Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
nominal head of state. The chancellor wielded the real power, and under
Arvid Horn
the
country found a period of stability. His party, nicknamed the “Caps”, was opposed by
the hawkish “Hats”. The latter forced war with Russia in 1741, a disaster in which
Sweden lost all of Finland and had its whole east coast burned and bombed. Most of
Finland was returned with the agreement that
Adolphus Frederick
(a relation of the
crown prince of Russia) would be elected to the Swedish throne on Frederick I's death.
This duly occurred in 1751.
During his reign, Adolphus repeatedly tried to reassert royal power, but found that the
constitution had been strengthened against him. The Estates' power was such that when
Adolphus refused to sign any bills, they simply utilized a stamp bearing his name. The
resurrected “Hats” forced entry into the
Seven Years' War
in 1757 on the French side,
another disastrous venture, as the Prussians were able to repel every Swedish attack.
The aristocratic parties were in a state of constant flux. Although elections of sorts
were held to provide delegates for the
Riksdag
(parliament), foreign sympathies, bribery
and bickering were hardly conducive to democratic administration. Cabals continued
to rule Sweden, the economy was stagnant, and reform delayed. It was, however, an age
of
intellectual and scientific advance
, surprising in a country that had lost much of its
cultural impetus.
Carl von Linné
, the botanist whose classification of plants is still used,
was professor at Uppsala from 1741 to 1778;
Anders Celsius
initiated the use of the
centigrade temperature scale;
Carl Scheele
discovered chlorine. A royal decree of 1748
organized Europe's first full-scale
census
, a five-yearly event by 1775. Other fields
flourished, too. The mystical works of
Emmanuel Swedenborg
, the philosopher who
died in 1772, encouraged new theological sects; and the period encompassed the life of
Carl Michael Bellman
(1740-95), the celebrated Swedish poet whose work did much to
identify and foster a popular nationalism.
With the accession of
Gustav III
in 1771, the Crown began to regain the ascendancy.
A new constitution was forced upon a divided
Riksdag
and proved a watershed between
earlier absolutism and the later aristocratic squabbles. A popular king, Gustav founded
hospitals, granted freedom of worship and removed many of the state controls over the
economy. His determination to conduct a successful foreign policy led to further
conflict with Russia (1788-90) in which, to everyone's surprise, he managed to more
than hold his own. But with the French Revolution polarizing opposition throughout
Europe, the Swedish nobility began to entertain thoughts of conspiracy against a king
whose growing powers they now saw as those of a tyrant. In 1792, at a masked ball in
Stockholm Opera House, the king was shot by an assassin hired by the disaffected
aristocracy. Gustav died two weeks later and was succeeded by his son
Gustav IV
, with
the country being led by a regency during his minority.
The wars waged by revolutionary France were at first studiously avoided in Sweden
but, pulled into the conflict by the British, Gustav IV entered the
Napoleonic Wars
in
1805. However, Napoleon's victory at Austerlitz two years later broke the coalition, and
Sweden found itself isolated. Attacked by Russia the following year, Gustav was later
arrested and deposed, and his uncle was elected king.
A constitution of 1809 established a liberal monarchy in Sweden, responsible to the
elected
Riksdag
. Under this constitution
Karl XIII
was a mere caretaker, his heir a Danish
prince who would bring Norway back to Sweden - some compensation for finally losing
Finland and the Åland Islands to Russia (1809) after five hundred years of Swedish rule.
1814
1860
1867
1896
Norway becomes Swedish
Emigration begins to
America
Famine hits
Sweden
Death of Alfred
Nobel
