Challenge: Sweden owning North Asia

Sweden had (and some would say has) enough trouble settling and taming the remote northern lands it already has let alone adding more to the pot.
It would have to become quite unrecognisable I'd think.
 
But wouldn't that just end up making Sweden Russia with another name? after all, it's not like the Swedes could hope to integrate anywhere near that population, and trying to hold onto it runs into the same problem as a Scottish UK, the center of power will just shift southeast due to the overwhelming population disparity. If Sweden ever democratizes then the actual Swedish heartland could be safely ignored by everyone, and if it doesn't and nationalism shows up as OTL then you've got Austria Hungary on steroids but with only one unified unrepresented group.
How about changing the early history of Russia? If the Rurikids got more Swedish immigration, and more of the local nobles/merchants and eventually peasants started speaking 'Swedish' (although it would end up being a very different language from OTL's Swedish), and at some point some king unifies all the 'Swedish' lands, you could end up with *Sweden owning much of north Asia... OTL, of course, the rulers assimilated to the Slavic peasants rather than the other way around...
 
Without Russian unification and no Russian colonisation of Siberia Sweden might conquer the White Sea coast sometime between 1500 and 1800.Then in the 19th centuary Sweden could colonize beyond the Urals.
 
How could Sweden, or some derivative of it, conquer all of North Asia. Obviously it would have to have Eastern Europe minus the Balkans as well.


POD can be any time before 1900. Sweden owning all of North Asia by 2000.

If you look at a map of the territory ruled by Novgorod then maybe you can start out by having Sweden merge with them ?

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
If Sweden ever democratizes then the actual Swedish heartland could be safely ignored by everyone, and if it doesn't and nationalism shows up as OTL then you've got Austria Hungary on steroids but with only one unified unrepresented group.

How would, say, Oreshek Union work? The Regent of Sweden and Prince of Great Novgorod residing at Viipuri, and dealing with both Riksdag of Sweden and Veche of Novgorod? (Neither of them was quite democratic institution - but the ruler was elective on both sides).

If Muscovy is kept out - Novgorod was strong enough to repel Moscow´s attempts at invation in 14th century, and could be helped by Sweden, but even with help of Sweden, Moscow is also too strong to conquer - how would the union expand to Siberia?
 
I guess you could get something like that if you introduce a warm period instead of a little ice age in the 1600s. Get some Swedes to start colonising Finnmark and Kola and spread eastwards in the molty ice-free northeast passage to control the fur trade. Also make fur all the rage in the colder southern European countries (a sa result of the wierd climate) and you might perhaps get something along these lines.
 
I guess you could get something like that if you introduce a warm period instead of a little ice age in the 1600s. Get some Swedes to start colonising Finnmark and Kola and spread eastwards in the molty ice-free northeast passage to control the fur trade. Also make fur all the rage in the colder southern European countries (a sa result of the wierd climate) and you might perhaps get something along these lines.

Thats ASB.
But it is a great idea for a ASBWI.
 
Swedish victory in the Great Northern War.

After defeating the Russians at Narva in 1700, Charles the XII maintains his focus on Russia, rather than drawing Poland-Lithuania into the conflict. The fall of Novgorod and Archangelsk and a protracted seige of Moscow leave Peter I with little choice but to offer favorable terms of surrender.

Sweden, now the undisputed Baltic hegemon, expands eastward to exploit Siberia's furry resources. Russia, though weakened by its lack of Baltic or White Sea ports, turns it attention south. St. Petersburg is founded on the Black Sea and serves as the Russia's capital until Constantinople is taken less than a century later, and Byzantium is reborn.

What about a PoD in 1470?

In 1470, Sten Sture the Elder won battle of Brunkeberg and took Sweden out of Kalmar Union.

In two wars, 1471 and 1478, Muscovy conquered the Republic of Great Novgorod. And accused Novgorod of plotting to ally with Poland.

WI Novgorod allies with Sweden instead, and Sten Sture successfully repels Ivan III?

Either would work I think.

Sweden cannot incorporate all of Russia or culturally absorb it, barring a POD with the Rurviks. However, with some initial successes, I believe it can take and hold Karelia and Finland. Which can be culturally absorbed over time. And if those successes also include more lands around the Baltic, Sweden will have a much better population base.

A Sweden wich includes the Karelia/Finland area has good access to Nothern Siberia through the White Sea and great Siberian Rivers.
 
Sten sture's army was almost completely made up of the peasant militia - they fought well when superior in numbers, in wooded terrain and under good leadership, but they lacked the staying power of a foreign invasion - they were all volunteers and could go home to their farms at any time, which they usually did when spring came (the traditional Swedish revolt/war until Gustav Wasa introduced soime semblance of a professional army was from when the cereal had been beaten and milled until the time for spring plowing).
 
However, with some initial successes, I believe it can take and hold Karelia and Finland.
Um - it did!
Which can be culturally absorbed over time.
Well - heavily influenced.

The peasants in inland Finland and Karelia do not speak Swedish. And neither do the peasants of Bothnian Bay coast and easternmost coast of Finnish Gulf.
And if those successes also include more lands around the Baltic
They did.
, Sweden will have a much better population base.

A Sweden wich includes the Karelia/Finland area has good access to Nothern Siberia through the White Sea and great Siberian Rivers.

No, it does not. Sweden never had access to White Sea.

The key to adding Northern Asia is union with Novgorod. And that requires cooperating with Novgorod.

How did the Swedes recruit and operate the armies for the Karelian crusades?

Would Sten Sture be logistically able to fight a war in defence of Novgorod? How would the winner of Brunkeberg and Shelon be regarded?
 
Swedish trops did take Novgorod 1609 and 1611.
1611 did the city recognize swedish rule and offer Gustav II Adolf the Tsarcrown.
Mybe you should work from here, with a second state of Novgorod
 
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