FLAG OF THE ÅLAND ISLANDS
- Jakub Miniewski
- Nov 28, 2016
- 5 min read
The flag of Åland consists of the Swedish flag defaced by a red cross symbolising Finland. Today, blue and white are considered Finnish colours, but in the early days of Finnish nationalism, red and yellow from the Finnish coat of arms were also an option. The flag has been the official flag of the autonomous Finnish province of Åland since 1954. It was first hoisted in the capital Mariehamn on 3 April 1954.
Prior to autonomy, an unofficial horizontal bicolour triband of blue-yellow-blue was in use. The flag was made illegal in 1935.
However, a flag was not granted until 1954. Unofficially a blue-yellow-blue triband had been in use from 1922. Several versions existed, the dominating one had equal horizontal bands. Another version had a narrower band of yellow - as when the vertical yellow stripe in the cross on the Swedish flag is taken away.
Blue and yellow were naturally the favourite colours, being both the colours of Sweden and the colours of the provincial coat of arms (a golden deer on blue), Therefore, when preparing a design for adoption in the early 1950s, the favoured design was a Scandinavian cross design of a blue field and a yellow and blue cross - that is, the flag of Sweden with an extra blue cross in the middle. This proposal was rejected by the president of Finland as too similar to the Swedish flag. Alternative designs were the old blue-yellow-blue triband, the flag of Finland with an extra yellow cross in the middle, and a design where a red cross was added to the Swedish pattern.
The outcome of the process was the adoption of the blue-yellow- red Scandinavian cross design. This flag was first hoisted on the town hall in the provincial capital Mariehamn 3 April 1954. The red colour was controversial at first, because people felt it lacked a local tradition. However, the colours can be said to come from the provincial coat of arms (blue and yellow - also Sweden's colours) and the colours of the coat of arms of Finland (red and yellow). Also, experts in heraldry have found out that at one point a Swedish king hoisted a flag of exactly the same design.
According to current (1992) legislation pertaining to the flag, the proportions are set as 17:26. The parts are defined as 6-1.5- 2-1.5-6 (hoist), 8-1.5-2-1.5-13 (fly). The colours are described as medium blue, golden yellow and (simply) red. Official flag days are Åland Flag Day, the last Sunday of April, and Autonomy Day, 9 June.
The 1992 flag law also requires vessels operated by the government of Åland to use the Åland flag. This means that the Åland flag is also the state ensign within the Åland autonomy context. One can then say that the Åland flag is now filling the four functions it can possibly fill: Civil and state flag and civil and state ensign.
ABOUT ÅLAND ISLANDS:
The Åland Islands or Åland (Finnish: Ahvenanmaa) is a region of Finland that consists of an archipelago at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia in the Baltic Sea. It is autonomous, demilitarised and is the only monolingually Swedish-speaking region in Finland. Collectively, the islands in the archipelago form the smallest region of Finland, constituting 0.49% of its land area and 0.50% of its population. Åland comprises Fasta Åland on which 90% of the population resides and a further 6,500 islands to its east. Fasta Åland is separated from the coast of Sweden by 38 kilometres (24 mi) of open water to the west. In the east, the Åland archipelago is contiguous with the Finnish Archipelago Sea. Åland's only land border is located on the uninhabited skerry of Märket, which it shares with Sweden. Åland's autonomous status means that those provincial powers normally exercised by representatives of the central Finnish government are largely exercised by its own government.
The autonomous status of the islands was affirmed by a decision made by the League of Nations in 1921 following the Åland crisis. It was reaffirmed within the treaty admitting Finland to the European Union. By law, Åland is politically neutral and entirely demilitarised, and residents are exempt from conscription to the Finnish Defence Forces. The islands were granted extensive autonomy by the Parliament of Finland in the Act on the Autonomy of Åland of 1920, which was later replaced by new legislation by the same name in 1951 and 1991. Åland remains exclusively Swedish-speaking by law.
Åland's original name was in the Proto-Norse language Ahvaland which means "Land of Water". In Swedish, this first developed into Áland and eventually into Åland, literally "river land"—even though rivers are not a prominent feature of Åland's geography. The Finnish and Estonian names of the island, Ahvenanmaa and Ahvenamaa ("perch land"), are seen to preserve another form of the old name. Another theory suggests that the Finnish Ahvenanmaa would be the original name of the archipelago, from which the Swedish Åland derives. The official name, Landskapet Åland, means "the Region of Åland”.
In the 1200s, Åland and Finland were incorporated into the Swedish Empire. The Åland Islands formed part of the territory ceded to Russia by Sweden under the Treaty of Fredrikshamn in September 1809. As a result, along with all other parts of Finland, they became part of the semi-autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland.
In 1832, Russia started to fortify the islands with the great fortress of Bomarsund. A combined British and French force of warships and marines captured and destroyed the fortress in 1854 as part of the campaign in the Baltic during the Crimean War. The 1856 Treaty of Paris demilitarized the entire Åland archipelago.
After 1917 the residents of the islands worked towards having them ceded to Sweden. In 1919 a petition for secession from Finland and integration with Sweden was signed by 96.4% of the voters on the islands, with over 95% in favour. Swedish nationalist sentiments had grown strong particularly as a result of the anti-Swedish tendencies in Finland and Finnish nationalism fuelled by Finland's struggle to retain its autonomy and resistance against Russification. The conflict between the Swedish-speaking minority and the Finnish-speaking majority on the mainland, prominent in Finnish politics since the 1840s, contributed to the apprehension of the Åland population about its future in Finland.
Finland, however, declined to cede the islands and instead offered them an autonomous status. Nevertheless, the residents did not approve the offer, and the dispute over the islands was submitted to the League of Nations. The latter decided that Finland should retain sovereignty over the province but that the Åland Islands should be made an autonomous territory. Thus Finland was obliged to ensure the residents of the Åland Islands the right to maintain the Swedish language, as well as their own culture and local traditions. At the same time, an international treaty established the neutral status of Åland, prohibiting the placing of military installations or forces on the islands.
The combination of disappointment about insufficient support from Sweden in the League of Nations, Swedish disrespect for Åland's demilitarized status in the 1930s, and some feelings of a shared destiny with Finland during and after World War II has changed the islanders' perception of Åland's relation to Finland from "a Swedish province in Finnish possession" to "an autonomous part of Finland".
Most inhabitants speak Swedish (the sole official language) as their first language: 90.2% in 2009, while 5.0% spoke Finnish.
CAPITAL OF THE ÅLAND ISLANDS:
Mariehamn