Our Series on Autonomous Territories takes us to the Aland Islands.
The Aland Islands are located in the Baltic Sea, at the entrance of the Gulf of Boothia. They are half way between Sweden and Finland and as such, they play a strategic role. When Russia annexed Finland in 1809, the Islands were part of it, although their population was entirely of Swedish extraction and culture. When Finland became independent after World War I, the residents of Aland wanted to join Sweden but the League of Nations ruled that it should remain part of Finland. As a result, they remained under Finnish sovereignty but were granted a status of autonomy that exists as of 2022.
More on the Aland Islands
The Aland Islands in 2022
