The Kingdom of Sweden is a Scandinavian country, with Stockholm as its capital. Sweden's name means "our own land" from the perspective of the native Swedes, as opposed to the Geats of Gotaland. Sweden was first settled by hunter-gatherers around 12,000 BC, and the Swedes acquired a reputation of being a powerful tribe by the 2nd century AD. During the 8th century AD, Swedish Vikings traveled to Finland, Estonia, the Baltics, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, the Black Sea, and as far as Baghdad and Constantinople, engaging in both raiding adn commerce. Swedish Vikings founded the Rus civilization in Eastern Europe, resulting in the creation of the Kievan Rus and, centuries later, the countries of Ukraine and Russia. In 975 AD, Eric the Victorious unified Svealand and Gotaland into a single Kingdom of Sweden. Christianity was introduced to Sweden by Saint Ansgar in 829 AD, but the religion did not fully replace paganism until the 12th century. During the 12th-14th centuries, the Swedes colonized neighboring Finland. Medieval Sweden suffered from poverty and lack of development, and its population was decimated by the Black Death after 1349-1351 (losing a third of its population); its population did not fully recover until the beginning of the 19th century. From 1397 to 1523, Sweden was ruled by the Danes as part of the Kalmar Union, but Gustav Vasa was proclaimed king after an aristocratic uprising on 6 June 1523. The new king converted Sweden to Lutheranism, and the 17th century saw Swedish monarchs engage in wars with Poland-Lithuania, Russia, and the German states. King Gustavus Adolphus established Sweden as a great power during the Thirty Years' War, establishing the Swedish Empire in Scandinavia, the Baltics, and northern Germany. Sweden retained this status until the Great Northern War of the early 18th century, and Sweden lost Finland to Russia in 1809 amid the Napoleonic Wars. Sweden forced Norway into a personal union in 1814, and the kingdom of Sweden-Norway lasted until 1905. Since the Norwegian War of 1814, Sweden has not fought a single war, although its neutrality came to an end on 7 March 2024 when, in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it joined NATO. The 21st century saw Sweden experience large-scale immigration; by 2021, 26% of Swedes were of a foreign background (mostly from Finland, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Poland, Iran, and Syria). By 2021, Sweden had a population of 10,540,886 people.
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