Ohh I'm definitely interested, seeing how Gustav Adolfus is dealing with a enlarged Sweden will be very interesting.
The Sun of Rocroi TL- A better Grand Condé
- Thread starter Comte de Dordogne
- Start date
I still have to think about it, but I have an idea that should please, or at least be original.
Glad you like it.
I know my biggest flaw is not being able to release chapters more regularly. But I hope to get the next update out soon.
I haven't addressed it yet because I haven't dealt with France and its religious policy.
At this time (1640-1660) the Edict of Nantes has not been touched.
Otherwise I announce that I am writing the next chapter, it is about 60-70% written. I don't know when I will publish it though, because I don't have a good internet connection.
I hope you will forgive these long waiting times.
The reign of Louis XIV will be different from OTL.
But I can't tell you exactly how because I prefer to abbreviate it in the chapter on France but also because I don't know yet exactly what I have in mind.
I have finished writing the next chapter. All I need to do is read it again. I don't know when I'll be able to post it though. Hopefully before July 31st.
#12 Scandinavia 1600-1670
Wars and Influences in Northern Europe
Part 2: Rivalry between the Scandinavian brothers
Part 2: Rivalry between the Scandinavian brothers
The Baltic Sea at the beginning of the 17th century became a place of great friction. The Twenty-Five Years' War further fueled the numerous struggles and rivalries between the two main powers of the region: Denmark and Sweden.
The former had lost its hegemony over Scandinavia at the beginning of the 16th century with the end of the Kalmar Union. Moreover its recent and mediocre intervention in the Holy Roman Empire seemed to mark a little more this decline.
The second, a former subjugated kingdom, had become the rising star of Lutheran Protestantism. After an incredible militarization, it had turned into a colossus that could challenge the Emperor on its own lands in Germania.
However, the twenty-five years war and the rest of the XVIIth century show that this observation is much more nuanced. The struggle between the two great Scandinavians was still far from being written and the Great Century would see the Baltic being swept up in the game of continental alliances.
1) Denmark: from the War of the Oldenburg Succession to the Hereditary Monarchy
Denmark's participation in the conflict in the Holy Roman Empire had not been an unqualified success. Christian IV had motivated his entry into the war against the Empire on the pretext of protecting the princes of the Protestant Union, who had been completely defeated and were about to be crushed by the forces of the Holy League. In spite of the religious character of the intervention, Christian also had political ambitions, namely: to extend his influence in the circle of Lower Saxony but also to become the head of the Protestant states of Northern Europe.
The King of Denmark in his youth, Christian IV (1577-1648).
While Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden was occupied with Poland and after having obtained financial support from France, Christian IV went to war against the Emperor in 1625.
Unfortunately for Denmark, their troops and those of their Germanic allies were methodically defeated by the imperial armies. The defeats of Dessau and Lutter led to the invasion of the Duchy of Holstein and the occupation of the Jutland peninsula by the imperial troops.
Faced with this disaster, Christian IV had to resolve to seek Peace with Emperor Ferdinand II. The Peace of Lübeck ratified the end of the conflict between the Holy Empire and Denmark. As a result of this treaty, Christian IV could only intervene in the Holy Roman Empire as Duke of Holstein and no longer as King of Denmark. In addition, Copenhagen fully regained its formerly occupied lands of Jutland as well as its principalities in the north of the Empire.
Although the treaty was quite lenient with Christian, it obliged Denmark to remain in forced neutrality with the Empire, which in turn would inevitably allow his Swedish rival to champion the Protestant cause and decide the course of the war.
The remainder of the Twenty-Five Years' War saw Denmark sidelined, its lack of means and ambitions preventing it from intervening again in the conflict. However, at the end of the 1630s, Christian IV was approached by diplomats of Ferdinand III, the new Emperor. The latter not succeeding in defeating Gustavus Adolphus, Ferdinand was looking for a new ally that would allow him to take Sweden in reverse. As a promise the Emperor would let Denmark occupy the states of Lower Saxony as well as Mecklenburg and even Pomerania. However, joining the Catholic camp risked being at the expense of the Protestant cause that the most zealous Danes would refuse.
The rumors of agreements between Vienna and Copenhagen reached Sweden very quickly. The latter was preparing to go to war preventively against Denmark to cut short any Danish intervention. But the Spanish collapse in the Netherlands and the resumption of the Peace negotiations extinguished all these projects.
At the Treaty of Westphalia, Denmark kept all its lands within the Holy Roman Empire, namely the Duchy of Holstein and the Bishopric of Bremen-Verden.
At the end of Christian IV's reign, Denmark had gained little from the Twenty-Five Years' War and was now more threatened by Sweden, the big winner of the conflict. The balance sheet of Christian's reign was gloomy, most of his ambitions had been compromised, whether in the Baltic against Sweden, in the Holy Empire against the Emperor, or in the colonial sphere, most of his colonial expeditions having failed.
The last five years of his reign will see Christian sink into bitterness, even depression. But he remained quite lively and even managed to push back the ambitions of the Riksrad and his son-in-law, seeking to interfere in the affairs of the Kingdom [1]. 1647 will see the death of the eldest son of Christian IV, Prince Christian. The latter, alcoholic, riddled with debts and with the bad reputation of being lazy, left no children.
Frederick III, the youngest son of Christian IV was in a position to become the new crown prince, which was recognized by the Riksrad at the end of 1647, just before the death of Christian IV in February 1648 [2].
As the future Frederick III was not the eldest, he did not spend his youth in the heart of the Court. At the age of eighteen he became prince bishop of Bremen-Verden where he gained experience as a good administrator [3]. In October 1643 he had a minor marriage with Sophie Amalia of Brunswick-Calenberg, not yet an heir. However, she was a great advisor to her husband during his reign.
Medallion painting of Frederick III and Sophie Amalia of Brunswick-Calenberg.
The main ambition of the couple was to remove the Danish nobility from the political affairs of the country and to strengthen the royal prerogatives. However, this project suffered a certain setback with the war of succession of Oldenburg.
The County of Oldenburg was ruled by Anton Gunther of Oldenburg. As a minor prince, he had managed to avoid taking sides in the Twenty-Five Years' War through fine diplomacy, which had saved the county from much destruction and devastation. The county's main source of wealth was the customs duty on the Weser. This customs barrier attracted the wrath of the Swedes in Bremen, Wildeshausen and Ravensberg. As the treaties of Westphalia had conceded Swedish control over the Weser tariffs, Gustavus Adolphus demanded at least half, if not all, of the customs duties set up by Oldenburg.
This situation pushed Oldenburg with his dynastic ties closer to Denmark. The situation deteriorated further in the autumn of 1650 when Anton Gunther died of pneumonia without leaving an heir or a will [4].
According to the laws of inheritance, the County of Oldenburg was to go to Frederick III, the closest relative of Anton Gunther. Sweden did not need more to react. Gustavus Adolphus, relying on the treaties of Westphalia and the customs duties on the Weser, also justified his claim to the inheritance of Oldenburg. Moreover, it was out of the question for Sweden to see Copenhagen close a little more the north of the Holy Empire to the Swedish presence.
In addition, there were tensions over the Sound Dues, Denmark's customs duties on the western Baltic straits. Important revenues for Denmark, they were an important blow to the Swedish fleet.
War was bound to happen.
Sweden took the lead in the hostilities. From Wildeshausen she sent an army of about 8,000 men to take the town of Damme, in southern Oldenburg County. Bremen had to raise a troop to join the army in the south by taking the town of Delmenhorst, but also to force the mouth of the Weser River before the Danish fleet blockaded it.
The two armies were able to join forces and the southern part of the county quickly fell, putting the city of Oldenburg itself in jeopardy. However, the Swedish expedition to the mouth of the river was a failure. In addition, the Danish troops from Bremen-Verden marched in and laid siege to the city of Bremen, slowly but surely drying up the city's supplies.
The situation remained more or less the same for the rest of the winter of 1650, but in the spring of 1651 the Dutch Stathouderat, led by Wilhelm II, decided to intervene on the side of Sweden. At the battle of Mellum, the combined Dutch-Swedish fleet led by Admiral Ruyter (16 and 21 ships respectively) routed the Danish fleet that was guarding the coast of the County.
On the morning of 13 April the Swedish fleet divided into two squadrons, the Dutch fleet into three and the Danish fleet into two. By late morning the larger ships of each fleet were within firing range and began to exchange fire. By their numerical superiority, the Dutch-Swedish pushed part of the Danish fleet to run aground on the shores of Mellum, forcing the rest of the Danish ships to flee. At the end of the day the Danes lost about ten ships, some captured but most sunk.
This victory allowed to drive the Danes out of the North Sea and to land in Rüstringen. On June 4 the city of Oldenburg and most of the county fell to Sweden.
Painting of the naval battle of Mellum on April 13, 1651.
Although it was an advantageous victory for Sweden, it was not a triumph. At the same time the mouth of the Weser was still in Danish hands, holding the town of Nordenham firmly. This prevented Sweden from helping the city of Bremen, which fell into Danish hands. On either side of the Weser River, the Danes and Swedes tried to make small incursions into each other's lands. But until the end of the conflict the front did not move, except for the siege of Nordenham by the Swedes.
Another important front during the conflict was in the Baltic Straits. Gustavus Adolphus raised two armies, the first one in charge of taking Scania, the second one that he personally accompanied to besiege the city of Copenhagen.
But before being able to encircle the Danish capital, Sweden had to ensure its naval superiority in the straits. With the help of the Netherlands, Sweden was able to defeat the Danish fleet again at Helsingor in September 1651 and transport just over 7,000 men to Sealand.
Faced with this situation, Frederick III had been advised to flee the Capital and to take shelter in Jutland. The latter refused and decided to live the siege of the city with its inhabitants. This decision, probably inspired in part by his wife, made him very popular with the people of Copenhagen. When Gustavus Adolphus settled on the hill of Valby overlooking the city, the Danes had burned the surrounding walls and closed the city gates.
The siege lasted all winter 1651-52, with regular bombardments by the Dutch fleet. The Swedes also managed to occupy a considerable part of Sealand and Lolland, cutting Copenhagen off from the rest of the kingdom. What saved the Danes was the intervention of Charles I of England in the conflict, sending a fleet to rescue Denmark. When the English arrived in the Baltic they managed to inflict an unpleasant defeat on the Dutch and Swedes in the Oresund Strait. This distraction forced the Dutch to repatriate their fleet and confront their English counterpart in the North Sea. Their departure relieved the siege of Copenhagen.
Without the powerful fleet of their ally, the Swedes found themselves helpless. Their army in Skåne was stagnating, the army in Pomerania was arriving by sea only in dribs and drabs, and Norway, a secondary theater, quickly became a pain for Sweden. The governor Hannibal Sehested [5] succeeded in defending Norway in an excellent way and even led a victorious expedition to Nysaker, in the north of Sweden.
Finally, in early spring, the Swedish armies chose to abandon the siege of Copenhagen, and a few months later the diplomats of both countries met again in Halmstad. The concessions on both sides were modest. Denmark had to give up the inheritance of the County of Oldenburg and cede the province of Halland. Sweden for its part had to acknowledge the Danish takeover of the city of Bremen. In addition, the Sound Dues were reduced for some Swedish ships.
Although the war was not a victory for Denmark, Frederick III managed to defend most of his domains and exploited the war to consolidate his power.
In the aftermath of the conflict, Denmark seemed to have lost to Sweden, and a future confrontation was likely. But for Frederick III the war had ensured him great popularity among the Danish population. Frederick was the hero of Copenhagen having bravely defended the city and its inhabitants. Moreover, during the siege, Frederick III became closer to the merchant and bourgeois classes of Copenhagen, represented by Hans Nansen, the city's mayor.
Frederick III was probably inspired by the latest events in England and the takeover of Charles I. Very soon after the conflict he tried to wring the neck of the Danish nobility. In December 1652 he asked the Riksrad to introduce a hereditary monarchy in Denmark. The nobility at first refused, but faced with pressure from the bourgeoisie and the clergy they had to accept. The nobility saw the writing on the wall and suspected that Frederick III was going to ask for a lot more afterwards... And so he did.
From 1655 onwards, Frederick III with his numerous sources of income [6] set about buying back most of the large estates in the kingdom. The financial compensations were able to convince many nobles, and for the rare recalcitrant some additional threats helped.
Tribute ceremony to King Frederick III.
Frederick III also set out to extend his influence south of the Jutland peninsula. The county of Pinneberg, the bishopric of Lubeck, as well as the city of Hamburg obtained the military protection of Denmark. The city of Hamburg saw the merchant bourgeoisie join the ambitions and colonial projects of Frederick III and Denmark.
Under Christian IV, Denmark's colonial expeditions had mostly ended in failure without a future. But under Frederick III this dynamic changed. The Danish presence in the Indies, at first limited to Trankebar, extended to the rest of the Bay of Bengal. In Africa, the Danes settled in 1661 on the Gold Coast, to the great displeasure of the Portuguese, who viewed the presence of a new rival in a negative light.
The Danish presence also began to assert itself in the Americas. In the Caribbean, the Danes established the first permanent colony in the Bahamas [7]. Another formidable acquisition was the Danish settlement in Hudson Bay in 1663 after two French trappers requested the sponsorship of the King of Denmark [7].
This colonial empire allowed Denmark to engage in the spice and aroma trade in Asia, the slave and gold trade in Africa and the sugar and fur trade in America. The Danish East India Company, the Danish West Indies Company and the Hamburg Stock Exchange, although starting modestly, seemed promising.
Danish post trading in Indias.
The country internally also tended to prosper. Denmark at that time was able to develop a flourishing handicraft production that became important throughout the country [8]. It was already clear at that time that the Danish market would become one of the most dynamic on the continent.
It was during this period of Danish prosperity that the "Kalthoff repeater" became more popular. Originating in Solingen, the Kalthoff repeater was the first repeating rifle in Europe. Although spreading in Europe since the 1630's, they will develop the most in Denmark under Frederick IV with Peter Kalthoff [9]. Although they had the drawbacks of being expensive and quickly becoming clogged, their use in the Danish elite troops was the symbol of an army that wanted to be modern.
In foreign policy, Frederick III turned to England, having already helped him previously. This rapprochement was materialized by the marriage of Charles II of England with Anne Sophie, daughter of Frederick III. At this same period, Vienna in its turn tried to get closer to Copenhagen, seeking as well as possible a counterweight to the League of the Rhine. However, this attempt did not result in anything really concrete, except for a cordial relationship between the two states.
At the end of the 1660s, after almost twenty years of peace, there was no doubt that Denmark's rival was getting back on the warpath...
2) Sweden: Colossus with clay feet
The great winner of the Twenty-Five Years' War, Sweden in the second half of the seventeenth century became a much more hesitant nation on the European stage.
At the beginning of the century, Sweden was under the rule of Gustav II Adolphus, a great strategist and military innovator. In 1599, his father Charles IX chased away his nephew, King Sigismund, a Catholic but also King of Poland. This family struggle motivated the wars of the XVIIth century between Sweden and Poland. During this period the country was also at war with Denmark and Russia.
Gustav II Adolphus ascended the Swedish throne in 1611. From the beginning of his reign he tried to end the war with Denmark, which he did in 1613. In 1617 he did the same with Russia and even succeeded in depriving Russia of access to the Baltic Sea by taking over Ingria. During the 1620s the King of Sweden built a large modern army. This martial power, Gustavus Adolphus used it to resume the war against his cousin Sigismund III. The Altmark Truce was signed between Sweden and Poland, the latter renouncing Livonia [10] after Gustavus Adolphus had successfully conquered the region.
If the Peace could be found, it is thanks to the help of France motivated to find a new ally against the Habsburgs. In 1629 Denmark had just been defeated by the imperial troops and the Protestant Princes found themselves isolated, on the verge of annihilation...
Thus Gustavus Adolphus entered the Holy Empire with his powerful armies. With successful French subsidies, Gustavus Adolphus was able to push the imperialists back from the shores of the Baltic Sea and crush them at Breitenfeld in 1631. Fortune continued to smile on the Lion of Sweden when Wallenstein lent him a hand after being dismissed by the Emperor.
Gustav II Adolphus of Sweden, the "Lion of the North".
But from November 1632, the victorious dynamic of the Swedes was compromised after the terrible defeat at Kipfenberg, a real butchery for both sides. It is during this confrontation that the Lion of Sweden lost his left hand after having charged with his cavalry.
This defeat as well as this wound pushed the Swedish King to abandon the battlefield. This amputation of the hand encouraged Gustavus Adolphus to take a rest in Sweden, where he found his wife. Nine months later the Queen gave birth to Charles, heir to the throne [11]. Who knows what his untimely death would have meant for his kingdom and the conflict if the King had died during the confrontation?
During the rest of the conflict, Swedish troops were responsible for much looting throughout the Empire. And the situation worsened as mercenaries replaced the Swedish soldiers. From 1635, faced with the Swedish weakening and the Protestant defeat in Hesse, France entered this time directly in war against the Imperials.
But for Gustave Adolphe the situation changes. Depression and lassitude pulling him, and facing the exorbitant blows of the war, he sought to negotiate with the Emperor. The money of France as well as the deaf ear of Ferdinand II helped to maintain in the conflict the Scandinavian country. But with the arrival of Ferdinand III on the imperial throne and the Peace of Prague encouraging the Protestant princes to abandon the war, the situation soon became perilous.
Gustavus Adolphus began to negotiate with the Empire in 1638. It was difficult to find common ground between the different camps and the multitude of interests to be defended... All the more so when Stockholm learned that the Emperor was trying to make Denmark go to war against Sweden.
Rocroi precipitated the war and the Peace. Even if for many modern historians Sweden could have easily defeated Denmark and held out for a few more years against the Empire, the majority admit that the country needed to end the conflict as quickly as possible.
Swedish soldiers and German mercenaries trying to light a fire to survive the winter.
Sweden was able to strengthen its presence in the Baltic region and in the Holy Roman Empire by acquiring Pomerania and the Weser trade. Although these were good acquisitions for Stockholm, they were still very small compared to the costs of the war.
The situation was however very difficult for the Kingdom after the war. With the end of the war France stopped subsidizing Sweden and its armies, which was a big blow to the state coffers. Moreover, the end of French aid went hand in hand with the end of the alliance between the two kingdoms.
On a personal level Gustave Adolphe pulled himself together. The joy of having a son helped him a lot. It was also at this time that the King became interested in colonial expeditions. In 1638 a Swedish colonial company decided to go on an expedition to India [12]. The expedition was not completely successful, as the Swedish sailors were not very familiar with the South Atlantic Ocean and the Indian Ocean. But this first voyage and the beginning of the spice trade in Sweden attracted the attention of Gustavus Adolphus. He recruited many Dutch and English sailors (the latter being for the most part Puritans who had fled persecution) to form a colonial navy as well as maritime charts. He also authorized settlers to found a relay colony in the Cape to facilitate trade with the Indies.
For Gustavus Adolphus, colonial trade was to allow Sweden to achieve greater financial autonomy. But this desire came up against Denmark, which applied high customs duties to Swedish trade ships.
In 1646, during the crisis of the Brandenburg succession, Gustavus Adolphus supported the appointment of the Duke of Courland, Jakob Kettler, as head of the Duchy of Prussia. Although a vassal of Poland, the King of Sweden hoped to make it a possible ally, or even a bridgehead for his troops in case of war against Poland...
The Lion of the North also sought to make better use of the domains within the Empire, claiming the customs rights of the County of Oldenburg on the Weser. The region was of vital importance to Sweden as it sought to bypass the Baltic Straits. The death of Anton Gunther set off the fire. For many historians, the War of the Oldenburg Succession was Gustavus Adolphus' worst war, but also his last.
Scottish mercenaries of the War of the Oldenburg Succession. Many Convenanters and Puritans fled in Scandinavia the persecution of the British Isles.
For the Swedish king there were several objectives, all of great importance. The first was to quickly take possession of the County of Oldenburg. The second was to force the passage of the straits and besiege Copenhagen. The third was to take control of Jutland as well as Skåne and possibly Norway.
Although the first objective succeeded with the help of the Dutch, the second was far from being accomplished and the third could not be realized.
Having been able to take control of a part of the straits, the siege of the Danish capital was difficult to carry out. Since Sweden had only limited access to the Danish islands by sea, the Swedes had to cross the Duchy of Mecklenburg from Pomerania to reach Jutland. Although Sweden had given up the port of Wismar a few years earlier, the Vice Duke of Mecklenburg Adolf Arnost Kinsky, representative of the Duke of Luxembourg Wallenstein, refused the passage of the Swedish armies, the memory of which during the twenty-five year war left traces. Moreover the bad personal relations between Wallenstein and Gustavus Adolphus did not help. Finally, after the war, the small Duchy became a place of refuge for many Catholics from the Baltic region fleeing from the Protestant persecutions, seeing with a bad eye the King of Sweden passing on their lands.
Gustavus Adolphus could very well have forced the passage of his troops through Mecklenburg, the Duchy although militarized was not a great threat. But to violate in this way the sovereignty of a state of the Holy Empire, moreover in personal union with the Duchy of Luxembourg risked not only to put itself at the back of the Emperor but also of France.
Sweden thus deprived itself of a possible passage towards Jutland by Mecklenburg, only remaining to try landings in the Danish ports, most of them succeeding in pushing back the Swedish assaults. The war was also bad in Scania, by dividing its forces on several fronts, Sweden deprived itself of its numerical advantage against Denmark. The 4000 Swedish men sent to take Skåne did not succeed in taking Malmö or Helsingborg.
The English intervention in the Baltic put at evil the Swedish presence in Sealand. Gustavus Adolphus, who was seriously running out of financial resources, did not succeed in taking and seeing the end of the conflict near, he decided to abandon the siege of the Danish capital to try to obtain more gains in Skåne (some see this as another mistake on his part, the taking of Copenhagen being more strategic, but also more difficult).
And it was during the takeover of Jämtland that Gustavus Adolphus fell victim to the war. A cannonball grazed the Monarch's head. Although it did not hit him, the blast was enough to make the King fall off his horse. For a few days, the King suffered from a comatose state before finally passing away.
His son was crowned Charles X of Sweden [13]. The young monarch had to put an end to the costly war that his father could not finish. At the Peace of Bohuslän, the region of the same name was ceded to Sweden, as well as the County of Oldenburg. In addition to this, the taxes on Swedish merchant ships were lowered quite nicely. The conflict that was becoming a disaster became a small victory. During the Eastphalian War, Sweden also took advantage of the opportunity to take the Principality of Minden from Brandenburg.
Charles X understood that the main weakness of his country during the war was its diplomatic isolation and its poor financial resources. In the decade following the conflict, he did everything to build a network of alliances. He had the excellent idea of selling Swedish flags to ships from Mecklenburg and Courland-Prussia, allowing them to benefit from lighter passage rights and to better connect their colonial possessions.
Speaking of colonial possessions, Charles energetically supported the foundation of a colony in the Cape and the development of trade with the Indies. However, this entry into the spice trade made the Netherlands more distant from Sweden.
Charles X of Sweden in equestrian painting.
This distance was compensated by a rapprochement with several states of the Holy Empire. Charles X chose to marry one of the daughters of the Elector of Saxony, Sybille Marie. He also chose to marry his older sister Christina of Sweden to Henry Frederick of Münster-Wittelsbach. This marriage, with the help brought to Mecklenburg, was to allow Sweden to approach the League of the Rhine, to obtain an alliance with France and thus to thwart the Danish ambitions in the Empire.
In the eastern Baltic, the situation was calm. Charles X did not immediately resume plans for war against Poland-Lithuania. Moreover, the Russian Tsarate did not care about Sweden during the 1650s.
But at the beginning of the 1670s, Sweden and its neighbors were caught up in the European wars.
[1] ITTL without the defeat of Denmark in the Torstensson war, the Riksrad does not become important at the end of the reign of Christian IV. Moreover Corfitz Ulfeldt was removed from power without the Danish defeats.
[2] OTL the more powerful and confident Riksrad refused to recognize Frederick as heir and succeeded in making him sign a charter before he could ascend the throne. In addition the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp also ran against Frederick. ITTL Frederick did not need to concede anything and had no rival.
[3] OTL Frederick III lost the control of Bremen-Verden to the Swedes, then after becoming commander of the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein came up against Field Marshal Anders Bille (which marked the beginning of the opposition between Frederick III and the nobility). Without the conflict with Sweden Frederick III did not get angry with the nobility immediately.
[4] OTL Anton Gunther died in 1667 and left a clear will dividing his estates, Oldenburg going to Denmark. This is not the case ITTL.
[5] OTL Hannibal Sehested had made a name for himself during the Torstenson War under Christian IV before falling into disgrace for pursuing a Norwegian fiscal policy too independent of Denmark. Under Frederick III his embezzlement forced him to leave office. ITTL without the wars of the 1640s he remained in office.
[6] ITTL without the loss of Bremen-Verden, Skåne, Gotland and Ösel, Frederick III had much more income and did not need to put pressure on the Riksrad like OTL in 1660.
[7] OTL the Bahamas were settled by English from North America in the 1640's. As for Hudson Bay, the trappers turned OTL to England.
[8] Without Torstensson's war and with Oldenburg's war more limited than the wars of 1655 OTL, the devastation in Denmark was less pronounced, allowing the country to fare better.
[9] The Kalthoff repeater is an OTL invention.
[10] This conquest also includes Altagia. Butterflies made Sweden luckier.
[11] OTL Gustav II Adolphus had no male sons.
[12] OTL the expedition left for North America where it founded the colony of New Sweden. The colonial ambitions are also more successful without the sinking of the Vasa in 1628.
[13] Not the same Charles X of Sweden as OTL. Moreover, Sweden remained an Absolute Monarchy, without the death of Gustavus Adolphus during the Thirty Years' War and the establishment of the Instrument of Government.
****
Chapter that has been a long time coming. I hope that its size will compensate for the waiting time. I want to thank @Jürgen, @Zygmunt Stary, @alexmilman for their help.
If you have any comments, please feel free to share them.
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One more good chapter. Hopefully, more to follow soon.
The only objection is about importance of a royal head:
“Some inept bombardier suddenly hit our monarch. Now the king does not have a head but this did not prevent him from leading us in the numerous battles” (earlier in the text it is proven that the only important area is a royal ass because without it king can’t ride his horse and led his people in a charge”. 😂
It's back! And with such interesting paths for Denmark and Sweden too! Shame the swedes took the Cape, was hoping for the French to get that one, but then again, in OTL the Cape was Portuguese before it was Dutch...
I'm wondering how the Swedish Cape Colony will do. Sweden doesn't have the largest population to settle the area, and the Mediterranean climate will have to be an adjustment for the Swedes (unlike if the Portuguese, Spanish or to some extent French had settled the area), but if the Swedes actively chose to settle people in South Africa (unlike the Dutch VOC), it could grow into a sizable colony, even if the Swedes only got 10,000 or so settlers.
Glad you like it.
I will be busy until early September. But I hope to get the next chapter out soon.
The problem is that the next chapter is about Poland and I'm still far from having a clear idea about it. 😅
You are once again really mean to GIIA! 😂
I wanted to be original and after much research I discovered that no one on this forum had imagined a Swedish Cape Colony (at least at that time).
But yes, the Cape could well change hands, history is not linear.
Very pertinent remarks. I've started to think about it but I'll answer all of this in the chapter dedicated to Colonial Empires.
I have even started to get help from @Drex on the development of a Swedish colony in Cape Town.
Reminder that with Sweden being in uncomfortable position with hostile and opportunistic neighbors, a population that is slightly smaller than the Netherlands and with you mentioning war on the horizon for supremacy on the Baltic, they're probably not going to be all that focused on sending settlers, more like what the Portuguese did with their factories and trading posts, because that potential family who could've populated the Cape is much more valuable in the homeland working at their trade and sending their sons to fight in wars.
That’s fine: I just downloaded a book on the Russian-Polish war of 1654-67 so probably by that time I’ll bring myself to reading it and hopefully be able to help with at least something.
Just quoting from a song “Medieval military”. It is not about GA but the point seems to be valid. Imagine GA or some other warrior-king not being able to ride a horse! After all, some historians seriously attributing the defeat at Poltava to the fact that Charles could not led from the stretcher (why couldn’t he sit in it is anybody’s guess).
😜
You are right. We'll revisit this when we get a little further along in the timeline.
I can't wait to finish the 1640s-1660s and move on.
Thank you for the help you are offering.
This reminds me that I also need to resume reading my book by Mansel on Louis XIV.
I didn't know that!
A King who stays too much on horseback during the battles is not a success either, whether it is François I in Pavia or Gustave Adolphe in Lutzen. 🙃
Hello to all my readers. I hope you are well.
Even if I am less active than before, I am preparing the writing of my next chapter about Poland. I'm having some trouble putting together all the discussions I've had but I hope to get the rest out as soon as possible.
I also wanted to ask if anyone knows how to make a wikibox? If it's not too difficult and time consuming I would like to make a few to illustrate the timeline.
Hope to see you soon.
Even if I am less active than before, I am preparing the writing of my next chapter about Poland. I'm having some trouble putting together all the discussions I've had but I hope to get the rest out as soon as possible.
I also wanted to ask if anyone knows how to make a wikibox? If it's not too difficult and time consuming I would like to make a few to illustrate the timeline.
Hope to see you soon.
From what I've read, you need to edit a wikibox and screenshot what you want, putting it back on how it looked after you're finished.
I am doing some research and indeed this seems to be how wikiboxes are made.
I have also heard of a site outside of Wikipedia that does the same thing. Have you heard of it?
There’s a wikibox generator for battles and wars but I think country and person wikiboxes need to manually made.
n.bellok.de
Wikipedia Military Box Editor
Create your own Wikipedia Battle Box with a wide range of customizable options.
n.bellok.de