. <3 Lauri Airaksinen, Essi Mäki, Laura Saukko, Nelli Railanmaa, Saara Ruuskanen