Sweden

During Roman times the eastern half of the Scandinavian Peninsula was inhabited by two tribes of the Germanic peoples: the Suiones, or Swedes, in northern Svealand; and the Gothones, or Goths, in southern Gothia. These tribes, although united in religious beliefs, were generally at war with each other. Before the 10th century, details of Swedish history are obscure. In the first half of the 9th century Frankish missionaries began teaching Christianity, which slowly became established in the country. Olaf Skötkonung was the first Swedish king to become a Christian. From about AD 800, Swedish Vikings established colonies in other countries, especially Russia and Eastern Europe, and established trade routes. During the reign of Eric IX, from 1150 to 1160, Swedish power was strengthened. Eric invaded Finland and forced Christianity on those he conquered; during the subsequent two centuries Finland was completely subjugated by the Swedes. Eric was allegedly slain by a Danish claimant to his throne while he was attending mass, and he later became the patron saint of Sweden. The Union of Kalmar In the 13th and 14th centuries feudalism became a controlling influence in Sweden, and as the throne's power waned, that of the wealthy aristocracy grew. In 1389 the Swedish nobles forced Albert of Mecklenburg to renounce the throne, which was given to Margaret I, queen of Denmark and Norway. In 1397 Margaret effected the Union of Kalmar, by which the three Scandinavian kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden were united under a single sovereign. The union, which endured for more than a century, was characterized by constant dissension and wars between the Danes and Swedes. In 1520, when rebellion threatened, King Christian II of Denmark and Norway invaded Sweden to enforce his authority. Having been crowned, however, he had many of his opponents executed. The mass murders provoked a rebellion in 1521, led by Gustav Vasa, who became administrator after the rebellion succeeded and, in 1523, king as Gustav I Vasa. Denmark, however, retained possession of the southern part of the peninsula. Under Gustav, Sweden became a hereditary monarchy in which the power of the nobles was circumscribed and that of the clergy subordinated to the state. Lutheranism was established as the state religion in the 1520s. Sweden as Military Power During the 16th century Sweden entered a period of expansion. The Reval district of Estonia put itself voluntarily under Swedish protection in 1561, and as a result of the Livonia War of 1557 to 1582, Sweden acquired all of Estonia from Poland, including the district of Narva. Gradually the kingdom became a power in the Baltic area, and its expansionist policies were furthered by Gustav II Adolph, considered the greatest Swedish king, who succeeded to the throne in 1611. At the beginning of his reign, Sweden was at war with Russia, and in 1617 Gustav ended the conflict with a treaty by which Sweden obtained eastern Karelia and Ingria. A war with Poland (1621-1629) gave Sweden all Livonia, which was, however, not formally renounced by Poland until 1660. In 1630 Gustav, as the champion of Protestantism, entered the Thirty Years' War. The king died in 1632, but his policies were continued and brilliantly fulfilled by his chancellor, Count Axel Oxenstierna, who directed the Swedish government during the minority of the monarch's daughter, Christina. Christina came of age and was crowned in 1644. By the Peace of Westphalia of 1648, which ended the Thirty Years' War, Sweden acquired a large part of Pomerania, the island of Rügen, Wismar, the sees of Bremen and Verden, and other German territory, which entitled the Swedish sovereign to three votes in the diet of the Holy Roman Empire. Sweden then became the greatest power in the Baltic area. In 1654 Queen Christina abdicated, naming her cousin Charles X Gustav as her successor; she lived the rest of her life in Rome. Charles, who ruled until 1660, declared war on Poland (the First Northern War, 1655-1660), overran that country, and by the Peace of Oliva in April 1660, Poland formally conceded Livonia to Sweden. Charles X invaded Denmark twice in 1658 and wrested from it the provinces in southern Sweden that Denmark had retained in the 16th century. Charles's son and successor, Charles XI, allied himself with King Louis XIV of France in the French wars of the late 17th century. Sweden, however, a small and not overly wealthy country, did not have the resources to implement such militarism despite its Baltic conquests. In 1675 the Swedes, as French allies, were severely defeated by Frederick William, elector of Brandenburg, at Fehrbellin. At the same time, Charles struck at fundamental Swedish liberties in a reorganization of the Swedish government, weakening the council of state and the Riksdag, and making himself an absolute monarch. In 1680 he confiscated all large estates. Sweden again became an efficient military state, but only temporarily. The Great Northern War Charles XII, son and successor to Charles XI, was a military genius. Not long after his accession, at the age of 15, he successfully engaged an aggressive coalition of Russia, Poland, and Denmark in the beginning of the Great Northern War (1700-1721). During the first years of this conflict Sweden brilliantly asserted its position as the great military power of the Baltic. In 1700 Charles successfully invaded northwestern Russia, and by 1706 he had defeated the Poles. While Charles was engaging Poland, however, Peter the Great of Russia was establishing his dominion on the Baltic coasts. In 1709 the Swedes were completely routed by Russia at the Battle of Poltava, marking the collapse of Sweden and its replacement by Russia as the dominant power in the Baltic. By the treaties of Stockholm and Nystadt in 1721, Sweden lost much of its German territory and ceded Livonia, Estonia, Ingria, part of Karelia, and several important Baltic islands to Russia. Charles XII had died in 