Swedish Empire

The Swedish Empire was at its greatest extent in the 17th and early 18th centuries. The only Nordic country to have been considered a "great power", at points in history Sweden has controlled most of the shores of the Baltic Sea, troops have marched deep into present-day Germany, Russia and Ukraine and it has possessed colonies in North America, Africa and briefly in India.

Understand


"Först är allmänt veterligt, att alla våra grannar äre våre fiender, de Poler, Rysser och Danske, så att ingen ort i Sverige, Finland och Livland kan säga, att han är för fienden säker, så att vi, snarast sagt, ingen landsort have fullkomligen att lita på. ... Till det andre have vi platt inge vänner, som vår olägenhet går till hjärtat, och där än någre kunde finnes, som icke voro oss obevågne, är dock ingen hjälp eller undsättning av dem att förmoda. Firstly it is generally known that all our neighbours are our enemies – the Poles, Russians and Danes – so that no town in Sweden, Finland or Livonia can say that they are safe from the enemy in a way that we, frankly, can believe them entirely. Secondly, we simply have no friends that take our worries to the heart, and of the few that are not entirely untouched by it, we can however assume no help or support."

- Lord High Chancellor of Sweden Axel Oxenstierna in a 1612 letter to dowager Queen Christina of Holstein-Gottorp

The term "Swedish Empire" is not universally defined, but usually seen as equivalent with the Great Power era (stormaktstiden), from 1611 (Gustavus Adolphus' ascension to the throne) to 1718 (death of Charles XII), when Sweden was as its height of power and land area. In Swedish, Sweden was at the time called Konungariket Sverige (the Kingdom of Sweden). A much more modern term is Östersjöväldet, "the Baltic Sea realm". European provinces with non-Swedish population, such as those in Finland and the Baltic states, were not colonies, but formally on par with the Swedish provinces, with extensive autonomy for the estates (stånd), who consisted of nobles, clergy, burghers, and land-owning farmers.

No Swedish monarch called themselves "emperor". Every monarch from Gustav Vasa (ascended 1523) to Gustav VI Adolf (dead 1973) was styled Sveriges, Götes och Vendes konung, "King of Sweden, Geats and Wends". The Geats, inhabitants of Götaland, have been seen as equivalent of the Goths, one of the Germanic tribes that replaced the Roman Empire. The Wends were a Slavic tribe in Pomerania, who were assimilated by the Germans in the 16th century. They were seen as the same as the Vandals, another Germanic tribe that sacked Rome. The reigning king Carl XVI Gustaf is the first monarch to be modestly styled Sveriges konung ("King of Sweden").

Medieval Sweden


The period from the 8th to 11th century is known as the Viking Age, for the Norse people who travelled overseas for trade, piracy and settlement. Most Scandinavians however remained sedentary; in this period, Sweden became a unified monarchy, with the pagans converting to Christianity over time. Swedish kings annexed today's Finland in the 12th century. From 1397, all Nordic countries were unified in the Kalmar Union to counter Hanseatic influence in the Baltic Sea. In practice Denmark was in charge of the union, something that Swedish nobility wasn't happy with (leading to several minor rebellions). In 1520, when Christian II, King of Denmark was crowned King of Sweden he wanted to show he wasn't to be messed with and immediately ordered Swedish anti-unionists to be rounded up and publicly executed - that event was known as the Stockholm bloodbath (Stockholms blodbad). This had the opposite result, leading to the Swedish War of Liberation, and the establishment of a Swedish state.

16th century: Independence and reformation
The election of Gustav Vasa (Gustav I) as king in 1523 marked the beginning of independent Sweden. Gustav Vasa made the crown hereditary, consolidated power, and brought the Protestant Reformation to Sweden. His taxes and expropriation of church property caused uprisings, which were brutally crushed. Gustav's heirs spent the second half of the century fighting Russia, annexing Estonia. The fact that the new dynasty not only did adopt Lutheranism and expelled the authority of the Catholic church from Sweden, but helped towns and regions across the Baltic Sea to do the same, would come to mark the beginning of a new major power in Northern Europe.

