I like how the Sweden economics explained in the video is basically normal expansive gameplay economics in EU4. >Hire a huge army >Go deep into debt >Win against a larger enemy with huge army >Pay off debt with war reparations >Buy bigger army and repeat Sweden only messed up the fool proof strat by losing. Shoulda gotten good
@@jabbertwardy one of the most amazing details of this is that the Dutch (IIRC) ship-builders made it out of Sweden alive. (Just one more gun-deck! Above? Below? I don't care one more!!!)
Simple, Sweden switched up its strategy for world domination. It stopped invading everywhere (Denmark) and made us all rely on them for usable furniture, quite clever really
If one thinks about it that is how the viking system worked pretty much, so no surprise even in later centuries nordic countries continued to follow this mentality. Maybe Sweden's biggest mistake was not coming up with some ideas of how to minimize army expenditure during peacetime. The british were much better at this, like for example in the royal navy officers would get demoted or lose command in peacetime, which meant lower pay. I'm sure the same applied in the army.
Arguably Sweden, instead of Revolutionary France, is the first modern state, with a modern army & taxation system. Later its competitors (especially Russia) learned from Sweden and caught up.
State control of the church was mostly important because the church kept detailed records of people, and these records increased taxation efficiency immensely.
That’s not why Sweden converted to Protestantism at all, or why state control of the church was important. The state could probably access tax lists whether they were Catholic or Protestant. Some of the reasons the king converted the country were that partially he was in conflict with the Archbishop of Stockholm Gustaf Trolle, and that he wanted to confiscate (i.e. steal) church assets
And without that census, the allotment systems that Swedish kings could made every hovel supply one man and each hovel paid for his gun and uniform possible. I wonder what step Prinz Eugen missed when he tried the same with Landwehr system and ended up with recruits missing guns and shoes.
In Germany, the regions at the Baltic coast are still jokingly referred to as "South Sweden". They were Swedisch territory for over 200 years, and there are still some words and traditions alive from this period. As Sweden was a major steel producer, the expression "behind Swedish curtains" means "behind bars" in German. And "Old Swede!" is an expression of utter astonishment.
I had picked up a slightly different story to that Baltic connection, namely that the "old Swede!" exclamation (which is still very commonly used here in Germany, although mostly in a kind of joking/ironic ways nowadays since it's such a weird thing to say) came from the old Swedish soldiers that stayed around for one reason or another in Germany after the Thirty Years' War (in which the Swedish army became known and feared all around the country)
Sweden didn't just used to be a major steel producer, it is still the largest iron producer in the EU, and the mine in Kiruna is one of the largest single mines in the world
@@colindaniels945 you must be "special" kind of person if you cannot put together a furniture you bought from IKEA. That shit practically builts itself.
I like how sweden just tagged in to whatever nordic country it felt like. At one point Denmark and Sweden were one country, then it was Sweden and Finland, and lastly Sweden and Norway
Well.. Finland belonged to Sweden for 600 years and that's why it was a major blow to Sweden when we lost them to Russia. The Swedish general in charge of Sveaborg fortress outside of Helsinki was executed as soon as he sat foot in Stockholm.
@@AdvocateOfJamaicathe countries had one and the same king but separate governments and partial "democracy" (for tax-payers). The intention was to deepen the union. But that failed, chiefly because Sweden was dominated by conservative politicians and Norway more liberal. The conservative establishment of Sweden wanted to control and dominate also the Norwegians. But when Norway had gained independence, the conservatives soon lost their dominance in Sweden too and common suffrage was introduced.
Yeah, they declined from being a somewhat major power by trying to become a major power in the first place. Kinda harsh version of "just be yourself" statement..
@@MetalLP Just conquering Moscow, unlike Hitler. And then conquering all of modern day Germany. Plundering Prague in 1648. Beating the crap out of the Danish empire and taking a large number of provinces: Scania, Jämtland, Halland, Blekinge, Gotland, Bohuslän, Trondheim, Bornholm. And then taking all of the Baltics, and basically conquer all of the gigantic Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth twice in the 1650s and in 1706s. Plus crushing the Saxon army which was the richest country in Europe and the Silicon Valley of its day. Sweden built Europes largest fleet of warships in the late 1500s and early 1600s. It saved protestantism in the 30 years war, and created freedom of religion, and created a new world order with the Westphalian peace. And in 1640 it had the largest army in Europe. And a saying in that time period was that if you wanted to learn how to fight, then you needed to join service with the Swedish army. Because that was considered the best most modern fighting force of its time. For 300 years was Sweden a major power in northern Europe. And then I am not including medieval times or the viking age.
Commonwealth was the country that existed only theoretically at this point. August II would do anything what Russia asked him, because without them, he wouldn't stay as a king in the first place.
@@GM-gb1eu Except not really. You're mixing last two kings with August II, all while Commonwealth still could recover from 17th century debacles. Problem though, August II basically brought Commonwealth into his personal war with Sweden, where he naively thought Russians and Danes would take the brunt while he would take modern Latvia for himself and gain political power via that. Instead he failed in spectacular way and brought upon Commonwealth decade long war which was in retrospect the decisive nail to it's coffin, as country was yet again ruined and plundered, political spectrum devolved, all while Commonwealth became de facto puppet of Russia.
@@ReichLife Nah, as a Pole, Poland was doomed when John III Sobieski died, and even before, the Polish state was really degenerated by its own political system. Only radical changes to the system could change things, but it happened 100 years too late.
@@GM-gb1eu Except not really. Commonwealth was hardly doomed when August II got the crown. It was exactly his idiotic decision to bring upon country yet another war which doomed it. As mentioned, Great Northern War was basically Deluge 2.0. On another hand, civil war during it neutered any chance of meaningful reform for next 2-3 generations. Finally, it was only due to Great Northern War that Commonwealth lost it's sovereignty, instead falling into Russian sphere.
@@mrwillss5888I knew there was something wrong with her when she started speaking weirdly rather than speaking the beautiful and efficient Swedish language
1:07 The Swedish updated their military by emphasizing mixed arms- *Illustration: Literal mixed arms* I am afraid the humour used in these videos have done irreversable damage to me, but I will still watch and like every single one of them.
Your videos are always so briefly comprehensive! I will start showing your videos in class soon to give students a greater understanding of why the world is shaped the way it is. Thank you!
The later attempts at least had the Swedish example to learn from. For Sweden, it was not so easy to predict, as Sweden had already taken Moscow in an earlier war. The current score for Swedish-Russian wars are 8-3 to Sweden.
Not really? I mean, it has happened several times, but it is not the general case. Muscowy/Russia has been defeated after invasion by Sweden, Poland-Lithuania, Persia, China, the Ottoman Empire, and Japan that I can think of off the top of my head. The idea that invading Russia and pushing deeper leads to almost inevitable defeat doesn't stand scrutiny given the many counterexamples. Add to that the many wars Muscowy and Russia fought on foreign territory and lost, and the idea of Russian invincibility based on endless reserves and General Winter is relegated to the status of myth, where it belongs.
Swede here we didn't choose the new french king at random. The old king had no children and his nephew had been deposed to put him on the throne ultimately ending his house and forcing him to adopt a heir, which is very rare. First he and the parliament chose a distant relativ of the dynasty "Karl August". However Karl August ended up dying before the old king. The parliament was at a loss at this point until someone mentioned the fine treatment of the Swedish soldiers in the conquest of Swedish Pommerania by the French Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte. He also had a son Oscar which was a great boon for starting a new royal house. He was adopted and took the Swedish name of "Karl Johan" and shortly after conquered Norway to prove his leadership. After the old king died he was crowned Karl XIV Johan 1818 and since then Sweden has been a neutral country all the way until we recently joined NATO putting an end to over 200 years of official neutrality. A interesting fact speculated by historians is that Jean-Baptiste could have just as likely been a conqueror of Sweden, after he took Pommerania he could have taken his troops over to Sweden and ended the reign of the nephew king, but he didn't because the parliament had already deposed him because of the pressure of invasion by Finland by the French "ally" the Russians. Hence if history had gone in a different way Jean might not have been seen in such a favourable light if he had done so and not been chosen to be king.
