The Territorial Evolution Of SWEDEN

At one point in history in 1658, Sweden was this big, occupying all of its current territory

plus some of what is today Norway, all of Finland, Estonia, Latvia, the key St. Petersburg area in

Ingria of Russia, and even some parts of northern Germany. This was Sweden at its biggest extent

However, between 1658 and 2023, Sweden lost most of this territory and became reduced to what it

is today. Now, reduced might be a poor choice of a word due to being misinterpreted. Sweden still

holds a considerable amount of territory. It's the 55th biggest country in the world, not among the

largest, but definitely not small either. But why did it lose all of these other territories, and how

did it come to gain them in the first place? In this video, we are going to go through the

territorial evolution of Sweden. First, presenting a summary of when they acquired and lost each

region and then going into further detail, providing more historical context for each

of those moments, understanding why and how they happened. The Kingdom of Sweden established itself precisely in the area where modern Sweden is

From there, it grew and began expanding into these other territories reasonably early in its existence

The first expeditions and conquests into Finland date back as early as the 12th century

and until around half of the 16th century, this all stayed the same

Most of modern Sweden was under their control, as well as much of Finland

In between, in the 15th century, they were also a part of the Kalmer Union

which put together all of the Nordics, but that wasn't Sweden per se, so I'll skip it here

By 1562, their first excursion into the Baltic region took place, and the Swedes conquered part of northern Estonia

Despite some stepbacks, they were successful and further expanded into what is today Russia

namely Ingria, connecting Finland to these new Baltic colonies. And at the beginning of the 17th century, Sweden was worthy of being called an empire in northern Europe

Soon after, in 1621, they expanded into Livonia, reaching into northern Germany around 10 years later

establishing control over Bremenverden, Wismar, and western Pomerania. This territorial control didn't see much change and pretty much remained the same until the end of the 17th century

By 1704 though, they began losing land, especially to Russia, which conquered Ingria to found the great city of St. Petersburg

also losing the Baltics and much of their German territories, in addition to having a hard time

maintaining Finland under their control. By 1723, the Kingdom of Sweden consisted of this

All of modern Sweden, much of modern Finland, and only Vismar and a smaller portion of western

Pomerania. This lasted a long time, up until 1810, and the only significant territorial change was

the temporary acquisition of the Caribbean island of St. Barthelmy, I believe their attempt at

establishing a colonial empire. By 1814 though, a lot happened. All German possessions were lost

and most importantly, Finland was lost too. However, sort of in compensation

they annexed all of Norway through a union between them and a recently independent country

that had separated from Denmark. In 1878, they lost St. Barthelme, and in 1905

Norway assumed full control of their sovereignty, reducing Sweden to its modern territory

So, now that we've briefly mentioned and summarized all of the moments in which Sweden's

territory changed, gaining and losing, let's go into further detail to understand why and

how they once had so much territory, as well as why and how they ended up losing most of it

The history of Sweden can arguably be divided into 8 time periods

The Early Medieval Era, the Kalmar Union Interregnum, the Vasa Dynasty Era, the Swedish Empire

the Age of Liberty, the Gustavian Era, Sweden-Norway, and Modern Sweden. Now, this video isn't about the full history of Sweden, and my listing of these eras is simply to

contextualize territorial expansions and reductions, most of which took place during the fourth era

that of the Swedish Empire. So, let's take a look at each of these eras and learn how Sweden gained

or lost territory in each of them The Kingdom of Sweden emerged from the union and Christianization of several tribes of the region But they took a while to become united In this map from 1815 we can see only the south was made up of Swedish tribes

and they weren't yet united. Around the year 1000, Olaf Hötkanung became the first known king

to rule both Svealand and Gotaland, the two southernmost regions of Sweden, with the exception

of Scania that remained Danish still. In 1332, Swedish king Magnus purchased these provinces

from Denmark for 6,500 kilograms of silver, even though they would then lose them again in 1360

During the early Middle Ages, the Swedish kingdom also expanded to control Nordland and Finland

something that didn't please the Russians and is seen as the origin point for the historical

tensions and disputes between the two future empires. Before we keep going, I have to take

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20-day money-back guarantee so there's really no risk in trying it out. Now let's get back to

Sweden's territorial evolution. After the Black Death and internal power struggles in Sweden

Queen Margaret I of Denmark united the Nordic countries in the Union of Kolmur in 1397 with

the approval of the Swedish nobility, and this marks an interregnum in Sweden's territorial

growth. The Kolmur Union had, to my knowledge, no significant and or permanent territorial changes

throughout all its existence. In 1523, the Union came to an end, and Sweden's sovereignty as its

own was restored. The start of the area is precisely marked with the reconquest of Stockholm

from the Danish by the Swedish led by Gustav Vasa who would become the new king. Gustav's

reign marked the definitive unification of Swedish provinces. His son, Erik XIV in turn

had his reign marked by Sweden's participation in the Northern Seven Years War against Denmark and

