in the 17th century Sweden was one of Europe's leading military and political Powers yet two centuries later its power was greatly diminished it's holding smaller and its foreign policy mostly neutral so how did this happen how did Sweden go from a military great power with significant influence in Northern Central and Eastern Europe to a country which avoided foreign entanglements so before we can talk about how Sweden declined it's important to know why it Rose in the first place Sweden was a country with a small population which often lived under the Danish thumb this Chang ched
in 1523 when Sweden led by its new king Gustav vaza won its independence and began to reform the country it was able to grow to become a major power with one neat trick lots of money so how did it do this first of all most of Sweden's peasantry were free and so they pay taxes directly to the crown instead of their local Lord this made Sweden much wealthier than its similar size peers because there were less people skimming money from the top and more secure because the Nobles weren't strong enough to Rebel another way Sweden's
well grew was that it converted to protestantism which meant that the crown could just take all of the lands and the wealth of the Catholic church for itself and so with all of this new money the Swedish updated their military by emphasizing mixed arms better firearms and Logistics this was combined with some good old-fashioned generalship which meant that when Wars came up Sweden was more than ready now Sweden was very successful in these wars and from the year 1600 to 1650 it gained all of this territory this success can largely be attributed to its professional
military but there was one drawback to this it was extremely expensive and ultimately the the Swedish State couldn't afford it this largely meant that the only way to keep it was to use other people's money there were two ways that Sweden did this payments from a third country mostly France or by plundering someone else's country and winning compensation in the peace treaties afterwards this actually worked really well for about a century the problem was that this system would come to a crashing halt if there was ever a long pce or if Sweden suffered a major
defeat and eventually lose the Swedish did and this defeat came during the Great Northern war which began in the year 1700 Sweden had a new king and it's enemies decided that now was a good time to attack all of them did poorly and when the Russians offered peace to the Swedish they refused and its King Charles I 12 began a long campaign marching through Poland Lithuania to defone its king before entering Russia long story short things didn't go too well and after a harsh winter the two fought at pava in 1709 here the Swedish were
crushed and its king fled to the Ottoman Empire and Russia promptly took all of this land and this loss was a death blow to Sweden's prospects as a great military power because now it no longer controlled SE trade to Russia its popular and tax base had been reduced and its reputation lay in Ruins Sweden now being broke meant that it relied on France for protection which led to France dictating Swedish foreign policy which meant Wars none of these went particularly well and by the time the Napoleonic Wars came about Sweden was ultimately diminished when its
rulers refused to embrace the Continental System imposed by Napoleon the Russians invaded and conquered Finland and soon after this the King was deposed the swedes then thought hey this Napoleon guy is kind of a winner we should pick a french guy for our throne and when Napoleon defeats the Russians he'll get Finland back back and maybe a little bit more but fun fact no instead the new king sided against Napoleon and after the war was over Sweden gained Norway this certainly gave Sweden more Prestige and more money but by this point its kings were sick
of losing and so they maintained a policy of neutrality this kept Sweden safe throughout the 19th and 20th centuries but it did mean that its days as the great military power were well and truly over I hope you enjoyed this episode with a special thanks to my patrons James Bizet Kelly moneymaker Sky Chappelle kitka Anthony Becket rod D Martin Udan Wang Marcus arner YN hockey Alex Schwin AF Firefly Captain side dog Spencer liot Gustav Swan the mcer shenin Marvin CAU Winston kwood spinning three plates Andy McGee kimun Yun calling Dr Howard Dr Fine Dr Howard
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