157-567: The National Coalition Party (NCP; Finnish : Kansallinen Kokoomus [ˈkɑnsɑlːinen ˈkokoːmus] , Kok ; Swedish : Samlingspartiet , Saml ) is a liberal-conservative political party in Finland . It is currently the largest and the governing political party of Finland. Founded in 1918, the National Coalition Party is one of the "big three" parties that have dominated Finnish national politics for several decades, along with
314-421: A Greater Croatia . Irredentism carries a lot of potential for future conflicts since many states have kin groups in adjacent countries. It has been argued that it poses a significant danger to human security and the international order . For these reasons, irredentism has been a central topic in the field of international relations . For the most part, international law is hostile to irredentism. For example,
471-420: A Greater Serbia following the breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s and Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014. Irredentism is closely related to revanchism and secession . Revanchism is an attempt to annex territory belonging to another state. It is motivated by the goal of taking revenge for a previous grievance , in contrast to the goal of irredentism of building an ethnically unified nation-state. In
628-803: A "j", e.g. vesj [vesʲ] "water", cf. standard vesi [vesi] . The first known written account in Helsinki slang is from the 1890 short story Hellaassa by young Santeri Ivalo (words that do not exist in, or deviate from, the standard spoken Finnish of its time are in bold): Kun minä eilen illalla palasin labbiksesta , tapasin Aasiksen kohdalla Supiksen , ja niin me laskeusimme tänne Espikselle , jossa oli mahoton hyvä piikis . Mutta me mentiin Studikselle suoraan Hudista tapaamaan, ja jäimme sinne pariksi tunniksi, kunnes ajoimme Kaisikseen . There are two main registers of Finnish used throughout
785-400: A bigger state, such as the challenges that come with accommodating a wider range of citizens' preferences . Based on these lines of thought, it has been argued that states are more likely to advocate irredentist claims if the enclave is a relatively rich territory. An additional relevant factor is the regime type of both the irredentist state and the neighboring state. In this regard, it
942-474: A case of African irredentism. The goal of this attack was to unite the significant Somali population living in the Ogaden region with their kin by annexing this area to create a Greater Somalia . The invasion escalated into a war of attrition that lasted about eight months. Somalia was close to reaching its goal but failed in the end, mainly due to an intervention by socialist countries. Argentina's invasion of
1099-816: A central role in irredentism since most irredentist states justify their expansionist agenda based on shared ethnicity. In this regard, the goal of unifying parts of an ethnic group in a common nation-state is used as a justification for annexing foreign territories and going to war if the neighboring state resists. Ethnicity is a grouping of people according to a set of shared attributes and similarities. It divides people into groups based on attributes like physical features, customs, tradition , historical background, language , culture , religion , and values. Not all these factors are equally relevant for every ethnic group. For some groups, one factor may predominate, as in ethno-linguistic , ethno-racial, and ethno-religious identities. In most cases, ethnic identities are based on
1256-468: A considerable influence upon the spoken word, because illiteracy is nonexistent and many Finns are avid readers. In fact, it is still not entirely uncommon to meet people who "talk book-ish" ( puhuvat kirjakieltä ); it may have connotations of pedantry, exaggeration, moderation, weaseling or sarcasm (somewhat like heavy use of Latinate words in English, or more old-fashioned or "pedantic" constructions: compare
1413-562: A force fueling irredentism is discrimination against the main ethnic group in the enclave. Irredentist states often try to legitimize their aggression against neighbors by presenting them as humanitarian interventions aimed at protecting their discriminated ethnic kin. This justification was used, for example, in Armenia 's engagement in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, in Serbia's involvement in
1570-677: A form of revanchism due to its justification as a revenge intended to reverse previous territorial losses. The term "revanchism" comes from the French term revanche , meaning revenge . It was originally used in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War for nationalists intending to reclaim the lost territory of Alsace-Lorraine . Saddam Hussein justified the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 by claiming that Kuwait had always been an integral part of Iraq and only became an independent nation due to
1727-445: A government that is not broadly supported by the population. According to Siroky and Hale, anocratic regimes are most likely to engage in irredentist conflicts and to become their victim. This is based on the idea that they share some democratic ideals favoring irredentism but often lack institutional stability and accountability . This makes it more likely for the elites to consolidate their power using ethno-nationalist appeals to
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#17330558931261884-455: A language of administration, journalism, literature, and science in Finland, along with Swedish. In 1853 Daniel Europaeus published the first Swedish-Finnish dictionary, and between 1866 and 1880 Elias Lönnrot compiled the first Finnish-Swedish dictionary. In the same period, Antero Warelius conducted ethnographic research and, among other topics, he documented the geographic distribution of
2041-468: A more systematic writing system. Along the way, Finnish lost several fricative consonants in a process of sound change . The sounds [ð] and [θ(ː)] disappeared from the language, surviving only in a small rural region in Western Finland. In the standard language, however, the effect of the lost sounds is thus: Modern Finnish punctuation, along with that of Swedish, uses the colon (:) to separate
2198-445: A north–south split as well as an east–west split. The northern dialects of Proto-Finnic, from which Finnish developed, lacked the mid vowel [ ɤ ] . This vowel was found only in the southern dialects, which developed into Estonian , Livonian , and Votian . The northern variants used third person singular pronoun hän instead of southern tämä (Est. tema ). While the eastern dialects of Proto-Finnic (which developed in
2355-511: A part of it. In this sense, claims by both South Korea and North Korea to incorporate the whole of the Korean Peninsula would be considered a form of irredentism. A popular view combining many of the elements listed above holds that irredentism is based on incongruence between the borders of a state and the boundaries of the corresponding nation . State borders are usually clearly delimited, both physically and on maps. National boundaries, on
2512-576: A political nature, on the other hand, are more closely tied to pre-existing national boundaries. Structural accounts use a slightly different approach and focus on the relationship between nationalism and the regional context. They focus on the tension between state sovereignty and national self-determination . State sovereignty is the principle of international law holding that each state has sovereignty over its own territory. It means that states are not allowed to interfere with essentially domestic affairs of other states. National self-determination, on
2669-439: A pre-existing parent state is necessary for irredentism. Political scientist Thomas Ambrosio restricts his definition to cases involving a pre-existing parent state and distinguishes three types of irredentism: (1) between two states, (2) between a state and a former colony , and (3) between a state and a collapsed state. The typical case is between two states. A textbook example of this is Somalia's invasion of Ethiopia . In
2826-542: A preference for British sovereignty among the population. Both the UK and Spain claimed sovereignty in the 18th Century and Argentina claims the islands as a colonial legacy from independence in 1816. The breakup of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s resulted in various irredentist projects. They include Slobodan Milošević 's attempts to establish a Greater Serbia by absorbing some regions of neighboring states that were part of former Yugoslavia. A simultaneous similar project aimed at
2983-610: A range of diphthongs , although vowel harmony limits which diphthongs are possible. Finnish belongs to the Finnic branch of the Uralic language family ; as such, it is one of the few European languages that is not Indo-European . The Finnic branch also includes Estonian and a few minority languages spoken around the Baltic Sea and in Russia's Republic of Karelia . The closest relative of Finnish