People like James Bissonette and Spinning Three Plates keep these patreon credit sequence alive. Because of their patronage sure, but also because their names are so fun to hear to I find myself listening to the end even knowing the main video is already over.
Sweden plundering Prague and looting the Castle in 1648 is still well remembered in Czechia. I was always wondering how such a small nation was able to inflict so much damage so far away from their homeland.
Well, one reason was that the vast majority of the soldiers in the army that plundered Prague weren't actually Swedish - the army relied very heavily on mercenaries at that point, most of whom were from the various German states of the time (as well as many English, Scottish and Dutch people). So they didn't have to ship over that many people from Sweden. Even then, though, I think you overestimate the distances involved here. Even with 17th century technology, you're looking at a 1-2 months travel time from Stockholm to Prague at most. People moved over that kind of distance all the time, even back then. And the armies were mostly supplied locally, either through plunder or by purchasing from local merchants.
Same in Poland. Swedish Deluge was more dewastating than WWII. This is somehow impressive how much damage were able made swedish soldiers despite the fact they even didnt try control all ours lands by longer time.
@@konanpl8936As a Swede, I understand that what we did was devastating but if you claim it was worse than WWII then you're delusional. Kind regards from Sweden 🇸🇪
@@gustavnilsson2795 No hate for Sweden. We like our nothern neightbours, but this is true. At the time of Gustavus Adolphus Sweden had more soldiers than can maintain. So Swedish kings HAS to plunder their neighbours, or their economy would collapse. We call this war ,,Deluge (1655-1660) becuse it was very dewastating. King Adolf Gustaw wasn't interesting in rulling Commonwealth (polish and lithuanian nobility offered him crown during invasion but he rejected it) so his army just plundered everything instead try to seize control over new territories. Commonwealth never really recover from this until partitions. In terms of economy it was at least comparable with WWII. Most our historics counting this as more dewastating. But no one keep grudge for this today, because Deluge is now just long gone history.
three things swedens minning industry was also really important to it becoming a great power especially falun cooper mine and the looting foreign countrys was vital early on but with charles xi military reforms which created a real standing army not made up of mercenarys meaning it wasnt as expensive anymore since it was relatively cheap to maintain in peacetime since the soldiers where paid in land reclaimed from the nobility who had gotten the land through the lengthy regencies earlier in the centuary and it must also be mentioned that the peasentry was represented in the riksdag meaning they would not rebel over high taxes or conscription because tecnically they where included in decision making this also created a lot of stabillity and meant theres a lot more ti this aswell like weak neigbours and a more meritocratic rule but that was just some things i wanted to mention otherwise great video
The mining industry never came to exceed over 10% of Swedish gdp. Copper and silver prices swayed due to large imports from the new world while high grade deposits of silver and copper were being exhausted. By the 1700's, the importance of the copper and silver had entirely been replaced by iron which from there on came to be Sweden's most valuable export product. Around 90% of the state's income was from taxes and primarily it was from taxing the peasantry. Around 1-2% of the state's revenue was from tariffs. Hence why Sweden took small provinces on the German coast. These were trade ports where shipping tariffs were collected. Most of the tariff revenue however was from Sweden's interior. Domestic tariffs meant you had to pay to sell your goods in a different town. Which in general stifled Sweden's trade and why the country remained a mainly agricultural economy. Other industries was in forestry, where again it was mainly raw goods in the form of timber and tar were the exported goods. (Sweden's economic history, Lars Magnusson). An example of Sweden's not so well handled economy was how Swedish iron were mainly exported to Britain. While England exported nails and iron made tools to Sweden. The emphasis on the army caused Sweden to neglect its own merchant class and it took far longer for Sweden to build up its class of skilled craftsmen. The first real growth spurt for the economy came by mid 1700's and it was still in agriculture. Centuries of land reclamation and deforestation opened up more farmland. An enclosure act that consolidated and standardized farms plots. Empty/abandoned farms were also free to be settled by any aspiring farmer without having to purchase the land. Followed by a law that forced all villagers to provide labor to neighboring farms making sure no harvest was lost to due lack of manpower meant Sweden for the first time had consecutive years of agricultural surplus that went into exports.
We did the 30 Yrs War in A Level History & at the start of the course the teacher told us we'd be focusing on a country that dominated northern Europe & asked us to guess which one it was (obviously we failed to get it right). We honestly didn't believe him when he told us it was Sweden. And that's how we learned about Gustavus Adolphus.
As a person from Sweden, I can confirm the reason why we even had an empire in the first place is due to James bisonette and Kelly moneymaker being able to defend off the Russians from narva and St. Petersburg so well.
Plundering someone else's country is a gross understatement here. I assure you that there is a reason why we Poles call the Swedish invasion of our country the "Swedish Flood"
If i remember correctly so was it something about Sweden alone doing more damage to Poland during the Deluge than what the Nazis did. I could be wrong tho
@@akechijubeimitsuhide The Trilogy is kind of romanticised, some events and people are fictious. Other than that, it gives you a good impression of what happened
In Estonia, we call Swedish rule the Swedish golden age. We have a school named after Gustavus Adolphus, a monument for Swedes who fought in the battle of Narva etc 🇪🇪🇸🇪 We actually had quite large Swedish minority as well, called rannarootslased (coast swedes) but that ended with soviet rule
@@triadwarfare I'm just being silly. Of course Estonia is a strong nation with a rich heritage, eager to protect their homeland. No disgrace was intended.
there is still a large Swedish minority in Finland. About 300 000 people out of 5 500 000. There are often called "rantaruotsalaiset" (coastal Swedes) here since they are mostly concentrated in the coast, but unfortunately this term is seen as impolite or joking and the prefered term is "suomenruotsalaiset" meaning Fenno-Swedes.
the Swedish scientist Emanuel Swedenborg conceptualized a flying machine in 1714 as well, imagine if he had managed to persuade the rest of the country's scientific community to figure out how to make it work.
As an American with Finnish heritage. Finns were like the Jesse Pinkman or Saul Goodman to Swedens Walter White. They couldn’t have done it without them.
Fun fact: Sweden stopped going to war after it lost access to Finnish hakkapeliitti troops. In Finland, we have a saying: "Kingdom of Sweden fought to the last Finnish conscript".
Thats a funny meme although not true, because when you look at the conscripts from all over the kingdom it was equally divided and proportionally the same. No doubt that Swedens eastern half (todays Finland) provided an important part but the western part was just as important.
Except that is false, & it was actually equally divided conscription. Together with that Swedens majority in the army wasn't Swedish or Finish, but mercenaries & recruited soldiers from their campaigns.
@@KeveTeller That was definitely true for the early 17th century (e.g. the 30 years war, the Polish war etc) but not so much for the Great Northern War (early 1700s) or the later Russo-Swedish wars of the 18th and early 19th centuries. Mercenaries, who were expensive and unreliable, were not used nearly as much once Sweden started being able to produce a proper standing army towards the end of the 17th century, rather than having to rely on either conscripted farmers or expensive mercenaries.
Please do a video on the following subjects: 1. Why did the People's Revolution of 1848 fail in Spain and the German States? 2. Why do people drive on different sides of the road in different countries?
