Føroyar eru oyggjaland í Norðuratlantshavi. Íbúgvarnir verða nevndir føroyingar, og tungumálið er føroyskt. Føroyska flaggið verður nevnt Merkið og føroyska skjaldarmerkið ímyndar ein veðr á bláum skjøldri.
The Faroe Islands or, simply, the Faroes (From the Faroese Føroyar, meaning "sheep islands") are a group of islands in northern Europe, between the Norwegian Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, about one-half of the way from ► Iceland to ► Norway, and north of ► Scotland. They have been an autonomous territory and a constituent part of the Kingdom of Denmark since 1948. The Faroese government has, over the years, taken control of most matters except defense (they have a small, organized, native military in Mjørkadalur, including a small police force and coast guard) and foreign affairs, which are the responsibility of Denmark. The Faroes have close traditional ties to Iceland, the Shetland Islands, the Orkney Islands, the Outer Hebrides, and Greenland.
Short name
Faroe Islands
Official name
Faroe Islands
Status
Autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark (Danish since 1380, with its present status since 1948)
This section holds a short summary of the history of the area of present-day the Faroe Islands, illustrated with maps, including historical maps of former countries and empires that included present-day the Faroe Islands.
The Faroe Islands were inhabited by Norwegian colonists during the Viking period. It officially became a possesion of Norway in 1035. Denmark seized the Faroe Islands in 1380 and annexed them to Denmark. (This maps shows the islands as part of the Denmark-dominated Kalmar Union in the 16th century.) In 1655 the Danish king gave the islands to the Von Gabel family as a feudal estate, but in 1709 the islands become a Danish crown possession once again. Denmark administered the islands from 1720 as part of Iceland and from 1776 as part of Sjælland County.
Map of Denmark-Norway, including the Faroe Islands, in 1780
The Faroe Islands were given autonomy and their own parliament. In 1816 their autonomy was withdrawn, although the islands become become a separate county as the Faroe Islands. From 1940 to 1945, the islands were under British occupation. In 1948 the Faroe Islands gained internal self-government.
Old maps
This section holds copies of original general maps more than 70 years old.
"Færoarum - Prima & accurata delineatio". Map by Lucas Debes 1673, the first known detailed map of the Faroes
Other maps
Isoglosses of the Faroese language
Satellite maps
Satellite image
Notes and references
General remarks:
The WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Atlas of the World is an organized and commented collection of geographical, political and historical maps available at Wikimedia Commons. The main page is therefore the portal to maps and cartography on Wikimedia. That page contains links to entries by country, continent and by topic as well as general notes and references.
Every entry has an introduction section in English. If other languages are native and/or official in an entity, introductions in other languages are added in separate sections. The text of the introduction(s) is based on the content of the Wikipedia encyclopedia. For sources of the introduction see therefore the Wikipedia entries linked to. The same goes for the texts in the history sections.
Historical maps are included in the continent, country and dependency entries.
The status of various entities is disputed. See the content for the entities concerned.
The maps of former countries that are more or less continued by a present-day country or had a territory included in only one or two countries are included in the atlas of the present-day country. For example the Ottoman Empire can be found in the Atlas of Turkey.