History of Scania
For hundreds of years up until the 18th century, the history of the province of Scania was marked by the struggle between the two Scandinavian kingdoms of Denmark and Sweden over the hegemony in the Baltic area.
Between 1104 and 1536, Lund was the Archbishopric of Denmark, and the Danish National Banner, Dannebrog, was preserved in the Cathedral for several centuries.
King Magnus IV of Sweden took advantage of his neighbour's distress, redeeming the eastern Danish provinces for a huge amount of silver, which included Scania.
King Eric founded the Scanian Town, which today is known as Landskrona[13] at the central part of the all Danish Øresund, and introduced the Sound Dues (Øresundtolden) in 1429, which was to last until 1857 (with exception of Swedish ships between 1658 and 1720).
[15] The period between 1536 and 1660 is often considered a golden age of the Scania nobility in terms of their wealth and economic control.
These included prosperous lands belonging to the former archbishopric at Hogestad and Snårestad as well as those of the monasteries at Bosjökloster, Dalbykloster and Övedskloster.
By the 17th century approximately 54% overall of the 15,000 estates in Scania were owned by the nobility, though the concentration of ownership was not evenly spread.
[16] Scania's geopolitical position, situated on the Scandinavian mainland but politically part of the Danish kingdom, made it for centuries the focal point of the struggle for hegemony in the Baltic region between Denmark and Sweden, the so-called dominium maris baltici.
[2] By possessing both sides of the Öresund strait, as well as The Belts, Denmark had effective control over the entrance to the Baltic Sea and was able to monopolize trade through the sounds.
[20] In the winter of 1612, over a period of two weeks, the Swedish King Gustav II Adolf burned down or otherwise destroyed 24 Scanian parishes and most of their population without meeting any enemy troops.
The result of this war and the following Treaty of Copenhagen (1660) was the return of Bornholm to Denmark and the present border between the countries was established.
In 1666 the University of Lund or Regia Academia Carolina,[27] after a proposal from Bishop Peder Winstrup, was established as part of a programme of measures to further integrate the newly acquired provinces.
The Treaty of Copenhagen (1660) borders would be restored in exchange for indemnities, and yet again would Scania become subordinated to Sweden against the will of its people.
The Malmö Recess agreement further ensured that Scanian noblemen, priests and peasants would be allowed to send representatives to the Swedish parliament.
[32] However, in 1680 Sweden's first era of absolute monarchy was ushered in as the Swedish king Charles XI managed to convince the Diet, (the Riksdag of the Estates, an early form of Swedish Parliament) to declare the king "a Christian ruler with absolute power to rule his kingdom at his discretion".
[33] A decision not to honour the agreement of the Malmö Recess soon followed and a tougher Swedification program was implemented in Scania, aiming to create uniformity within the Swedish kingdom.
[26] An entire staff of Swedish politicians, artists, poets and scholars were engaged in creating an image of the king as an instrument of God and a personification of the apocalyptic "Lion of the North", a form of symbolic imagery first introduced for Gustav II Adolf.
[35] Many works of art from the era show Charles XI as a victorious warrior in Scania and on the central panel of Jacques Foucquet's monumental ceiling painting in the Stockholm Royal Palace, Charles XI is depicted with "the goddess of Scania" at his feet.
[26] King Charles XII took up residence in the city of Lund for two years after his return to Sweden from the Ottoman Empire in 1716.
Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte, the future king Charles XIV John, landed in Helsingborg on the 20 of October 1810 on his way from Paris to Stockholm.
[42] The first horse-drawn railway (although with wooden rails) on Swedish soil was opened in 1798 at Höganäs, connecting the coal mine with the harbour.
In the 19th century Scania became the cradle of the Swedish Social Democratic Party when August Palm held his speech "Hvad vilja socialisterna?"
[50] In 1924 the world's shortest international air route was opened from Malmö Bulltofta Airport to Copenhagen, Denmark, using Junkers F 13.
[52][53] The first motorway in Sweden was inaugurated in 1953 connecting Malmö and Lund (today part of European route E22).
The first aircraft hijacking in Sweden occurred in September 1972 at Bulltofta Airport in Malmö, involving Croatian terrorists.
In July 2000 the Öresund Bridge was inaugurated, creating a fixed rail and road link between Sweden and Denmark.
At 6.22 am CET, on 16 December 2008 did a very unusual earthquake hit not only Scania, but was felt in large parts of Götaland, Denmark and Northern Germany and Poland.
[60][61] An ecumenical liturgy was held in the 900 year old Lund Cathedral and the following morning the pope conducted a Catholic mass at Malmö FF's football stadium.
[62] During the ecumenical commemoration in the cathedral the Pope and the president of the Lutheran World Federation, Bishop Dr Munib Younan signed a treaty in which Lutherans and Catholics promised each other to in the future see more to what unites than differs between these two branches of Christianity (The Pope had earlier done the same with the Eastern Orthodox Church).
