The Åland Islands (Finnish: Ahvenanmaa) is an autonomous region of Finland that consists of an archipelago lying at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia in the Baltic Sea, which comprises Fasta Åland (Main Island) and 6,500 skerries and islands. Fasta Åland is separated from the coast of Sweden by 38km of open water to the west, and in the east is contiguous with the Finnish Archipelago Sea. Åland's only land border is located on the uninhabited skerry of Märket, which it shares with Sweden. The archipelago was part of the territory ceded to Russia by Sweden under the Treaty of Fredrikshamn in September 1809. After the Grand Duchy of Finland became the independent Finland in 1917, the islands entered into its composition. Finland declined to cede them, in spite the desire of the inhabitants, almost all Swedish, to unite with Sweden, but a decision made by the League of Nations in 1921, following the Åland crisis, affirmed the autonomous status of the islands.
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