Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1914-06-17
OF crest 70
SCANDINAVIA
News Gathered In Inc Father:
land and Elsewhere.
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+ SWEDEN. +
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+ SWEDEN. !.
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An editorial writer in q recent is
sue OF the Scandinavian Review says:
THE Baltic lies across the map like
huge fish, with it's tail frozen away
FAR In the north, wedged in between
Sweden and Finland, stretching south
west near thousand miles to where
Its three mouths seem to engulf the
Isles of Denmark. The Baltic may
be said to have three shores. East
and west, Russia and Sweden gaze
anxiously, facing each other; on the
south the German empire encroaches
upon shrunken Denmark. Russia and
Prussia are, comparatively, newcom-
ers to the coast of the Baltic, for the
gray old sea has seen many vicissi-
tudes OF fortune since the days when
the Aesir were worshipped at Upp-
sala-an eastward waterway of Swed-
ish Vikings, a shore for Danish con-
quests, a harbor for the Hansa trade,
a Swedish inland sea, an outlet for q
time for Poland, and now for Russia,
a naval base for Germany. Indeed,
the Russian empire owes its origin
to the band Of Swedish Vikings, the
Rus, the rowers from over the sea,
who came under Rurik and his breth-
rem in. the Ninth century to found q
principally at Novgorod and Kiefr. In
the centuries following, the kings Of
Denmark we're extending their do
minion eastward along the southern
Baltic, subduing the Slavic Wends,
and assuming the title borne to this
day by Danish rulers, king of the
Danes and Wends.' In 1919 Valde-
MGR. the Victorious made Esthonia-
for east on the Gulf of Finland almost
to the site of st. Petersburg Dan
ish province; that time the Dame
brog. the Danish standard, according
to tradition, f1uttered down from
heaven upon the Danish army, and
it's emblem was set In the arms of
Rival, city founded by the Danes:
During the Fourteenth century Dem
mark was disputing the mastery Of
the Baltic with the Hanseatic League
of German traders, who had estab-
lished themselves even at Visby in
the midst of the sea. All this time
bands of German colonists were
gradually creeping north, across the
marshes to the Baltic's southern
shores, and crowding out the Slavic
natives and the Danish garrisons.
Sweden, meanwhile, in the north,
had carried the Christian cross and
the Swedish flag across into Finland,
which became virtually a Swedish
province. The Seventeenth century
witnessed Sweden's ascendancy under
the arms of Gustavus Adolphus and
other kings of the house of Vasa, who
annexed for a time the Polish and
German shores and made the Baltic a
Swedish inland lake. In 1868 the
cession by Denmark of Skane brought
Sweden down to Malmo and the south
ern tip of the Scandinavian peninsula.
But Sweden's domain, like that If
Denmark, soon began to shrink, after
Peter the Great planned his systemat-
ic advance for northern outlet. Pc
ter took the Swedish fortress on the
Neva and laid in 1903 the foundation
of St. Petersburg. Under Charles
XII. the Swedes assumed again the
aggressive and carried the war far
into Peters own country, in cam
paign which, although it resulted in
apparent disaster and great economic
suffering for Sweden, served, after
all, perhaps, to moderate Russia's
headlong advance. Peter ultimately
acquired the Swedish provinces south
of the Gulf of Finland, and later in
the century the partition of Poland
brought the boundaries Of Russia
south to Prussia, near the Memel
river. In 1909 Sweden was obliged
20 relinquish Finland also to Russia.
Although for a century Finland has
been regarded as buffer between
Sweden and Russia, of late it's Russi-
fication has proceeded more rapidly,
and military railroads make the
length of it's western shores easily
accessible from st. Petersburg. Hence
The Warning Word of Sven Hedin,
the popular subscription for battle
ships, the Bondetag and the recent
political crisis in Sweden"
j. j. +
Sverige, the new man-of-war which
is now under construction, will be
built of American steel. The first
consignment of armor is now on its