Sweden

17
Petroglyphs
freshly painted
red at
Himmelstalund
in Norrköping,
Östergötland.
Beautiful
messages from
a distant time.
Photo: Staffan Gustavsson / REDAKTA
Swedish History
A brief overview from the Ice Age
to the Cyber Age
For millennia, Sweden was an agricultural society. Differences
between rich and poor were striking. Not until the mid-nineteenth
century did modern Sweden begin to take shape.
Land reforms were carried out, industrialism took wing. There
was still great poverty, however, and in the early twentieth
century labourers formed unions to fight for better conditions.
As the twentieth century drew to a close, Sweden started to
be affected by the rest of the world more than ever before.
Here you can read about the country’s development from
prehistoric times to the present day.
History