What happened??
Too low population + surrounded by people who hated them
>>1192054
did you know that the king of norway was held as a slave by estonian vikings for 12 years?
>>1192072
>estonian vikings
>>1192083
Estonia was a pirate country well into 16th century, those islands you see on the map were big havens for baltic pirates also known as """""vikings"""""
>>1192178
>Those islands?
You mean England, Malta, Ionian islands, Sardinia, Gottland etc.?
>>1192054
Sweden's power in the international stage came from the raw manpower and taxes that could be drained out of Österland, only the heartland of Sweden saw any real development and once the monarchy/aristocracy got caught in too many consecutive wars against countries with bigger populations the whole thing fell apart out of exhaustion.
The eternal slav stole away our rightful clay.
they tried to enter the game with the big boys during the 30 years' war
>>1192054
It was a mistake from the start, only allowed to exist thanks to the Eternal French.
You can't get that big without making a few enemies. Unless your name ends in -russia
>>1192353
The swedish empire literally starts during the 30 years war.
>>1192178
what's the difference between a pirate and viking country?
>>1192364
Lenght of beards.
>>1192308
The estonian islands obviously
>>1192364
Nothing, but the term viking is usually reserved for the nordcucks, danes norwegians and swedes. Raiding in the baltic seas was also done by eestis, karelians and finns.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oeselians
The raiding ended mostly when the crusaders came, but baltic piracy was still done from the many baltic islands well into the late middle ages
>>1192054
They sperged out and attacked russia
>Swedish
>"""""""""""""""""Empire"""""""""""""""""
The deluge
>>1192397
Saaremaa and hiumaa/hiidenmaa
Land of the island and land of the goblin
>>1192054
Karl XII went and invaded Russia, the absolute madman.
>>1192989
>>1192434
>come on, we are swedes, we are used to the cold, how much worse can the russian winter be?
You swedes fourth honourably all your wars to the last fin. Come on through Finland. You swedes will keep us boys working for you.
>>1192054
Christian Swedes and their Vatican goons ruined us and our noble kingdom.
>>1192083
Vikings were our pawns.
>Rurik was a Finnic Kven, i.e. he was "Finnish", in similar way an average Savonian, Tavastian or a member of some other Finnish tribe is Finnish. Rurik was the founder of the early stage of what gradually became Russia, and his descendants ruled what today is known as "Russia" well beyond the Middle Ages.
>The results of the Rurikid DNA study referred to below are not surprising, considering that other DNA studies and other evidence point to Finnic people having inhabited the modern area of Sweden for thousands of years, including the modern-day area of Southern Sweden:
>• "The hunter-gatherers show the greatest similarity to the modern-day Finns", says Pontus Skoglund, an evolutionary geneticist at Uppsala University in Sweden, about ancient skeletal remains excavated in Gotland: http://gotland.3000.BC.kvenland.org
>This DNA study is consistent with Roslagen in the northeastern corner of Uppland, a suggested birthplace of Rurik, having represented the southern border region of the land inhabited by Finno-Ugric people at the time of Rurik's birth.
>The DNA study also supports the view that Rurik descended from the Finnish-Kven royal ancestry introduced in many medieval accounts, similarly to many other members of the Scandinavian-Fennoscandian royal Yngling Dynasty, a.k.a. the Fairhair Dynasty.
>>1193123
epic
>>1192054
After having gained a nice and stable little empire and influrence in prosperous northern germany after the 30years war...
carolus getrext fucks it all up by trying to kill russia...that never goes well...
The usual things happen...
>early wins against unorganized or antiquated russian forces
>then after wasting time covering the enourmous distance the russians rally thier forces and meet you with numerical advantage
>>1194052
In Sweden he's hailed as one of our greatest and most iconic kings. To me he mostly seems like a young and naive boy who overplayed his hand spectacularly and began the decline of the empire.
>>1192054
they were at war with literaly everyone surrounding them, except for maybe a few minor german states in the south but even prussia too, still kept it up for 21 years which is pretty amazing.
but yeah they had 0 friends around them only enemies
>>1194158
Modern Sweden?
>>1192434
>>1192989
>>1193038
>>1194052
>>1194122
You're forgetting that he almost won. Despite everything that had gone wrong, all the advances Peter's Russians had made and all the times Karl's subordinates had made massive mistakes, (failing to follow simple orders and abandoning their canons to the Russians literally less than 10 miles away from his camp, acting like brats who wouldn't share the same toy) Karl still had the advantage over Peter the week leading up to Poltova. If he wasn't taken out of action by a lucky shot and his bravado, there is a very real chance that the untested Russian army would have fled at Poltova, as they infact almost did without Karl even leading his army.
The mistake was trying to win after Poltova, when he had no chance of a comeback and the Russians and Prussians were already deep within Swedish territory in Germany and were raiding the Swedish mainland.
>>1194122
>Karl XII began the decline
Have you even read about him? He defeated every single enemy of Sweden. Yes even Russia. He lost one battle against Russia (poltava) and it was not, despite popular belief, a major defeat. Karl was in bed during the battle, and didn't command, he left his generals in command. They were driven from the field with casualties yes, but the swedes were still a fighting force. The great defeat came shortly after the battle, when Karl's defeatist generals decided to surrender totally to the russians.
But yeah my point is that Karl literally saved Sweden by cucking all its enemies. If he didn't do that, maybe Sweden would have been Russian, like what happened with Finland.
mother russia happened
>>1192054
>implying this was even a fucking empire
>>1195339
Basicly this
>>1195339
>russia annexing all of finland AND sweden
Two months later a huge coalition comes knocking on their doorstep
their military advantage was temporary and their neighbors and subjugated populations adapted
B E N I S
>>1192054
The way I understand it, the Swedes had a superbly trained army with an excellent commander/king. The problem was that they couldn't substain a prolonged war with the Russians and with everybody jumping on the Swedes they took a heavy fall with their limited resources. Karl was beating Peter pretty badly at the begining though and the Russian winter further complicated things. What's funny is that after that war, Peter fought the Ottomans and lost hard.
>>1196602
They should have pulled back to the Baltic after the initial battles. The barely modernized Russian army would have fallen apart. Where as the Swedes remaining in control of the Baltic could deploy anywhere in their empire relatively quickly and induced terror in the Russians. It was just from Karl pushing the initiative too far and messing up.
The Russians only advantage was the size of the Empire, more resources, and using shore hugging galleys against the modern Swedish fleet. Had Karl stayed put and oversaw the protection of the Baltic Russia would have overextended itself and fallen apart. Seriously the serfs were induced into gulag like conditions to support the war effort, not to even mention the traditional landed Russian aristocrats who thought Peter was the devil
>>1192054
Is it true that Gustav II Adolf would have a good chance of becoming the emperor of the HRE had he not died in battle? Or is that just a far off unlikely scenario that ppl like to speculate about but would probably not have actually happened?
