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Great Northern War: A Visual History

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Visual history of a war

Charles XII of Sweden fought Russia, Denmark and Saxony-Poland for 21 years, won everything until Poltava, and lost his empire to Peter the Great.

Fought
1700 to 1721
Duration
21 years
Dates
February 1700 to September 1721
Deaths
About 350,000 soldiers; hundreds of thousands of civilians from plague and famine
Sweden
Charles XII; Holstein-Gottorp; Ottoman Empire (1710-1714); Cossack Hetmanate under Mazepa
Coalition
Russia, Denmark-Norway, Saxony, Poland-Lithuania; later Prussia, Hanover, Britain
Result
Swedish Empire ends; Russia becomes the Baltic power

The Great Northern War (1700-1721) was a coalition attack by Denmark-Norway, Saxony-Poland and Russia on the Swedish Empire under its 18-year-old king Charles XII. He knocked Denmark out in weeks, routed a Russian army at Narva (November 1700), deposed Augustus of Poland after six years of war, and invaded Russia in 1708. Peter the Great's scorched earth, the loss of the supply column at Lesnaya and the annihilation of the Swedish army at Poltava (8 July 1709) reversed the war; Charles fled to the Ottomans, Peter took the Baltic provinces and built St Petersburg. Charles returned in 1714, was shot dead at Fredriksten in Norway in 1718, and the Treaty of Nystad (1721) gave Russia Estonia, Livonia, Ingria and Karelia and made it a great power.

When it was fought: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Great Northern War. 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.

800100012001400160018002000Great Northern War (1700 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: Polish-Lithuanian CommonwealthPolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569 to 1795)Open: Swedish EmpireSwedish Empire (1611 to 1721)Open: Franco-Dutch WarFranco-Dutch War (1672 to 1678)Open: Nine Years' WarNine Years' War (1688 to 1697)Open: War of the Spanish SuccessionWar of the Spanish Succession (1701 to 1714)Open: Russian EmpireRussian Empire (1721 to 1917)Open: War of the Austrian SuccessionWar of the Austrian Succession (1740 to 1748)

Swedish territory

0375750112515001700: 10501709: 10001714: 8501721: 75017001705171017151720thousand km2 (approximate)

Timeline of the Great Northern War

  1. 1700
    War begins; Denmark knocked out; Narva
  2. 1703
    St Petersburg founded
  3. 1706
    AltranstadtAugustus deposed.
  4. 1708
    Invasion of Russia; Lesnaya
  5. 1709
    Poltava8 July.
  6. 1711
    Pruth campaign
  7. 1714
    Gangut; Charles returns from Turkey
  8. 1718
    Charles XII killed at Fredriksten
  9. 1721
    Treaty of Nystad

Charles's early triumphs

Denmark, Saxony and Russia struck in 1700 expecting easy pickings from a boy king. Charles landed near Copenhagen with Anglo-Dutch naval help and forced Denmark out by August; in November his 8,000 men stormed 37,000 Russians at Narva in a snowstorm. He then spent six years chasing Augustus the Strong through Poland, winning at Kliszow and Fraustadt, installing Stanislaw Leszczynski as king and forcing Augustus's abdication at Altranstadt (1706).

Poltava

Peter used the years to reform his army and take Ingria, founding St Petersburg in 1703. Charles invaded Russia in 1708 with 40,000, was denied battle, turned south to Ukraine to join the Cossack hetman Mazepa, and lost his supply train at Lesnaya. After the terrible winter of 1708-1709 he besieged Poltava; wounded in the foot, he watched Peter's 45,000 destroy his 20,000 on 8 July 1709, and the rest surrendered at Perevolochna. Charles fled to Bender in Ottoman Moldavia.

The long end

Denmark, Saxony and Augustus rejoined the war; the Ottomans, prodded by Charles, trapped Peter on the Pruth in 1711 but let him go; Charles overstayed his welcome and was arrested at Bender in a skirmish (the kalabalik) in 1713. Russia took Finland (Gangut, 1714); Prussia and Hanover took Swedish Germany. Charles rode home in 15 days in 1714, defended Sweden and invaded Norway, where a bullet killed him in the trenches at Fredriksten on 30 November 1718. Sweden made peace with everyone; Nystad on 30 August 1721 completed Russia's victory, and Peter took the title emperor.

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8 surprising things about the Great Northern War

  1. Charles XII was 18 when the war began, never lost a battle he personally commanded until Poltava, and never married or drank.
  2. At Narva the Swedes attacked a Russian army four times their size in a blizzard blowing into the Russians' faces.
  3. St Petersburg was built on Swedish land while the war was on; Peter called it his 'window on Europe'.
  4. Charles's five-year stay in Ottoman territory ended in a brawl with the janissaries in which he fought with sword in hand.
  5. The bullet that killed Charles XII has been examined repeatedly; whether it was Norwegian or Swedish is still unresolved.
  6. The Cossack hetman Mazepa's defection to Sweden made him a traitor in Russian tradition and a hero in Ukrainian.
  7. Peter's Pruth campaign nearly cost him his empire; he was said to have offered the Ottomans everything but St Petersburg.
  8. The Treaty of Nystad's territorial settlement lasted until 1918.

Sources

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