I am swedish and once we took a walk with my work around Stockholm as a guided history tour. We have a danish woman at my job. The guide kept talking about all the danish invasions and horrors that had occured to Stockholm in the old days. Drunken danes decapitating swedish noblemen and so on. We all had a laugh about it. The norse way.
2:56 Sweden is one of the only monarchies in the world being French. The other one? Spain. P.S. Unlike Spain, the king of Sweden wasn't from the descendants of the French King, but a French general called Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte. Long story short, the previous Swedish King Karl XIII from the house of Holstein-Gottorp (the same one as Russian Emperor Peter III, 3rd cousin with Karl XIII) didn't have an heir, so the Swedish nobles chose Bernadotte as the crown prince. Karl XIII died in 1814, thus Bernadotte became Karl XIV Johan of the house of Bernadotte, wich reigned to this day. The coat of arms of the house of Bernadotte still has the French Imperial Eagle on the right. P.P.S. Initially, the kings from the house of Bernadotte wasn't related to any previous Swedish kings (as said above, he's adopted) until 1881, when King Gustaf V married Victoria of Baden, the great-granddaughter of Gustav IV Adolf, the nephew of Karl XIII. Therefore, Gustaf V's son, Gustaf VI Adolf became sort of the Swedish version of Henry VII.
Actually the king is Swedish, because even though Bernadotte was French he married and had children with a Swedish woman. If you're going to claim current monarchs aren't actually their own nationality you're probably going to lose 99.9% of the time, it's not like monarchs always married within their own nationality, in fact often they would marry other royal houses royalty for alliances. Pretty sure you could go back far enough and find some French monarch that wasn't a native Frenchman, heck maybe if you dug deep enough into Bernadottes past maybe his great grandparents were German or Swiss, would that make Swedens current monarch German-Swiss-French? By that logic, yes
@@issemayhem Marshall Bernadotte was born in the old Gascon town of Pau, so he was probably closer to being Spanish than anything northern European. After he was king, mostof his descendents spouses were French or Dutch, with the occasional German
Polish people have never forgotten about it. We sing about it in our National Anthem: 🇵🇱 _Jak Czarniecki do Poznania_ _Po szwedzkim zaborze_ _Do Ojczyzny ratowania_ _Rzucim się przez morze_ 🇬🇧 ,,Like Czarniecki to Poznań Through Swedish Partition To save the Fatherland We'll march through the sea"
Would be cool if you did a couple of episodes on Norway. The various unions that Norway was part of after the viking age/12/1300s onwards would make a great episode. And include Sweden and Denmark as well (Kalmar union, Danish Norwegian Union, Swedish Norwegian Union etc. Many moments you could make light hearted comedy over as well :P.
Norway is the country of settlers and explorers. Norwegian vikings found iceland, greenland, america, svalbard, Orkney islands, shetland islands, and raided Ireland and England. And in modern times it launched polar expeditions instead. The country did not have much military history (probably because it did not have much more neighbours than Sweden). It did however produce a bold naval hero: Tordenskiold, which could be said to be Norways Admiral Nelson.
When it comes to Unions would I just say that the early and high middle ages are just a confused mess for Norway. Every two years or so a new union came and an old fell. Later on would some order come into place when it was decided that Norway would allow the Danish monarchy inherit the Norwegian crown, so that the King of Denmark always also became the King of Norway. This union lasted until the Napoleonic wars when Sweden took over Norway. Or rather Norway was forced into an union with Sweden where Norway and Sweden had the same foreign policy (which was decided by Sweden). But in most issues regarding Norwegian interal politics was Norway almost completly an independent country. Sweden tried to unify the two countries into one. It gave Norway generous tariffs and allowed Norwegian goods to cheaply be transported on the large Swedish merchant navy. And the hope was that the Norwegians would feel grateful towards Sweden for this kindness from that made their country richer. But the policy had the opposite effect. Norway soon became richer than Sweden, and Norwegians began to despise Sweden and thought that independence would be a good idea so they did not have to lift up the poor Swedes and could invest all their riches back home instead and make themselves richer. Now was no money sent to Sweden that way. But that was how the argument kind of went. And in the end would Norway declare its independence anyways despite all Swedens sacrifices to make the Norwegians happy to preserve the union. Some Swedes were angry and wanted to go to war, but the Germans and others forced Sweden to back down from such ideas. Partly because they wanted a weaker neighbour in the north. However today are Sweden and Norwegian good friends. And there is no desire to "retake" Norway. And Norwegians are happy to finally have an independent country - it took them almost a millenium to get there. So Danish historieans claims that Norwegian is a fake country and that Norwegian is just a Danish dialect. But personally do I think that this just smell like Putinism and the russian argument that all Ukrainians are russians 😂 As a Swede I have not much problem understanding Norwegian when its spoken slowly. But I cannot understand much Danish, not even if someone pointed a gun to my head any my life dependend on it. Sadly, I might add as I really want to learn Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish. Some Norwegian historians say that the Danes economically exploited Norway. While Danish historians describe everything as unselfish altruism. As a Swede I think the truth is in the middle so I make myself hate by both 😂 However I tend to lean towards the Danish position slightly I guess. But in many other aspects was the marriage with Denmark a bad deal. Iceland, Greenland, Faroe islands were all orginally found and colonised by the Norwegians and for centuries they belonged to Norway. But when the union with Denmark was broken did Denmark keep all those areas for themselves - which I think is a bit unfair, since they all should have gone to Norway. I really cannot see a good argument why they should have become Danish. Its not like Denmark cared much about those areas for most of their history. The first time a Danish King ever visited Iceland was in the late 1800s when Iceland had belonged to Denmark for 1000 years. The Scandinavian currency union was an idiotic failed currency experiment, just like the Latin monetary union which also later on failed and collapsed just like the Scaninavian currency union, and the Bretton Woods system. Or the idiotic Euro currency.
i will never forget your guys' amazing meatballs, furniture, peaceful games, war-focused games, game games, fish, and amazing meatballs oh, and welcome into NATO!
Still hoping to see a video more focused on the Kalmar Union. (How it got started, how it affected the countries in it, how it ended, etc.) For me in particular it would be fun with an outside view of it as I only really know the Swedish side of the story.
The history book on the shelf Is always repeating itself Waterloo, I was defeated, you won the war Waterloo, promise to love you forevermore Waterloo, couldn't escape if I wanted to Waterloo, knowing my fate is to be with you Woah, woah, woah, woah, Waterloo Finally facing my Waterloo
Abandoned due to many factors. On one hand it was uncharted territory and the Skraelings(natives) were all over the place so they wouldn't have been able to expand without sufficient military force which required a lot of resources and time, on the other, skandinavian longboats weren't really designed for interoceanic travel compared to the later Galleons/Carabels(they were mainly to sail across the coast and also for going up the rivers) so it was only possible to get to America because Iceland -> Greenland -> Vinland were close enough geographically to make a stop and resupply along the Arctic Ocean but the Little Ice Age ended all that due to Greenland becoming too cold to survive and the icebergs and sea ice becoming too thick to cross.
Some video ideas: Why did Iberian Taifas fails while Turkish Beyliks are successful in Anatolia? (For context: 10th century is where two opposite peninsula have two opposite outcomes: one being Andalusian caliphate collapsed into petty kingdoms (taifas) and other one is the collapse of Byzantine authority in Anatolia following the battle of Manzikert against the seljuk turks)
Something people often ignore that it wasn't surprising that the Swedish empire declined, but rather that it rose to begin with. When you look at 17-18th century demographics, you realise that Sweden got extremely lucky and had no business to be this powerful. When they invaded Russia, they were undergoing their worst political crisis since the Mongols. Same with Poland and the HRE. The problem was that when Russia finally got it's sh*t together, it turned out that they had 5 times Sweden's population and despite Sweden's king being a reincarnation of Gustavus Adolphus, he wasn't able to sustain a war of attrition
This. And the fact that 50% Swedish army was mercenaries from all over Europe, 15% were disporportionally Finnish and the rest were Swedish. And their tactics were ridiculously brutal, so much so that the plunder of Prague in 1640’s is still to this day remembered. They had no business running around Europe doing any of that.