3140-472: A replacement of dynastic imperial governments. A central aspect of nationalism is that it sees states as entities with clearly delimited borders that should correspond to national boundaries. Irredentism reflects the importance people ascribe to these borders and how exactly they are drawn. One difficulty in this regard is that the exact boundaries are often difficult to justify and are therefore challenged in favor of alternatives. Irredentism manifests some of
3297-529: A second six-year term. He ran as an independent but had the support of the National Coalition Party. In 2014, Katainen stepped down as party chair and Prime Minister of Finland for a vice-presidential position in the European Commission . Katainen was replaced by Alexander Stubb as chair of the National Coalition Party in the June 2014 leadership election and thus became the prime minister. Katainen's cabinet
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#17330558931263454-491: A sense of belonging as well as physical and mental security. It can help people identify with a common purpose. However, ethnicity has also been the source of many conflicts. It has been responsible for various forms of mass violence , including ethnic cleansing and genocide . The perpetrators usually form part of the ruling majority and target ethnic minority groups. Not all ethnic-based conflicts involve mass violence, like many forms of ethnic discrimination . Irredentism
3611-425: A set of common features. A central aspect of many ethnic identities is that all members share a common homeland or place of origin. This place of origin does not have to correspond to the area where the majority of the ethnic group currently lives in case they migrated from their homeland. Another feature is a common language or dialect . In many cases, religion also forms a vital aspect of ethnicity. Shared culture
3768-520: A time of ideological shifts, as the emphasis on individual liberty and free market reforms increased at the expense of social conservatism and maintenance of a strong government. A minor division in 1958 led to the formation of the Christian Democrats party. From 1966 to 1987, the party was in the opposition. By criticizing Finnish communists and President Urho Kekkonen of the Centre Party,
3925-683: A tool or pretext to increase the parent state's power. Rational choice theories study how irredentism is caused by decision-making processes of certain groups within a state. In this view, irredentism is a tool used by elites to secure their political interests. They do so by appealing to popular nationalist sentiments. This can be used, for example, to gain public support against political rivals or to divert attention away from domestic problems. Other explanations focus on economic factors. For example, larger states enjoy advantages that come with having an increased market and decreased per capita cost of defense. However, there are also disadvantages to having
4082-440: A total amount of Finnish-speakers roughly between 7,200 and 15,600. In the latest census , around 1000 people in Russia claimed to speak Finnish natively; however, a larger amount of 14,000 claimed to be able to speak Finnish in total. There are also forms of Finnish spoken by diasporas outside Europe, such as American Finnish , spoken by Finnish Americans , and Siberian Finnish , spoken by Siberian Finns . Today, Finnish
4239-519: Is a part." Irredentism, by contrast, is initiated by members of an ethnic group in one state to incorporate territories across their border housing ethnically kindred people. Secession happens when a part of an existing state breaks away to form an independent entity. This was the case, for example, in the United States , when many of the slaveholding southern states decided to secede from the Union to form
4396-503: Is abbreviation of word-final vowels, and in many respects they resemble Estonian. The Tavastian dialects ( hämäläismurteet ) are spoken in Tavastia . They are closest to the standard language, but feature some slight vowel changes, such as the opening of diphthong-final vowels ( tie → tiä , miekka → miakka , kuolisi → kualis ), the change of d to l (mostly obsolete) or trilled r (widespread, nowadays disappearance of d
4553-470: Is also a member of the European People's Party (EPP). The party is described by literature as a liberal, conservative as well as liberal-conservative party on the centre-right, with catch-all characteristics. The party's vote share has been approximately 20% in parliamentary elections since the 1990s and has only been out of coalition governments for eight years since then. It won 44 out of 200 seats in
4710-418: Is another contributing factor. A closely related explanation argues that national identities based primarily on ethnicity, culture , and history increase irredentist tendencies. Another approach is to explain irredentism as an attempt to increase power and wealth. In this regard, it is argued that irredentist claims are more likely if the neighboring territory is relatively rich. Many explanations also focus on
4867-419: Is another significant factor. It is a wide term and can include characteristic social institutions, diet, dress, and other practices. It is often difficult to draw clear boundaries between people based on their ethnicity. For this reason, some definitions focus less on actual objective features and stress instead that what unites an ethnic group is a subjective belief that such common features exist. In this view,
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5024-412: Is as war-prone as irredentism". Political scholar Rachel Walker points out that "there is scarcely a country in the world that is not involved in some sort of irredentist quarrel ... although few would admit to this". Political theorists Stephen M. Saideman and R. William Ayres argue that many of the most important conflicts of the 1990s were caused by irredentism, such as the wars for a Greater Serbia and
5181-496: Is claimed. Most scholars define irredentism as a claim made by one state on the territory of another state. In this regard, there are three essential entities to irredentism: (1) an irredentist state or parent state, (2) a neighboring host state or target state, and (3) the disputed territory belonging to the host state, often referred to as irredenta . According to this definition, popular movements demanding territorial change by non-state actors do not count as irredentist in
5338-514: Is either Ingrian , or depending on the definition, Karelian . Finnic languages form a dialect continuum, where for instance Finnish and Estonian are not separated by any single isogloss that would separate dialects considered "Finnish" from those considered "Estonian", despite the two standard languages being not mutually intelligible. Finnish demonstrates an affiliation with other Uralic languages (such as Hungarian and Sami languages ) in several respects including: Several theories exist as to
5495-474: Is ethnically similar and the intention is to retrieve the area to unite the people. This definition implies, for example, that the majority of the border disputes in the history of Latin America were not forms of irredentism. Usually, irredentism is defined in terms of the motivation of the irredentist state, even if the territory is annexed against the will of the local population. Other theorists focus more on
5652-468: Is motivated by resentment and aims to reverse territorial losses due to a previous defeat. In an attempt to contrast irredentism with revanchism, political scientist Anna M. Wittmann argues that Germany's annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938 constitutes a form of irredentism because of its emphasis on a shared language and ethnicity. But she characterizes Germany's invasion of Poland the following year as
5809-568: Is not very common in Africa since most African states are ethnically heterogeneous. Relevant factors for the ethnic motivation for irredentism are how large the dominant ethnic group is relative to other groups and how large it is in absolute terms. It also matters whether the ethnic group is relatively dispersed or located in a small core area and whether it is politically disadvantaged. Explanations focusing on nationalism are closely related to ethnicity-based explanations. Nationalism can be defined as
5966-418: Is often argued that democratic states are less likely to engage in irredentism. One reason cited is that democracies often are more inclusive of other ethnic groups. Another is that democracies are in general less likely to engage in violent conflicts. This is closely related to democratic peace theory , which claims that democracies try to avoid armed conflicts with other democracies. This is also supported by
