Åland Islands (ä`lənd, ô`–) or Ahvenanmaa Islands (ä`vĕnänmä'), Swed. Ålandsöerna (ō`läntsû`̇rnä), archipelago (1996 pop. 25,257), 581 sq mi (1,505 sq km), in the Baltic Sea between Sweden and Finland, at the entrance of the Gulf of Bothnia. Politically, it constitutes the Åland province of Finland. The archipelago consists of about 7,000 islands, but fewer than 100 are inhabited. The climate is mild. The chief town and provincial capital is Mariehamn Mariehamn (märē`əhämn') or Maarianhamina
..... Click the link for more information. , a port on Åland, the largest of the islands. Shipping, fishing, forestry, farming, and tourism are the chief occupations. Swedish is the main language. The islands, colonized by Swedes, are of strategic importance. With Finland, they were ceded by Sweden to Russia in 1809. In the Crimean War the Russian fortifications were destroyed (1854), and remilitarization was forbidden by the Treaty of Paris (1856). At the end of World War I, the islanders sought to join Sweden. The League of Nations in 1921, however, recognized Finland's sovereignty, but guaranteed the autonomous status of the islands and confirmed their demilitarization. After the Finnish-Russian War Finnish-Russian War, 1939–40, war between Finland and the Soviet Union. After World War II broke out in Sept., 1939, the USSR, never on cordial terms with Finland, took advantage of its nonaggression pact (Aug.
..... Click the link for more information. (1939–40) Finland and the Soviet Union signed a demilitarization agreement that was renewed after World War II. Under pressure from the Soviet Union, Finland's parliament renounced the League guarantee of autonomy in 1951 but at the same time accorded the islanders additional rights of self-government.

Åland Islands

Archipelago, southwestern Finland, constituting Ahvenanmaan autonomous kunta (commune). It consists of about 35 inhabited islands (pop., 2002 est.: 26,000) and more than 6,000 uninhabited ones, with a total land area of 599 sq mi (1,552 sq km). Åland, the largest island, is the location of Mariehamn, the administrative capital and chief seaport. The islands were Christianized by 12th-century Swedish missionaries. When Finland declared its independence in 1917, the Ålanders sought to become part of Sweden. Though the archipelago remains with Finland, it has been given unique autonomy.