Chapter 29 Diligence and wisdom overcome evil

There is one European country that has not yet been covered.Of modern Turkey's early victories in Europe, only the city of Constantinople and a small piece of the Thrace Plain remain, so let's save it for tomorrow.And Finland is a part of Europe, this is an out-and-out fact. The Finns once inhabited Russia scatteredly.However, because of the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Slavs, the Finns were continuously driven northward until they were driven into the narrow dry land between Russia and Scandinavia.The Finns have always settled down in this dry land.The Laplanders lived in the forest, and they did not embarrass the Finns, because it was to avoid European civilization far away that the Laplanders migrated to the Lapland area of ​​the Scandinavian Peninsula.The Lappish people are content with being able to live in isolation, alone.

Finland is very different from other European countries.Glaciers have covered Finland for millions of years, and the huge glaciers have eroded the soil layer of Finland. So far, only 10% of Finland's land is suitable for farming.The glaciers flowed slowly, wrapped in glacial moraine, and those stones and soil were impacted into huge deep valleys and deposited.Later, the ice age ended, the earth warmed up, the ice and snow melted, and the valleys were filled with water, forming alpine lakes in Finland, large and small, scattered all over the place.Finland is a lowland country, rarely above 500 feet above sea level, so the term "alpine lake" doesn't mean Finland is second to Sweden.There are more than 40,000 lakes in Finland.If the swamps between the lakes are included, Finland's wetland area accounts for about 30% of the country's land area.These wetlands are surrounded by forests, which cover 62% of Finland's total land area. This is one of Finland's most precious natural resources, making Finland the supplier of pulp needed by most parts of the world. Used in the manufacture of book and magazine paper, part of which is made into paper in Finland.However, Finland has no coal.But some turbulent rivers can develop hydropower, but Finland's climate is similar to that of Sweden, and the rivers are frozen for five months every year. During the frozen period, of course, hydropower stations cannot work.Therefore, timber can only be transported abroad by ship.The capital of Finland, Helsinki (it was called Helsingfors until the World War) is not only the political center of the country, but also the main port for Finnish timber exports.

Before the end of this chapter, I hope you have also learned about the role of education in a people.The people who inhabit the granite belt between Scandinavia and Russia are almost all descendants of the Mongols.Later, the western part of the Granite Belt, the Finnish-speaking part, was owned by the Swedes, while the Karelians inhabited the eastern part of the Granite Belt, who became Russian vassals.The Finns from the East, through the subtle influence of the Swedes for 500 years, have created a civilized European nation, which has surpassed those countries with more advantageous geographical locations in many respects.The Karelians are of the same origin as the Finns, and they have been under the Russian rule for an equally long 500 years. Although the rich resources of the Kola Peninsula and the coast of Murmansk are expected to be developed and utilized in the future , but in the land where the Russian tsar conquered them, they still stood still and stagnated.On the Finnish side, as a province of Sweden, it was not until 1809 when Sweden ceded it to Russia that it first came into contact with Slavic culture.At that time, the illiteracy rate of the Finns was 1%, while the illiteracy rate among the Karelians was as high as 97%.

These are two peoples of the same root, and they should have the same ability in how to spell c-a-t and t-a-i-l.