A thousand years ago, the Nordic peoples began to come together and form kingdoms. For centuries before this, the people of the North who traded with and plundered the lands beyond the Nordic Region had been known as Vikings.

As Christianity made inroads into the Region, the wild days of plunder and pillage came to an end. However, wars still raged from time to time – including between the Nordic kingdoms.

From 1397 to 1521, the kingdoms were united under the Kalmar Union. Already the ruler of Norway and Denmark, Queen Margrete I was chosen as regent of Sweden in 1389.

Margrete's kinsman Erik of Pomerania was crowned Nordic king in Kalmar on 17 June 1397. The Kalmar Union existed until 1521, when Gustav Vasa was chosen as the Swedish king.

The Nordic Region remained divided for the next 300 years. The Swedish kingdom claimed Finland, and gradually absorbed several territories in the Baltic Sea Region.

The Danish kingdom included Norway, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. The two kingdoms fought one another in many wars.

At first the Danish Crown was the stronger, but Sweden gained the upper hand over the course of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648).

However, following the Great Northern War in the early 18th century, Sweden was no longer a major power. Russia and Prussia became the dominant states on the Baltic Sea.

The Napoleonic Wars brought further changes to the Nordic Region. Russia attacked and occupied Swedish Finland, and the Tsar became Grand Duke of Finland in 1809. Under the Treaty of Kiel, Denmark was forced to cede Norway to Sweden, a union that was to last from 1814 until 1905.

In 1875, Sweden, Denmark and Norway created a Scandinavian monetary union, which formally remained in place until 1924. In practice, however, it ended during World War One, when the unit of currency, the Crown, no longer had the same value in the different countries in relation to gold.

In 1905, the union between Sweden and Norway was disbanded, and Norway became independent. Finnish independence followed on 6 December 1917. A year later, Iceland achieved a significant degree of autonomy, but remained subject to the Danish royal family and foreign policy until 1944.

The fate of Åland was a source of conflict between Sweden and Finland until the League of Nations decreed that it should be linked to Finland.

A large number of organisations initiated grassroots Nordic co-operation as early as the late 19th century. Popular co-operation remains the driving force behind formal co-operation to this day.

The Nordic Association was founded in Denmark, Norway and Sweden in 1919, then in Iceland in 1922, and Finland in 1924. It has since been key factor in strengthening Nordic co-operation.

One visible result of this co-operation is 'twin' towns. In 1939, Thisted in Denmark established links with Uddevalla in Sweden, and many other towns have since followed their example.

Even before World War Two, the Nordic Social Democrats and trade unions had come together in the Joint Committee of the Nordic Social Democratic Labour Movement (SAMAK).

At SAMAK's first meeting after the War, held in July 1945 in Stockholm, the assembled top politicians agreed to work for joint Nordic policies in a number of fields.

In May 1948, the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Östen Undén, proposed the creation of a Scandinavian defence union. Negotiations broke down permanently in early 1949, as Norway and Sweden failed to find common ground.

Denmark, Iceland and Norway opted instead to join NATO, while Sweden insisted on its neutrality.

The Nordic Council was formed by Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden in 1952. Finland, which at that point in time was heavily influenced by Stalin's Soviet Union, did not join until 1955, when relations thawed under Krushchev, the new Soviet leader.