17th century: Sweden as a Great Power




Sweden entered the Thirty Year's War to support the Lutheran cause, and the Swedes advanced deep into Germany. One of the most famous events in this war was the 1632 Battle of Lützen where King Gustavus Adolphus was killed. The anti-Habsburg coalition (including Sweden) was victorious and the war established Sweden as a major regional power in northern Europe, beginning "the Era of Great Power" (stormaktstiden). Swedish troops besieged and conquered many towns leading to local names of geographical features like "Schwedenschanze" ("Swedish redoubt").

During the 17th century, universities were founded in Tartu (1632), in Turku (1640) and in the newly conquered Lund (1666), and many towns were founded in Österland (Finland); the "time of the count" (Per Brahe) was long remembered in Finland as the good time, as was "the Swedish time" in Estonia.



Similar to many other European powers, Sweden also established a colonial empire outside Europe. Like the Dutch, they consisted mainly of various trading posts rather than control over large tract of land. In general, these projects were short-lived. In the present-day United States, along the Delaware river, the colony of New Sweden was established in 1638, as the first permanent European settlement in that area. In the same era, Sweden also had a colony called the Swedish Gold Coast in today's Ghana made up of some forts and "factories" (trading posts).

While Sweden had outposts in West Africa since the 17th century, they would not become involved in the Atlantic slave trade until a century later, when they gained possession of the island of Saint Barthelemy in the Caribbean. They held the island from 1784 to 1878, and it was first envisioned as a place for farming (and tropical fruits and tobacco were grown here on a small scale) but the island was most notable as a trading point, and a notable part of the "goods" was slaves. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, nearby Guadeloupe was Swedish for a short period. For an even shorter period in time, in 1733, the Swedish East India Company operated a "factory" in Parangipettai, in the Cuddalore District in southeastern India.



18th century: Liberty and wars with Russia
The Great Northern War broke out in 1700 with Sweden against a grand alliance of Russia, Denmark-Norway, Saxony and Poland-Lithuania. The Swedes led by king Charles XII (Karl XII, latinized form Carolus XII) were first successful, and like two later empires (Napoleon's France and Nazi Germany) the Swedish army (Caroleans) marched far into Russia before being defeated at Poltava. The war went on for 21 years, leading to a Swedish defeat, with Russia annexing Sweden's Baltic provinces.

The mid-18th century period following Charles XII's death is known as the Age of Liberty (Frihetstiden), as much of the monarch's power was transferred to the riksdag (parliament). Sweden became prominent in the arts and sciences, with celebrities such as Carl Linnaeus, the inventor of systematic biology, and Anders Celsius, who gave his name to the Celsius temperature scale. The 1766 Free Press Act was the world's first of its kind, an achievement of Anders Chydenius from what today is Finland, whose book on economic liberties predated Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations by a decade. The Age of Liberty is held to have ended with King Gustav III's coup in 1772, as he tried to make himself a despot inspired by the Enlightenment.



19th century: Union and nationalism
Sweden's resistance against Napoleonic France caused Russia to defeat Sweden in the 1808-09 Finnish War and annex Finland. In the Kiel treaty of January 1814, Sweden ceded its German territories to claim Norway, which had for centuries been part of Denmark. As Norway declared independence on 17 May the same year, Sweden invaded in November, and enforced the Swedish-Norwegian Union. That was Sweden's most recent war until today.

The nationalist movement of the 19th century included the search for a common past. Swedish writers and artists romanticized the long-lost Swedish Empire, creating many of the statues, paintings, songs and books which have come to illustrate the period. Norway sought its roots in its Viking Age monarchy, and called for independence. Norway's secession from the union in 1905 marked the end of Swedish imperialism, and the settlement of Sweden's current borders.

Finland, a subject of the Russian Empire since 1809, also saw a wave of nationalism in the 19th century, to build the nation that was "raised to the status of a nation among nations" (as emperor Alexander declared). The nation building was mainly run by scholars of the Swedish-speaking minority, but they sought to find the uniquely Finnish in the nature, people and culture of the country. While some thought a nation needs one common language, others saw the Swedish language as a crucial tie to the west, and indeed the law, language and religion inherited from Swedish times gave a solid ground for the new nation, helping to withstand Russification in later years. The ties to the Nordic countries were very important also during the Cold War. To this day, Swedish remains one of Finland's two "national languages" (alongside Finnish; in contrast to the recognised minority languages). The 19th century romantic nationalism also saw the compiling of the Kalevala, often called Finland's "national epic" by Elias Lönnrot. The work, which contains several references which are cryptic even to the modern-day expert, served as one of several sources of inspiration of J.R.R. Tolkien (who admired the Finnish language and spoke it passably) and through subsequent "high fantasy" writers borrowing concepts for the modern western genre of fantasy as a whole. In the postwar decades, thousands of Finns moved to Sweden for work, and make up Sweden's largest ethnic minority since then.

