Lyceum & Book Club - Week 15 - Lecture Notes on Sweden

In the 16th century,Sweden faced threats from Muscovy/Russia on the eastern side. And instability in the Baltics just across the Baltic Sea. She faced threats from her western neighbors,Norway and Denmark who controlled Sweden's only route to the North Sea and sea faring trade routes.

She also had ambitions to become a world class player, which she was for a time - and she accomplished that goal the old fashioned way - expansion.

At one time,Sweden(which included Finland),Norway and Denmark were united under the rule of Denmark.But eventually, friction between the Danish monarchy and Swedish nobles grew with increasing conflicts between the two groups, until 1520, when the King of Denmark decided to invade Sweden and put an end to any pretensions Swedish nobles might have to independence. They killed Sweden's leading statesmen along with 82 leading noblemen.

The horror of that action led to an uprising, led by a Swedish nobleman by the name of Gustav Vasa, whose father and relatives had been killed in the Danish invasion of 1520.

Gustav was crowned King of Sweden in 1523. (he is referred to as "the George Washington of Sweden" for founding the modern state).

So you can see where Denmark and Sweden might not be on such cooperative and friendly terms.

This is also the time period that saw Sweden cast off it's dependency upon the Hanseatic League (a German trade organization formed to gain commercial privileges for it's members in the Baltic Sea trade. In return they kept the Baltic Sea free of pirates.) Merchants from German ports flocked to Stockholm and made it a very rich city. But it locked those ports, like Stockholm, into only allowing Hansa citizens to trade from the port. So the thing that originally benefited Sweden began to constrain Swedish merchants who resented the monopoly on trade that the Hansa(whose members were mostly German) enjoyed. It was Gustav who broke that monopoly.

The difference in Sweden than in many countries at this time is that its peasantry were never serfs, they had always been free, so they saw economic benefit flow to them also, whereas in most countries - all economic benefit stopped at the nobles who owned the land and the peasants never saw anything trickle down and grew poorer and more resentful of the nobility class as time passed.

It was during this time period of the Reformation in Germany (and the culmination in the Thirty Year War) that saw the loosening of the controlling Catholic entities in the Baltics. In Latvia, by the middle of the 16th century, both the Bishopric towns and the Livonian Order started to collapse and the situation became very unstable. It was in 1554, that saw the head of the Livonian Order declared Protestantism, rather than Catholicism, the state religion.

Gustav I, also rejected Catholicism and declared Sweden to be a Protestant nation.

Of course, it wasn't religious conviction that brought this event about (nor the conversion of the head of the Livonian Order),but a purely political one, even if it later evolved into a religious movement to support the political decision.

The Archbishop of Sweden at the time of Sweden's fight for independence was viewed as allied with the Danish king. So naturally, upon assuming the title of King of Sweden, Gustav exiled him and asked Pope Clement VII to accept a new archbishop that Gustav preferred. The Pope refused to budge as he felt that it was his prerogative to choose archbishops and he viewed this as a battle of who was going to exercise power over positions in the church branches. Unfortunately for the Pope - there was now competition and playing hardball didn't go well. Waiting in the wings were the Lutherans who took this opportunity to step in and Sweden now became Protestant.

This is the time period that saw Ivan the Terrible grow emboldened by the disarray in the Baltics and decide the time was perfect to seek a pathway to the warm water ports of the Baltic Sea - right off Livonia. That war lasted from 1558 to 1583,Russia (Muscovy) was finally pushed out by Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth(which then took over rulership of the lands previously owned by the Livonian Order),but it left Sweden wary of Muscovy's presence to her east and her intentions. In particularly,Sweden was concerned about being blocked in from the east, west and south by competitors. Without access to trade routes out of Sweden, her economy would dry up.

So Sweden was feeling squeezed on all sides.

When Gustav died in 1560, his eldest son,Eric took over. Eric was eventually overthrown by his brother John III in 1568, but in the meantime,Eric conquered Estonia in 1561and was part of the coalition that fought against Russia in Livonia.

John III overthrew his brother,Eric and ascended the throne of Sweden in 1568.

John III's first wife was a princess from the ruling family of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and they had a son named Sigismund.

Sigismund was pronounced King of Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth in 1587 (where he was known as King Sigismund III Vasa).

And upon the death of his father,King John III of Sweden, in 1592, Sigismund also became the King of Sweden.

Believe it or not,Sweden was the deciding factor in world history for about 200 years, starting in 1520 and ending in 1710.