History of Finland
The history of Finland begins around 9,000 BC during the end of the last glacial period. Stone Age cultures were Kunda, Comb Ceramic, Corded Ware, Kiukainen, and Pöljä cultures. The Finnish Bronze Age started in approximately 1,500 BC and the Iron Age started in 500 BC and lasted until 1,300 AD. Finnish Iron Age cultures can be separated into Finnish proper, Tavastian, and Karelian cultures. The earliest written sources mentioning Finland start to appear from the 12th century onwards when the Catholic Church started to gain a foothold in Southwest Finland.
Year 1809
Year 1809 was significant in many ways for both countries, beside being the year that separated Finland from Sweden. For Sweden, 1809 was also the birth year of modern Swedish constitutional monarchy, as the Constitution of 1809 returned Sweden to parliamentarism and put an end to the enlightened absolutism that Gustav III had introduced through a "coup d'état" in 1772. It was also the year when the Parliamentary Ombudsman and the Committee on the Constitution were created. For Finland, the eventual realisation that it would never be reunited with Sweden, gave birth to Finnish nationalism, thus creating the foundation for the Finnish independence in 1917.