Sweden: Forgotten Empire-History Archives | Your disclosure page

During the Modern Age, various European empires dominated much of the world. Spain, Portugal, Great Britain or France are some of those Empires. However, there is one that goes unnoticed among the vast majority and that was very close to becoming one of the greatest military and political powers of its time. That Empire is none other than Sweden.

Origin of Sweden

Although since the end of the s. X, with the reign of Eric VIII “the Victorious” one can speak of Sweden, it would still take several centuries to be able to observe a similar Sweden, territorially, to the one we know today. In a slow process of expansion towards the north and east, during the ss. XI-XIII, Sweden achieved unity in the eastern half of the Scandinavian peninsula and began the invasion of Finland, sometimes in dispute with Russia. With the reign of Eric IX “the Saint” (1150-1160), Sweden became a unified Christian kingdom and a benchmark in northern Europe.

However, the complex marriage relations between the Nordic royal houses (Norway, Sweden and Denmark) ended up causing the three crowns to fall to Queen Margaret I of Denmark, who united the Nordic countries in the Kalmar Union in 1397. But the Kalmar Union would soon run into difficulties. Margaret ruled from Denmark and had a close relationship with Norway, but Sweden was marginalized, which led to the anger of the Swedish nobles.

This tension gradually led to open conflict between the Swedish nobles and the Danish royal power. Sweden, refusing to have a Danish king who gave them aside, elected her own kings in its Parliament, sometimes leading to an open civil war between Sweden and Denmark-Norway. Finally, the Danish king Christian II, tired of the revolts in Sweden, decided to execute more than 80 Swedish noblemen rebels, in the so-called “Stockholm Bloodbath” of 1520, after the city surrendered after a failed uprising of the Swedish peasants.

This execution, contrary to what Christian II intended, immediately provoked a new rebellion of the Swedish nobles, who chose the noble Gustav Vasa as their leader. Gustavo led the Swedish rebel troops, recovering much of Sweden and entering Stockholm in mid-1523. After his coronation as king, and the surrender of the last strongholds loyal to Christian II in Sweden and Finland, the Kalmar Union came to its end. finally, emerging the States of Sweden and Denmark-Norway, which will remain opposed for centuries.

After coming to power in 1523, although his official coronation did not come until 1528, Gustav Vasa was considered the “Founding Father” of Sweden. At the same time, he rejected Catholicism and established the Protestant Reformation. As soon as the independence of Sweden was achieved, Gustavo I Vasa began a strengthening of the figure of the king and an important militarization, continued by his successors, and that caused Sweden to embark on numerous wars during the ss. XVI and XVII.

Sweden as a European power

During the 17th century, after winning wars against Denmark-Norway, Russia and Poland, Sweden, with just over 1 million inhabitants, emerged as a great power in northern Europe. His military importance would be contrasted internationally after his contributions during the Thirty Years’ War, where Sweden, governed by Gustav II Adolf Vasa, achieved several important victories that, with the entry of France on the Protestant side shortly after, would end up tilting the war in his favor. .

Upon emerging victorious from the Thirty Years’ War, and after the signing of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, Sweden dominated Ingria, Estonia, Livonia, as well as several areas of northern Germany (Western Pomerania and the bishopric of Bremen-Verden) . In addition, control of the mouth of the three major rivers in northern Germany, the Oder, the Elbe, and the Weser, was secured. All this gave him a vote in the Imperial Diet of the Holy Empire. Sweden’s aggressive foreign policy was bearing fruit, and with the rise to power of Charles X Gustaf in 1654, Sweden would reach its zenith.

Although Carl X Gustaf only ruled for 6 years, in his short reign Sweden waged two wars, against Poland-Lithuania and against Denmark-Norway. In the first of them, Poland-Lithuania managed to reverse its difficult initial situation thanks to the Danish and Russian intervention against Sweden. However, Carlos X Gustavo was able to recover and, after defeating Denmark-Norway, signed the Treaty of Roskilde (1658), where he would receive important Norwegian provinces and several enclaves in the Baltic, possessions that would be confirmed in 1660 after the second war against Denmark. -Norway and the signing of the Copenhagen Treaty. At the same time, the Peace of Oliva (1660) consolidated the Swedish position in the Baltic against the claims of Poland-Lithuania.

Sweden had risen meteorically to the rank of imperial power, but this meant that it had to remain a military monarchy, armed in emergencies. The poverty and small population of Sweden made many Swedes opt for the military route, allowing Sweden to have, comparatively to its population, a large and, above all, highly trained army.

Start of Swedish decline. Great Northern War.