A Scandinavian union between Sweden, Norway and Denmark (which included Iceland and Greenland) with Finland as a potential member was considered in the mid-19th century to stave off foreign threats, but never made real.

Inventor Alfred Nobel's final will established the Nobel Prize with a clause to reward the most deserving candidate regardless of nationality, "whether he be Scandinavian or not". By Nobel's death in 1896, this internationalist statement was provoking, as philanthropists were expected to serve their own people. Since then, the Nobel Prize has brought more fame and prestige to Sweden than any domestic award would have brought. According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize is awarded by a committee appointed by the Norwegian Parliament, which was then a domestic legislature within the Swedish-Norwegian union.

Though the Nordic countries ended up in very different alignments during World War II in Europe and the Cold War, the region is more integrated than ever in the 21st century, without the imperialist ambitions and wars of the past.

Sweden

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Finland


Finland was part of Sweden from the 12th century until 1809; neither a colony nor a foreign territory, but one of the four "lands" (Österland, lit. Eastland – on par with Götaland, Svealand and Norrland), with delegates from present-day Finland at the riksdag.

Many Finnish cities were founded by Swedish kings and governor-generals, and the Swedish heritage is visible and alive. Swedish remains one of Finland's two official language, with around 300,000 Swedish-speaking Finns (finlandssvenskar), most of them living in the coastal provinces and in the archipelago including Åland.

Attractions from the Swedish period here tend to be less pompous than in Sweden (for instance the castles in present-day Finland are more of fortifications). Aside of the south-eastern part of "Österland", nowadays part of Russia, this part of the Swedish realm saw little warfare until the 18th century.




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Norway and Denmark
Following Sweden's independence, Denmark (and Norway, part of the union until the Napoleonic wars) and Sweden remained enemies for several centuries; several wars were fought between them, or between different alliances where Denmark and Sweden would join opposite sides. In 1814, Denmark was forced to cede Norway to Sweden in the midst of the Napoleonic Wars. Norway was ruled by the Swedish king until 7 June 1905, when the union was dissolved and Norway gained full independence with its own separate king.


 * [[File:View to Helsingborg in Sweden from Helsingør Castle in Denmark abc 004 IMG 0190.JPG|thumb|View across Öresund at its narrowest point from Elsinore (Helsingør) to Helsingborg just a few kms apart. For centuries Denmark charged tolls for sailing through, much to the irriation to the Swedes.]]
 * [[File:View to Helsingborg in Sweden from Helsingør Castle in Denmark abc 004 IMG 0190.JPG|thumb|View across Öresund at its narrowest point from Elsinore (Helsingør) to Helsingborg just a few kms apart. For centuries Denmark charged tolls for sailing through, much to the irriation to the Swedes.]]

Baltic countries


The Baltic states have been in the sphere of influence of Sweden, Denmark, Russia and German states. Lithuania did together with Poland form a major regional power parallel to the Swedish Empire, from 1569 to 1795. Sweden ruled the northern half of present day Estonia ("Swedish Estonia") since 1561, the remainder of Estonia plus the northern half of Latvia ("Swedish Livonia") since 1629, and Saaremaa since 1645. After the Great Northern War, Russia annexed Sweden's Baltic territory.

Northwestern Estonia had a Swedish minority since the Middle Ages, and despite repressions, deportations to Ukraine and emigration to Sweden during Russian rule, a few of them remain, as one of very few endemic Swedish communities abroad. They are known as aibofolke ("island people" in ancient Swedish), or rannarootslased ("coastal Swedes" in Estonian).

Swedish Livonia was seen as an important dominion from the beginning on, and the rich city of Riga as a big prize. Here the Swedes established many institutions such as the general government, a local parliament, law courts, educational institutions, a land surveying institute and a national bank.


