Everything about Oresund totally explained
Oresund or
The Sound () is the
strait that separates the
Danish island
Zealand from the southern
Swedish province of
Scania. Its width is just 4 km at the narrowest point between
Elsinore, Denmark and
Helsingborg, Sweden).
Oresund is one of the three
Danish Straits that connects the
Baltic Sea to the
Atlantic Ocean via
Kattegat,
Skagerrak, and the
North Sea, and is one of the busiest waterways in the world.
The
Oresund Bridge was inaugurated on
July 1,
2000 by King
Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden and Queen
Margrethe II of Denmark. Between Helsingborg and Elsinore in the North of Oresund there are still ferries departing around the clock.
History
Political control of Oresund has been an important issue in Danish and
Swedish history. Denmark maintained
military control with the
coastal
fortress of
Kronborg at Elsinore on the west side and
Kärnan at Helsingborg on the east, until the eastern shore was ceded to Sweden in 1658. Both fortresses are located where the strait is just 4
kilometers wide.
Sound Dues
In
1429 King
Eric of Pomerania introduced the
Sound Dues () Transitory dues on the use of waterways, roads, bridges and crossings were then an accepted way of taxing which could constitute a great part of a state's income.
All foreign ships passing through the strait, whether
en route to or from Denmark or not, had to make a stop in Elsinore and pay a toll to the Danish
Crown. If a ship refused to stop, cannons in both Elsinore and Helsingborg could open fire and sink it. In
1567, the toll was changed into a 1-2% tax of the
cargo value, providing three times more revenue. In order to avoid ships simply taking a different route, tolls were also collected at the two other Danish straits, the
Great Belt and the
Little Belt.
The Sound Dues remained the most important source of income for the Danish Crown for several centuries, thus making Danish kings relatively independent of Denmark's
Privy Council and
aristocracy. After
1658, when the Danish lands on the
Scandinavian peninsula were ceded to Sweden, the toll couldn't be enforced as well as before but Denmark retained its established right of the dues. Sweden had been exempted from the dues from the start, as she was then part of the
Kalmar Union with Denmark, but this was ended after the
Great Northern War of
1720, although the eastern shore was now Swedish.
The
Copenhagen Convention of
1857 abolished the dues and all
Danish Straits were made
international waterways free to all military and commercial shipping. It had been increasingly evident that the Sound Dues had a negative impact on the port and merchants of Copenhagen, although the dues delivered by then one eighth of the Danish state income. In compensation for the abolition, the Danish state received a one-time fee of 33.5 million Danish
rixdollars.
Notable islands
Further Information
Get more info on 'Oresund'.
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