However, in the last third of the s. XVII, Sweden began to go through a series of economic difficulties that led to the brake of its expansionism. Sweden declared its neutrality in the European conflicts of this period in order to clean up its economy and its administration. When Charles XII came to power in 1697, Sweden would be strengthened by the reforms carried out by his father, Charles XI, and, due to his highly militarized education, would again seek to expand Swedish rule in the north. European. This led its most direct rivals, see Denmark-Norway, Poland-Lithuania and Russia to join in a secret alliance, promoted by Tsar Peter I “the Great”, and declare war on Sweden in the year 1700 to recover the territories lost. The Great Northern War had begun.

Denmark-Norway was the first to attack Sweden, specifically its possessions and protectorates in the north of the Holy Roman Empire. Charles XII, in a clever move, instead of going after the Danish army, headed straight for Copenhagen. Faced with the eventual siege of their capital, Denmark-Norway immediately began peace negotiations, withdrawing from the war just four months after it began.

This fact freed Carlos XII, who, after covering his rear, was able to march with his army to the east, to fight Poland-Lithuania and Russia. Russia, due to its geographical proximity, had penetrated the Swedish possessions in the Eastern Baltic, coming to besiege Narva, one of the best fortified cities in Europe. The Russian army, numbering about 80,000 men, began the siege of Narva, which was defended by just over 2,000 Swedish soldiers. When Carlos XII came to the rescue, he only had about 8,000 troops.

The Russians had an 8-to-1 superiority, but their army was woefully inexperienced, made up of peasants who had never fought, with little training, and foreign generals who did not speak Russian. On November 30, 1700 (the 19th in the Russian Julian calendar), a strong blizzard fell on Narva. However, an unexpected change of wind caused the blizzard to blind the Russian troops. Charles XII cunningly ordered his small army to charge. The Russians were surprised and panicked. The inexperienced soldiers tried to flee the battlefield, leaving weapons and banners behind, while the generals tried in vain to organize the situation. To add insult to injury, the bridge over the Narva River that many Russians used as an escape route sank. At the end of the day, for every dead Swede, there were about 25 dead Russians.

The Russian failure at Narva, however, was the signal Peter I needed. After years of timid modernist reforms, he finally decided to professionalize the Russian army. This process took precious time, but luckily for Russia, Charles XII did not attack them as soon as he defeated them at Narva, preferring instead to head towards Poland-Lithuania and the Electorate of Saxony in order to cover his ass before his Russian adventure. .

Between 1702 and 1703 the Swedish army advanced through Poland-Lithuania without opposition. The victories followed. In 1704, Augustus II of Poland-Lithuania and I of Saxony was deposed and Charles XII appointed a loyal Swedish nobleman, Stanislaus Leszczynski as the new Grand Duke. After crushing the revolts in favor of Augustus II, and after a brief campaign in Saxony in 1707, the Swedish army was ready to invade Russia.

Poltava. The end of the Swedish Empire.

In 1708, after having defeated Saxony and Poland-Lithuania, the Swedish monarch Charles XII decided to make a direct attack on the heart of Russia, Moscow, but he was received with the “scorched earth” tactic (the Russians destroyed everything that could serve him). the Swedish army as they fell back towards Moscow), so Charles XII had to change his strategy. With the near arrival of winter and the lack of supplies, which were affecting the Swedish soldiers (of the 35,000 who had started the campaign, only about 20,000 remained), they headed south towards the Ukraine, where Charles XII had the hope that the Cossacks of the region would lend him both military and supply support.

Finding partial support, and without his army fully recovered from the hardships of the winter, Charles XII resumed his march on Moscow, this time from the south. The Russians, much more numerous and, of course, much better prepared and equipped after the reforms of Pedro I, went out to meet the Swedes in the vicinity of the small town of Poltava. A rugged terrain, with several ravines towards the river, forests, a swamp, and a hill that dominated the environment would be the scene of the confrontation.

Charles XII, confident that he could regain the initiative, went to meet the Russian army entrenched at Poltava in June 1709. Although the Russians were twice as numerous and better entrenched, the Swedes had full faith in their king, their generals and their military ability, to defeat the Russians in Poltava. But from the first moment, the conditions were turning against the Swedes. A few days before the battle, a Russian sniper wounded Charles XII in the foot while he was reviewing one of the trenches built. This meant that the king had to be prostrated on a cumbersome stretcher built especially for the occasion and leave the command to Carl Gustaf Rehnskiöld, a general, on the other hand, who had shown his great ability to command in Poland.

After several skirmishes, the Swedes finally decided to order the attack on July 8. (June 28, 1709 in the Russian Julian calendar). During the night, around 3 o’clock in the morning, the Swedish battalions began their silent march towards…