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Russia
Aside from Denmark, Russia was Sweden's main rival, ever since Swedish and Novgorodian crusaders contended for the control of the Gulf of Finland. During the Russian "time of troubles" in the early 17th century, one of the claimants to the Russian throne (Vasili IV) asked Sweden for help, promising them parts of Karelia in exchange, and so the Swedish army plus European mercenaries marched to Moscow (known as the de la Gardie campaign) to support him. In 1610 the Russian-Swedish force was beaten at Klushino, and Vasili IV was ousted.

Then, the Swedes instead started conquering areas in the northwest of the country (known as the Ingrian War), and as a result Russia lost its access to the Baltic Sea for a century. At that point, something interesting happened. The Swedes were asked by Novgorod (held by Sweden from 1611 to 1617) to appoint a candidate for the Russian throne, and Charles Philip, the younger brother of Gustavus Adolphus was appointed and he was already making his way to Russia. Michael I would be chosen as the czar, and in that sense the Swedish adventure in Russia would be over.

Sweden would hold on to its possessions in present-day Russia until the Great Northern War, which meant the decline of the Swedish Empire, and allowed Peter the Great to proclaim the Russian Empire. Sweden's Baltic possessions, present-day Leningrad Oblast and Karelia became Russian, and notably Saint Petersburg would be founded on the site of the Swedish village of Nyen. After the war, the border would go roughly where today's Finnish-Russian border goes, although the Russian forces did occupy all of Finland during the last years of the war (the period was known as the Greater Wrath in Finland), and also launch attacks on the Swedish east coast.

Sweden was mostly at peace with Russia during the 17th century, but they fought many wars in the 18th century, with Russia finally annexing Finland in 1809.





Ukraine and southeastern Europe
Sweden didn't hold any territory here, but this corner of Europe has some notable "Swedish" destinations; most of them related to the campaign by Charles XII in the Great Northern War.





Germany and Poland


Sweden intervened in the Thirty Year's War to support the Protestant side, and made several incursions into present-day Germany, well into Bavaria. After the war they came to control three areas, whose borders were far from stable over the years. These were Wismar until 1803, Bremen-Werden until 1712 and Swedish Pomerania until 1815. The latter was the biggest of them, covering most of the coast of present-day Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, including Rügen and going all the way to Szczecin.

For a few years in the late 16th century, Poland and Sweden were ruled by the same monarch, the Catholic Sigismund III Vasa, and the breakup of this union lead to the long Swedish-Polish war.

Other than that, the Swedish didn't have real possessions in Poland, but they did invade a few times. Coastal cities of the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth like Elblag, Baltiysk and Klaipeda were occupied during the Swedish-Polish war and the overlapping Thirty Years War. After the latter, through the 1656 Treaty of Königsberg, the Duchy of Prussia became a Swedish fief.


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North America



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 * Cessna 208B Grand Caravan AN2096268.jpg. Despite being a French colony since 1878, Swedish names and emblems can still be seen here and there on the island.]]
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 * Cessna 208B Grand Caravan AN2096268.jpg. Despite being a French colony since 1878, Swedish names and emblems can still be seen here and there on the island.]]

