Nokia, Finland

From Free net encyclopedia

For the corporation, see Nokia.

Nokia is a town and municipality of Finland on the banks of the Emäkoski River in the region of Pirkanmaa and the province of Western Finland, some 15km to the west of Tampere. It has a population of about 28,604 (October 2005).

1 History
2 Present
- 2.1 Statistics
3 External links

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History

Nokia has been around long enough that its name is obscure even to most Finns. The name comes from the archaic Finnish word nokia short for nokinäätä (lit. "soot marten") meaning sable, from Old Finnish nois (pl. nokia) for "soot". After sable was hunted to extinction in Finland, the word meant any dark-coated fur animal such as marten which are found in the area to this day. Later still the word referred to furs in general but is no longer used in that sense. The animal is enshrined on the Nokia coat of arms.

The first literary reference to Nokia is in a 1505 document in connection with the Nokia Manor.

Nokia was the setting of one of the largest battles in the Club War, a 1596 peasant uprising against Swedish feudal lords. The peasants, unsurprisingly armed with clubs, took up residence in Nokia Manor and won several skirmishes against the feudal cavalry, but were decisively defeated by Klaus Fleming on January 1-2, 1597. Thousands of clubmen were slain and their fled leader, Jaakko Ilkka, was captured a few weeks later and executed. The Club War was the last major peasant revolt in Finland, and it permanently consolidated the hold of the nation state. Much later, in the Finnish Civil War (1918), Nokia (along with neighboring Tampere) was a Communist stronghold and saw some combat.

Telecommunication giant Nokia was established in Nokia (hence the name.) The now billion-dollar company was founded by Fredrik Idestam in 1865 only as a pulp mill for manufacturing paper. The company no longer has any operations in the town of Nokia, and is best known as a leader in telecommunications.

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