Scandinavism in the context of Union mark of Norway and Sweden

The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or Norden; lit. 'the North') are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe, as well as the Arctic and North Atlantic oceans. It includes the sovereign states of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden; the autonomous territories of the Faroe Islands and Greenland; and the autonomous region of Åland.

The Nordic countries have much in common in their way of life, history, religion and social and economic model. They have a long history of political unions and other close relations but do not form a singular state or federation today. The Scandinavist movement sought to unite Denmark, Norway and Sweden into one country in the 19th century. With the dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden (Norwegian independence), the independence of Finland in the early 20th century and the 1944 Icelandic constitutional referendum, this movement expanded into the modern organised Nordic cooperation. Since 1962, this cooperation has been based on the Helsinki Treaty that sets the framework for the Nordic Council and the Nordic Council of Ministers.

The Scandinavian Monetary Union was a monetary union formed by Denmark and Sweden on 5 May 1873, with Norway joining in 1875. It established a common currency unit, the krone/krona, based on the gold standard. It was one of the few tangible results of the Scandinavian political movement of the 19th century. The union ended during World War I.

Nordic student meetings (Swedish: Nordiska studentmöten) or Scandinavian student meetings (Swedish: Skandinaviska studentmöten) were a series of gatherings between students at the Scandinavian universities during the 19th century. Students from Uppsala University, Lund University, the University of Copenhagen and the University of Oslo took turns in inviting respectively visiting each other's universities. Students from the University of Helsinki were also invited, but were unable to attend, as the Emperor of Russia had imposed travel bans upon the Helsinki students.

The meetings were a part of the scandinavistic movement which sought to unify the Scandinavian countries politically and culturally. Scandinavianism originated from the University of Copenhagen and spread to Sweden in 1839, when students from Copenhagen marched across Øresund in order to meet the students at Lund. The first Scandinavian student meeting was held in Uppsala year 1843. The Nordic student cap was designed for this occasion, and was adopted as common headgear by all Scandinavian students at the subsequent meeting in Lund and Copenhagen, year 1845. In 1851 the students at the university of Oslo invited to a third student meeting. However, the Uppsala students were unable to attend since the semester hadn't stopped. These were instead invited back the following year. The final student meeting was held in Uppsala in 1875.