Why do denmark hate sweden

The people of Iceland are fascinating. The people who live in neighboring countries around the world, like in Scandinavia, often have many similarities. For instance, non-Scandinavians observe many similarities between Norwegians, Swedes, and Danes , especially when it comes to appearance, politics, and lifestyle. Yet, it is sometimes the case that neighboring countries, though their people can be similar, have more conflict with each other, not less. One main reason this is the case is because of the competition over resources.

Neighboring countries sometimes seek the same land and water use. They may have different policies on border control. One economy may be stronger than the other. Neighbors may also have different religious convictions as well.

Their leaders may have different policies as well. From the 10th to 13th century A. Then in , the three countries joined together through a unification agreement called the Kalmar Union. Later, in , Sweden left the alliance, which resulted in increased tension among the Scandinavian nations. Sweden, however, remained the regional outlier for more than a century. Generally, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden have a strong regional connection , which is marked by a strong economy, shared social values, and several land and water-use agreements.

But do some people living today still have resentment and hold negative views about a neighboring people group due to conflicts that happened centuries ago? In other regional conflicts around the world, present-day racial, political, and social tensions can be traced back thousands of years, not just hundreds like in Scandinavia.

National pride certainly exists in Scandinavian countries like it does elsewhere in the world. Norwegians love their country and many of its citizens believe it is better than other nations, though in a non-hateful way. The same is true of Danish and Swedish people. Their residents have a healthy pride in their people, history, and social priorities. Centuries ago, there most certainly was hatred between the nations of Denmark and Sweden, as evidenced by the dozens of wars fought between them.

But to say that Danes and Swedes hate each other today would be a gross overstatement despite the occasional war of words and disparaging remarks. The current state of relations between Denmark and Sweden is at times nebulous, and at other times complex.

It has been hundreds of years since the Danes and Swedes last took up arms against each other, and just about the only modern-day hostilities between them involve words, attitudes, and even volleys of tweets during an epic social media dust-up.

What do Norwegians think of Swedes and Danes? The simple truth of the matter is that despite hundreds of years of vying for regional supremacy with great loss of life on both sides, modern Danes and Swedes do not hate each other. But this does not mean that they are all too chummy either.

After all, for several centuries, these two nations wanted nothing more than to eradicate the other, and this level of animosity does not dissolve away completely.

At their closest points, Denmark and Sweden are separated by a mere 12 kilometers roughly 7 miles , and yet Danes and Swedes are culturally distinct and speak different languages. In fact, the only way they can communicate with each other is through the neutral language of English, and quite often, it is through this non-native tongue that their wars of words are waged.

The relationship between Denmark and Sweden and their respective constituents is complex, difficult to define, and at times, marked by seemingly childish and petty behavior. Ask the Danes how they feel about their neighbors to the northeast, and the Swedes would likely be described as being stiff, overly reserved, and downright unfriendly. Other widely accepted stereotypes of Swedes depict them as:. Sweden has a fascinating culture. The Swedes, on the other hand, if asked to describe the good people of Denmark, might depict the Danes as happy-go-lucky people who, for better or worse, wear their emotions on their sleeves.

Due to their proximity to continental Europe and their direct interactions throughout history with the French and Germans, Danish people are also often perceived as possessing a bit of an elitist attitude toward their fellow Scandinavians across the water in Sweden and Norway. Perhaps the current state of relations between the people of Denmark and their counterparts in Sweden is best epitomized by hostilities that erupted on social media between official government Twitter accounts managed by the Danish Foreign Ministry on one side and the Swedish Communications Unit on the other.

Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and the hurling of insults came to an end. There is more than a whiff of the police state about the fact that Danish policeman refuse to display ID numbers and can refuse to give their names.

The Danes are aggressively jingoistic, waving their red-and-white dannebrog at the slightest provocation. Like the Swedes, they embraced privatisation with great enthusiasm even the ambulance service is privatised ; and can seem spectacularly unsophisticated in their race relations cartoon depictions of black people with big lips and bones through their noses are not uncommon in the national press.

And if you think a move across the North Sea would help you escape the paedophiles, racists, crooks and tax-dodging corporations one reads about in the British media on a daily basis, I'm afraid I must disabuse you of that too. Got plenty of them. The dignity and resolve of the Norwegian people in the wake of the attacks by Anders Behring Breivik in July was deeply impressive, but in September the rightwing, anti-Islamist Progress party — of which Breivik had been an active member for many years — won There remains a disturbing Islamophobic sub-subculture in Norway.

Ask the Danes, and they will tell you that the Norwegians are the most insular and xenophobic of all the Scandinavians, and it is true that since they came into a bit of money in the s the Norwegians have become increasingly Scrooge-like, hoarding their gold, fearful of outsiders. Though saw a record number of asylum applications to Norway, it granted asylum to fewer than half of them around 5, people , a third of the number that less wealthy Sweden admits Sweden accepted over 9, from Syria alone.

According to him, his countrymen have been corrupted by their oil money, are working less, retiring earlier, and calling in sick more frequently.

And while previous governments have controlled the spending of oil revenues, the new bunch are threatening a splurge which many warn could lead to full-blown Dutch disease. Like the dealer who never touches his own supply, those dirty frackers the Norwegians boast of using only renewable energy sources , all the while amassing the world's largest sovereign wealth fund selling fossil fuels to the rest of us.

As Norwegian anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen put it to me when I visited his office in Oslo University: "We've always been used to thinking of ourselves as part of the solution, and with the oil we suddenly became part of the problem.

Most people are really in denial. We need not detain ourselves here too long. Only , — it would appear rather greedy and irresponsible — people cling to this breathtaking, yet borderline uninhabitable rock in the North Atlantic. Further attention will only encourage them. I am very fond of the Finns, a most pragmatic, redoubtable people with a Sahara-dry sense of humour.

But would I want to live in Finland? In summer, you'll be plagued by mosquitos, in winter, you'll freeze — that's assuming no one shoots you, or you don't shoot yourself. Finland ranks third in global gun ownership behind only America and Yemen; has the highest murder rate in western Europe , double that of the UK; and by far the highest suicide rate in the Nordic countries. The Finns are epic Friday-night bingers and alcohol is now the leading cause of death for Finnish men.

In the US, they'd have an intervention. With its tarnished crown jewel, Nokia, devoured by Microsoft, Finland's hitherto robust economy is more dependent than ever on selling paper — mostly I was told, to Russian porn barons. The view was a bit samey. The nation once dubbed "the west's reigning educational superpower" the Atlantic has slipped in the latest Pisa rankings. This follows some unfortunate incidents involving Finnish students — the burning of Porvoo cathedral by an year-old in ; the Jokela shootings another disgruntled year-old in , and the shooting of 10 more students by a peer in — which led some to speculate whether Finnish schools were quite as wonderful as their reputation would have us believe.

If you do decide to move there, don't expect scintillating conversation. Finland's is a reactive, listening culture, burdened by taboos too many to mention civil war, second world war and cold war-related, mostly.

They're not big on chat. Look up the word "reticent" in the dictionary and you won't find a picture of an awkward Finn standing in a corner looking at his shoelaces, but you should. She worked for the tourist board. Anything I say about the Swedes will pale in comparison to their own excoriating self-image.