Great Northern War

The causes

In the 17th century, Sweden was the great power of the Baltic Sea. Peter the Great wanted access to that sea for Russia, the king of Denmark-Norway hoped to recover territories lost to Sweden, and Augustus II, king of Saxony-Poland, wanted to seize Swedish Livonia. In 1699 and 1700, these rulers formed an alliance against Charles XII, who had come to the Swedish throne at a very young age.

Since the 1620s, Sweden had extended its rule over the eastern shores of the Baltic, notably Livonia and Ingria, and the Peace of Westphalia, in 1648, confirmed Pomerania to it. Denmark, which had lost Scania to Sweden in 1658, tried to recover these provinces during the Scanian War (1675-1679), without success. Russia, for its part, had only the port of Arkhangelsk, on the White Sea, as access to the sea, and could not trade freely with Europe. Peter the Great wanted access to the Baltic. The trigger was the coalition formed in 1699 and 1700 against the young king of Sweden, Charles XII.

The course of the war

Charles XII first won spectacular successes. He forced Denmark to make peace as early as 1700, then defeated the Russian army at Narva the same year, with far fewer men. He then turned on Augustus II, whom he drove from the Polish throne, before marching on Russia. Peter the Great reorganized his army and founded Saint Petersburg in 1703, on the banks of the Neva.

After the defeat at Poltava in 1709, Charles XII took refuge in the Ottoman Empire. His opponents then returned to the war, and Augustus II regained his throne. Back in Sweden in 1714, Charles XII launched a final campaign in Norway, then united with Denmark, where he was killed in 1718 before the fortress of Fredriksten. Exhausted, Sweden then negotiated peace: the Treaty of Nystad, signed in 1721, cost it its Baltic provinces to the benefit of Russia.

In 1702, the Swedish army defeated the Saxon and Polish troops at Kliszów, in Poland. In 1706, Augustus II had to renounce the Polish crown by the Treaty of Altranstädt. Meanwhile, the Russians took the fortress of Noteborg from Sweden, on Lake Ladoga, in 1702, which opened access to the Neva for them. It was in this sector that Peter founded Saint Petersburg the following year, on lands long disputed between Sweden and Russia. The tsar brought peasants and workers from every region of the empire to build the city.

In 1707, Charles XII left Saxony to march on Russia. In 1708 he relied on the Cossack hetman Ivan Mazepa, who defected, but the Russians applied a scorched-earth strategy that deprived the Swedish army of supplies. The Swedes were defeated at Holowczyn in 1708, then harsh winters and hunger wore down their ranks during the march toward Ukraine. When Charles reached Poltava in 1709, his army was weakened and short of provisions. Nevertheless he tried to attack the Russian camp before Poltava, but the defeat was total, and Charles XII had to flee.

Peter the Great transformed his navy in a few years: at Gangut, in 1714, the Russian fleet won a major naval victory. In 1711, the war spilled over to the south: after the Prut campaign, Peter was surrounded by the Ottomans and had to surrender Azov to avoid capture. Meanwhile, Danes and Prussians seized places in Swedish Pomerania, and Stralsund fell in 1715. The coalition allies thus gained ground against Sweden on several fronts at once.

The consequences

Sweden lost its rank as a great power and its Baltic territories. Russia asserted itself on the Baltic Sea and became a major European power; Saint Petersburg, its new capital, turned the country toward Europe. Poland, weakened by the war, gradually came under Russian influence.

Sweden entered the "Age of Liberty" (1718-1772), a period during which the Riksdag, the assembly of the estates, governed and weakened royal power. Peter the Great moved the Russian capital to Saint Petersburg in 1712 and in 1721 took the title of emperor; Russia became a permanent presence in the affairs of Northern Europe and Poland. Voltaire, in his History of Charles XII, published in 1731, made this king a hero of willpower, while historians still debate his responsibility for the defeat. The memory of the war thus remains divided between admiration for an intrepid king and regret for a lost great power.

Timeline

1. 1700Swedish victory at Narva
2. 1703Peter the Great founds Saint Petersburg
3. 1709Battle of Poltava: decisive defeat of Charles XII
4. 1718Death of Charles XII before a Norwegian fortress
5. 1721Treaty of Nystad: Russia gains Livonia, Estonia and other Baltic territories

Key figures

• Charles XII, king of Sweden, who fought the war until his death in 1718
• Peter the Great, tsar of Russia, who reformed his army and founded Saint Petersburg
• Augustus II the Strong, king of Poland and elector of Saxony, allied against Sweden
• Frederick IV, king of Denmark-Norway, who allied against Sweden