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Swedish Empire: A Visual History

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Visual history of an empire

For a century a country of a million people dominated the Baltic, from Gustavus Adolphus's Thirty Years' War victories to Charles XII's ruin at Poltava.

Existed
1611 to 1721
Duration
110 years
Existed
1611 to 1721
Peak area
About 1.1 million km2 (1658)
Peak population
About 2.5 million (including Finland and provinces)
Capital
Stockholm
Notable rulers
Gustavus Adolphus, Christina, Charles X, Charles XI, Charles XII

The Swedish Empire (Stormaktstiden, 'the age of great power') ran from Gustavus Adolphus's accession in 1611 to the Treaty of Nystad in 1721. Sweden conquered Finland's neighbours Estonia, Livonia and Ingria, took Pomerania, Bremen and Verden in Germany at Westphalia in 1648, and won Scania and the Danish provinces in 1658, making the Baltic almost a Swedish lake. Its army, financed by copper, iron and French subsidies, was Europe's most modern. Charles XII's Great Northern War against Russia, Denmark and Saxony ended in the disaster of Poltava (1709), and the peace of 1721 handed the Baltic provinces to Peter the Great.

When it existed: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Swedish Empire. The lighter bars are empires and wars from the same era and the same part of the world. Click any bar to jump to its page.

800100012001400160018002000Swedish Empire (1611 to 1721)Open: Holy Roman EmpireHoly Roman Empire (800 to 1806)Open: Ottoman EmpireOttoman Empire (1299 to 1922)Open: Polish-Ottoman warsPolish-Ottoman wars (1485 to 1699)Open: Danish colonial empireDanish colonial empire (1536 to 1953)Open: Northern WarsNorthern Wars (1554 to 1721)Open: Eighty Years' War (Dutch Revolt)Eighty Years' War (Dutch Revolt) (1568 to 1648)Open: Polish-Lithuanian CommonwealthPolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569 to 1795)Open: British EmpireBritish Empire (1583 to 1997)Open: Thirty Years' WarThirty Years' War (1618 to 1648)Open: Franco-Dutch WarFranco-Dutch War (1672 to 1678)Open: Great Northern WarGreat Northern War (1700 to 1721)Open: Russian EmpireRussian Empire (1721 to 1917)

Swedish territory

0375750112515001611: 7801648: 10001658: 11001700: 10501721: 750162016401660168017001720thousand km2

Timeline of the Swedish Empire

  1. 1611
    Gustavus Adolphus becomes king
  2. 1631
    Breitenfeld
  3. 1632
    Gustavus killed at Lutzen
  4. 1648
    Peace of WestphaliaGerman provinces gained.
  5. 1658
    Treaty of RoskildeScania won; peak extent.
  6. 1700
    Great Northern War; Narva
  7. 1709
    Poltava
  8. 1718
    Charles XII killed
  9. 1721
    Treaty of Nystad

Gustavus Adolphus

Gustavus Adolphus (1611-1632), with his chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, built a conscript army and reformed its tactics with mobile field guns and combined-arms brigades. He took Livonia from Poland, and in 1630 landed in Germany to save the Protestant cause in the Thirty Years' War, winning at Breitenfeld (1631) and dying at Lutzen (1632). Sweden fought on until Westphalia in 1648, gaining Pomerania and a seat in the imperial diet.

The Baltic lake

Charles X Gustav marched his army across the frozen Belts in 1658 to force Denmark to cede Scania, Halland, Blekinge and Bornholm; Sweden reached its greatest extent. Charles XI's 'reduction' took back crown lands from the nobility, made the king absolute and created the allotment system of soldier-farmers. Swedish iron and copper, and the Kingdom's Dutch and French connections, paid for it all.

Charles XII and Poltava

In 1700 Denmark, Saxony-Poland and Russia attacked the 18-year-old Charles XII. He knocked Denmark out, crushed a Russian army at Narva, deposed Augustus of Poland and in 1708 invaded Russia. Winter, scorched earth and Peter the Great's reformed army destroyed the Swedish force at Poltava on 8 July 1709. Charles spent five years in Ottoman exile, returned, and was shot dead besieging a Norwegian fortress in 1718. Nystad in 1721 gave Russia Estonia, Livonia, Ingria and Karelia; Sweden was a great power no more.

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8 surprising things about the Swedish Empire

  1. Sweden's population in 1650 was about a million and it maintained armies of over 100,000, mostly German mercenaries and conscripts.
  2. Charles X's crossing of the frozen Danish straits with his whole army in 1658 is one of the great gambles of military history.
  3. The warship Vasa sank on its maiden voyage in 1628 in Stockholm harbour and was raised almost intact in 1961.
  4. Queen Christina abdicated in 1654, converted to Catholicism and moved to Rome, scandalising Protestant Europe.
  5. Sweden held a colony, New Sweden, on the Delaware from 1638 to 1655.
  6. Charles XII never married, drank no alcohol and was shot through the head at Fredriksten; whether by the enemy or his own side is still argued.
  7. The Great Northern War's Battle of Narva in 1700 saw 8,000 Swedes rout 37,000 Russians in a snowstorm.
  8. Sweden has not fought a war since 1814, the longest peace of any European state.

Sources

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