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Northern Wars: A Visual History

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Nearly two centuries of wars for control of the Baltic among Sweden, Denmark, Poland-Lithuania and Russia, ending with Russia supreme.

Fought
1554 to 1721
Duration
167 years
Dates
1554 to 1721
Deaths
Several million across all wars, including famine and plague
Main powers
Sweden, Denmark-Norway, Poland-Lithuania, Russia, Brandenburg-Prussia
Key wars
Livonian War, Second Northern War, Scanian War, Great Northern War
Result
Russian dominance of the Baltic; Sweden reduced; Poland weakened

The Northern Wars is a collective term for the conflicts over the Baltic region from the Russo-Swedish War of 1554 and the Livonian War (1558-1583) to the Great Northern War (1700-1721). They included the Livonian War in which Ivan the Terrible failed to win the Baltic coast, the Northern Seven Years' War (1563-1570), the Polish-Swedish wars, the Second Northern War (1655-1660) in which Sweden nearly conquered Poland and Denmark, the Scanian War (1675-1679), and the Great Northern War that destroyed Sweden's empire. The result was Sweden's rise and fall as a great power and Russia's emergence under Peter the Great as master of the eastern Baltic.

When it was fought: the era ribbon

The bold bar is Northern Wars. 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.

800100012001400160018002000Northern Wars (1554 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: French Wars of ReligionFrench Wars of Religion (1562 to 1598)Open: Eighty Years' War (Dutch Revolt)Eighty Years' War (Dutch Revolt) (1568 to 1648)Open: Polish-Lithuanian CommonwealthPolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569 to 1795)Open: Swedish EmpireSwedish Empire (1611 to 1721)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)

Baltic coastline held

Sweden's share peaked in 1658 and collapsed after 1721.

016.2532.548.7565Sweden 1560: 2020Sweden 1560Sweden 1658: 6565Sweden 1658Sweden 1721: 3030Sweden 1721Russia 1721: 2525Russia 1721percent of the Baltic's coast (approximate)

Timeline of the Northern Wars

  1. 1558
    Livonian War begins
  2. 1583
    Russia expelled from Livonia
  3. 1629
    Sweden gains Livonia from Poland
  4. 1655
    The Deluge
  5. 1658
    RoskildeScania to Sweden.
  6. 1676
    Lund
  7. 1700
    Great Northern War begins
  8. 1709
    Poltava
  9. 1721
    Nystad

The Livonian War

Ivan IV invaded Livonia in 1558 to win a Baltic port; the Livonian Order collapsed and Sweden, Denmark and Poland-Lithuania grabbed the pieces. After 25 years of devastation, Stefan Bathory's Polish campaigns and Sweden's capture of Narva forced Russia to give up everything in 1582-1583. Sweden and Poland then fought over Livonia and Estonia for 60 years, ending in Swedish possession by 1629.

The Deluge and Scania

In 1655 Charles X of Sweden invaded a Poland already ravaged by Cossacks and Russians; Warsaw and Krakow fell, and the Swedish 'Deluge' cost Poland perhaps a third of its people before resistance rallied at Czestochowa. Charles then attacked Denmark, marched across the frozen Belts and forced the Treaty of Roskilde (1658), taking Scania. The Scanian War of 1675-1679 saw Denmark try and fail to retake it, with the Swedes winning at Lund.

The Great Northern War

In 1700 Denmark, Saxony-Poland and Russia attacked the young Charles XII. He beat them all in turn, then invaded Russia and was destroyed at Poltava (1709). Peter the Great took Estonia, Livonia, Ingria and Karelia, built St Petersburg on conquered ground and won the naval battle of Gangut. The Treaty of Nystad (1721) sealed Russia's place as a great power and Sweden's decline; Poland, the battlefield of all these wars, was left a Russian dependency.

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8 surprising things about the Northern Wars

  1. Ivan the Terrible's Livonian War is one origin of the term 'Time of Troubles' that followed in Russia.
  2. The siege of Jasna Gora monastery in 1655 became Poland's national legend of resistance to the Swedes.
  3. Charles X's march across the frozen Great Belt in 1658 with his whole army lost only a few squadrons through the ice.
  4. Denmark lost Scania in 1658 and has been trying, or dreaming, of getting it back ever since; it remains Swedish.
  5. The Great Northern War killed a larger share of Sweden's population than any other war in its history.
  6. St Petersburg was founded in 1703 on land still legally Swedish.
  7. Charles XII spent five years as an unwanted guest of the Ottoman sultan after Poltava.
  8. The wars ended Poland-Lithuania's status as a great power and set up its partitions.

Sources

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