In the English language the _Report on Forestry in Sweden_, by Gen.
C. C. ANDREWS, U. S. Minister at Stockholm, 1872, revised 1900, 35
pp., gives a statement of present conditions with historical notes.
A very good idea in detail of the wood trade of Sweden may be
obtained from _The Wood Industries of Sweden_, published by TIMBER
TRADES JOURNAL of London in 1896.
_La Suède, son Peuple et son industrie_, by G. SUNDBARG, 1900, 2
vols., contains several pertinent chapters. It is an official work,
very complete, and was translated into English in 1904.
_The Economic History of the Swedish Forest_, by GUNNAR SCHOTTE,
1905. 32 pp., in Swedish, published by the forestry association,
gives a brief account of conditions and data of the forestry
movement.
_Norway._ Official publication for the Paris Exposition, 1900,
contains a chapter on Forestry by K. A. Fauchald, pp. 322-350, with
a map of forest distribution.
_Skogsvaesenets Historie_ ved Skogs direktoren, I Del, Historik,
1909, is an official publication of the Norwegian Forest
administration, giving a full account of the development during the
50 years from 1857 to 1907, with notes of the earlier history.
_Le Danemarc. Etat Actuel de sa civilization et de son organization
sociale_, by J. CARLSEN, H. OLRIC and C. N. STARCKE, 1900, 714 pp.
_Denmark, its history and topography, etc._, by H. WEITEMEYER, 1891.
_Bidrag til det Danske Skovbrugs Historie_, by O. LÜTKEN, 1900, was
not accessible to the writer.
Extensive notes are found through the German, Austrian and French
forestry journals. Especially an article in the Centralblatt für das
gesammte Forstwesen, 1905 (briefed in Forestry Quarterly, vol. III,
p. 292) and another (briefed in same Quarterly, vol. IX, p. 45)
gives extended accounts of forest conditions in Sweden.
Under the name of Scandinavian States we may comprise the countries of
Sweden, Norway and Denmark, which were settled by the same group of
German tribes, the so-called Norsemen; they originally spoke the same
language, which only later became more or less differentiated. The
settlement of the country by these tribes seems to have been
accomplished in the main by the end of the 8th century; and the
separation into the three several kingdoms in the ninth to twelfth
centuries, during which time they were sometimes united, or at least
under one ruler, sometimes at war with each other, and always torn by
interior dissensions bordering on anarchy.
In 1397, by the Calmar convention, a more permanent union into one
kingdom was effected between Sweden, Norway, and Denmark under Margaret,
“the Semiramis of the North.” After another period of variable fortunes,
Sweden, about 1523, became an independent constitutional monarchy under
Gustav Vasa, and Norway remained joined to Denmark under Frederick I.
Sweden then started on a career of conquest, being almost continuously
at war with all her neighbors and especially with Russia and Poland,
whereby, especially under Gustavus Adolphus and the adventurous Charles
XII, her territory was greatly enlarged. With the treaties of Stockholm
and Nystadt (1720 and 1721) she came into more peaceful waters, but
permanent peace and a settled policy was not attained until the election
of Bernadotte, one of Napoleon’s administrators, to the kingship, and by
the peace of Kiel, in 1814, Sweden became a constitutional hereditary
monarchy in the modern sense. At the same time, Norway was taken away
from Denmark and forced to a union with Sweden, which persisted until
1907, when a peaceful separation took place by the action of the
Norwegian people. The union has always been hateful to the Norwegians,
although only the king and the department of foreign affairs (in which
Norway was represented by a delegation from its Council) were in common,
all other matters of administration being separate as well as the
parliaments (Storthing in Norway, and Riksdag in Sweden).
Denmark, powerful in the 11th century under Canute, who subjugated not
only Norway but England, losing both these countries shortly after his
death, was shorn by Sweden of much of its territory in the 17th century,
and, in 1814, was separated from Norway. Originally an elective
monarchy, largely dominated by the nobility, the crown in 1661 became
hereditary and absolute, and Sweden did not become a constitutional
monarchy until 1849.