@@kungolaf4499 That depends entirely on what period you're talking about. The reliance on mercenaries was mostly an early/mid 17th century thing (30YW, Polish war etc) but towards the latter part of the 17th century, Sweden managed to set up a standing army (through indelningsverket) which meant that mercenaries became much less important from that point onward.
![ลองสุ่มไอโฟน 990 โกงมั้ย? [ โกงมั้ยครับ ep.101 ] | DOM](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bfsWe0j492k/mqdefault.jpg)
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
Paradox stopped buffing them
Paradox will never stop buffing them until they outright rewrite reality in Sweden's favour.
In CK3 the Norse culture is so hilariously overpowered that it's impossible to compete
😂
I like how the Sweden economics explained in the video is basically normal expansive gameplay economics in EU4.
>Hire a huge army
>Go deep into debt
>Win against a larger enemy with huge army
>Pay off debt with war reparations
>Buy bigger army and repeat
Sweden only messed up the fool proof strat by losing. Shoulda gotten good
"Sweden is not overpowered." 🙄😂
Sweden: HAHA YES! WINNING ROCKS!!! SUCK IT, LOSERS!!!
Sweden: *loses once*
Sweden: Let us be a bastion of neutrality.
It was more like losses during a 100 years long period (of economic and demographic decline).
Sweden: Let's become a seafaring power!
Builds the Vasa, which promptly sinks upon launch.
Sweden: Navies are overrated.
Up until this year, 2024.
Sweden 2022: "y'all got any more of them NATO memberships?"
@@jabbertwardy one of the most amazing details of this is that the Dutch (IIRC) ship-builders made it out of Sweden alive.
(Just one more gun-deck! Above? Below? I don't care one more!!!)
Simple, Sweden switched up its strategy for world domination. It stopped invading everywhere (Denmark) and made us all rely on them for usable furniture, quite clever really
and depend on it for map games
@@SulistaComunista
And block games. Really, they just seem big on cultural victory.
...those meatballs, man....
and the Swedish Fish candy.
*heavy breathing by Americans butchering the pronunciation of IKEA*
So essentiely until 1700 sweden was prussia before prussia was prussia.
yeah basically
Before 1721
Except Prussia had a much more reliable financial system and a much stronger economy
@@luisfilipe2023 When? Prussia has gone through several iterations.
@@luisfilipe2023Sweden was prussia but just with a absolutely horrendous population
1:40
"I use army to fund army"
- Sweden, probably
There was a saying in Sweden:
"We'll fight to the last Finn!"
When Sweden lost the Finnish War in 1808-09, it declined for good.
How to fund a Viking army 101
the viking mentallity
@@albion6087
I love it!!
If one thinks about it that is how the viking system worked pretty much, so no surprise even in later centuries nordic countries continued to follow this mentality. Maybe Sweden's biggest mistake was not coming up with some ideas of how to minimize army expenditure during peacetime. The british were much better at this, like for example in the royal navy officers would get demoted or lose command in peacetime, which meant lower pay. I'm sure the same applied in the army.
1:08 - Single greatest visual representation of "mixed arms" ever!
💯
How do you mean?
@@vicino. 3 pairs of different looking minecraft like arms
At its strongest, Sweden had a colony in the Americas, New Sweden, on the Delaware River as well as ownership of St Barts.
I would say at it's largest, not necicarrily at it's strongest.
No. Saint Barthélemy didn’t belong to Sweden until the 1700s, while New Sweden was a Swedish colony during the 1600s.
🤓☝️
Philadelphia's municipal flag is evidence of Sweden's brief North American presence.
And then the Dutch were like: 'Hey, it's free real-estate'.
Fun fact: the colonist were actually mostly Finnish
Problem: Expensive army
Solution: James bisonette
I think Kelly Money Maker would be a better choice but that's just me
Hotel: Trivago
@@eacalvertclue's in the name really.
😂
Imagine that some of these guys just forgot that they have subscribed to him on Patreon.
Arguably Sweden, instead of Revolutionary France, is the first modern state, with a modern army & taxation system. Later its competitors (especially Russia) learned from Sweden and caught up.
The section of the Swedish constitution that guarantees freedom of speech is a decade older than the US: 1766.
@@magnushultgrenhtc As a Swede, i think Sweden prohibits hate speech, which means its not fully freedom of Speech.
@@ledrash6079 I mean, so does the American policy on free speech as well. Tolerance of intolerance usually just leads to more intolerance.
@@blueseercontentAmerican Free Speech actually guarantees complete Speech protection, even for hate Speech and blasphemy
Freedoms have limits.@@ledrash6079
State control of the church was mostly important because the church kept detailed records of people, and these records increased taxation efficiency immensely.
And helped in finding and keeping track of potential recruits or conscripts for the army.
Cool, I thought this was just some Paradox shit.
That’s not why Sweden converted to Protestantism at all, or why state control of the church was important. The state could probably access tax lists whether they were Catholic or Protestant. Some of the reasons the king converted the country were that partially he was in conflict with the Archbishop of Stockholm Gustaf Trolle, and that he wanted to confiscate (i.e. steal) church assets
And without that census, the allotment systems that Swedish kings could made every hovel supply one man and each hovel paid for his gun and uniform possible.
I wonder what step Prinz Eugen missed when he tried the same with Landwehr system and ended up with recruits missing guns and shoes.
Old day version of Big Brother
In Germany, the regions at the Baltic coast are still jokingly referred to as "South Sweden". They were Swedisch territory for over 200 years, and there are still some words and traditions alive from this period. As Sweden was a major steel producer, the expression "behind Swedish curtains" means "behind bars" in German. And "Old Swede!" is an expression of utter astonishment.
oh that's where ''alter schwede'' comes from
Also in Hamburg there's a stone named alter schwede, a stone from Småland :>
I had picked up a slightly different story to that Baltic connection, namely that the "old Swede!" exclamation (which is still very commonly used here in Germany, although mostly in a kind of joking/ironic ways nowadays since it's such a weird thing to say) came from the old Swedish soldiers that stayed around for one reason or another in Germany after the Thirty Years' War (in which the Swedish army became known and feared all around the country)
Yeah, I come from Rügen and people here jokingly ask "When is Rügen going back to Sweden?"
Sweden didn't just used to be a major steel producer, it is still the largest iron producer in the EU, and the mine in Kiruna is one of the largest single mines in the world
They didn’t decline. The many locations of IKEA all over the world just shows how influential Sweden is!
Lol,I hate IKEA
Ever tried putting together something from them?
Not fun at all,lol
@@colindaniels945 you must be "special" kind of person if you cannot put together a furniture you bought from IKEA. That shit practically builts itself.
@@o.w.n.1327But I always get lost in there😢
@@colindaniels945 IKEA furniture has a bit of parts but tbh it just takes time it's not that bad
@@Kokong I know what you mean. It's like they built the shop in a maze.
Here in Estonia, they still call the Swedish rule period "The Golden Swedish Age".
Interesting! Are there any articles about this some place so I (we) can read?
Well, given that it was followed by Russian occupation the bar for a good time wasn't particularly high.
