The Åland Islands Dispute of Finland and Sweden as One of the First Arbitration of the League of Nation
Abstrakt
The archipelago of Åland Islands has a very strategic location in the Baltic Sea that directly influence the stability of the Nordic region of Europe. There is no wonder why the countries have disputed these islands for centuries. In 1809 Sweden lost the war over Russia. By the cost of the Treaty of Frederikshamn, Sweden lost the whole of Finland, including the Åland Islands. The archipelago became soon the threat to Sweden, whose capital lies only 140 km of distance. The geopolitical reason of the Åland Islands had been widely understood even by the Western Allies during the Crimean War, which led to the demilitarization by the Treaty of Paris in 1856.
However, the situation changed in 1917, when Finland gained its independence over the Russian Empire and Russia was heading the October Revolution. The Åland Islands, which were mostly inhabited by the Swedish-speaking population, became the demand of the Swedish parliament, which faced strong domestic pressure over the protection of "its" Swedish-speaking minority in Finland, which was in Civil War since early 1918. The Swedish-Finnish Dispute over the Åland Islands became the first arbitration that the League of Nations had to solve. Right after the First World War, Sweden appealed to the Paris Peace Conference with the demand of self-determination of the Ålanders, who would have favoured its Swedish heritage.
This contribution concentrates on the interdisciplinary perspective of one of first League's conflict by analysing the Swedish-Finnish relation in the regarding geopolitics, economy or culture arguments, as well as in the international context of the Interbellum situation in early 1920's.