Who Was When

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EuropeHeartland today: Sweden

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The years when Sweden held lands around the Baltic Sea, from the accession of Gustavus Adolphus in 1611 to the Peace of Nystad in 1721. Swedish armies fought in the Thirty Years' War and the Great Northern War, and lost most of the Baltic provinces after Poltava.

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Key events

  1. Gustavus Adolphus becomes king at sixteen, in the middle of three wars, and the Estates make him accept limits on his power

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  2. A Swedish army lands at Peenemünde in late June (Old Style; early July in the Gregorian calendar) and joins the Thirty Years' War in Germany

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  3. Swedish forces fight Wallenstein's imperial army at Lützen on 6 November (Old Style; 16 November in the Gregorian calendar), and Gustavus Adolphus is killed there

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  4. The Peace of Westphalia ends the German phase of the Thirty Years' War, and Sweden gains western Pomerania, Wismar, Bremen and Verden

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  5. Denmark, Saxony and Russia attack Sweden in 1700; Charles XII lands on Zealand in August and defeats the Russians at Narva in November

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  6. Charles XII attacks the Russian camp at Poltava on 8 July (27 June, Old Style); the Swedish army is crushed and he flees into Ottoman territory

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  7. In the Peace of Nystad, Sweden gives Russia Ingria, Estonia, Livonia, part of Karelia and Vyborg