Here in Finland we call them the homoage
I've also heard it called "The good old Swedish times"
@Erik_Taurus
And how did you Estonians enjoy being ruled by the "Livonian Brothers of the Sword" and their descendants, the Baltic German's?
I like how sweden just tagged in to whatever nordic country it felt like. At one point Denmark and Sweden were one country, then it was Sweden and Finland, and lastly Sweden and Norway
Too bad they didn't stick with Norway--they would've been able to get some of that oil money.
@@AdvocateOfJamaica Norway didn't want to stick with them
@@AdvocateOfJamaica actually they wanted to but the Norwegians did what was smart: they broke up w them.
Well.. Finland belonged to Sweden for 600 years and that's why it was a major blow to Sweden when we lost them to Russia. The Swedish general in charge of Sveaborg fortress outside of Helsinki was executed as soon as he sat foot in Stockholm.
@@AdvocateOfJamaicathe countries had one and the same king but separate governments and partial "democracy" (for tax-payers).
The intention was to deepen the union. But that failed, chiefly because Sweden was dominated by conservative politicians and Norway more liberal.
The conservative establishment of Sweden wanted to control and dominate also the Norwegians.
But when Norway had gained independence, the conservatives soon lost their dominance in Sweden too and common suffrage was introduced.
In Swedish history class this is called "Stormaktstiden" or The age of great power
Yeah, they declined from being a somewhat major power by trying to become a major power in the first place. Kinda harsh version of "just be yourself" statement..
@@MetalLP brings a tear to my eye :(
Typo StormaktsTiden
@@antonjohansson3819 Thanks, missed that!
@@MetalLP Just conquering Moscow, unlike Hitler. And then conquering all of modern day Germany. Plundering Prague in 1648. Beating the crap out of the Danish empire and taking a large number of provinces: Scania, Jämtland, Halland, Blekinge, Gotland, Bohuslän, Trondheim, Bornholm. And then taking all of the Baltics, and basically conquer all of the gigantic Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth twice in the 1650s and in 1706s. Plus crushing the Saxon army which was the richest country in Europe and the Silicon Valley of its day.
Sweden built Europes largest fleet of warships in the late 1500s and early 1600s. It saved protestantism in the 30 years war, and created freedom of religion, and created a new world order with the Westphalian peace. And in 1640 it had the largest army in Europe. And a saying in that time period was that if you wanted to learn how to fight, then you needed to join service with the Swedish army. Because that was considered the best most modern fighting force of its time.
For 300 years was Sweden a major power in northern Europe.
And then I am not including medieval times or the viking age.
I tell my girlfriend i have her as my wallpaper but in reality i switch it to Gustavus Adolphus when nobody is looking
>implying his gf is not guatavus adolophus
We both know you like the skeltonussy
HAHA this comment:D
That painting of him riding a horse in such a flamboyant manner during battle as if he’s the sugar plum fairy 😍
Maybe you should get a Swedish girlfriend instead. 🙂
king
When Poland-Lithuania and Russia put aside their differences to see your empire put in the ground peanently, that’s when you know you effed up
Commonwealth was the country that existed only theoretically at this point. August II would do anything what Russia asked him, because without them, he wouldn't stay as a king in the first place.
@@GM-gb1eu Except not really. You're mixing last two kings with August II, all while Commonwealth still could recover from 17th century debacles. Problem though, August II basically brought Commonwealth into his personal war with Sweden, where he naively thought Russians and Danes would take the brunt while he would take modern Latvia for himself and gain political power via that. Instead he failed in spectacular way and brought upon Commonwealth decade long war which was in retrospect the decisive nail to it's coffin, as country was yet again ruined and plundered, political spectrum devolved, all while Commonwealth became de facto puppet of Russia.
@@ReichLife Nah, as a Pole, Poland was doomed when John III Sobieski died, and even before, the Polish state was really degenerated by its own political system. Only radical changes to the system could change things, but it happened 100 years too late.
@@GM-gb1eu Except not really. Commonwealth was hardly doomed when August II got the crown. It was exactly his idiotic decision to bring upon country yet another war which doomed it. As mentioned, Great Northern War was basically Deluge 2.0. On another hand, civil war during it neutered any chance of meaningful reform for next 2-3 generations. Finally, it was only due to Great Northern War that Commonwealth lost it's sovereignty, instead falling into Russian sphere.
Closest thing to Russia and Poland ever being allies
James Bisonette didn’t fund us enough 🇸🇪
Your mistake was not going to Kelly Moneymaker instead. I mean, it's right there in her name.
@@jc3drums916 she was funding the Danes during the great Northern war.
@@mrwillss5888I knew there was something wrong with her when she started speaking weirdly rather than speaking the beautiful and efficient Swedish language
I immediately started looking for a comment about why James Bisonette was now gone
I keep thinking one day we’re gonna hear: “But fun fact… Yes!”
But fun fact......no
It's because James Bisonette wasn't funding the treasury
1:07 The Swedish updated their military by emphasizing mixed arms-
*Illustration: Literal mixed arms*
I am afraid the humour used in these videos have done irreversable damage to me, but I will still watch and like every single one of them.
Interesting video and also it is always fun to see somebody talk about swedish history. Hälsningar från sverige
My week was so bad, glad you uploaded a new video
Aw I hope next week will be better
Hope for the best next week. Stay strong, buddy!
Your week wasn't as bad as Charles running from Poltava, you have to look at the bright side
⚡️⚡️⚡️😡😡😡
Hope things are going better this month.
Your videos are always so briefly comprehensive! I will start showing your videos in class soon to give students a greater understanding of why the world is shaped the way it is. Thank you!
because James bisonette
He stopped funding them and switched to this channel.
Nah
@@alastairward2774This comment was fact checked by real Danish patriots. ✅✅✅
Who
Kelly was not yet making money at this time
This whole “let’s fight Russia…Hey, it’s going well, let’s go further…Oh shit!” is a recurring theme in history.
The time has come for another iteration.
And there's always a bad winter.
The later attempts at least had the Swedish example to learn from.
For Sweden, it was not so easy to predict, as Sweden had already taken Moscow in an earlier war.
The current score for Swedish-Russian wars are 8-3 to Sweden.
Not really? I mean, it has happened several times, but it is not the general case.
Muscowy/Russia has been defeated after invasion by Sweden, Poland-Lithuania, Persia, China, the Ottoman Empire, and Japan that I can think of off the top of my head.
The idea that invading Russia and pushing deeper leads to almost inevitable defeat doesn't stand scrutiny given the many counterexamples. Add to that the many wars Muscowy and Russia fought on foreign territory and lost, and the idea of Russian invincibility based on endless reserves and General Winter is relegated to the status of myth, where it belongs.
Swede here we didn't choose the new french king at random. The old king had no children and his nephew had been deposed to put him on the throne ultimately ending his house and forcing him to adopt a heir, which is very rare. First he and the parliament chose a distant relativ of the dynasty "Karl August". However Karl August ended up dying before the old king. The parliament was at a loss at this point until someone mentioned the fine treatment of the Swedish soldiers in the conquest of Swedish Pommerania by the French Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte. He also had a son Oscar which was a great boon for starting a new royal house. He was adopted and took the Swedish name of "Karl Johan" and shortly after conquered Norway to prove his leadership. After the old king died he was crowned Karl XIV Johan 1818 and since then Sweden has been a neutral country all the way until we recently joined NATO putting an end to over 200 years of official neutrality.
A interesting fact speculated by historians is that Jean-Baptiste could have just as likely been a conqueror of Sweden, after he took Pommerania he could have taken his troops over to Sweden and ended the reign of the nephew king, but he didn't because the parliament had already deposed him because of the pressure of invasion by Finland by the French "ally" the Russians. Hence if history had gone in a different way Jean might not have been seen in such a favourable light if he had done so and not been chosen to be king.