6123-520: Is often seen as a product of modern nationalism, i.e. the claim that a nation should have its own sovereign state. In this regard, irredentism emerged with and depends on the modern idea of nation-states. The start of modern nationalism is often associated with the French Revolution in 1789. This spawned various nationalist revolutions in Europe around the mid-nineteenth century. They often resulted in
6280-626: Is one of the two official languages of Finland, alongside Swedish . In Sweden , both Finnish and Meänkieli (which has significant mutual intelligibility with Finnish ) are official minority languages . Kven , which like Meänkieli is mutually intelligible with Finnish, is spoken in the Norwegian counties of Troms and Finnmark by a minority of Finnish descent. Finnish is typologically agglutinative and uses almost exclusively suffixal affixation . Nouns , adjectives , pronouns , numerals and verbs are inflected depending on their role in
6437-641: Is one of two official languages of Finland (the other being Swedish), and has been an official language of the European Union since 1995. However, the Finnish language did not have an official status in the country during the period of Swedish rule , which ended in 1809. After the establishment of the Grand Duchy of Finland , and against the backdrop of the Fennoman movement , the language obtained its official status in
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6594-727: Is popular) and the personal pronouns ( me: meitin ('we: our'), te: teitin ('you: your') and he: heitin ('they: their')). The South Ostrobothnian dialects ( eteläpohjalaismurteet ) are spoken in Southern Ostrobothnia . Their most notable feature is the pronunciation of "d" as a tapped or even fully trilled /r/ . The Central and North Ostrobothnian dialects ( keski- ja pohjoispohjalaismurteet ) are spoken in Central and Northern Ostrobothnia . The Lapland dialects ( lappilaismurteet ) are spoken in Lapland . The dialects spoken in
6751-422: Is their political form as a state or a state-like entity. The physical and visible aspects of ethnicity, such as skin color and facial features, are often referred to as race , which may thus be understood as a subset of ethnicity. However, some theorists, like sociologist Pierre van den Berghe, contrast the two by restricting ethnicity to cultural traits and race to physical traits. Ethnic solidarity can provide
6908-429: Is whether attempts to absorb a full neighboring state are also included. There are various types of irredentism. For typical forms of irredentism, the parent state already exists before the territorial conflict with a neighboring state arises. However, there are also forms of irredentism in which the parent state is newly created by uniting an ethnic group spread across several countries. Another distinction concerns whether
7065-411: Is wide consensus that irredentism is a form of territorial dispute involving the attempt to annex territories belonging to a neighboring state. However, not all such attempts constitute forms of irredentism and there is no academic consensus on precisely what other features need to be present. This concerns disagreements about who claims the territory, for what reasons they do so, and how much territory
7222-768: The Confederate States of America in 1861. In the case of irredentism, the break-away area does not become independent but merges into another entity. Irredentism is often seen as a government decision, unlike secession. Both movements are influential phenomena in contemporary politics but, as Horowitz argues, secession movements are much more frequent in postcolonial states. However, he also holds that secession movements are less likely to succeed since they usually have very few military resources compared to irredentist states. For this reason, they normally need prolonged external assistance, often from another state. However, such state policies are subject to change. For example,
7379-525: The Croatian War of Independence , and in Russia's annexation of Crimea . Some political theorists, like David S. Siroky and Christopher W. Hale, hold that there is little empirical evidence for arguments based on ethnic homogeneity and discrimination. In this view, they are mainly used as a pretext to hide other goals, such as material gain. Another relevant factor is the outlook of the population inhabiting
7536-643: The Finnish Diet of 1863. Finnish also enjoys the status of an official minority language in Sweden . Under the Nordic Language Convention , citizens of the Nordic countries speaking Finnish have the opportunity to use their native language when interacting with official bodies in other Nordic countries without being liable to any interpretation or translation costs. However, concerns have been expressed about
7693-638: The Finnish Government until the outbreak of the Winter War in 1939, only slowly managing to regain their support. During the Winter War and the Continuation War in 1939–1944, the party took part in the war-time national unity governments and generally had strong support for its government policies. After the wars, the National Coalition Party sought to portray itself as a defender of democracy against
7850-545: The King of Finland in the new monarchy. The previous day, the republicans of both parties had founded the National Progressive Party . With over 600 representatives, the foundational meeting of NCP declared the following: A national coalition is needed over old party lines that have lost meaning and have too long separated similarly thinking citizens. This coalition's grand task must be to work to strengthen in our nation
8007-527: The Rinne Cabinet . Following the 2023 general election , it became the largest party with 48 seats. As a result, its leader Petteri Orpo started forming a coalition government. The Orpo Cabinet was sworn into office on 20 June 2023, a NCP-led coalition with the Finns Party , Christian Democrats and Swedish People's Party of Finland . In February 2024, National Coalition Party candidate Alexander Stubb
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#17330558931268164-520: The Social Democratic Party and the Centre Party . The current party chair is Petteri Orpo , elected on 11 June 2016. The party self-statedly bases its politics on "freedom, responsibility and democracy, equal opportunities, education, supportiveness, tolerance and caring" and supports multiculturalism and gay rights. Their foreign stances are pro-NATO and pro-European oriented, the party
8321-548: The Soviet leaders , accelerated their activities while the ideological position of the National Coalition Party shifted over to very conservative. The new ideology was poorly received, particularly by the youth, attracting instead more irredentist and fascist movements, such as the Academic Karelia Society or Patriotic People's Movement . In the 1933 parliamentary election , the party formed an electoral coalition with
8478-730: The Ukrainian government did not uphold the rights of ethnic Russians inhabiting Crimea, using this as a justification for the annexation in March 2014. However, it has been claimed that this was only a pretext to increase its territory and power. Ultimately, Russia invaded the mainland territory of Ukraine in February 2022, thereby escalating the war that continues to the present day. Other frequently discussed cases of irredentism include disputes between Pakistan and India over Jammu and Kashmir as well as China 's claims on Taiwan . Ethnicity plays
8635-813: The United Nations Charter calls for respect for established territorial borders and defends state sovereignty. Similar outlooks are taken by the Organization of African Unity , the Organization of American States , and the Helsinki Final Act . Since irredentist claims are based on conflicting sovereignty assertions, it is often difficult to find a working compromise. Peaceful resolutions of irredentist conflicts often result in mutual recognition of de facto borders rather than territorial change. International relation theorists Martin Griffiths et al. argue that
8792-541: The breakup of Yugoslavia when Yugoslavian Slovenes formed the new state of Slovenia while the Austrian Slovenes did not join them and remained part of Austria . Not all theorists accept that the second type constitutes a form of irredentism. In this regard, it is often argued that it is too similar to secession to maintain a distinction between the two. For example, political scholar Benyamin Neuberger holds that
8949-520: The parliamentary elections of 2011 , becoming the largest party in the Finnish Parliament ( Finnish : Eduskunta ; Swedish : Riksdagen ) for the first time in its history. On the municipal level, it emerged as the most popular party for the first time in 2008. More recently, the NCP became the largest party during the Finnish 2023 general election , with 48 seats, and has been the leading party in