1718, and was succeeded by his sister, Ulrika Eleanora, conditional on her acceptance of a new constitution destroying the absolute monarchy and vesting the legislative power in a Riksdag of four estates (nobles, clergy, burghers, and peasants). The executive power became the province of a so-called secret committee of the first three estates. Thus, the aristocracy had governmental control once again, which it kept for more than 50 years. In 1771 Gustav III came to the throne and, availing himself of a general dissatisfaction with the high-handed policies of the aristocracy, managed to take over the government. He promulgated a new constitution and restored absolute monarchy. At first his policies were liberal, but after 1789, with the start of the French Revolution, he became a despot and was assassinated in 1792. Napoleonic Wars His son and successor, Gustav IV Adolph, was bitterly opposed to Napoleon of France, and in 1805 he joined the Third Coalition against him, composed of Great Britain, Sweden, Russia, and Austria. Russia deserted the coalition for an alliance with Napoleon in 1807 and a year later invaded Finland, menacing Sweden. Gustav was deposed by an army revolt in 1809. The Riksdag then formulated a new constitution, which remained in force until 1975, and in 1809 elected as king the ex-king's uncle, Charles XIII. Sweden concluded two treaties, one with Russia in 1809, ceding most of Finland and the Åland Islands, and another with France in 1810, by which a pro-Napoleonic policy was adopted. Charles XIII was childless, and the Riksdag chose Marshal Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, prince of Pontecorvo and one of Napoleon's generals, as crown prince, in an effort to conciliate Napoleon. The marshal accepted, and an act of settlement, fixing the succession in the Bernadotte dynasty, was enacted in 1810. Bernadotte almost immediately became the dominant influence in Swedish policy. Withdrawing his allegiance from France, he fought with the coalition against Napoleon in 1813 and 1814. In the latter year Denmark was forced to yield Norway to Sweden, receiving in exchange the Swedish possessions in Pomerania. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Sweden no longer possessed territory in Germany. The Congress of Vienna, in 1815, recognized the union of Norway with Sweden. The Early Bernadottes In 1818 Bernadotte succeeded to the throne as Charles XIV John. Although his reign of 1818 to 1844 was characterized by a conflict for control between the throne and the Riksdag, and, as a foreigner, he was not popular, Bernadotte was an able administrator, and the united kingdoms of Norway and Sweden made considerable progress materially, politically, and culturally. His successors, Oscar I, Charles XV, and Oscar II, were accepted as Swedes. Between 1864 and 1866 the constitution was materially revised; the Riksdag, although bicameral, then received a form close to its present one. Between 1867 and 1886, nearly half a million Swedes emigrated to America because of food and job shortages. The union with Norway began to show strain in the late 19th century, and in June 1905 the Norwegian legislature proclaimed its dissolution, an act ratified without strong opposition by the Swedish Riksdag. During the reign of Oscar II notable progress was made in social legislation, including factory laws, accident insurance and pension funds for workers, and limitation of working hours for women and children. Sweden During the World Wars In 1907 Gustav V succeeded to the throne, and two years later constitutional amendments extended the voting franchise and inaugurated proportional representation as well as other reforms. In 1914, at the beginning of World War I, Sweden declared its neutrality and subsequently entered an agreement with Norway and Denmark to defend the neutrality and protect the common economic interests of the Scandinavian countries. Sweden joined the League of Nations in 1920. Led by the great Swedish statesman Karl Hjalmar Branting, the Social Democratic Party became the leading force in Swedish politics. Socialist governments remained in power until 1928, enacting social reforms that made Sweden prominent in this regard. The Conservative Party was brought into office in 1928, but the coming of the worldwide economic and industrial depression shortly afterward restored the Social Democrats to office in 1932. In the late 1930s, when war seemed imminent in Europe, military preparedness and national defense became a paramount question. The Swedish government proclaimed neutrality on the outbreak of World War II in 1939. Despite frequent border incidents and German attacks on Swedish shipping, the country maintained its neutral status throughout the war. Neutrality and Defense Questions In July 1945, after the close of hostilities in Europe, the wartime coalition cabinet resigned and the Social Democrats, under Premier Per Albin Hansson, resumed full control of the government. The Social Democratic leader Tage Erlander, formerly minister of education and church affairs, succeeded to the premiership in October 1946, after the death of Premier Hansson. The following month Sweden became the 54th member of the United Nations. Sweden maintained a neutral attitude in the ensuing Cold War. In 1948 it joined the United States-sponsored European Recovery Program, along with the other Western European nations, but refused to become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, formed in 1949. Failing in efforts to form a Scandinavian defense bloc without ties to the East or West, Sweden began systematically to strengthen its defenses. Important domestic events in Sweden were the death in 1950 of Gustav V, the accession of his eldest son as Gustav VI Adolph, the creation of a Social Democratic-Agrarian coalition government in 1951, and the development of strong inflationary pressures in the Swedish economy from 1951 to 1952. In the elections held in September 1956, the Social