The History of Finland begins around 9,000 BC during the end of the last glacial period. Stone Age cultures were Kunda, Comb Ceramic, Corded Ware, Pöljä cultures; the Finnish Bronze Age started in 1,500 BC and the Iron Age started in 500 BC and lasted until 1,300 AD. Finnish Iron Age cultures can be separated into Finnish proper and Karelian cultures; the earliest written sources mentioning Finland start to appear from the 12th century onwards when the Catholic Church started to gain a foothold in Southwest Finland. Due to the Northern Crusades and Swedish colonisation of some Finnish coastal areas, most of the region became a part of the Kingdom of Sweden and the realm of the Catholic Church from the 13th century onwards. After the Finnish War in 1809, the vast majority of the Finnish-speaking areas of Sweden were ceded to the Russian Empire, making this area the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland; the Lutheran religion dominated. Finnish nationalism emerged in the 19th century, it focused on Finnish cultural traditions and mythology, including music and—especially—the distinctive language and lyrics associated with it.

One product of this era was one of the most significant works of Finnish literature. The catastrophic Finnish famine of 1866–1868 was followed by eased economic regulations and extensive emigration. In 1917, Finland declared independence. A civil war between the Finnish Red Guards and the White Guard ensued a few months with the Whites gaining the upper hand during the springtime of 1918. After the internal affairs stabilized, the still agrarian economy grew quickly. Relations with the West Sweden and Britain, were strong but tensions remained with the Soviet Union. During the Second World War, Finland fought twice against the Soviet Union, first defending its independence in the Winter War and invading the Soviet Union in the Continuation War. In the peace settlement Finland ended up ceding a large part of Karelia and some other areas to the Soviet Union. However, Finland remained an independent democracy in Northern Europe. In the latter half of its independent history, Finland has maintained a mixed economy.

Since its post-World War II economic boom in the 1970s, Finland's GDP per capita has been among the world's highest. The expanded welfare state of Finland from 1970 and 1990 increased the public sector employees and spending and the tax burden imposed on the citizens. In 1992, Finland faced economic overheating and depressed Western and local markets. Finland joined the European Union in 1995, replaced the Finnish markka with the euro in 2002. According to a 2016 poll, 61% of Finns preferred not to join NATO. If confirmed, the oldest archeological site in Finland would be the Wolf Cave in Kristinestad, in Ostrobothnia; the site would be the only pre-glacial site so far discovered in the Nordic Countries, it is 125,000 years old. The last ice age in the area of the modern-day Finland ended c. 9000 BC. Starting about that time, people migrated to the area of Finland from the South-East, their culture represented mixture of Kunda and Veretje cultures. At the same time, northern Finland was inhabited via the coast of Norway.

The oldest confirmed evidence of the post-glacial human settlements in Finland are from the area of Ristola in Lahti and from Orimattila, from c. 8900 BC. Finland has been continuously inhabited at least since the end of the last ice age, up to the present; the earliest post-glacial inhabitants of the present-day area of Finland were mainly seasonal hunter-gatherers. Among finds is the net of Antrea, the oldest fishing net known to have been excavated. By 5300 BC, pottery was present in Finland; the earliest samples belong to the Comb Ceramic Cultures, known for their distinctive decorating patterns. This marks the beginning of the neolithic period for Finland, although subsistence was still based on hunting and fishing. Extensive networks of exchange existed across Finland and northeastern Europe during the 5th millennium BC. For example, flint from Scandinavia and the Valdai Hills, amber from Scandinavia and the Baltic region, slate from Scandinavia and Lake Onega found their way into Finnish archaeological sites, while asbestos and soap stone from Finland were found in other regions.

Rock paintings — related to shamanistic and totemistic belief systems — have been found in Eastern Finland, e.g. Astuvansalmi. Between 3500 and 2000 BC, monumental stone enclosures colloquially known as Giant's Churches were constructed in the Ostrobothnia region; the purpose of the enclosures is unknown. In recent years, a dig in Kierikki site north of Oulu on River Ii has changed the image of Finnish neolithic stone age culture; the site has traded extensively. Kierikki culture is seen as a subtype of Comb Ceramic culture. More of the site is excavated annually. From 3200 BC onwards, either immigrants or a strong cultural influence from south of the Gulf of Finland settled in southwestern Finland; this culture was a part of the European Battle Axe cultures, which have been associated with the movement of the Indo-European speakers. The Battle Axe, or Cord Ceramic, culture seems to have practiced agriculture and animal husbandry outside of Finland, but the earliest confirmed traces of agriculture in Finland date approximately to the 2nd millennium BC.

Further inland, the societies retained their hunting-gathering lifestyles for the time being. The Battle Axe and Comb Ceramic cultures eventually

Antoni Dufriche-Desgenettes, baptized Antoine Marie Dufriche-Foulaines, was a French seafaring merchant and amateur phonetician. His father François Nicolas, a brother of René-Nicolas Dufriche Desgenettes, had changed his family name from Dufriche-Desgenettes to Foulaines-Dufriche and was a lawyer and political writer. After many years at sea, Dufriche worked in the Netherlands as a French teacher for some time. In the late 1850s, he returned to Paris but still travelled abroad to Java, his travels enabled him to collect information about the sounds of many languages and to develop a universal phonetic alphabet. He is best known for the introduction of the term phoneme for an individual sound as an element of a language-specific or universal sound inventory. In 1860, Dufriche joined the Société d'ethnographie orientale et américaine, whose members "were linguists and specialists in Asian texts and pre-Columbian codices", he was among the founders of the Société de Linguistique de Paris in 1864.

As an autodidact in linguistics, he remained something of an outsider, it is that the term phoneme survived thanks to its acceptance by Louis Havet, although it underwent a number of metamorphoses in the course of half a century until it acquired the meaning'smallest distinctive unit'. A biographical sketch of Dufriche was compiled by E. F. K. Koerner in 1976, but his date of death and his full first name long remained a mystery. E. F. K. Koerner. Toward a Historiography of Linguistics: Selected Essays. John Benjamins Publishing Company. Pp. 127–136. ISBN 978-90-272-8654-3

Phil Hart was a Republican Idaho State Representative from 2004 to 2012 representing District 3 in the B seat. Hart earned his bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the University of Utah and his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. 2018 Hart is a candidate in the 2018 Republican Primary Election for the Idaho Legislature in District 7, for House Seat B. The primary election is on May 15. District 7 includes 5 precincts in Bonner County and all of Shoshone County, Clearwater County and Idaho County. 2012 Redistricted to 2B, Hart lost the four-way May 15, 2012, Republican primary to Ed Morse, getting only 31.2% of the vote.2010 Hart was unopposed for the Republican Primary. Hart won the general election with 80.1% of the vote against write-in candidate Howard Griffiths.2008 Hart won the Republican primary with 2,714 votes against David RawlsHart was unopposed for the general election votes.2006 Hart won the Republican primary with 57% of the vote, again against Wayne R. Meyer.

Hart was unopposed for the general election.2004 Hart challenged Wayne R. Meyer in the May 25, 2004, Republican primary, winning with 60.25% of the vote. Hart won the general election by defeating Wayne R. Meyer again this time as a write-in candidate, with 91% of the vote.2002 When Republican Representative Kristina Ellis was re-districted to District 4, Hart ran as the Constitution Party nominee, but lost the November 5, 2002, general election to Republican Wayne R. Meyer only getting 31.7% of the vote. Profile at Vote Smart