Introduction: This is not an all-inclusive history. It is intended to give a historical overview of how Sweden has developed as a nation. It doesn’t go into each of its wars, victories, or different reigns. It highlights the significant events that brought it to where it is today.
The name Sweden was derived from the Svear, or Suiones, a people mentioned by the Roman author Tacitus as early as 98 CE. The country’s ancient name was Svithiod. The official name of the country today is Konungariket Sverige. Stockholm has been the permanent capital since 1523.
Prehistoric Age
At about 4000 BC, people in Sweden began a farming culture. The Bronze Age (from 1700 BC) in the Nordic Region, especially in Denmark and Sweden, showed a high level of culture as seen by artifacts found in graves. During the early Iron Age (500 BC), the population in Sweden became settled, and agriculture came to form the basis of the economy and society.
Viking Times
Many associate Swedish history with the Viking Age (800-1050 AD). Viking expeditions set off from Sweden to trade with and raid areas of northern Europe, especially along the Baltic coast and several rivers into present-day Russia. The Vikings were heavily involved in trading, especially in furs and enslaved people. The town of Birka (founded circa 800), possibly the oldest city in Sweden, was likely founded because of the trade route.
In 829 CE, Christianity was introduced to the Swedes by Saint Ansgar.
In 970, Eric the Victorious became the first King of Sweden.
Middle Ages
Christianity gained its stronghold in the 11th century, mainly by English missionaries. Many conflicts continued throughout the 11th century since many pagan people refused to abandon their old faith. Sweden remained a loose federation of provinces through the end of the Viking era. In 1164, Sweden became a diocese, and it was then referred to as a united and independent kingdom. Many civil wars ensued through the rest of the 11th century and into the 13th century.
Renaissance
Trade grew during the 14th century, especially with the German towns grouped under the leadership of Lübeck. However, the Black Death (killing about 30% of the population), which reached Sweden in 1350, led to a long period of economic and population decline.
In 1397, Sweden united with Denmark, Norway, and Finland in the Kalmar Union (1397-1523) led by Queen Margaret of Denmark. Internal conflicts that culminated in the Stockholm Bloodbath in 1520 scarred this union. The Danish Union king, Kristian II, instigated the execution of eighty Swedish nobles accused of heresy. The act provoked a rebellion, which in 1521 led to the deposition of Kristian II and the seizure of power by a Swedish nobleman, Gustav Vasa, elected king of Sweden in 1523. He established the foundation for modern Sweden and broke from the Catholic Church with the Reformation.
By the mid-16th century, the Hanseatic League dominated Swedish trade, and many towns were founded due to lively commercial activity. This Hanseatic League was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and market towns in Northwestern and Central Europe. Growing from a few North German towns in the late 1100s, the league came to dominate Baltic maritime trade for three centuries along the coasts of Northern Europe. Hansa territories stretched from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland during the Late Middle Ages and diminished slowly after 1450.
The Northern Seven Years’ War with Denmark lasted from 1563 to 1570. This was one of a series of conflicts between Sweden and Denmark-Norway that followed the collapse of the Union of Kalmar, which had seen Scandinavia officially united. It ended with the Treaty of Stettin, in which Sweden gave up claims on Norway.
In 1630, Sweden entered the Thirty Years’ War on the side of France and England. This war ended in 1648, and Sweden gained territory and started the rise of the Swedish Empire.
Early Modern Period of Europe
Sweden experimented briefly with overseas colonies, including “New Sweden” in Colonial America and the “Swedish Gold Coast” in present-day Ghana, which began in the 1630s. Sweden purchased the tiny Caribbean island of Saint Barthélemy from France in 1784, then sold it back in 1878; the population had included enslaved people until they were freed by the Swedish government in 1847.
In the 17th century, the Kingdom of Sweden reached the peak of its power. It controlled areas of Denmark, Russia, Finland, and northern Germany. However, Russia, Poland, and Denmark-Norway united against Sweden in 1700 and fought the Great Northern War. Though Sweden fought well initially, the young Swedish King Karl XII attacked Moscow and fell in battle. Sweden was no longer a great European power at the war’s end.
19th Century
At the beginning of the 19th century, rural dwellings were clustered into villages, and the fields were cultivated under an open-field system. This changed with modernization, which stated that the individual farm fields should be assembled in a compact area when possible. These enclosures, which took place throughout the 19th century, changed the face of the countryside. This resulted in people moving away from the villages and spreading out onto scattered farms.
In 1809, after the Napoleonic wars, Sweden lost Finland to Russia. Later, however, Sweden gained Norway. Norway stayed part of Sweden until 1905, when the union was dissolved, and Norway became an independent country.
In 1814, Sweden fought its last war—the Swedish-Norwegian War. Sweden was victorious in this war, forcing the Danish king to cede Norway to Sweden. Norway was then forced into a personal union with Sweden until 1905.
Compulsory school education was introduced in 1842. In 1846, the introduction of free enterprise meant the abolition of the guilds. It also abolished the monopoly of trade that the towns had held.
In the middle of the 19th century, signs of industrial organization began primarily with the timber trade. Then, as the Industrial Revolution took off in the last quarter of the 19th century, Sweden was developing alternative methods in iron and steel production and the start of several specialized industries, such as machines and machine tools. However, during the more significant part of the 19th century, Sweden was a poor and overpopulated country.
The middle of the 19th century brought several other reforms, including equal inheritance rights for men and women, unmarried women’s rights, a more humane penal code, religious freedom, and local self-government.
In 1865, the old Riksdag form of government (having four parts: nobility, clergy, burghers, and peasantry) was replaced with a parliament comprising two chambers with equal rights. One chamber included members chosen by indirect vote and generally represented great landowners and commercial and industrial entrepreneurs. The second chamber included members chosen by popular vote, with a property qualification, which gave the farmers an advantage.