Someone mentioned Bernadotte?! SOMEONE?!
Wow! What a time to be alive. We got a video on a Sunday heck yes
3:21 for now
Forever
People like James Bissonette and Spinning Three Plates keep these patreon credit sequence alive. Because of their patronage sure, but also because their names are so fun to hear to I find myself listening to the end even knowing the main video is already over.
I guess the greatest patron of the Swedish Army from France must have been James Bisonette.
"Mixed arms" really got me
Me at start: "I've listened to enough Sabaton to guess ..."
"Poltava"
Me: "Yep. Swedish soldiers met their bane."
Sweden plundering Prague and looting the Castle in 1648 is still well remembered in Czechia. I was always wondering how such a small nation was able to inflict so much damage so far away from their homeland.
you could ask portugal and england the same question
Well, one reason was that the vast majority of the soldiers in the army that plundered Prague weren't actually Swedish - the army relied very heavily on mercenaries at that point, most of whom were from the various German states of the time (as well as many English, Scottish and Dutch people). So they didn't have to ship over that many people from Sweden.
Even then, though, I think you overestimate the distances involved here. Even with 17th century technology, you're looking at a 1-2 months travel time from Stockholm to Prague at most. People moved over that kind of distance all the time, even back then. And the armies were mostly supplied locally, either through plunder or by purchasing from local merchants.
Same in Poland. Swedish Deluge was more dewastating than WWII. This is somehow impressive how much damage were able made swedish soldiers despite the fact they even didnt try control all ours lands by longer time.
@@konanpl8936As a Swede, I understand that what we did was devastating but if you claim it was worse than WWII then you're delusional. Kind regards from Sweden 🇸🇪
@@gustavnilsson2795 No hate for Sweden. We like our nothern neightbours, but this is true. At the time of Gustavus Adolphus Sweden had more soldiers than can maintain. So Swedish kings HAS to plunder their neighbours, or their economy would collapse. We call this war ,,Deluge (1655-1660) becuse it was very dewastating. King Adolf Gustaw wasn't interesting in rulling Commonwealth (polish and lithuanian nobility offered him crown during invasion but he rejected it) so his army just plundered everything instead try to seize control over new territories. Commonwealth never really recover from this until partitions. In terms of economy it was at least comparable with WWII. Most our historics counting this as more dewastating.
But no one keep grudge for this today, because Deluge is now just long gone history.
2:18 I expected Joakim to show up here because he made a cameo in the 30 years war video
"Listen excuse for a King! Trust me, this fight you can't win!"
i'm sorry he what?
three things swedens minning industry was also really important to it becoming a great power especially falun cooper mine and the looting foreign countrys was vital early on but with charles xi military reforms which created a real standing army not made up of mercenarys meaning it wasnt as expensive anymore since it was relatively cheap to maintain in peacetime since the soldiers where paid in land reclaimed from the nobility who had gotten the land through the lengthy regencies earlier in the centuary
and it must also be mentioned that the peasentry was represented in the riksdag meaning they would not rebel over high taxes or conscription because tecnically they where included in decision making this also created a lot of stabillity and meant
theres a lot more ti this aswell like weak neigbours and a more meritocratic rule but that was just some things i wanted to mention otherwise great video
Hate to be a grammar nazi but you really need some full stops in there. Its hard to read such a long sentence
The mining industry never came to exceed over 10% of Swedish gdp. Copper and silver prices swayed due to large imports from the new world while high grade deposits of silver and copper were being exhausted. By the 1700's, the importance of the copper and silver had entirely been replaced by iron which from there on came to be Sweden's most valuable export product.
Around 90% of the state's income was from taxes and primarily it was from taxing the peasantry. Around 1-2% of the state's revenue was from tariffs. Hence why Sweden took small provinces on the German coast. These were trade ports where shipping tariffs were collected. Most of the tariff revenue however was from Sweden's interior. Domestic tariffs meant you had to pay to sell your goods in a different town. Which in general stifled Sweden's trade and why the country remained a mainly agricultural economy. Other industries was in forestry, where again it was mainly raw goods in the form of timber and tar were the exported goods. (Sweden's economic history, Lars Magnusson).
An example of Sweden's not so well handled economy was how Swedish iron were mainly exported to Britain. While England exported nails and iron made tools to Sweden. The emphasis on the army caused Sweden to neglect its own merchant class and it took far longer for Sweden to build up its class of skilled craftsmen.
The first real growth spurt for the economy came by mid 1700's and it was still in agriculture. Centuries of land reclamation and deforestation opened up more farmland. An enclosure act that consolidated and standardized farms plots. Empty/abandoned farms were also free to be settled by any aspiring farmer without having to purchase the land. Followed by a law that forced all villagers to provide labor to neighboring farms making sure no harvest was lost to due lack of manpower meant Sweden for the first time had consecutive years of agricultural surplus that went into exports.
My idea of Swedish history was either the SAAB 900 or the Vikings. Thanks for bringing in some illumination.
"Good old fashioned generalship" -- "Kill The Enemy"
I enjoy your one liners, but this one was one of the best.
They diminished as they lost us, the Finns!
Back in a common military alliance with all of the Nordic countries for the first time in 501 years...!
*lost to the Russians
Finland was the true key to Sweden's power.
@@citinox1778France money I would say.
@@citinox1778 No, no it really wasn't. It was poor, and considered a backwater place basically.
i did not see the mixed arms visual coming
Spinning Three Plates… what a History Matters GOAT
Your channel has got me through school this year with the highest grades in the year and 100% in every test thank you
Little note: On the map of the Great Northern War, Saxony is missing. They were actually the ones to get Poland involved, as they had the same king.
We did the 30 Yrs War in A Level History & at the start of the course the teacher told us we'd be focusing on a country that dominated northern Europe & asked us to guess which one it was (obviously we failed to get it right). We honestly didn't believe him when he told us it was Sweden. And that's how we learned about Gustavus Adolphus.
Explain Baarle-Hertog and Baarle-nassau next!
As a person from Sweden, I can confirm the reason why we even had an empire in the first place is due to James bisonette and Kelly moneymaker being able to defend off the Russians from narva and St. Petersburg so well.
Something something James Bizonette
Or Bisonette, no idea how it's written
Your silly comment got more likes than one I made the other day on a video discussing the collapse of the Chinese economy.
@@Iason29 ok
Plundering someone else's country is a gross understatement here. I assure you that there is a reason why we Poles call the Swedish invasion of our country the "Swedish Flood"
My entire knowledge of this time comes from The Trilogy because the history teacher we had for the year it was covered was absolutely worthless
The damage done by Sweden to Poland during the Deluge was worse than the Nazis in WW2
If i remember correctly so was it something about Sweden alone doing more damage to Poland during the Deluge than what the Nazis did. I could be wrong tho
@@williamshakesbeer4163 material-wise yes but in terms of percentage of the population killed, the Swedes were way worse
@@akechijubeimitsuhide The Trilogy is kind of romanticised, some events and people are fictious. Other than that, it gives you a good impression of what happened
In Estonia, we call Swedish rule the Swedish golden age.
We have a school named after Gustavus Adolphus, a monument for Swedes who fought in the battle of Narva etc 🇪🇪🇸🇪
We actually had quite large Swedish minority as well, called rannarootslased (coast swedes) but that ended with soviet rule
Is Estonia a real place?
@@BigSnippof course it is. Don't let Russian propaganda fool you otherwise.