Poland-Lithuania and in the Livonian War against Russia. The first saw no territorial changes but

the latter saw Estonia be granted to Sweden who sought to use it to increase their Baltic trade

This happened in 1583. Gustav's grandson, his fourth successor, was Sigismund Vasa

who already ruled the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth when he inherited the Swedish throne

being the ruler of the two kingdoms between 1592 and 1598, then being deposed by his uncle

So I guess you could say Sweden temporarily controlled Poland-Lithuania, or I guess the

other way around depending on how you look at it. This uncle, Gustav Vasa's son, known as Charles

the 9th, ruled from 1604 to 1611 and his death marked the end of this era and the beginning

of the empire of Sweden, also known by Swedes as Stormax Stiden, meaning the era of great power

This is the time when Sweden truly emerged as a great power in Europe, although unlike

most of the great powers of the time, their imperial aspirations were very short lived

The beginning of the empire is usually taken as the reign of Gustavus Adolfus who took

the crown precisely in 1611, and they soon saw the conquest of various territories both

from the Russians and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1617, they took Karelia and Ingria from the Russian Empire and in 1629, Livonia from

the Polish-Lithuanians. They also took part in the Thirty Years' War against the Holy Roman Empire, led by

the Habsburg and Spain, emerging as the leaders of Protestant Europe, contrasting with the

Roman Catholics. During the Thirty Years' War, Sweden managed to conquer approximately half of the member

states of the Holy Roman Empire, temporarily controlling much of what is Germany today

As the tide of the war turned a little, they lost much of their influence and control

only coming to occupy a couple of northern German provinces. And after the war was over, these were the ones fully annexed by Sweden as dominions

transferred through the peace treaty of Westphalia in 1648 Wismar Wollin Western Pomerania Bremenverden And despite being scattered and under the control of the crown but never fully implemented

these territories offered Sweden great control and influence over the three main German rivers

– the Oder, the Elbe and the Weser – and gained toll collection rights for those important

commercial arteries, benefiting the Swedish economy. A result of the Thirty Years War was also the local Tortensten War between the Swedes

and Denmark-Norway. The Swedish won and in the Peace of Bromsøbro in 1645, Sweden acquired the Norwegian provinces

of Jamtland and Harjerdal as well as the Danish Baltic Sea Islands of Gotland and Sarma

During this time, they also attempted to establish a colonial empire in hopes of rivaling other

European great powers. New Sweden was founded in the valley of the Delaware River in 1638 and claims on a few

Caribbean islands were also made, with only Saint Barthélemy fully coming under their control

Some fortresses were also built on the Gold Coast in modern day Ghana, but none of these were

that successful, eventually being either abandoned or sold to other European nations

Despite the victory against the Danish in 1645, war returned against Denmark in the Second Northern

War 10 years later in 1655, as Denmark sided with Poland, Lithuania and Russia fighting against

Sweden. Demonstrating Sweden's true status of a great power at this time, they were victorious

again. And the resulting peace treaty of Oliva in 1658-1660 saw Sweden acquire Scania, Alland

Bleking, Boslan, and Venn, as well as having Swedish sovereignty accepted in Livonia as a

dominion. But guess what, 20 years later, they were back at it again, and in 1675, the Scania

War took place. Alliances switched so often at this time that the former Swedish allies

of Brandenburg-Prussia were now fighting alongside the Danish against them. In fact, Sweden was

somewhat pushed into the conflict by France when in 1674 Louis XIV called upon Sweden to invade

the electorate of Brandenburg. Despite having the French at their side, they lost and as a result

Sweden was forced to cede most of its Pomeranian areas east of the Ord River to Brandenburg-Prussia

in 1679. These were I believe the first true territorial losses of the empire, marking the

apex of their territorial extent and beginning the period of territorial losses as well as the end of

the empire. Around this period, a lot of internal struggles also began happening in Sweden with King

Charles XI essentially establishing an absolute monarchy. And soon, the great northern war that

would definitively put an end to Sweden's great power and empire began. In the year 1700, an

an anti-Swedish coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia with Peter the Great at its command

set out to contest the supremacy of the Swedish in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe, quickly

rallying the support of the Danish and Polish Lithuanians as well, who were eager to regain

territory they had lost to the Swedish. The Swedes were initially successful, forcing the Danish to sign a separate peace and Poland

to leave Russia's side by dethroning their king, even defeating the Russians themselves

at the Battle of Narva. However, soon after the tide of the war would change and in 1709, the Swedish army was defeated

and captured in the Battle of Poltava forcing their king to flee into the Ottoman Empire