In the late 1800s, around 1 million Swedish people immigrated to the United States because of a poor economy. The Swedish economy emerged in World War I, and Sweden remained neutral in World War II.
The 1880s started the move to a three-party political system. First to come was the Swedish Social Democratic Workers’ Party (SAP, commonly called the Swedish Social Democratic Party.) Next, they formed the Liberal Union. The Conservative (or Moderate) Party was formed last. In 1907, a Liberal government was formed. These are the three parties still in place today.
20th Century
One of the most critical points of Liberal policy in 1911 was the decrease in military expenditure.
During World War I, Sweden attempted to remain neutral. However, it asserted its right to trade with belligerent countries. This demand to import freely favored Germany exclusively. This caused the Allies to stop a large percentage of Sweden’s trade. This affected Sweden’s exports to Germany and caused a severe food shortage in Sweden. In May 1918, Sweden reached an agreement with the United States and Great Britain, which allowed imports from the West to enter Sweden again, under the condition that exports to Germany be limited and that a large part of Sweden’s merchants fleet be put at the Allies’ disposal.
Immediately after World War I, there was a sudden demand for Swedish products, including steel, pulp, matches, ball bearings, and telephones. Sweden moved from an agricultural country to a modern industrialized nation. Because of steadily improved trade conditions, Sweden prospered significantly.
Sweden joined the League of Nations in 1920.
In 1936, with Adolph Hitler in power in Germany, Sweden amended its defense policy to strengthen the country’s defenses. Sweden followed a strictly neutral course, closely collaborating with the other Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland.
At the outbreak of war in 1939, Sweden declared itself neutral. Shortly after, the Soviet Union attacked Finland, and Sweden came to Finland’s aid by supplying materials and a volunteer corps. After the German occupation of Denmark and Norway in 1940, German military superiority forced Sweden to allow the transit of German troops through Sweden and Norway. Many Norwegians and Danes sought refuge in Sweden, yet most intended to flee to England.
In 1941, Germany attacked the Soviet Union and demanded transit facilities for a division of German troops from Norway to Finland, and Sweden agreed under threat of military reprisals. In 1943, Sweden revoked this agreement. Toward the war’s end, Sweden equipped and trained Norwegian and Danish police in Sweden. Immediately after the war, the United Nations granted Sweden membership in (1946), without having relinquished its principally neutral foreign policy.
Between 1946 and 1950, they adopted many comprehensive laws, including old age pensions, child allowances, health insurance, rent allowances, educational reforms, and expanding higher education and research institutions.
The first UN operation involving Swedish troops took place in Suez in 1956.
In 1959, a committee to review the constitution of 1809 (the Instrument of Government) was appointed. This replaced the old two-chamber Riksdag with a one-chamber Riksdag composed of 350 members elected by proportional representation. The new Instrument of Government, which entered into force on January 1, 1975, reduced the membership of the Riksdag to 349 (to minimize the risk of the evenly divided votes) and the voting age to 18. It also further curtailed the powers and duties of the king to a point merely ceremonial.
Also, in 1959, Sweden participated in establishing the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and joined it in 1960 with Norway and Denmark.
In 1971, during negotiations for entry into the European Communities (EC, later European Community; the successor of the EEC), in which Denmark and Norway took part, Sweden repeated its declaration that it did not intend to seek membership on the grounds of neutrality. Finally, after the dissolution of the U.S.S.R., which made the Swedish policy of neutrality obsolete, Sweden applied for membership in the EC in 1991, joining in 1995 after its reorganization into the European Union (EU).
Escalating unemployment generated by the economic downturn of 1980-1983 and the beginning of the 1990s was especially significant. Along with the deficit, unemployment became a central issue of the 1982 parliamentary elections.
In 1986, the Prime Minister of Sweden, Olof Palme, was assassinated. The crime is surrounded by mystery and remains unsolved.
Since 1994, Sweden has cooperated with NATO under the Partnership for Peace. Through these organizations, Sweden has been involved in many international peacekeeping missions.
Since a brief war against Norway with the creation of the union, Sweden has not been involved in any war. Since WWI, Sweden had pursued a policy of non-alignment in peacetime and neutrality in wartime, basing its security on a strong national defense.
Sweden joined the European Union in 1995 but did not join the Monetary Union. Therefore, it still uses the Swedish krona rather than the Euro as money.
Things were about to change. Sweden joined NATO in 2022.
In a speech on 16 April 2024, Minister for Foreign Affairs Tobias Billström said, “Becoming a NATO member is a paradigm shift in Swedish foreign and security policy, but it is also the natural and final step of a journey Sweden has made in recent decades. Sweden’s NATO accession is the culmination of a long farewell to the policy of neutrality and non-alignment.
“In December 2021, Russia issued demands amounting to ultimatums for new agreements on Europe’s security. The Russian Secretary of State Lavrov sent a letter where he said that Sweden and Finland would never be allowed to join NATO and that we should accept our position in a Russian sphere of influence. This would have restricted Sweden’s self-determination and security in crucial ways, as well as strengthened Russia’s in its attempts to deny every state its right to independently make its own security policy choices.
“At the heart of our efforts is our firm commitment to standing up for Ukraine’s freedom and sovereignty. This is and will remain the top priority for Sweden’s foreign policy. Ukrainian soldiers are not only fighting for their own security, their sovereignty, their territorial integrity, and their freedom. They are also fighting our security and our values.”
https://sweden.se/society/history-of-sweden/
https://www.ducksters.com/geography/country/sweden_history_timeline.php
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Sweden