With any POD from 1830 onwards, elevate a Nordic country to great power status by either late 19th or early 20th century.
It is possible, but there's going to be a lot of friction.
The Norweigans are pretty much content. They'll want a decent navy to protect fishing rights and their vast merchant fleet, but not much more. It will be difficult to make them form a large and heavily equipped land army (after 1905, they reduced their armed forces at an amazing rate, probably worse than any other state in Europe). The Norweigans are aligned mostly with the British in a maritime trade interests. They close ties to the UK and almost none to continental Europe. Their economy is based on fishing, their big merchant fleet and some agriculture and foresting. Industry is mainly based around a small warf industry. Overall, they are rural, isolationist, poor and British-aligned.
The Swedes see the Russians as the big enemy. The loss of Finland is still not forgotten, and to get the Åland islands back is high on the priority list.Sweden maintains a decent military establishment and a rather strong navy for such a small nation. The country is rather rich, with sizable ore and wood assets and is already industrialising in the 1860s. The industrial, economical and social elite have close ties with Germany from the 1880s and onwards - it was not until the end of ww2 that English replaced German as the main second language of Swedes. The economy is diverse, with a decent merchant navy, industry based upon Swedish innovations (the wrench, the AGA lighthouse, the ball bearing, the dynamite, the safety match, etc.), some agriculture, a big wood and paper industry, some textile industry, some warfs etc. Overall, they are indutrialising, but still rather rural, isolationist (although that is not written in stone), prosperous and German-aligned as well as deeply anti-Russian.
The Danes see Prussia/Germany as the big enemy. They want Schleswig and they want it bad. They won 1848 and are confident they can win again in 1864. The country is rather rich, with a small industry based around a prosperous and productive agricultural sector. Beer is becoming big already. The Danish agricultural sector can support about 15 million people alone, a good thing considering that neither Sweden nor Norway are completely self-sufficient by the end of the 1800s. The Danes have a decent army and a decent navy. Theyä're somewhat rural, expansionist, prosperous and anti-German.
As you can see, the economical and political goals of the nations will cause some serious friction. If the Danes can get Schleswig through negotiations, I can see it work. I don't see the Norweigans being happy about dying for Danish interests (the Swedes flocked to volunteer units though).
Pan-scandinavianism will run high if any of the countries are attacked, but the Norweigans will start trying to get out if they have to support either Swedish or Danish expansionism with blood.
If Sweden ends up dominating, it could perhaps be lured into ww1 to regain Finland, on the German side. That would probably cause Norway to leave, they would NOT want to end up under a British blockade.
A British blockade against the union (which happened to Sweden during ww1, due to selling food to the Germans, and I see no way to prevent the Danes from doing that) would be disastrous to the Norweigans.
Lots of problems, the only real way the union could exist would be as a neutral, isolationist bloc.
I think you need to get the Nordic countries united for it ever having a chance of being a great power.
But maybe if Sweden-Norway had helped Denmark during the war of 1864 and having a more competent politicians for Denmark (which probably would butterfly the war) but if it diden't and Denmark + Sweden-Norway could get a status quo so Denmark does not loose the duchy's, this will mean that pan-scandinavianism would not die out. Then around ww1 by threats from Germany or Russia they might unite into a single country. the problem is that the 3 countries has vastly different interests and who they see as enemies and friends:
from Von-adler when i searched pan-scandinavianism:
could the OTL system not work if the people went for the Helstat solution instead of the "Denmark to Eidern" that Danes in the period wanted.
if the Danes wanted the entire realm to stay together, the politicians would then not try to integrate Schleswig removing the Prussian casus belli.
could the OTL system not work if the people went for the Helstat solution instead of the "Denmark to Eidern" that Danes in the period wanted.
if the Danes wanted the entire realm to stay together, the politicians would then not try to integrate Schleswig removing the Prussian casus belli.
That together with a harder fought first war with some Swedish help so it is seen as an Scandinavian victory.
Then we have a Denmark that has spend more money on the military actually making it an actually pain to invade, you also have increased pan-Scandinavianism which mean when Denmark get to blows with Prussia/Germany over Holstein more likely chance for Swedish-Norwegian help.
which if then a success again will increase pan-Scandinavianism which should make a union possible, with the Germans seen as the enemy.
the reason i am trying to include Holstein is that the thread is about a Nordic great power, and what a Nordic great power need is population. now you just need Finland also gaining even more people, which is needed since both Russia and Germany will be seen as the bad guys.
As has been mentioned, none of the countries could be a power in this period unless it has a massive immigration, similar to the US, but that might be too difficult to support, and where should people come from? Besides, a large part of the population left these countries for better opportunities abroad, so immigration is not an available solution.With any POD from 1830 onwards, elevate a Nordic country to great power status by either late 19th or early 20th century.