Following this defeat, Poland and Denmark re-entered the war and in the following years, most of

the land Sweden had conquered would fall with Russia occupying parts of Finland

In 1718, King Charles XII was killed in battle and Sweden was all but defeated

In 1721, the treaties of Nistar and Stockholm saw Sweden lose Ingria, Estonia, Livonia, and

parts of Finland to what was now the Russian Empire, as well as their German possessions

to Anover, Bremenverden, and Prussia, Pomerania, only retaining most of Finland, Vesmar, and

a little bit of Western Pomerania and Northern Germany. With this moment, the Swedish Empire came to an end, and only these three areas were

left to be lost until Sweden were to be reduced to the territory it holds in modern times

The death of the king, his attempted absolute monarchy, and the defeat that they suffered

in the war led to a crisis in the Swedish monarchy which saw its power severely limited

They were almost an early version of today's constitutional monarchy with all power given

to the people as represented by the rickstock, their version of a parliament slash estates

at the time. Despite the new regime things didn change much on the military aspect and they went to war with the Russians again in 1741 losing part of Karelia and Savonia The growing conflicts between political parties made most people place their hope in the monarchy

again as a unifying force. And soon after, in 1772, King Gustav III retook the power for the monarchy, ending the Age

of Liberty. Being named precisely after King Gustav III, as well as his son Gustav IV, the Gustavian

era began, lasting from 1772 to 1809. The era in itself is pretty interesting from a historical point of view, but I have to remember

the points of this video are just territorial changes. In this regard, two main conflicts took place during these years that led to territorial changes

First, in 1805, the Franco-Swedish War began, which eventually led to the temporary regaining

of Swedish Pomerania. Even though they lost the war, this was part of the Napoleonic Wars

The second and most important was the Finnish War of 1808 which saw Sweden face Russia and

Denmark-Norway, losing the conflict and being forced to give away the tremendously large

territory of Finland leading to the creation of the Grand Duchy of Finland under the control

of the Russian Empire. You have to remember that despite being Finnish this was a part of Sweden for a long time

hundreds of years, and they suddenly lost over a third of their territory, a tremendous

and perhaps the most significant territorial loss of all. They attempted to keep the Ålen Islands, given that they were culturally Swedish, but

were unsuccessful in doing so. This event somewhat marks the end of the Gustavian Era in 1809

And in between this and the next era, between 1809 and 1814, a set of events took place

that led to big changes in Swedish history. Territorially wise, these events were mostly connected to the Napoleonic Wars, namely the

War of the Sixth Coalition, the defeat of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna which redesigned

European borders. what is most important to us here is the result of the separate Swedish-Danish War of 1814

prior to the 1815 Congress of Vienna. In this war, also known as the Swedish-Norwegian War

or the Norwegian War of Independence, the Swedes fought the Danish and forced the union of Norway

with themselves into the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway. Norway had its own constitution

and parliament, but not its own military, and was represented by Sweden diplomatically. In return

for losing Norway, Dermark was granted Swedish Pomerania but then ended up losing it in the

Congress of Vienna of 1815 with the lands being given to Prussia. This war marked the last time

Sweden participated in an armed conflict with another nation and begun the country's long

period of military neutrality. The Sweden-Norway era thus began and no territorial changes took

place for a long time. In 1748, they had taken control of Saint Barthelmy in the Caribbean and

They ruled it for a long time but ended up selling it to the French in 1871 and this

was the only territorial change of this era. In 1905, the Norwegian parliament unilaterally declared independence which was accepted by

Sweden after the Norwegians elected Prince Karl of Denmark as their new king

And so the modern version of the Kingdom of Sweden began and it's still the same one

we know today. Embracing neutrality, they were not involved in either World War I or World War II and

therefore saw no territorial changes during these times and so the territorial changes of Sweden also

ended at least until today in 2023. So that is a brief although I believe quite concise and complete

overview of the territorial history of Sweden. How they first emerged as a group of tribes uniting

into a single Christian kingdom in early medieval times in southern Sweden then expanding north and

east into Finland conquering Estonia, Livonia, Ingria and Karelia and even reaching into northern

Germany at times where they established their dominions, with their territorial peak taking

place during the era of the Swedish empire when they existed as a great power in 1658

Even attempting their luck at a colonial empire, although not succeeding, progressively losing

land time and time again after this mostly to the Russian empire, temporarily gaining

a lot of it through their union with Norway, but then losing it again due to Norwegian independence

and being reduced to what Sweden is today, still a medium-sized country, but far smaller

than what it once was hundreds of years ago. What do you think about this

Would you have wanted to see Sweden hold some of these territories until today and how odd

would it be to still have Swedish domains in Germany? Also, which other countries should I do territorial evolution videos on

Let me know in the comments. Thanks so much for watching this video, subscribe if you want and I will see you next time for

more general knowledge