Image talk:Scandinavia-12th century.png

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[edit] Åboland missing

This image gives a false view of the distribution on the Swedish speaking populations. On of the largest consentrations of Finland-Swedes is in Åboland, the archipelago connecting Åland to mainland Finland. The base map only shows a large gapping sea, where there are in fact are closely linked communities of Swedish speaking farmers and fishermen.

Few of the islands are more then one kilometres from their neighbours. In preindustrial times the archipelago has the main traffic route between Finland and Sweden. Now the island communities are connected by the Archipelago Ring Road. In the 12th century this was one of the most densely populated parts of Finland. These people most likely spoke Swedish. -- Petri Krohn 01:29, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

For comparason look at this image. In reality (or in righer resolution maps) zooming in brings out the fractal detail with more and more islands with less and less open water between them. -- Petri Krohn 01:58, 29 September 2006 (UTC)