West Africa

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Timeline

 * 1520 Stockholm bloodbath: Christian II has Swedish noblemen executed in Stockholm
 * 1521–1523 Swedish Liberation War
 * 1523 Gustav Vasa becomes King of Sweden; Kalmar Union is dissolved
 * 1554–1557 Russo-Swedish War ("Great Russian War"), leading to Treaty of Novgorod (status quo ante bellum)
 * 1558–1583 Livonian War
 * 1560 Eric XIV king
 * 1563–1570 Northern Seven Year's War, leading to Treaty of Stettin (status quo ante bellum)
 * 1568 John III king
 * 1590–1595 Russo-Swedish War, together with the Livonian War known as the "25 years war against Russia", leading to Treaty of Teusina. Northern Estonia becomes part of Sweden.
 * 1592 Sigismund king
 * 1598–1599 War against Sigismund
 * 1599 Duke Charles regent
 * 1600–1629 Polish War leading to the Truce of Altmark 1629, and Treaty of Stuhmsdorf 1635. Sweden receives the rest of present-day Estonia and northern part of present-day Latvia including Riga.
 * 1604 Charles IX king
 * 1609–1610 De la Gardie Campaign
 * 1610–1617 Ingrian War, leading to Treaty of Stolbovo. Sweden receives Ingria and Kexholm county, amounting roughly to present day Leningrad Oblast.
 * 1611 Gustavus Adolphus king
 * 1618–1648 Thirty Years' War, leading to the Peace of Westfalia. Sweden receives its possessions in present-day Germany including Swedish Pomerania and Bremen-Verden. During the war Swedish troops march throughout central Europe and besiege cities in Southern Germany
 * 1628 Warship Vasa, the flagship of the Swedish navy, sinks on its maiden voyage
 * 1632 Gustavus Adolphus dies in battle, Christina queen
 * 1638 Fort Christina is built and New Sweden in present-day United States is established, Sweden's first colony outside Europe
 * 1643–1645 Torstenson War, leading to the Second Treaty of Brömsebo. Sweden receives Jämtland, Härjedalen, Gotland, Saaremaa, and in addition Halland for 30 years
 * 1649 Sweden Africa Company is established and a trading post is set up in present-day Ghana
 * 1654 Charles X Gustav king
 * 1655 New Sweden is conquered by the Dutch Empire
 * 1655–1661 Second Northern War, leading to many treaties; the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658, and the Treaty of Copenhagen in 1660 both with Denmark, the Treaty Oliva with Poland in 1660 the Treaty of Kardis with Russia in 1661. Sweden receives Scania, Blekinge, Bohuslän, and Halland permanently. Moreover Sweden received Trøndelag and Bornholm in 1658, but they were returned to Denmark in 1660.
 * 1660 Charles XI king
 * 1663 The Dutch capture Fort Carolusborg, ending the Swedish presence in Africa
 * 1674-79 Scanian War
 * 1680s the reductions of Charles XI, meaning the power and privileges of nobility was reduced
 * 1697 Charles XII king. The former royal castle Tre Kronor burns down, and the current Royal Palace is later built at the same spot.
 * 1700–1721 Great Northern War (the last years were known as the Greater Wrath in Finland) leading to the treaty of Nystad. Sweden loses its present-day Baltic and Russian possessions, Bremen-Verden and some of Pomerania.
 * 1718 Charles XII dies in battle, Ulrica Eleanor queen
 * 1720 Frederick I king
 * 1733 Swedish East India Company establishes a trading post in India for just a month before it was attacked and destroyed by a British and French force
 * 1741–1743 Hat's Russian War (Minor Wrath) leading to the treaty of Åbo (Turku). Sweden loses more territory of present-day Finland and Kymi river now becomes the border with Russia.
 * 1751 Adolf Frederick is crowned king
 * 1757–1762 Pomeranian War
 * 1771 Gustav III king
 * 1772 Gustav III launches a coup d'etat, establishing himself as an absolute monarch
 * 1784 Sweden purchases St. Barthelemy
 * 1788–1790 Gustav III's Russian War leading to the treaty of Värälä (status quo ante bellum).
 * 1792 Gustav III assassinated, Duke Charles regent, would later become king
 * 1796 Gustav IV Adolph king
 * 1805–1814 Sweden becomes involved in the Napoleonic Wars, notably the 1808–1809 Finnish War, when Russia conquered the rest of Finland. As a result of the war, Norway became part of Sweden for almost a century.
 * 1809 Gustav IV Adolph dethroned by military officers, Charles XIII king
 * 1813 Britain transfers Guadeloupe, which it has occupied since an invasion in 1810, to Sweden, which returns it to its former owner, France, in 1814
 * 1818 Charles XIV John king
 * 1844 Oscar I king
 * 1859 Charles XV king
 * 1872 Oscar II king
 * 1878 St. Barthelemy is transferred back to France for a sum of money
 * 1905 Norway becomes independent; Sweden gets the borders and flag it has today.

Other colonial empires

 * Austro-Hungarian Empire
 * British Empire
 * Danish Empire
 * Dutch Empire
 * French Colonial Empire
 * German Empire
 * Italian Empire
 * Japanese colonial empire
 * Portuguese Empire
 * Russian Empire — together with Denmark, Sweden's main enemy around the Baltic Sea
 * Spanish Empire