9106-474: The party secretary to head the main office, located in Helsinki , and to coordinate the National Coalition Party's activities according to the board's decisions. Additionally, the NCP has separate groups for coordinating ministers , members of the Finnish Parliament , and members of the European Parliament . Two foundations, Kansallissäätiö and Porvarillisen Työn Arkiston Säätiö , assist
9263-403: The presidential election of 2012 . Niinistö won the election, beating his Green League opponent Pekka Haavisto decisively on the second round with a 62.6% portion of the votes, and thus becoming the third president elected from the party and the first one since 1956. Niinistö's margin of victory was larger than that of any previous directly elected president in Finland. He won a majority in 14 of
9420-403: The regime type and hold that democracies are less likely to engage in irredentism while anocracies are particularly open to it. Irredentism has been an influential force in world politics since the mid-nineteenth century. It has been responsible for many armed conflicts , even though international law is hostile to it and irredentist movements often fail to achieve their goals. The term
9577-494: The sentence . Sentences are normally formed with subject–verb–object word order, although the extensive use of inflection allows them to be ordered differently. Word order variations are often reserved for differences in information structure . Finnish orthography uses a Latin-script alphabet derived from the Swedish alphabet, and is phonemic to a great extent. Vowel length and consonant length are distinguished, and there are
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#17330558931269734-506: The stem of a word and its grammatical ending in some cases, for example after acronyms , as in EU:ssa 'in the EU'. (This contrasts with some other alphabetic writing systems, which would use other symbols, such as e.g. apostrophe, hyphen.) Since suffixes play a prominent role in the language, this use of the colon is quite common. In the 19th century Johan Vilhelm Snellman and others began to stress
9891-405: The 19th and early 20th centuries. Irredentist projects often use the term "Greater" to label the desired outcome of their expansion, as in " Greater Serbia " or " Greater Russia ". Irredentism is often understood as the claim that territories belonging to one state should be incorporated into another state because their population is ethnically similar or because it historically belonged to
10048-521: The Centre Party, the Green League, and the Swedish People's Party . The NCP secured important ministerial portfolios, including finance and foreign affairs . In the 2011 parliamentary election, the party finished first place for the first time in its history with 44 seats, despite losing six seats, and party chair Jyrki Katainen formed his cabinet as a six-party coalition government from parties on
10205-538: The European People's Party (EPP). Under the leadership of Katainen, chair until 2014, liberalism became the main attribute of the party. In the 2007 parliamentary election, the party increased its share to 50 seats in the largest gain of the election. The party held a close second place in Parliament, shy of the Centre Party and its 51 seats. After the election, the party entered into a coalition government together with
10362-650: The Falkland Islands in 1982 is cited as an example of irredentism in South America, where the Argentine military government sought to exploit national sentiment over the islands to deflect attention from domestic concerns. President Juan Perón exploited the issue to reduce British influence in Argentina, instituting educational reform teaching the islands were Argentine and creating a strong nationalist sentiment over
10519-453: The Finnish dialects. The most important contributions to improving the status of Finnish were made by Elias Lönnrot . His impact on the development of modern vocabulary in Finnish was particularly significant. In addition to compiling the Kalevala , he acted as an arbiter in disputes about the development of standard Finnish between the proponents of western and eastern dialects, ensuring that
10676-430: The Finnish economy suffered a downturn , precipitated by a multitude of factors, and the 1991 parliamentary election resulted in a loss. The party continued in government as a minor partner until 2003. After losing six seats in the 2003 parliamentary election, the National Coalition Party spent the next electoral period in opposition. Jyrki Katainen was elected party chair in 2004 and in March 2006, vice-president of
10833-617: The Indian government supported the Sri Lankan Tamil secessionists up to 1987 but then reach an agreement with the Sri Lankan government and helped suppress the movement. Horowitz holds that it is important to distinguish secessionist and irredentist movements since they differ significantly concerning their motivation, context, and goals. Despite these differences, irredentism and secessionism are closely related nonetheless. In some cases,
10990-521: The NCP and the communist Finnish People's Democratic League culminated when President Paasikivi fired the communist Minister of the Interior Yrjö Leino , who had used the State Police to spy on the party's youth wing among other abuses. In 1951, the party changed its official name from the original Kansallinen Kokoomuspuolue to the current Kansallinen Kokoomus . The 1950s were also
11147-513: The NCP's poor poll results, the declining economy as well as compromises in the three-party government. After two years as party chair, Stubb was voted by 361 to 441 to be replaced by Petteri Orpo at the leadership election of June 2016 . After the 2019 election , it became the third-largest party in the Finnish Parliament, behind the Social Democrats and the Finns Party , and became the second-largest opposition party after being excluded from
11304-635: The Patriotic People's Movement, founded by former supporters of the radical and nationalist Lapua Movement —even though P.E. Svinhufvud , the party's first President of Finland , played a key role in halting the Lapua Movement and vanquishing their Mäntsälä rebellion . The result was a major defeat as the NCP lost 24 of its 42 seats in parliament . The NCP broke ties with the Patriotic People's Movement in 1934 under their newly elected party chair, Juho Kusti Paasikivi , but were nevertheless shut out from
11461-534: The Sudetenland formed part of Czechoslovakia but had a majority German population. Adolf Hitler justified the annexation based on his allegation that Sudeten Germans were being mistreated by the Czechoslovak government. The Sudetenland was yielded to Germany following the Munich Agreement in an attempt to prevent the outbreak of a major war. Somalia's invasion of Ethiopia in 1977 is frequently discussed as
11618-674: The United States. The majority of the population of Finland (90.37% as of 2010 ) speak Finnish as their first language . The remainder speak Swedish (5.42%), one of the Sámi languages (for example Northern , Inari , or Skolt ), or another language as their first language. Finnish is spoken as a second language in Estonia by about 167,000 people. The Finnic varities found in Norway's Finnmark (namely Kven ) and in northern Sweden (namely Meänkieli ) have
11775-411: The amount of area that is to be annexed. Usually, irredentism is restricted to the attempt to incorporate some parts of another state. In this regard, irredentism challenges established borders with the neighboring state but does not challenge the existence of the neighboring state in general. However, some definitions of irredentism also include attempts to absorb the whole neighboring state and not just
11932-530: The available evidence may not be sufficient to decide between them. An active research topic in this regard concerns the reasons for irredentism. Many countries have ethnic kin outside their borders. But only a few are willing to engage in violent conflicts to annex foreign territory in an attempt to unite their kin. Research on the causes of irredentism tries to explain why some countries pursue irredentism but others do not. Relevant factors often discussed include ethnicity, nationalism , economic considerations,
12089-524: The border created between Sweden and Finland in 1809 when Russia annexed Finland. This caused the speakers of Meänkieli to be isolated from the developments of standard Finnish and instead be influenced by the Swedish language. However, it is still mutually integible with Finnish, and is thus sometimes considered a dialect of the Finnish language. The Kven language is spoken in Finnmark and Troms , in Norway. Its speakers are descendants of Finnish emigrants to
