Kingdom of Sweden

History

The Kingdom of Sweden lay north of the Baltic Sea, and its independent life as a kingdom took shape in 1523 when Gustav Vasa broke free of Danish rule. With little more than a million people it was never a large country by European standards, but it had two advantages.

Its mines produced fine iron and copper, so it could make its own cannon and weapons; and it built an early system of conscription that spread military service among the farming population, so it did not depend on hired soldiers alone. Under Gustavus Adolphus in the early 17th century the Swedish army was rebuilt.

Units were spread thin and wide so that more muskets could fire at the same moment, and light cannon that a few men could push were kept beside the infantry and moved with them. With this army Sweden entered the Thirty Years' War, pushed deep into the middle of Germany, and at the Peace of Westphalia won ports along the southern Baltic coast, opening the period when people called the Baltic 'a Swedish lake'.

One of the most famous stories in Swedish history is the Vasa of 1628. The king's magnificent new warship sailed barely 1,300 metres on her maiden voyage before a gust of wind tipped her over and she sank right there in Stockholm harbour: she carried so many guns that she was top-heavy.

More than three hundred years later the ship was raised almost intact, and she can be seen in a museum today.