Fall of the Swedish Empire explained
29The fall of the Swedish Empire forever changed the dynamic of power in Northern Europe. As soon as the empire was to rise, it fell shortly after. In this video, we will be looking at the causes of the empires fall.
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The first problem was simply a lack of population. Sweden at it's territorial apeix in 1660 had only around 2.2 million people in the whole realm, a quarter of that being in the German counties of Bremen and Verdun. Compare this to eleven million in Poland-Lithuania, and 13 million in Russia. During earlier wars Sweden was able to use a much more effective form of raising, supplying, and training their military which allowed them great success on the battlefield. When states with better agricultural potential and greater population started to catch up to Sweden administration-wise, Sweden could only sink in relative power. Sweden stuck to the "indelningsverket" model of raising armies all through the 18th and 19th c. It was instituted in the late 17th c. by king Charles XI, it acted as a means to ensure a steady supply of men for the army. Local communities were charged with providing a number of men for the army. Land-owning farmers were tasked with coming up with recruits, and in return they enjoyed tax-exemption. These soldiers, aside form their pay, were given a house and a patch of land. Other special provisions could be stipulated in the soldier's contract as well. While this may not seem as much, for the poor folks of agricultural Sweden, joining the army was pretty attractive.
This way armies could be raised without hurting agricultural production and taxes too much, regiments were very well connected in their local counties, the soldiers being loyal with each other as they were drawn from the same place and often knew each other beforehand. Any misconduct or cowardice would also instantly get reported back home, so social expectations helped with performance.
This system was cheap, reliable, and produced decent part-time soldiers/part-time farmers. It was cheaper than hiring professionals, didn't rely on minted coinage (which was scarce at times), and provided troops that in some ways were more reliable. Its use of manpower was quite efficient, prior to general conscription. It worked well enough to provide Sweden with an army for quite some time after the advent of general conscription in France in 1795, but the longer the 19th century went on, the more obviously outdated it became.
Secondly was that Sweden-Finland was relatively poor on its own compared to other states at the time, and it was the possessions of the empire that created some of it's largest wealth. The largest cities around the time of the Great Northern War being Riga and Stralsund. Some of the biggest profits came from the tolls Sweden could collect being in control of the major Baltic river trade routes. Even with those tolls, Sweden was still primarily an export oriented nation, and lacked to expand their economic opportunities. This complicated things as long and costly wars brought exports to a near halt, especially when they lacked naval superiority in the Baltic. Having to cede almost all Baltic territory to its various enemies at the end of the GNW was a massive hit on the Swedish economy and allowed greater competition for Baltic trade.