12246-429: The breakup of Yugoslavia. Explanations of irredentism try to determine what causes irredentism, how it unfolds, and how it can be peacefully resolved. Various hypotheses have been proposed but there is still very little consensus on how irredentism is to be explained despite its prevalence and its long history of provoking armed conflicts. Some of these proposals can be combined but others conflict with each other and
12403-566: The case of secession, a territory breaks away and forms an independent state instead of merging with another state. The term irredentism was coined from the Italian phrase Italia irredenta (unredeemed Italy). This phrase originally referred to territory in Austria-Hungary that was mostly or partly inhabited by ethnic Italians . In particular, it applies to Trentino and Trieste , but also Gorizia , Istria , Fiume , and Dalmatia during
12560-467: The claim that the boundaries of a state should match those of the nation. According to constructivist accounts, for example, the dominant national identity is one of the central factors behind irredentism. In this view, identities based on ethnicity, culture, and history can easily invite tendencies to enlarge national borders. They may justify the goal of integrating ethnically and culturally similar territories. Civic national identities focusing more on
12717-409: The colloquial language) ei kö teillä ole e(i) ks teil(lä) oo "don't you (pl.) have (it)?" (compare eiks to standard Estonian confirmatory interrogative eks ) Irredentism Irredentism is one state 's desire to annex the territory of another state. This desire can be motivated by ethnic reasons because the population of the territory is ethnically similar or
12874-674: The common belief matters more than the extent to which those shared features actually exist. Examples of large ethnic groups are the Han Chinese , the Arabs , the Bengalis , the Punjabis , and the Turks . Some theorists, like sociologist John Milton Yinger, use terms like ethnic group or ethnicity as near-synonyms for nation . Nations are usually based on ethnicity but what sets them apart from ethnicity
13031-412: The country in the 1979 parliamentary election, a spot in the government continued to elude the NCP until the end of Kekkonen's time in office. During the long years in opposition, the party's support grew steadily and in 1987 it attained the best parliamentary election result in its history so far. Harri Holkeri became the party's first prime minister since Paasikivi. During Holkeri's time in office,
13188-400: The country to which the disputed territory currently belongs is a regular state, a former colony , or a collapsed state. A central research topic concerning irredentism is the question of how it is to be explained or what causes it. Many explanations hold that ethnic homogeneity within a state makes irredentism more likely. Discrimination against the ethnic group in the neighboring territory
13345-449: The country's 15 electoral districts . Niinistö is described as a pragmatical fiscal conservative and a pro-European who supports the restraint of bailouts to partner countries. Upon taking office, Niinistö intended to strengthen interaction with the United States and China and maintain good relations with Russia as well as address the European debt crisis . Niinistö was re-elected in 2018 for
13502-404: The country. One is the "standard language" ( yleiskieli ), and the other is the " spoken language " ( puhekieli ). The standard language is used in formal situations like political speeches and newscasts. Its written form, the "book language" ( kirjakieli ), is used in nearly all written texts, not always excluding even the dialogue of common people in popular prose. The spoken language, on
13659-421: The desire to increase power, and the type of regime . A common explanation of irredentism focuses on ethnic arguments. It is based on the observation that irredentist claims are primarily advanced by states with a homogenous ethnic population. This is explained by the idea that, if a state is composed of several ethnic groups , then annexing a territory inhabited primarily by one of those groups would shift
13816-478: The difference between saying "There's no children I'll leave it to" and "There are no children to whom I shall leave it"). More common is the intrusion of typically literary constructions into a colloquial discourse, as a kind of quote from written Finnish. It is quite common to hear book-like and polished speech on radio or TV, and the constant exposure to such language tends to lead to the adoption of such constructions even in everyday language. A prominent example of
13973-445: The effect of the standard language is the development of the consonant gradation form /ts : ts/ as in metsä : metsän , as this pattern was originally (1940) found natively only in the dialects of the southern Karelian isthmus and Ingria . It has been reinforced by the spelling "ts" for the dental fricative [θː] , used earlier in some western dialects. The spelling and the pronunciation this encourages however approximate
14130-609: The establishment of a Greater Croatia. Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 is a more recent example of irredentism. Beginning in the 15th century CE , the Crimean peninsula was a Tartar Khanate . However, in 1783 the Russian Empire broke a previous treaty and annexed Crimea. In 1954, when both Russia and Ukraine were part of the Soviet Union, it was transferred from Russia to Ukraine. Sixty years later, Russia alleged that
14287-413: The fact that it was previously considered to be critical of the Nordic welfare model , campaigning for strict doctrines of economic liberalism, in the 1970s the party shifted to supporting more social liberal policies , such as increased social security , which was justified by the increase of individual liberty, although, in more recent years, some have accused the party of adopting more critical views of
14444-411: The forces that maintain society. Lawful societal order must be strictly upheld and there must be no compromise with revolutionary aspirations. But simultaneously, determined constructive reform work must be pursued." The party sought to accomplish their task by advocating for constitutional monarchy and, failing that, strong governmental powers within a republican framework. On the other hand, their goal
14601-551: The formal. However, in signalling the former in writing, syncope and sandhi – especially internal – may occasionally amongst other characteristics be transcribed, e.g. menenpä → me(n)empä . This never occurs in the standard variety. he mene vät ne mene e "they go" loss of a number contrast on verbs in the 3rd person ( menee is 3rd person singular in the formal language) ( minä) o le n mä o o n "I am" or "I will be" and no pro-drop (i.e., personal pronouns are usually mandatory in
14758-446: The future status of Finnish in Sweden, for example, where reports produced for the Swedish government during 2017 show that minority language policies are not being respected, particularly for the 7% of Finns settled in the country. The Uralic family of languages, of which Finnish is a member, are hypothesized to derive from a single ancestor language termed Proto-Uralic , spoken sometime between 8,000 and 2,000 BCE (estimates vary) in
14915-692: The geographic origin of Finnish and the other Uralic languages. The most widely held view is that they originated as a Proto-Uralic language somewhere in the boreal forest belt around the Ural Mountains region and/or the bend of the middle Volga . The strong case for Proto-Uralic is supported by common vocabulary with regularities in sound correspondences, as well as by the fact that the Uralic languages have many similarities in structure and grammar. Despite having overlapping geographical distributions, Finnic languages and Sami languages are not closely related, and
15072-587: The governing Orpo Cabinet since 20 June 2023. Incumbent President of Finland Alexander Stubb is affiliated with the NCP, as was his immediate predecessor, Sauli Niinistö . The National Coalition Party was founded on 9 December 1918 after the Finnish Civil War by the majority of the Finnish Party and the minority of the Young Finnish Party , both supporting Prince Frederick Charles of Hesse as
15229-456: The grammatical and phonological changes also include the most common pronouns and suffixes, which amount to frequent but modest differences. Some sound changes have been left out of the formal language. For example, irregular verbs have developed in the spoken language as a result of the elision of sonorants in some verbs of the Type III class (with subsequent vowel assimilation ), but only when
15386-565: The historical claim that the disputed territory used to be part of the state's ancestral homeland. This is close to the literal meaning of the original Italian expression terra irredenta as "unredeemed land". In this view, the ethnicity of the people inhabiting this territory is not important. However, it is also possible to combine both characterizations, i.e. that the motivation is either ethnic or historical or both. Some scholars, like Benjamin Neuberger, include geographical reasons in their definitions. A further disagreement concerns
