Country and state of Northern Europe, which is part of the morphological region called Fennoscandia. The name is Germanic (Finnland, that is “country of the Finns”) and is found for the first time in ecclesiastical documents of 1229. However, its area was for a long time restricted to those parts of the SO. that the residents themselves consider the seat of the first Finnish nucleus that arrived here. The local name Suomi was also originally restricted to these.
Boundaries. – The extreme points of Finland, in its political borders, are: at N. the confluence of the Kavasjoki and Teno rivers at 70 ° 6 ‘lat. N.; in S., on the mainland, Hankoniemi (Swedish Hangöudd) at 59 ° 41 ′ 30 ′ ′, in the Bogskär Islands, at 59 ° 3 ′; to the West the extreme islet of the Åland islands at 19 ° 8 ′ long. AND; to E. the most advanced peaks of the Karelian salient at 32 ° 48 ‘. The shape, elongated from S. to N., is quite simple: wide in the south, it tapers towards the north to a minimum width E.-O. (about 200 km.) in correspondence with Oulu (Uleåborg), and then widens again, pushing some stubby offshoots to the north. The maximum north-south length reaches 1100 km; the maximum width i 580.
According to topschoolsintheusa, the boundaries of the country are defined by nature to S. (Gulf of Finland and Baltic), to West (channel or Åland Sea and Gulf of Bothnia) and to SE. (lake Ladoga; Laatokka in finl.). The eastern borders, on the other hand, are almost entirely conventional, even where a long tradition has established them within the large transition zone in which the characters of the two opposite sides are confused. A SW. of Ladoga the border is marked by rivers. In the northernmost areas, on the other hand, it assumes a geometric shape for some stretches, as in the straight line of 220 km. that reaches the sea. Similarly, the NO boundary is not defined by nature. History, through the struggles between Russia and Sweden, has fixed it for its greatest stretch along the Tornio (Torneå) and its tributary Muonio. In the following stretch the border forms a broken line leaving Norway with a vast salient, finally closed to E. from Vuoremi, flowing to the sea. Indi is the short stretch of Arctic coast. These borders cannot even be said to be strictly ethnographic: the northern parts are inhabited by Lapps rather than by Finns; these in turn are found quite numerous in some districts that remained in the Soviet Union. The area is 387,426 sq km. This figure includes 44,286 sq km. occupied by lakes, but the part of Ladoga pertaining to Finland (8014 sq km) is excluded. these in turn are found quite numerous in some districts that remained in the Soviet Union. The area is 387,426 sq km. This figure includes 44,286 sq km. occupied by lakes, but the part of Ladoga pertaining to Finland (8014 sq km) is excluded. these in turn are found quite numerous in some districts that remained in the Soviet Union. The area is 387,426 sq km. This figure includes 44,286 sq km. occupied by lakes, but the part of Ladoga pertaining to Finland (8014 sq km) is excluded.
Hydrography. – In the slightly undulating terrain, every concavity tends to turn into a lake basin. Tradition calls Finland the land of a thousand lakes. In reality there are a few tens of thousands and they constitute the fundamental hydrographic fact on the maximum extension of the country. Watercourses then have the modest functions of conveying the precipitation waters to the lakes, of putting them in communication, and finally of offering them a way of discharge to the sea. Of these lacustrine or fluviolacustri systems, the highest and most easterly covers an area of 68,000 sq km. (ie 1 / 6 of the entire Finland), of which 1 / 5occupied by the waters, which accumulate, after passing through a very complicated and varied series of lakes at different levels, in the Saimaa (6800 sq. km.), from which the Vuoksi leads them to drain into the Ladoga. At the center of the country is the Kymi (Kymmene) system: it covers 37,000 sq km, of which 20.4% is occupied by waters, which descend from lakes at a level of 130-150 meters above sea level, to Päijänne, the second largest (1100 sq. km.), from which the Kymi flows into the Gulf of Finland, near Kotka. The third western system covers 27,000 sq km. (10% water): the collector is Lake Pyhä, which through a series of smaller lakes then discharges with the Kokemäen River (Kumo) in the Baltic, near Pori. Finally to SO. it is the lesser system of Lohja lake and Karja river. To the north of the Shelf is another large basin (24,000 sq km, of which 10.5% of water surface), stretched up to the eastern border confluent in the central lake of Oulu and from there to the homonymous emissary, facing the Gulf of Bothnia near Oulu. In Lapland there is also a similar system, covering 19,000 sq km. (of which a thousand within the Norwegian borders), 13% occupied by waters: the collector lake is the Inari (Enare: over 1000 sq. km.), from which the Paatsjoki emissary starts. These six systems occupy 45% of the land area of Finland. The remainder is drained by real river networks. The largest is that of Kemi, extended towards N. (1.5% occupied by lakes): after about 400 km. course the river flows into the Gulf of Bothnia, at its northernmost breast. To the west is the Tornio (Torneå), whose basin (40,000 sq. Km.) Is only 37% in the Finnish territory. Fewer rivers go directly to the Arctic: Tana (Teno), Petsamo. Others through Karelia run to the White Sea (Tuntsa, Oulanka, etc.). Finally, the edge of the Shelf constitutes a direct slope for numerous minor rivers.
