Highest Scandinavian population possible

Without any ASB making the world warmer, how high do you think the Nordic population could have been? I really don't know how having more colonial land or a status as superpower could/would change it, so I thank anyone who could give any insight on it.
 
I mean there are a lot of Scandinavian Americans in the USA so maybe keep them in Scandinavia in some way. You can also prevent the Great Famine in Finland that decimated the population.
 
Unified Scandinavia, nerf Russia (both are accomplished in my timeline with a Brandenburg-Poland union scaring the Kalmar Union into shape) in the 1400s letting them get colonies in the 1500s and maybe exploit Polish weakness to expand into the Baltic, maybe even replace Russia in the north and east if they can get a toehold in old Novgorod.

Other than that it's difficult, even with more advanced technology. The only real solution is to gain more arable land, either Pomerania or in Ingria (which, if I recall correctly, is actually fairly temperate) as well as uniting what already exists into one realm to stop them from fighting each other.
 
Without any ASB making the world warmer, how high do you think the Nordic population could have been? I really don't know how having more colonial land or a status as superpower could/would change it, so I thank anyone who could give any insight on it.
The best way to get the Nordic population high would be increased cultivation of Cannabis sativa.

There's no need for ASB climate warming. Greenhouses would be all that's required.
 
What about expanding the definition of 'Scandinavia'? If Sweden holds onto its Baltic territories long enough they might end up being considered a a sort of 'honorary' part of Scandinavia, kind of like Finland, which would give us a higher population.
 

BlondieBC

Banned
Unified Scandinavia, nerf Russia (both are accomplished in my timeline with a Brandenburg-Poland union scaring the Kalmar Union into shape) in the 1400s letting them get colonies in the 1500s and maybe exploit Polish weakness to expand into the Baltic, maybe even replace Russia in the north and east if they can get a toehold in old Novgorod.

Other than that it's difficult, even with more advanced technology. The only real solution is to gain more arable land, either Pomerania or in Ingria (which, if I recall correctly, is actually fairly temperate) as well as uniting what already exists into one realm to stop them from fighting each other.

If we have a unified Scandinavia, wouldn't they be strong enough to control the good cod fishing areas instead of the Dutch and later the English. With all this extra food, don't we get some Scandinavia city with a couple million more people. So add 1-2 million to say Oslo, then would this group not have enough power to control all the land that surround the Baltic Sea. Prussia is stillborn ITTL. Russia is a power much more focused on the Steppes. England will run out of wood for ships, mainly the big trees for the main masts. I see a nation that might have the population near the size of France. And with all this, is not reconquest of England possible?
 
Now besides the obvious, powerful Scandinavia, ideas that are peculating, you don't exactly need a Scandinavia with more land to have a greater population. Britian imports like half its food, as its population vastly outstrips its food production.

So the real question is how do you get a Scandinavia prosperous enough for those people who emigrated to America to stay and rich enough to import food to feed the populace after it surpasses domestic food production. After all, most of rural Scandinavia was poor for most of history. One of the reasons why so many people emigrated.

The obvious answer, to me...Industrialization. The Scandinavian countries were somewhat late on the industrialization train. If industrialization could really start in the first half or preferably quarter of the 19th century, you could preempt the mass emigrations that started roughly 1825 and lasted for a century or so. There'd be a heavy demand for workers that would draw the people from the poor, rural areas that IOTL emigrated, and the prosperity from being among the first nations to industrialize would bring the financial means to import food.

I'd say the best POD for an earlier industrialization without really affecting history would be during the Napoleonic Wars. All the Scandinavian countries got screwed rather hard during that period. Norway was blockaded, forced to deal with famine, its merchants went bankrupt from the blockade, and finally ended up being traded around as a reward for Sweden while also being saddled with debt. Denmark had its fleet destroyed or towed away for neutrality, its commerce raided by Britain for several years, was forced to war against Sweden, lost Norway, and was again saddled with debt. Sweden was forced into war with Denmark, lost Finland to Russia, was militarily humiliated repeatedly, had its king overthrown and replaced by a French Marshal, lost Swedish Pomerania, and in the end only was rewarded by gaining a Norway that wanted independence enough to fight and ended up only joining it in personal union. There are a number of POD's where at least one of the Scandinavian countries got off either far better or even gained something, and assuming a similar pro-Scandinavian movement that results in something like the Scandinavian Monetary Union could result in any industrialization undergone spreading to the others.
 
What about expanding the definition of 'Scandinavia'? If Sweden holds onto its Baltic territories long enough they might end up being considered a a sort of 'honorary' part of Scandinavia, kind of like Finland, which would give us a higher population.

We could have the Danelaw never end and eventually conquer all of the British Isles. Denmark keeps its north German claims and expands there and the Baltic (like in the Danewank TL). In addition, have Vinland persist with some Skraeling marriages (and probably higher settler numbers).

In a few hundred years Scandinavia includes England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Livonia, Estonia, much of Saxony, and Newfoundland.
 
If we talk about how much Scandinavia could feed today it feed something like 3 times its population. Denmark alone can feed 20-25 million people. In a historical context, I think the main problem was the internal fighting which pushed the population down. The next problem was the relative late introduction of some farming technics and some crops.

But let's come with a example let's say that Christian II doesn't commit the Stockholm Bloodbath and he decides to convert to Lutheranism, while using some of ecclessial estates to bribe the nobility in Denmark to make the crown heritable. This mean a clear succession in all the three kingdoms. Christian II will also live long enough that his son John II (which survive here) is 41 when his father dies. The Swedes after a generation of peace decides not to rise up against the competent new king. A new Nordic Bible are translated. John II takes part in the Northen 7 Year War which end with Nordic Estonia and Livonia. But he dies in the early 1570ties and is replaced by his son *Christian III who is i his late twenties. *Christian III have pro-Reformed sympathies, through he doesn't wish to challenge his own Church. But he open up his kingdom to refugees from the Low Countries, some end up in the cities, but some are settle in areas like the Jutish Heaths, where they introduce the potato, other introduce red clover. These two crops result in a agricultural revolution through the 17th century. But we also see the introduction of new manufacturing technics, and soon the United Nordic Kingdoms have a thrieving proto-industry, and we see a local development of the plough into a lighter plough (pretty much a earlier Rotherham plough). This together with land reforms away from communal land result inm a 2nd agricultural revolution.

My guess are instead of 4 million people in 1700 we likely see a population of 6-7 million (Britain size). From there we see pretty much British style growth and by 2000 the UNK have 60 million people.
 
Without any ASB making the world warmer, how high do you think the Nordic population could have been? I really don't know how having more colonial land or a status as superpower could/would change it, so I thank anyone who could give any insight on it.
Scandinavia has 56,529km^2 of arable land (81,618km^2 if we count Finland and Iceland), and Japan has 2,864 people per km of arable land, meaning we could put Scandinavia's absolute population ceiling would be 161,899,056 (or 233,753,952 if we count Finland and Iceland). That's a little under 10 times Scandinavia's population (for both measurements), but there probably isn't any sort of POD that can yield that kind of population difference (maybe the Kalmar Union colonizes Virginia down to Georgia and then from the 1600s on slave-grown rice becomes the staple of the Scandinavian diet?).
 
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