Hej guys. It's Carly
So, I wrote an essay about the Scandinavian Emigration Era for fun because I can.
I actually wrote this during swim school a few days ago because there was a thunderstorm and we were evacuated, so yeah.
I made an essay similar to this one last year, and I can see improvment.
So here it is... The Scandinavian Emigration Era explained but a 14 year old girl who has 0 social skills
The Scandinavian Emigration Era is a period in Nordic History that welll... Nobody really knows were it started or ended. Some people believe it is from 1830 to 1920, others believe it is from 1850 to 1900. In my personal opinion, it lasts from 1820 to 1910. A little disclaimer, This era dosen't just mean it's just about the Mass Emigration. I consider this era as a "Subera" of the Early Modern Scandinavian History Era
This era, as the name suggests, was were Scandinavia had mass emigration and the beginning of Scandinavian-American History. There were actually many reasons why this happened
The first reason was overpopulation. The population of Scandinavia (which was only 3 countries. Norway-Sweden, Denmark, which had Iceland and Russia-Controlled Finland) is a little bit smaller than the current of population of Scandinavia, 25 million people. Overpopulation was blamed by mandatory vaccination (which was pretty new, after all it's the 19th century) and better nutrition. The avarage family in 19th century Sweden or Norway had 3 to 5 children.
The 2nd reason was geography. Some areas of Scandinavia have good farmland, like central Sweden, Northern Denmark and most of Finland, But most wasn't good.
Aditionally, the king of Sweden (and maybe Norway since they were the same country) made a law that requiered farmland to be half it's original size. This law was for enviormental reasons, but the law did more harm that good. The law caused the rural Scandinavian population (which was 90% at the time) to be more prone to starvation and famine.
Speaking of Famines, a 2-year long famine lasting in Sweden. The famine mostly affected Southern Swedes, and lead to thousands of deaths. Scandinavians were sick and tired of all of these problems, so they had 2 choices.
Picture this: You're a Swede who lives in Småland in the 1850s. You have been dealing with crop failures for a long time, and you and your family is starving. You could either move to a city like Stockholm up north, or move to America.
Most Scandinavians picked the latter option. Around 2,700,000 to 3,000,000 Scandinavians Emigrated during the 19th century alone. Most of these emigrants were from certain areas. The most common place of origin for Swedish-Americans is Southern Sweden *Mostly Småland and Blekinge) and for Norwegian-Americans, It's Stavanger for some odd reason. In short, Southern Scandinavia wasn't good.
Finns, Icelanders and Danes were a bit more progressive, but there were still problems. Iceland was at the aftermath of the Mist Hardships. A funny fact is that most Icelanders actually emigrated to Canada instead of America, but we'll get that soon.
If you were a poor Scandinavian and decided to emigrate, Good luck. You could only emigrate by ship, since it was the 19th century. Usually, the ships were highly unsanitary. You and your family had to share a bunk that was as big as an IKEA bed. You can't even stand properly. There was barely any food or clean water. Given these conditions, Disease was highly common. Diseases like Cholera, Typhoid fever, and Measles killed many emigrants on board. Because the ships were very bad, storms could also kill people (I sound like a 5 year old). Luckly, this is only for just a few months. Just pray you'll survive.
Most Scandinavians settled in the Midwest. What's actually unique is the settling patterns. Most Swedes and Norwegians settled in Minnesota and North Dakota, while Danes liked Iowa and Illinois. Finns usally went for Michigan and Wisconsin. Icelanders, who were very quirky, chose Canada.
Not all Scandinavians liked their Midwestern states. Some lived in the mayor states like California, New York and Texas (yeehaw)
To this day, there are over 13 million Scandinavian-Americans. There are many Scandinavian-American foundations and historical societies. There are festivals like the Norsk Høstfest in North Dakota and the Svensk Hyllingfest in Kansas. There are also museums in what used to be settlements.
So yeah. I will watch The Great Norway Adventure while eating Lefse and waiting for my sons of Norway merch and scream Uff Da. Bye guys