15543-515: The hypothesis of a separate taxonomic " Finno-Samic " node is controversial. The Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California , United States, classifies Finnish as a level III language (of four levels) in terms of learning difficulty for native English speakers. Finnish is spoken by about five million people, most of whom reside in Finland. There are also notable Finnish-speaking minorities in Sweden, Norway, Russia, Estonia, Brazil, Canada, and
15700-461: The issue. The war ended with a victory for the UK after about two months even though many analysts considered the Argentine military position unassailable. Although defeated, Argentina did not officially declare the cessation of hostilities until 1989 and successive Argentine Governments have continued to claim the islands. The islands are now self-governing with the UK responsible for defence and foreign relations. Referenda in 1986 and 2013 show
15857-457: The justification for the crusades was to liberate fellow Christians from Muslim rule and to redeem the Holy Land . Nonetheless, most theorists see irredentism as a more recent phenomenon. The term was coined in the 19th century and is linked to border disputes between modern states. Nazi Germany's annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938 is an often-cited example of irredentism. At the time,
16014-470: The language, which he based on Swedish, German, and Latin. The Finnish standard language still relies on his innovations with regard to spelling, though Agricola used less systematic spelling than is used today. Though Agricola's intention was that each phoneme (and allophone under qualitative consonant gradation ) should correspond to one letter, he failed to achieve this goal in various respects. For example, k , c , and q were all used for
16171-444: The left and on the right after lengthy negotiations. The National Coalition Party's candidate in the 2006 Finnish presidential election was former minister of finance and former party chair Sauli Niinistö . He qualified for the second round runoff as one of the top two candidates in the first round but was defeated by the incumbent Tarja Halonen with 51.8% of the vote against his 48.2%. The party nominated Sauli Niinistö again for
16328-415: The main cultural and political centres. The standard language, however, has always been a consciously constructed medium for literature. It preserves grammatical patterns that have mostly vanished from the colloquial varieties and, as its main application is writing, it features complex syntactic patterns that are not easy to handle when used in speech. The colloquial language develops significantly faster, and
16485-556: The masses. Irredentism is a widespread phenomenon and has been an influential force in world politics since the mid-nineteenth century. It has been responsible for countless conflicts. There are still many unresolved irredentist disputes today that constitute discords between nations. In this regard, irredentism is a potential source of conflict in many places and often escalates into military confrontations between states. For example, international relation theorist Markus Kornprobst argues that "no other issue over which states fight
16642-411: The modern-day eastern Finnish dialects, Veps, Karelian, and Ingrian) formed genitive plural nouns via plural stems (e.g., eastern Finnish kalojen < * kaloi -ten ), the western dialects of Proto-Finnic (today's Estonian, Livonian and western Finnish varieties) used the non-plural stems (e.g., Est. kalade < * kala -ten ). Another defining characteristic of the east–west split
16799-401: The most aggressive aspects of modern nationalism. It can be seen as a side effect of nationalism paired with the importance it ascribes to borders and the difficulties in agreeing on them. Irredentism is closely related to secession. Secession can be defined as "an attempt by an ethnic group claiming a homeland to withdraw with its territory from the authority of a larger state of which it
16956-607: The most part, the dialects operate on the same phonology and grammar. There are only marginal examples of sounds or grammatical constructions specific to some dialect and not found in standard Finnish. Two examples are the voiced dental fricative found in the Rauma dialect , and the Eastern exessive case . The Southwest Finnish dialects ( lounaissuomalaismurteet ) are spoken in Southwest Finland and Satakunta . Their typical feature
17113-474: The motivation fuelling this attempt. Irredentism has a positive goal of building a "greater" state that fulfills the ideals of a nation-state. It aims to unify people claimed to belong together because of their shared national identity based on ethnic, cultural, and historical aspects. For revanchism, on the other hand, the goal is more negative because it focuses on taking revenge for some form of grievance or injustice suffered earlier. In this regard, it
17270-407: The national Statistics Finland institution. The following NCP members have held high offices: Finnish language Finnish ( endonym : suomi [ˈsuo̯mi] or suomen kieli [ˈsuo̯meŋ ˈkie̯li] ) is a Finnic language of the Uralic language family, spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside of Finland. Finnish
17427-419: The need to improve the status of Finnish. Ever since the days of Mikael Agricola, written Finnish had been used almost exclusively in religious contexts, but now Snellman's Hegelian nationalistic ideas of Finnish as a fully-fledged national language gained considerable support. Concerted efforts were made to improve the status of the language and to modernize it, and by the end of the century Finnish had become
17584-439: The non-profit The Democratic Society described it as "the heir to both liberal and conservative strains of right-of-centre thought" that is becoming increasingly liberal compared to its official stance of conservatism. Specifically, it contains elements of cultural and economic liberalism and social reformism. For example, it supports multiculturalism , work-based immigration , queer rights and same-sex marriage . Despite
17741-406: The observation that most irredentist conflicts are started by authoritarian regimes . However, irredentism constitutes a paradox for democratic systems. The reason is that democratic ideals pertaining to the ethnic group can often be used to justify its claim, which may be interpreted as the expression of a popular will toward unification. But there are also cases of irredentism made primarily by
17898-422: The one found in the territory intending to break away. The anticipated reaction of the international community is an additional factor, i.e. whether it would embrace, tolerate, or reject the detachment or the absorption by another state. Irredentism and revanchism are two closely related phenomena because both of them involve the attempt to annex territory which belongs to another state. They differ concerning
18055-453: The original pronunciation, still reflected in e.g. Karelian /čč : č/ ( meččä : mečän ). In the spoken language, a fusion of Western /tt : tt/ ( mettä : mettän ) and Eastern /ht : t/ ( mehtä : metän ) has resulted in /tt : t/ ( mettä : metän ). Neither of these forms are identifiable as, or originate from, a specific dialect. The orthography of informal language follows that of
18212-452: The other hand, are less tangible since they correspond to a group's perception of its historic, cultural , and ethnic boundaries. Irredentism may manifest if state borders do not correspond to national boundaries. The objective of irredentism is to enlarge a state to establish a congruence between its borders and the boundaries of the corresponding nation. Various types of irredentism have been proposed. However, not everyone agrees that all
18369-487: The other hand, concerns the right of people to determine their own international political status . According to the structural explanation, emphasis on national self-determination may legitimize irredentist claims while the principle of state sovereignty defends the status quo of the existing sovereign borders. This position is supported by the observation that irredentist conflicts are much more common during times of international upheavals. Another factor commonly cited as
18526-596: The other hand, is the main variety of Finnish used in popular TV and radio shows and at workplaces, and may be preferred to a dialect in personal communication. Standard Finnish is prescribed by the Language Office of the Research Institute for the Languages of Finland and is the language used in official communication. The Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish ( Nykysuomen sanakirja 1951–61), with 201,000 entries,
18683-413: The other state before. Many definitions of irredentism have been proposed to give a more precise formulation. Despite a wide overlap concerning its general features, there is no consensus about its exact characterization. The disagreements matter for evaluating whether irredentism was the cause of war which is difficult in many cases and different definitions often lead to opposite conclusions. There
18840-583: The party advocated for Finnish membership in NATO , and supported the country's accession to the alliance in 2023, despite being in opposition at the time. The magazine Suomen Kuvalehti created a profile of a typical National Coalition Party voter from over 18,000 interviews in 2011: a 36-year-old lawyer or management consultant living with a family in the Helsinki metropolitan area who supports economic liberalism, conservative values and enjoys alpine skiing and golf . Unlike other conservative parties in Europe,
18997-467: The party had lost the President's trust—and thus governments formed by the Centre Party and left-wing parties followed one another. A new guard emerged within the NCP in the 1970s that sought to improve relations with long-serving President Kekkonen. Their work was partially successful in the late 1970s. However, even though the NCP supported Kekkonen for president in 1978 and became the second largest party in
19154-596: The party newspapers Nykypäivä and Verkkouutiset as well as to handle media communications. Additionally, some thematic organizations report themselves as close to the party, such as the Swedish-language group Borgerlig samling i Finland and the queer network Kansallinen sateenkaariryhmä – Kasary . Election results are based on respective files of the Official Statistics of Finland ( Finnish : Suomen virallinen tilasto ) published by
19311-420: The party with a source of funding and as an archive , respectively. Reportedly, donations to Kansallissäätiö are kept secret, but according to the treasurer, donations are a limited asset compared to the foundation's 5 million euro investment capital. In 2008, the foundation supported NCP with €400,000. The NCP owns two companies, Kansalliskustannus Oy and Suomen Kansallismedia Oy , to publish
19468-413: The party's voters come predominantly from urban areas while rural areas tend to favor the Centre Party. In 2005, the NCP had the highest proportion of female members out of the major parties. Membership in the party was momentarily on the rise in 2008, but declined from 41,000 to 34,000 by 2016. In contrast, the party had 81,000 members in 1970. According to 2008 polling data, the National Coalition Party
19625-447: The phoneme / k / . Likewise, he alternated between dh and d to represent the allophonic [ ð ] (like th in English this ), between dh and z to represent / θː / (like th in thin , but longer in duration), and between gh and g to represent the allophonic [ ɣ ] . Agricola did not consistently represent vowel length in his orthography. Others revised Agricola's work later, striving for
19782-488: The power balance in favor of this group. For this reason, other groups in the state are likely to internally reject the irredentist claims. This inhibiting factor is not present for homogeneous states. A similar argument is also offered for the enclave to be annexed: an ethnically heterogenous enclave is less likely to desire to be absorbed by another state for ethnic reasons since this would only benefit one ethnic group. These considerations explain, for example, why irredentism
19939-714: The region in the 18th and 19th centuries. Kven is an official minority language in Norway. The Eastern dialects consist of the widespread Savonian dialects ( savolaismurteet ) spoken in Savo and nearby areas, and the South-Eastern dialects now spoken only in Finnish South Karelia . The South Karelian dialects ( eteläkarjalaismurteet ) were previously also spoken on the Karelian Isthmus and in Ingria . The Karelian Isthmus
20096-493: The resurgent Finnish communists. Chair Paasikivi, who had advocated making more concessions to Soviet Union before the Winter War and taken a cautious line regarding cooperation with Germany before the Continuation War, acted first as Prime Minister of Finland (1944–1946) and then as President (1946–1956) of Finland. Paasikivi is remembered as the formulator of Finnish foreign policy after World War II . The conflict between
20253-451: The role of power and economic benefits as reasons for irredentism. Realist explanations focus on the power balance between the irredentist state and the target state: the more this power balance shifts in favor of the irredentist state, the more likely violent conflicts become. A key factor in this regard is also the reaction of the international community , i.e. whether irredentist claims are tolerated or rejected. Irredentism can be used as
20410-469: The same to the population of the parent state. Historical reasons may also be responsible, i.e., that the territory previously formed part of the parent state. However, difficulties in applying the concept to concrete cases have given rise to academic debates about its precise definition. Disagreements concern whether either or both ethnic and historical reasons have to be present and whether non-state actors can also engage in irredentism. A further dispute
20567-488: The second case of decolonization, the territory to be annexed is a former colony of another state and not a regular part of it. An example is the Indonesian invasion and occupation of the former Portuguese colony of East Timor . In the case of state collapse, one state disintegrates and a neighboring state absorbs some of its former territories. This was the case for the irredentist movements by Croatia and Serbia during
20724-401: The second syllable of the word is short. The result is that some forms in the spoken language are shortened, e.g. tule-n → tuu-n ('I come'), while others remain identical to the standard language hän tulee "he comes", never * hän tuu ). However, the longer forms such as tule can be used in spoken language in other forms as well. The literary language certainly still exerts
20881-542: The second type, there is no pre-existing parent state. Instead, a cohesive group existing as a minority in multiple countries intends to unify to form a new parent state. The intended creation of a Kurdistan state uniting the Kurds living in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran is an example of the second type. If such a project is successful for only one segment, the result is secession and not irredentism. This happened, for example, during
21038-636: The status of official minority languages, and thus can be considered distinct languages from Finnish. However, since these languages are mutually intelligible , one may alternatively view them as dialects of the same language . No language census exists for Norway, neither for Kven, standard Finnish, or combined. As of 2023, 7,454 first- or second-generation immigrants from Finland were registered as having Norwegian residency, while as of 2021, 235 Finns were registered as foreigners studying at Norwegian higher education. Great Norwegian Encyclopedia estimates Kven speakers at 2,000-8,000. Altogether, this results in
21195-408: The strict sense. A different definition characterizes irredentism as the attempt of an ethnic minority to break away and join their "real" motherland even though this minority is a non-state actor. The reason for engaging in territorial conflict is another issue, with some scholars stating that irredentism is primarily motivated by ethnicity. In this view, the population in the neighboring territory
21352-414: The suborganisations as its members, elects the party chair and three deputy chairs as well as the 61-member party council ( Finnish : puoluevaltuusto ). The party chair and the deputy chairs lead the party board ( Finnish : puoluehallitus ), which is in charge of the daily management and is composed of a representative from each district and from each of the three wings. The party council also elects
21509-492: The territory to be annexed. The desire of the irredentist state to annex a foreign territory and the desire of that territory to be annexed do not always overlap. In some cases, a minority group does not want to be annexed, as was the case for the Crimean Tatars in Russia's annexation of Crimea. In other cases, a minority group would want to be annexed but the intended parent state is not interested. Various accounts stress
21666-475: The threat of rising irredentism may be reduced by focusing on political pluralism and respect for minority rights . Irredentist movements, peaceful or violent, are rarely successful. In many cases, despite aiming to help ethnic minorities, irredentism often has the opposite effect and ends up worsening their living conditions. On the one hand, the state still in control of those territories may decide to further discriminate against them as an attempt to decrease