Also, Estonia is known for its digital governance
@@triadwarfare I'm just being silly. Of course Estonia is a strong nation with a rich heritage, eager to protect their homeland. No disgrace was intended.
lmao cucked
there is still a large Swedish minority in Finland. About 300 000 people out of 5 500 000. There are often called "rantaruotsalaiset" (coastal Swedes) here since they are mostly concentrated in the coast, but unfortunately this term is seen as impolite or joking and the prefered term is "suomenruotsalaiset" meaning Fenno-Swedes.
This is this week’s obligatory James Bissonette comment
Obligatory response
@@jamesbissonette8002obligatory disagreement
Obligatory Kelly Moneymaker comment.
@@ethanreyes9549 they both gave it all to some TH-camr. Back to furniture making and I assume Xeroxing cash.
If only we had made IKEA and Volvo 250 years earlier...
and Saab to build jetfighters
the Swedish scientist Emanuel Swedenborg conceptualized a flying machine in 1714 as well, imagine if he had managed to persuade the rest of the country's scientific community to figure out how to make it work.
Volvo 250 Cab min drömbil, dock taget ur sitt sammanhang.
Again one of those things ive aleays wondered but never looked into for some reason...great channel btw
As an American with Finnish heritage. Finns were like the Jesse Pinkman or Saul Goodman to Swedens Walter White. They couldn’t have done it without them.
Just like one of my American TV shows!
"I am 5% Finnish so I know pretty much everything about Finland."
@@GimbalosMorkinar I know a lot about a lot of countries it’s called learning history and having a functional brain. You should try it sometime!😁
As a history buff with ADD, your videos are absolutely amazing.
😅😅
1709 was a DISASTROUS winter btw
I'd love to see this in longer form. I love thd frequent vids but an occasional longer vid would be fun and this would be a good one to do.
1:22 Swedish empire: no i swear it gets bigger, it only looks small because its cold
IKEA + James Bissonette = the most dynamic duo ever! 😊
Fun fact: Sweden stopped going to war after it lost access to Finnish hakkapeliitti troops.
In Finland, we have a saying: "Kingdom of Sweden fought to the last Finnish conscript".
Thats a funny meme although not true, because when you look at the conscripts from all over the kingdom it was equally divided and proportionally the same.
No doubt that Swedens eastern half (todays Finland) provided an important part but the western part was just as important.
Paska haisee ruotsin rannala
Except that is false, & it was actually equally divided conscription. Together with that Swedens majority in the army wasn't Swedish or Finish, but mercenaries & recruited soldiers from their campaigns.
@@KeveTeller That was definitely true for the early 17th century (e.g. the 30 years war, the Polish war etc) but not so much for the Great Northern War (early 1700s) or the later Russo-Swedish wars of the 18th and early 19th centuries. Mercenaries, who were expensive and unreliable, were not used nearly as much once Sweden started being able to produce a proper standing army towards the end of the 17th century, rather than having to rely on either conscripted farmers or expensive mercenaries.
@@Lighthammer18 Vain Suomessa istutaan reunalla
Please do a video on the following subjects:
1. Why did the People's Revolution of 1848 fail in Spain and the German States?
2. Why do people drive on different sides of the road in different countries?
Sweden really lost once and then stopped playing. A true paradox Gamer
There is a good reason the Swedish paradox devs built in the 'fuck around and a coalition is going to bring you down'-mechanic...
I always enjoy your videos! ❤
Great video! Good to hear Swedish history!
I am swedish and once we took a walk with my work around Stockholm as a guided history tour. We have a danish woman at my job. The guide kept talking about all the danish invasions and horrors that had occured to Stockholm in the old days. Drunken danes decapitating swedish noblemen and so on. We all had a laugh about it. The norse way.
Skol!!!!!
@@doglover31418 skål!
1:59 "I WAS CHOSEN BY HEAVEN!"
"SAY MY NAME WHEN YOU PRAY"
TO THE SKIES SEE CAROLUS RISE!
"WITH THE LORD MY PROTECTOR"
Wow. Probably the best 4 minute summary of the Swedish Empire's rise and decline I have ever seen. Well done.
This is my Roman Empire...
det är så över...
Haha husk Fredriksten festning hvor vi skøyt kongen deres. Vi kan kjøpe hele Sverige om vi vil!
@@joninator7858 ehm vi ägde er i 100 år
Och danmark ägde er i typ 350 år också 💀💀
@@messithegoat6142 Union hvor vi hadde mye selvstyre kan neppe telles som å "eie"
Når vi erklærte oss selv selvstendige gjorde dere ingen verdens ting
3:00 Norway: "hehe... wait what!?"
2:56 Sweden is one of the only monarchies in the world being French.
The other one? Spain.
P.S. Unlike Spain, the king of Sweden wasn't from the descendants of the French King, but a French general called Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte. Long story short, the previous Swedish King Karl XIII from the house of Holstein-Gottorp (the same one as Russian Emperor Peter III, 3rd cousin with Karl XIII) didn't have an heir, so the Swedish nobles chose Bernadotte as the crown prince. Karl XIII died in 1814, thus Bernadotte became Karl XIV Johan of the house of Bernadotte, wich reigned to this day.
The coat of arms of the house of Bernadotte still has the French Imperial Eagle on the right.
P.P.S. Initially, the kings from the house of Bernadotte wasn't related to any previous Swedish kings (as said above, he's adopted) until 1881, when King Gustaf V married Victoria of Baden, the great-granddaughter of Gustav IV Adolf, the nephew of Karl XIII. Therefore, Gustaf V's son, Gustaf VI Adolf became sort of the Swedish version of Henry VII.
Actually the king is Swedish, because even though Bernadotte was French he married and had children with a Swedish woman. If you're going to claim current monarchs aren't actually their own nationality you're probably going to lose 99.9% of the time, it's not like monarchs always married within their own nationality, in fact often they would marry other royal houses royalty for alliances. Pretty sure you could go back far enough and find some French monarch that wasn't a native Frenchman, heck maybe if you dug deep enough into Bernadottes past maybe his great grandparents were German or Swiss, would that make Swedens current monarch German-Swiss-French? By that logic, yes
Literally every single monarchy in Europe had foreigners as their monarchs throughout their history, that eventually married and became nationalized.
@@issemayhem Marshall Bernadotte was born in the old Gascon town of Pau, so he was probably closer to being Spanish than anything northern European. After he was king, mostof his descendents spouses were French or Dutch, with the occasional German
took me a while to realize that this wasn't an elaborate setup to a James Bissonette joke
Some people argue the English monarchy is technically French (from 900 years ago), since it started in Normandy.
You forgot to mention the brief resurgence under Gustav the Third
James bissonnette is the demise of many great things empires fear him
Another amazing video
I'm from the swedish part of Germany that everyone always forgets about!
Polish people have never forgotten about it. We sing about it in our National Anthem:
🇵🇱 _Jak Czarniecki do Poznania_
_Po szwedzkim zaborze_
_Do Ojczyzny ratowania_
_Rzucim się przez morze_
🇬🇧 ,,Like Czarniecki to Poznań
Through Swedish Partition
To save the Fatherland
We'll march through the sea"
Is there any lasting Swedish influence on those parts of Germany?
Would be cool if you did a couple of episodes on Norway. The various unions that Norway was part of after the viking age/12/1300s onwards would make a great episode. And include Sweden and Denmark as well (Kalmar union, Danish Norwegian Union, Swedish Norwegian Union etc. Many moments you could make light hearted comedy over as well :P.
Norway is the country of settlers and explorers. Norwegian vikings found iceland, greenland, america, svalbard, Orkney islands, shetland islands, and raided Ireland and England. And in modern times it launched polar expeditions instead.
The country did not have much military history (probably because it did not have much more neighbours than Sweden).
It did however produce a bold naval hero: Tordenskiold, which could be said to be Norways Admiral Nelson.
