Västerbotten

Västerbotten
Basic data
Part of the country (landsdel) :	Norrland
Province (län) :	Västerbotten County
Surface:	16,331 km²
Residents:	209,539 (December 31, 2008)
Population density:	13 inhabitants per km²
Highest elevation:	Åmliden ( 551  m )
Largest lake:	Bygdeträsket

Västerbotten (sometimes Germanized to Westbottnien ) is a historic landscape in northern Sweden . As the name suggests, it is located on the west coast of the Gulf of Bothnia and corresponds to the eastern third of today's administrative province of Västerbotten County (which also includes large parts of Lapland and extends inland to the Norwegian border). Originally, Västerbotten also included the whole of Norrbotten - which is the only one of the “historical” Swedish landscapes that does not go back to a medieval imperial province, but only developed its own identity in the 19th and 20th centuries - and extended to the Northeast until the Treaty of Fredrikshamn in 1809 today's Finland into it.

Länsipohja is the traditional Finnish name Västerbottens, but in recent usage it mostly only means that part of the historical landscape in Finland on the lower reaches of the Tornionjoki and Kemijoki rivers .

geography

Västerbotten lies on the Baltic Sea coast and thus has a share of the coastal plain, which is about 10 to 20 kilometers wide. To the west, the land rises gradually to the Skanden Foreland at about 300 meters above sea level (with individual elevations up to 500 meters). Several rivers, which have their source in the Scandinavian Mountains, cross the province from northwest to southeast and flow into the Baltic Sea. The largest is the Ume älv .

Despite its location by the sea, the province of Västerbotten has a continentally influenced climate with large temperature differences between the seasons (mean temperature in July is 15 ˚C and in January between −6 ˚C to −10 ° C) and low rainfall (around 500 mm / Year).

history

The first humans came to Västerbotten about 9000 years ago when the ice of the last ice age retreated. The population lived mainly from hunting (elk and small game), on the coast from fishing and seal hunting. The importance of moose hunting is proven by numerous finds. Reindeer herding can only be documented in the Iron Age.

The first written sources come from the 14th century. The borders between Russia and Sweden in northern Scandinavia were still unclear at the time, but Swedish rule in the coastal area was expanded in the 14th century.

In the 16th century there were around 200 villages that lived from agriculture, hunting and fishing. In addition, sawmills powered by water power were built. Umeå was the largest town and trading center, but the church towns with their markets were also important for regional trade.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the coastal areas were badly affected in the wars with Russia . At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, industrialization in Västerbotten reached its peak. In addition to the traditional wood processing industry and the pulp and paper industry, the ore discoveries in Boliden in the 1920s were of great importance for industrial development. In contrast, agriculture and forestry in particular have lost importance since the Second World War .

Landscape symbols

• Animal: Curlew
• Flower: Charles scepter ( Pedicularis sceptrum-carolinum )
• Fish: river lamprey
• Vogel: Hen harrier

Web links

Commons : Västerbotten  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Folkmängd i landskapen ( Memento from August 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive )