The Great Northern War (22 February 1700-10 September 1721) was a conflict in which a Russian-led coalition successfully contested the supremacy of Sweden in Scandinavia, Central Europe, and Eastern Europe. The war ended with the defeat of Sweden, and Russia became the new dominant power in the Baltics and as a major force in European politics. Sweden lost its provinces in the Baltics as well as the southern part of Swedish Pomerania, with Hanover gaining Bremen-Verden, Prussia gaining the Stettin Lagoons, Russia securing the Baltics, and Denmark strengthening its position in Schleswig-Holstein.
Background[]
The year 1655 saw the start of the "Age of Great Power" in Sweden. In what outsiders called the Northern Wars, an expansionist Sweden attacked Russia, Denmark, Brandenburg-Prussia, Poland-Lithuania, and the Netherlands. France and the Netherlands were drawn in when Denmark-Norway invaded the island of Scania in 1675. The war that resulted ended indecisively, but Sweden's influence was growing. Peter the Great of Russia, tsar since 1682, was resolved to build a modern and militarily powerful state. He constructed his own highly centralized administration and reformed the army at the expense of the old officer elite, the streltsy. He had already expanded his empire in the south, taking the Ottoman naval base of Azov in 1696, and he aimed to expand into the north.
War[]
Sweden's neighbors were jubilant when, in 1697, King Charles XI of Sweden died. The whole area had feared the king's imperial ambitions, and they instead had to deal with his fifteen-year-old son Charles XII of Sweden. Rival rulers united to plan Sweden's ruin; Peter the Great of Russia allied with Augustus, the ruler of Poland-Lithuania and Saxony, as well as Christian V of Denmark, who was soon succeeded by Frederick IV of Denmark.
The rivals had underestimated their opponent, however, whose upbringing and education had prepared him for ruling and for waging war. Charles had inherited an army of 30,000 infantry and 11,000 cavalry at home and 25,000 mercenaries around the empire. The Swedish Army was constantly replenished by a system of conscription, which allotted men both to the military and to agricultural work, ensuring supplies. In 1700, Sweden's enemies launched a crushing combined attack, almost to be brought up short almost instantly. Denmark was defeated within a matter of days, and Charles personally led the expedition that captured the Danish capital of Copenhagen in July 1700. Augustus II was severely weakened when, with Riga surrounded, an expected uprising of local nobles failed to materialize. He was forced to lift his siege and retire, and the Russian siege of Narva was lifted after the Swedes decisively defeated them and captured almost all of the Russian army's weapons. Rather than present conditions for his enemies' surrender, he fought on, winning a string of victories against the Poles in Poland and Lithuania, with the most glittering coming at Kliszow in Poland in July 1702.
Peter proceeded to order a root-and-branch reform of his forces, and Charles decided to invade Russia. In the autumn of 1708, his army of 40,000 troops advanced into the Ukraine, but the Swedes faced the coldest winter in memory and marched ever further away from its food supplies. Charles sought to strike south into grain-rich Ukraine as Peter's forces retreated, but the Russian scorched-earth tactics left the Swedes starving. The Swedish army had been reduced to 14,000 men by the spring of 1709, having suffered from disease. The army surrounded the fortress of Poltava and faced 30,000 Russian infantry, 9,000 cavalry, 3,000 cossacks, and 100 heavy guns. Charles failed to punch through the Russian lines in an audacious frontal attack, as he was facing a reformed Russian army. The Russians counterattacked with devastating force, capturing Charles, who later escaped to the Ottoman Empire. It took Charles five years to return home from the disastrous Battle of Poltava.
Poltava proved a turning point for the Russians, and the enemies of Sweden closed in. Charles built up his navy, but Peter's Baltic fleet was prepared for battle. Charles invaded Norway in 1718, but he was killed by a shell during the siege of Frederiksten. Sweden also lost the war at sea, losing to the Imperial Russian Navy at Osel in 1719 and Grengam in 1720. Russia now ruled the Baltic waves and a large area of dry land of well, and the 1721 Treaty of Nystad gave the tsar authority over much of the Baltic coast.
Aftermath[]
Sweden was no longer a power, with Russia rising to replace it. In 1721, the Tsardom of Russia was proclaimed to be the new "Russian Empire". He died in 1725, and his immediate successors struggled to stay in charge of what was still an unruly nation. Empress Elizabeth of Russia showed that she was prepared to fight during the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War. In 1762, Catherine the Great became the ruler of Russia, and she would shake up an obdurately conservative nation and continue the modernization of Russia, which would become one of Europe's greatest powers after a series of wars of expansion in Eastern Europe.