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istocracy. To join the ranks of the upper class, many Swedes have changed their patronym-
ic, replacing the name-ending “son” with the Latinate “ilius,” as in Sandilius. [137]
Figure 11.4. Stockholm
During World War II, Sweden alone among the Baltic countries maintained its neut-
rality. Norway had attempted to do so, but Norway and Denmark were quickly overrun by
German armies. Norway and Denmark were fierce resistance fighters. Sweden claims (and
many historians agree) that it had no choice but to cooperate with Germany, lest it, too, fall
under the Nazi heel. Even so, at war's end, Norway and Denmark were economically dev-
astated. Sweden had become prosperous through its armed neutrality and its sale of metals
and alloys to Germany.
WHAT IS ARMED NEUTRALITY?
For more than 200 years, Sweden's stance in international dealings has been what Swedes
call an armed neutrality: military power sufficient to ward off would-be attackers. The
background of that neutrality is three centuries of Swedish military might and wars of
conquest. Sweden joined with Denmark and Norway in the Union of Three Crowns in
1397. Denmark was the Union's engine of energy, its arm of control. The resentment of the
Swedish nobility (over taxes and other impositions) boiled into revolt in 1434 and again in
1471 when Swedish victory over the Danes paved the pathway to independence. In 1523
Gustav Vasa took the Swedish throne and became the first of a dynasty of military kings.
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