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The 17th century saw Sweden as an
European "Great Power" and one of the major military and political
combatants on the continent during the Thirty Years' War. By
mid-century, the kingdom included part of Norway, all of Finland and
stretched into Russia. Sweden's control of portions of modern Poland,
Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Germany made the Baltic Sea essentially a
Swedish lake.
In the 16th century Gustav Vasa fought for an independent Sweden and
crushed an attempt to restore the Kalmar Union and laid the foundation
for modern Sweden. At the same time he broke with the Catholic Church
and established the Reformation. During the 17th century after winning
wars against Denmark Russia and Poland Sweden-Finland (with scarcely
more than 1 million inhabitants) emerged as a great power. Its
contributions during the Thirty Years War under Gustav II Adolf (Gustavus
Adolphus) determined the political as well as the religious balance of
power in Europe. By 1658 Sweden ruled several provinces of Denmark as
well as what is now Finland Ingermanland (in which St. Petersburg is
located) Estonia Latvia and important coastal towns and other areas of
northern Germany.
Russia Saxony-Poland and Denmark-Norway pooled their power in 1700 and
attacked the Swedish-Finnish empire. Although the young Swedish King
Karl XII (also known as Charles XII) won spectacular victories in the
early years of the Great Northern War his plan to attack Moscow and
force Russia into peace proved too ambitious; he fell in battle in 1718.
In the subsequent peace treaties the allied powers joined by Prussia and
England-Hanover ended Sweden's reign as a great power.
Sweden suffered further territorial losses during the Napoleonic wars
and was forced to cede Finland to Russia in 1809. The next year the
Swedish King's adopted heir French Marshal Bernadotte was elected Crown
Prince as Karl Johan by the Riksdag. In 1813 his forces joined the
allies against Napoleon. The Congress of Vienna compensated Sweden for
its lost German territory through a merger of the Swedish and Norwegian
crowns in a dual monarchy which lasted until 1905 when it was peacefully
dissolved at Norway's request.
Sweden's predominantly agricultural economy shifted gradually from
village to private farm-based agriculture during the Industrial
Revolution but this change failed to bring economic and social
improvements commensurate with the rate of population growth. About 1
million Swedes emigrated to the United States between 1850 and 1890.
The 19th century was marked by the emergence of a liberal opposition
press abolition of guild monopolies in trade and manufacturing in favor
of free enterprise taxation and voting reforms the installation of a
national military service and the rise in the electorate of three major
party groups--Social Democratic Liberal and Conservative.
During and after World War I in which Sweden remained neutral the
country benefited from the worldwide demand for Swedish steel ball
bearings wood pulp and matches. Postwar prosperity provided the
foundations for the social welfare policies characteristic of modern
Sweden. Foreign policy concerns in the 1930s centered on Soviet and
German expansionism which stimulated abortive efforts at Nordic defense
cooperation. Sweden followed a policy of armed neutrality during World
War II and currently remains non-aligned.
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