When it comes to Unions would I just say that the early and high middle ages are just a confused mess for Norway. Every two years or so a new union came and an old fell. Later on would some order come into place when it was decided that Norway would allow the Danish monarchy inherit the Norwegian crown, so that the King of Denmark always also became the King of Norway.
This union lasted until the Napoleonic wars when Sweden took over Norway. Or rather Norway was forced into an union with Sweden where Norway and Sweden had the same foreign policy (which was decided by Sweden). But in most issues regarding Norwegian interal politics was Norway almost completly an independent country.
Sweden tried to unify the two countries into one. It gave Norway generous tariffs and allowed Norwegian goods to cheaply be transported on the large Swedish merchant navy. And the hope was that the Norwegians would feel grateful towards Sweden for this kindness from that made their country richer. But the policy had the opposite effect. Norway soon became richer than Sweden, and Norwegians began to despise Sweden and thought that independence would be a good idea so they did not have to lift up the poor Swedes and could invest all their riches back home instead and make themselves richer.
Now was no money sent to Sweden that way. But that was how the argument kind of went.
And in the end would Norway declare its independence anyways despite all Swedens sacrifices to make the Norwegians happy to preserve the union. Some Swedes were angry and wanted to go to war, but the Germans and others forced Sweden to back down from such ideas. Partly because they wanted a weaker neighbour in the north.
However today are Sweden and Norwegian good friends. And there is no desire to "retake" Norway. And Norwegians are happy to finally have an independent country - it took them almost a millenium to get there. So Danish historieans claims that Norwegian is a fake country and that Norwegian is just a Danish dialect. But personally do I think that this just smell like Putinism and the russian argument that all Ukrainians are russians 😂 As a Swede I have not much problem understanding Norwegian when its spoken slowly. But I cannot understand much Danish, not even if someone pointed a gun to my head any my life dependend on it. Sadly, I might add as I really want to learn Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish.
Some Norwegian historians say that the Danes economically exploited Norway. While Danish historians describe everything as unselfish altruism. As a Swede I think the truth is in the middle so I make myself hate by both 😂
However I tend to lean towards the Danish position slightly I guess. But in many other aspects was the marriage with Denmark a bad deal. Iceland, Greenland, Faroe islands were all orginally found and colonised by the Norwegians and for centuries they belonged to Norway. But when the union with Denmark was broken did Denmark keep all those areas for themselves - which I think is a bit unfair, since they all should have gone to Norway.
I really cannot see a good argument why they should have become Danish. Its not like Denmark cared much about those areas for most of their history. The first time a Danish King ever visited Iceland was in the late 1800s when Iceland had belonged to Denmark for 1000 years.
The Scandinavian currency union was an idiotic failed currency experiment, just like the Latin monetary union which also later on failed and collapsed just like the Scaninavian currency union, and the Bretton Woods system. Or the idiotic Euro currency.
"Ready for your massage, ja?"
- Swedish Phoebe
It’s wild that Napoleon had such a wide range of impact across literally all of Europe at one point, great video again!
Fun Fact No will always be my favorite line from this channel.
I do miss the thumps.
Your channel is my favorite!!!!
Here in Peru, they still call the Swedish rule period "The Golden Swedish Age".
Tell us about GDL (Grand Duchy of Lithuania) next, please!
Shout out James Bizennet!!
Thanks!
Really interesting, thanks!
Ohhhh so this isn't about Sweden's recent decline.
Wow. I never knew. Now I do. Thanks!
Well i as a swede (not bias) think Sweden is still amazing and influencial 🇸🇪
i smell sarcasm there
@@wheeliebeast7679I hope he's being sarcastic. Because now with the NATO BS, they can no longer be the neutral diplomatic negotiator of the world.
i will never forget your guys' amazing meatballs, furniture, peaceful games, war-focused games, game games, fish, and amazing meatballs
oh, and welcome into NATO!
@@idrathernot_2 Sweden was only neutral on paper since start of the cold war
@@idrathernot_2 Correct, they're just another american satrapie now.
Still hoping to see a video more focused on the Kalmar Union. (How it got started, how it affected the countries in it, how it ended, etc.) For me in particular it would be fun with an outside view of it as I only really know the Swedish side of the story.
Because grantville wasnt there to help Gustav Adolf in 1632😂 ("1632" by erich flint)
The history book on the shelf
Is always repeating itself
Waterloo, I was defeated, you won the war
Waterloo, promise to love you forevermore
Waterloo, couldn't escape if I wanted to
Waterloo, knowing my fate is to be with you
Woah, woah, woah, woah, Waterloo
Finally facing my Waterloo
2:07 I was chosen by heaven
Say my name when you pray
To the sky, see Carolus rise....
With the lord my protector
Make them bow to my will
To the skies
See Carolus rise!
Thanks for the information
*VIDEO SUGGESTION:*
What happened to The Vikings' settlements in North America?
that's a banger idea
Abandoned due to many factors. On one hand it was uncharted territory and the Skraelings(natives) were all over the place so they wouldn't have been able to expand without sufficient military force which required a lot of resources and time, on the other, skandinavian longboats weren't really designed for interoceanic travel compared to the later Galleons/Carabels(they were mainly to sail across the coast and also for going up the rivers) so it was only possible to get to America because Iceland -> Greenland -> Vinland were close enough geographically to make a stop and resupply along the Arctic Ocean but the Little Ice Age ended all that due to Greenland becoming too cold to survive and the icebergs and sea ice becoming too thick to cross.
As a swede I can assure you this is 100% accurate and very entertaining!
James Bisonette fans where yall at??
love the new series, make why did the Polish Lithuanian commonwealth declined next
1:28 Pay us 😮
Some video ideas: Why did Iberian Taifas fails while Turkish Beyliks are successful in Anatolia?
(For context: 10th century is where two opposite peninsula have two opposite outcomes: one being Andalusian caliphate collapsed into petty kingdoms (taifas) and other one is the collapse of Byzantine authority in Anatolia following the battle of Manzikert against the seljuk turks)
Because James Bisonette got overthrown by the people of Sweden
Had a heart attack thinking James wasn't the first shout out... don't say tuff like that without thinking my friend!
@@CookRacingUK?
Upvoted for information density.
Sweden in 1800s: WE ARE STRONG
Sweden In 2024: We want peace :)
What a sad destination...
How sad that such brave warriors have been pussified.
I love that it was also a bit of: "WE ARE WINNING! DO MOAR WAR!"
And then after losing a lot: "Be more neutral is what we meant!"
@@BoereViking yeah...all because of that cuckold of gramnsci and progessists
1700s*
Something people often ignore that it wasn't surprising that the Swedish empire declined, but rather that it rose to begin with. When you look at 17-18th century demographics, you realise that Sweden got extremely lucky and had no business to be this powerful. When they invaded Russia, they were undergoing their worst political crisis since the Mongols. Same with Poland and the HRE. The problem was that when Russia finally got it's sh*t together, it turned out that they had 5 times Sweden's population and despite Sweden's king being a reincarnation of Gustavus Adolphus, he wasn't able to sustain a war of attrition
This. And the fact that 50% Swedish army was mercenaries from all over Europe, 15% were disporportionally Finnish and the rest were Swedish. And their tactics were ridiculously brutal, so much so that the plunder of Prague in 1640’s is still to this day remembered. They had no business running around Europe doing any of that.
@@kungolaf4499 That depends entirely on what period you're talking about. The reliance on mercenaries was mostly an early/mid 17th century thing (30YW, Polish war etc) but towards the latter part of the 17th century, Sweden managed to set up a standing army (through indelningsverket) which meant that mercenaries became much less important from that point onward.