Götaland

Götaland [ jo ː Taland ] is the southernmost of the three current Swedish parts of the country ( swedish landsdelar ) Götaland, Svealand and Norrland.

Geography

The area includes the ten historical provinces, also called " landscapes" ( swedish landskap ), called Småland, Öland, Västergötland, Östergötland, Dalsland, Skåne, Halland, Blekinge, Gotland and Bohuslän.

Götaland has an area of ​​87,712 km ², and a population of 4.4 million.

History of the region

Other older name of the region are " Gothia ", " Gothlan " and " Gotland ". It once consisted of sovereign kingdoms, whose inhabitants were called in Old Norse " Gautar ". There is speculation that it is these represent the " Geatas ," the people of Beowulf from the Old English epic poem of the same name. According to other speculation, the region was the birthplace of the Goths.

Only since the late Middle Ages, people began Götaland as a part of Sweden to look at. In Old Norse and Old English sources, it has been described as an autonomous region independent from Sweden. Imperial Council and landowners Bo Jonsson Grip described in a source from 1384 Sweden than from the parts of Svealand, Götaland Österland and composed.

In the early Middle Ages were probably Småland, which consisted of the " countries " Njudung, Värend, Møre, Ydre Tjust, Finnveden and Kinda, the island of Öland, Östergötland, Västergötland (including Dalsland ) and Värmland and Orebro to Götaland. Värmland counted in the early 19th century or as part of Götaland. Värmland and Orebro are today parts of Svealand.

Blekinge, Bohuslän, Halland and Skåne were awarded the Peace of Roskilde in 1658 from Sweden. Bohuslän previously belonged to Norway and the other provinces to Denmark. These provinces have since started to Götaland. The former Danish provinces are collectively described as Skåneland.

In today's Sweden is the classification according to the country of marginal interest. It is mainly used in meteorology and in summary statistics. Today we used for the NUTS 1 region Södra Sverige ( SE2, Southern Sweden '), with the inclusion of Östergötland.