Democrat-Agrarian coalition remained in power despite a joint loss of 11 seats in the lower house of the Riksdag. The conviction of many Swedish military leaders that Sweden would be unable to preserve its neutrality in the event of another general war prompted many Swedes to question the traditional Swedish policy of neutrality. In March 1957 a report issued by 12 Swedish defense experts recommended that the armed forces of Sweden be equipped with atomic arms. In April, Sweden, together with Denmark, Norway, and Finland, announced the intention of the four countries to sponsor a Scandinavian institute for atomic research in Copenhagen. Expanded Welfare State Conflicting proposals for financing an expanded plan of old-age pensions caused controversy in 1957. In a popular referendum held in October, the Social Democrats' proposal, which called for compulsory contributions and for a government guarantee of the value of the benefits against inflation, won a plurality but not a majority of the votes. Nevertheless, the Social Democrats pressed in parliament for enactment of their plan, and the Agrarians thereupon withdrew from the government coalition. A new government, again headed by Erlander and consisting wholly of Social Democrats, was formed late in October. In April 1958 the United States agreed to grant $350,000 to Sweden to aid in the construction of a Swedish nuclear reactor. In the same month the Erlander government fell because of interparty disagreement on the pension plan, but elections in June returned him to power. Parliamentary approval of the pension plan was obtained on May 14, 1959. Later that year Sweden became a founding member of the European Free Trade Association. Elections in 1960 resulted in another Social Democratic victory, and Erlander remained prime minister. When he retired from his post in 1969, Olof Palme, former education minister, was named to succeed him. A constitutional revision effective in 1971 reorganized the legislature into a unicameral body and implemented a new electoral system. In 1973 Gustav VI Adolph died and was succeeded by his grandson, Carl XVI Gustaf. On January 1, 1975, a new constitution, dissolving the remaining power of the king, came into force. Swedish opposition to the war in Vietnam damaged relations with the United States beginning in the late 1960s; many young U.S. opponents of the war received political asylum in Sweden. Criticism of United States military actions by Prime Minister Palme in 1972 brought U.S. Swedish diplomatic relations to the verge of severance until 1974. Fall and Return of the Social Democrats Sweden weathered the world economic slump of 1974 and 1975 well, but it was troubled by a high inflation rate, growing foreign debts, and large budget deficits. In the September 1976 elections the Social Democrats, after 44 years in office, lost to a coalition of the Center, Conservative, and Liberal parties. In 1977 Prime Minister Thorbjörn Fälldin introduced austerity measures to dampen inflation and encourage sales of Swedish goods abroad. Fälldin's government resigned over the issue of nuclear power generation in 1978, but he returned to the helm the following year after an interim minority Liberal government. In May 1980 there was a rare general strike that brought the country to a virtual standstill for 10 days. The following October the government survived a no-confidence motion by only one vote. In May 1981 thousands of white-collar workers went on strike as the government coalition split. Another general strike was averted, however, and Fälldin then formed a Center-Liberal minority government. The Social Democrats returned to power in the parliamentary elections of 1982 and retained their dominance after the 1985 elections. Palme resumed the position of prime minister in 1982; he was assassinated on February 28, 1986, in Stockholm. He was succeeded by Deputy Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson, who retained Palme's cabinet and vowed to continue his predecessor's policies. The Social Democrats held their comfortable majority in the 1988 elections, but Carlsson resigned in 1990 after the Riksdag rejected a proposal for a temporary freeze on wages, prices, and rents. He later formed a new government, and a modified austerity program, allowing some wage increases, was adopted. In the September 1991 elections, however, the Social Democrats suffered a stunning upset, though they remained the largest party in the Riksdag, with 138 seats. Ingvar Carlsson resigned, and the leader of the Moderate Party, Carl Bildt, formed a coalition of the Moderate, Center, Liberal, and Christian Democrat parties. The new government began to accelerate deregulation of the economy, including the eventual privatization of 35 state-owned companies; large cuts in government spending, including reductions in welfare payments; and the removal of restrictions on foreign-majority-owned enterprises in Sweden. The new coalition's tenure was brief, however. In elections in September 1994, the Social Democrats returned to power, garnering just over 45 percent of the popular vote. The party better than recouped its losses from the previous election, winning a total of 161 out of the 349 seats in the Riksdag. After the elections, Ingvar Carlsson was asked to form a coalition government, but opted instead for a minority government. The September elections were notable also because women made up half of the members of Carlsson's cabinet and 41 percent of the Riksdag, the highest percentage of women lawmakers in the world. Carlsson resigned as prime minister and chair of the Social Democratic Party in March 1996. He was succeeded by Göran Persson, a moderate Social Democrat who had served as finance minister. In May 1994 the European Parliament had recommended Sweden for membership in the European Union (EU). Membership was approved by Swedish voters in a referendum held in November, and after approval by the Riksdag, Sweden entered the EU on January 1, 1995.