21823-602: The threat to its national security . On the other hand, the irredentist state may merely claim to care about the ethnic minorities but, in truth, use such claims only as a pretext to increase its territory or to destabilize an opponent. The emergence of irredentism is tied to the rise of modern nationalism and the idea of a nation-state, which are often linked to the French Revolution . However, some political scholars, like Griffiths et al. , argue that phenomena similar to irredentism existed even before. For example, part of
21980-459: The travel journal, the words are those of a Finnish bishop whose name is unknown. The erroneous use of gelen (Modern Finnish kielen ) in the accusative case, rather than kieltä in the partitive, and the lack of the conjunction mutta are typical of foreign speakers of Finnish even today. At the time, most priests in Finland spoke Swedish . During the Middle Ages, when Finland
22137-413: The two tendencies may exist side by side. It is also possible that the advocates of one movement change their outlook and promote the other. Whether a movement favors irredentism or secessionism is determined, among other things, by the prospects of forming an independent state in contrast to joining another state. A further factor is whether the irredentist state is likely to espouse a similar ideology to
22294-488: The types listed here constitute forms of irredentism and it often depends on what definition is used. According to political theorists Naomi Chazan and Donald L. Horowitz , there are two types of irredentism. The typical case involves one state that intends to annex territories belonging to a neighboring state. Nazi Germany ’s claim on the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia is an example of this form of irredentism. For
22451-495: The use of Finnish through parish clerk schools, the use of Swedish in church, and by having Swedish-speaking servants and maids move to Finnish-speaking areas. The first comprehensive writing system for Finnish was created by Mikael Agricola , a Finnish bishop, in the 16th century. He based his writing system on the western dialects . Agricola's ultimate plan was to translate the Bible , but first he had to develop an orthography for
22608-492: The vicinity of the Ural Mountains . Over time, Proto-Uralic split into various daughter languages , which themselves continued to change and diverge, yielding yet more descendants. One of these descendants is the reconstructed Proto-Finnic , from which the Finnic languages developed. Current models assume that three or more Proto-Finnic dialects evolved during the first millennium BCE. These dialects were defined geographically, and were distinguished from one another along
22765-415: The welfare state and of embracing more fiscally conservative positions , in addition to the abandoning of their socially liberal and green values in order to move votes away from the growing Finns Party towards themselves. In international relations , the party advocates for multilateralism . It is pro-European and supports continued European integration within the European Union (EU). For decades,
22922-626: The western dialects preferred by Agricola retained their preeminent role, while many originally dialect words from Eastern Finland were introduced to the standard language, thus enriching it considerably. The first novel written in Finnish (and by a Finnish speaker) was Seven Brothers ( Seitsemän veljestä ), published by Aleksis Kivi in 1870. The dialects of Finnish are divided into two distinct groups, Western and Eastern. The dialects are largely mutually intelligible and are distinguished from each other by changes in vowels, diphthongs and rhythm, as well as in preferred grammatical constructions. For
23079-403: The western parts of Lapland are recognizable by retention of old "h" sounds in positions where they have disappeared from other dialects. One form of speech related to Northern dialects, Meänkieli , which is spoken on the Swedish side of the border is recognized in Sweden as its own distinct language, having its own standardized language separate from Finnish. This form of speech developed from
23236-492: Was a prescriptive dictionary that defined official language. An additional volume for words of foreign origin ( Nykysuomen sivistyssanakirja , 30,000 entries) was published in 1991. An updated dictionary, The New Dictionary of Modern Finnish ( Kielitoimiston sanakirja ) was published in an electronic form in 2004 and in print in 2006. A descriptive grammar (the Large grammar of Finnish , Iso suomen kielioppi , 1,600 pages)
23393-432: Was elected as Finland's next president. In the second round of the election he beat Pekka Haavisto, a green running as an independent, by 51.6 percent to 48.4 percent. Ideologically, the National Coalition Party is positioned from centre-right to right on the political spectrum, and it has been described as liberal , conservative , liberal-conservative , conservative-liberal , and fiscally conservative . In 2014,
23550-460: Was evacuated during World War II and refugees were resettled all over Finland. Most Ingrian Finns were deported to various interior areas of the Soviet Union. Palatalization , a common feature of Uralic languages, had been lost in the Finnic branch, but it has been reacquired by most of these languages, including Eastern Finnish, but not Western Finnish. In Finnish orthography, this is denoted with
23707-580: Was likewise succeeded by the Stubb Cabinet on 23 June 2014. Stubb went on to lead the party into the 2015 parliamentary election , in which the National Coalition Party placed second in votes and third in parliamentary seats. After the election, National Coalition joined a right-leaning majority coalition consisting of the three largest parties – the Centre Party, the Finns Party and the National Coalition Party. During his term, Stubb faced growing criticism for
23864-541: Was originally coined from the Italian phrase Italia irredenta and referred to an Italian movement after 1878 claiming parts of Switzerland and the Austro-Hungarian Empire . Often discussed cases of irredentism include Nazi Germany's annexation of the Sudetenland in 1938, Somalia's invasion of Ethiopia in 1977, and Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982. Further examples are attempts to establish
24021-545: Was published in 2004. There is also an etymological dictionary, Suomen sanojen alkuperä , published in 1992–2000, and a handbook of contemporary language ( Nykysuomen käsikirja ). Standard Finnish is used in official texts and is the form of language taught in schools. Its spoken form is used in political speech, newscasts, in courts, and in other formal situations. Nearly all publishing and printed works are in standard Finnish. The colloquial language has mostly developed naturally from earlier forms of Finnish, and spread from
24178-446: Was the most positively viewed party by Finns and was the most favored party among the young generation in polls conducted in 2008 and 2014. The main structure of the National Coalition Party comprises municipal and local chapters organized into districts and as well as the women's, student and youth wings. The party conference ( Finnish : puoluekokous ), the main decision-making body convening every two years with representatives from
24335-623: Was the use of the reflexive suffix -(t)te , used only in the eastern dialects. The Birch bark letter no. 292 from the early 13th century is the first known document in any Finnic language ; it is written in a variety that is closest to modern Karelian or Veps . The first known written example of Finnish itself is found in a German travel journal dating back to c. 1450 : Mÿnna tachton gernast spuho sommen gelen Emÿna daÿda (Modern Finnish: " Minä tahdon kernaasti puhua suomen kielen, [mutta] en minä taida; " English: "I want to speak Finnish, [but] I am not able to"). According to
24492-437: Was to implement a number of social and economic reforms, such as compulsory education , universal health care , and progressive income and property taxation. The monarchist aims failed and Finland became a parliamentary republic—in which the NCP advocated for strong presidential powers. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the fear of Joseph Stalin 's communist Soviet Union influenced Finnish politics. The Communists , backed by
24649-558: Was under Swedish rule , Finnish was only spoken . At the time, the language of international commerce was Middle Low German , the language of administration Swedish , and religious ceremonies were held in Latin . This meant that Finnish speakers could use their mother tongue only in everyday life. Finnish was considered inferior to Swedish, and Finnish speakers were second-class members of society because they could not use their language in any official situations. There were even efforts to reduce
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