Välkommen In The Swedish Empire

During the 17th century Sweden emerged as a European great power. Before the emergence of the Swedish Empire, Sweden was a very poor, sparsely populated, undistinguished country in northern Europe with no significant power or reputation. It was suddenly brought up to be one of Europe's leading nations by the genius of Axel Oxenstierna and king Gustavus Adolphus. Thanks to territories seized from Russia and Poland-Lithuania but also due to its involvement in the Thirty Years' War Sweden found itself transformed into the continental leader of Protestantism until the Empire's collapse during the Great Northern War.

During the Thirty Years' War, Sweden managed to, for a time, conquer approximately half of the states of the Holy Roman Empire. The plan of Gustav Adolphus was to become the new Holy Roman Emperor over a Scandinavia united with the Holy Roman Empire[citation needed]; his death at the Battle of Lützen (1632) shattered that dream. The fortunes of war would shift back and forth several times; after the Battle of Nördlingen the faith for Sweden amongst the Swedish controlled German states was severely injured, and several of the provinces excluded themselves from Swedish power one by one, leaving Sweden with only a couple of northern German provinces. After France had intervened on the same side as Sweden, the fortunes would shift again. As the war continued, it turned more and more grim; and when it was over, it had led to severe depopulation of the German Empire. Although exact populations estimates do not exist, historians estimate that as many as one third of the people in the German States may have died as a result of the war. [1]