Influencing the environment

The events that have had an impact on our ecological

state

1. The end of Ice age• Ice age began about 70 000 years ago and

ended about 10 000 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 erratic Giant'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 (1550/1300-500 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 1837

3. 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

srailways in the 19th cen.

Petrograd

Vyborg

4. The wars in FinlandA. Under Swedish rule (1155-1809) 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 (1853-1856) Finnish coasts and archipelagoessuffered 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 36 640 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)

• 30.11.1939 – 13.3.1940 between Finland and the Soviet Union

E. Continuation War• 25.6.1941 – 19.9.1944 between

Finland and the Soviet Union• 4.9.1944 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 19.9.1944 and the war was formally concluded by the ratification of the Paris peace treaty 10.2.1947

• Finland lost again the territories it had gotten back during the war and a few areas more (Map) (homes, towns, factories, farms etc.)– About 400 000 more evacuees arrived

in other parts of Finland• During the Lapland War about 40-47 % 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 SwedenCountryside was desertedConcrete 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. <3Lauri Airaksinen, Essi Mäki, Laura Saukko, Nelli Railanmaa, Saara Ruuskanen