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Finland Finland and the Swedish Empire
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Figure 4. Sweden-Finland, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries
Source: Based on information from William R. Shepard, Historical
Atlas, 7th ed., New York, 1929, 120.
During his reign, Gustav I Vasa concentrated on
consolidating
royal power in the dynasty that he had founded and on
furthering
the aims of the Reformation. In the process, he molded
Sweden
into a great power, but he wisely avoided involvement in
foreign
wars. His successors, however, sought, through an
aggressive
foreign policy, to expand Sweden's power in the Baltic
area. This
policy produced some ephemeral successes, and it led to
the
creation of a Swedish empire on the eastern and the
southern
shores of the Baltic Sea.
(see
fig. 4;
table 2, Appendix
A).
Beginning in the mid-sixteenth century, Sweden's
ambitious
foreign policy brought it into conflict with the three
other main
powers that had an interest in the Baltic: Denmark,
Poland, and
Russia. These three powers fought numerous wars with
Sweden,
which was at war for more than 80 of the last 300 years it
ruled
Finland. Finland itself was often the scene of military
campaigns
that were generally conducted as total war and thus
included the
devastation of the countryside and the killing of
civilians. One
example of such campaigns was the war between Sweden and
Russia
that lasted from 1570 to 1595 and was known in Finland as
the
Long Wrath, because of the devastations inflicted on the
country.
Sweden was also heavily involved in the Thirty Years' War
(1618-
48), in which the Swedes under King Gustavus II Adolphus
thwarted
the advance of the Habsburg Empire to the shores of the
Baltic
and thereby secured the Swedish possessions there. Finnish
troops
were conscripted in great numbers into the Swedish army to
fight
in this or in other wars, and the Finns often
distinguished
themselves on the battlefield.
The Great Northern War began in 1700 when Denmark,
Poland,
and Russia formed an alliance to take advantage of
Sweden's
apparent weakness at that time and to partition the
Swedish
empire. Sweden's youthful king Charles XII surprised them,
however, with a series of military victories that knocked
Denmark
out of the war in 1700 and Poland, in 1706. The impetuous
Swedish
king then marched on Moscow, but he met disaster at the
battle of
Poltava in 1709. As a result, Denmark and Poland rejoined
the war
against Sweden. Charles attempted to compensate for
Sweden's
territorial losses in the Baltic by conquering Norway, but
he was
killed in action there in 1718. His death removed the main
obstacle to a negotiated peace between Sweden and the
alliance.
The Great Northern War ended on August 30, 1721, with
the
signing of the Peace of Uusikaupunki (Swedish, Nystad), by
which
Sweden ceded most of its territories on the southern and
the
eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. Sweden was also forced
to pay a
large indemnity to Russia, and, in return, the Russians
evacuated
Finland, retaining only some territory along Finland's
southeastern border. This area included the fortress city
of
Viipuri. As a result of the war, Sweden's power was much
reduced,
and Russia replaced Sweden as the main power in the
Baltic.
Finland's ability to defend itself had been impaired by
the
famine of 1696 in which about one-third of the Finnish
people
died of starvation, a toll greater than that caused by the
Black
Death in the fourteenth century. The war's greatest impact
on
Finland, beyond the heavy taxes and conscription, was
caused by
Russian occupation from 1714 to 1722, a period of great
difficulty, remembered by the Finns as the Great Wrath.
The
hardships of being conquered by a foreign invader were
compounded
by Charles XII's insistence that the Finns carry on
partisan
warfare against the Russians. Much of the countryside was
devastated by the Russians in order to deny Finland's
resources
to Sweden. Of the nearly 60,000 Finns who served in the
Swedish
army, only about 10,000 survived the Great Northern War.
Finland's prewar population of 400,000 was reduced by the
end of
the war to about 330,000.
Charles XII's policies led to the repudiation of
absolute
monarchy in Sweden and to the ushering in of a
half-century of
parliamentary supremacy, referred to as the Age of
Freedom. One
major characteristic of this era was the strife between
the two
major political parties, the Hats, representing the upper
classes, and the Caps, representing the lower classes.
These
political parties, however, proved no more competent in
the realm
of foreign affairs than the kings. In 1741 the Hats led
Sweden
into a war with Russia in order to try to undo the result
of the
Peace of Uusikaupunki. Russian forces thereupon invaded
Finland
and began, virtually without a fight, a short-lived
occupation
known as the Lesser Wrath. In accordance with the Peace of
Turku
signed in 1743, Russia once again evacuated Finland, but
took
another slice of Finnish territory along the southeastern
frontier.
King Gustav III, who in 1772 had reimposed absolutism
in
Sweden, also tried to alter the verdict of the Great
Northern
War. In 1788 Sweden declared war against Russia with the
intention of regaining territory along Finland's eastern
frontier. A significant incident during that war was the
mutiny
of a group of Finnish military officers, the Anjala
League, the
members of which, hoped to avert Russian revenge against
Finland.
A leading figure in the mutiny was a former colonel in the
Swedish army, Göran Sprengtporten. Most Finnish officers
did not
support the mutiny, which was promptly put down, but an
increasing number of Finns, especially Finnish nobles,
were weary
of Finland's serving as a battleground between Sweden and
Russia.
Because of Russia's simultaneous involvement in a war with
the
Ottoman Empire, Sweden was able to secure a settlement in
1790 in
the Treaty of Varala, which ended the war without altering
Finland's boundaries.
Sweden's frequent wars were expensive, and they led to
increased taxation, among other measures for augmenting
state
revenues. A system of government controls on the economy,
or
mercantilism, was imposed on both Sweden and Finland,
whereby the
Finnish economy was exploited for the benefit of Sweden.
In
addition to hindering Finland's economic development,
Sweden's
wars enabled Swedish aristocrats and military officers to
gain
large estates in Finland as a reward for their services.
The
Swedish-speaking minority dominated landholding,
government, and
the military. Although free of serfdom, peasants paid high
taxes,
and they had to perform labor for the government. Through
the
provincial assemblies, the peasants retained a small
measure of
political power, but the Swedish-speaking nobility held
most
political and economic power in Finland.
Throughout this period, the peasantry continued to be
the
backbone of Finland's predominantly agrarian society. The
frontier was pushed northward as new stretches of inland
wilderness were settled. The potato was introduced into
Finnish
agriculture in the 1730s, and it helped to ensure a stable
food
supply. Although Finland's trade in naval stores--timber,
tar,
pitch, resin--was expanded considerably, the growth of an
indigenous Finnish middle class was retarded by the
continuing
dominance of foreign merchants, especially the Germans and
the
Dutch.
The centuries-old union between Sweden and Finland came
to an
end during the Napoleonic wars. France and Russia became
allies
in 1807 at Tilsit, and Napoleon subsequently urged Russia
to
force Sweden into joining them against Britain. Tsar
Alexander I
obliged by invading Finland in 1808, and, after
overwhelming
Sweden's poorly-organized defenses, he conquered Finland
in 1809.
Sweden formally ceded Finland to Russia by the Treaty of
Hamina
(Swedish, Fredrikshamn) on September 17, 1809.
Data as of December 1988
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