70.3% Swedes

29.7% Swedes of immigrant background (Finns, Arabs, Sub-Saharan Africans, Pakistanis, Indians, Eastern and Western Europeans)

7% Foreign nationals

Religion:

59.4% Protestantism (Church of Sweden)
34.8% Atheist/Irreligious
1.9% Islam
1.7% Orthodox
1.2% Catholicism
0.3% Other (Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Norse paganism)

Population of your nation: 10.35 million people

Economics:

Nominal GDP: $537.6 billion

GDP Per capita: $54,563

Leader of your nation:

Head of State: King Carl XVI Gustaf

Head of Government: Prime Minister Styrbjörn Eriksson

Government type of your nation: Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy

Brief history of your nation:

Viking Age and Beginnings:

The exact date of the formation of the modern Swedish state is hard to pinpoint. Most academics agree that the process of Sweden becoming one country was slow and gradual and took many centuries to achieve. It is likely that during the Viking Age, Sweden was composed of many different smaller kingdoms and factions fighting to unite the country or achieve personal glory for their own tribes. However, at the beginning of the 8th century tribal violence seems to decrease as the Swedes begin to head overseas. They set their sights on the Russian, Finnish and Baltic tribes and begin looting, pillaging and colonising all arable land they come across. Such was their ferocity in combat, that the Byzantine emperor formed an elite guard unit for themselves composed of Swedish warriors. They were known as the "Varangian Guard". The Swedes fell under the general banner of "Vikings" or "Norsemen" along with the Danes and the Norwegians. During this time they worshipped Odin, Thor, Tyr and Freya and other pagan deities. In 879 they founded the Kievan Rus' in modern day Russia and Ukraine and there is evidence that many people along the Dniepr and Volga rivers spoke Old Norse and were culturally Swedes. This in essence means that the modern Russian state was founded by these Vikings. They established trade routes that spanned all the way to the Middle East and the Byzantine Empire. To the West, it estimated that small numbers of Swedes took part in the Danish and Norwegian conquests of Britain. However due the lack of a clear ethnic distinction between the Nordic peoples, and the constantly changing borders of the Scandinavian nations, this is impossible to tell. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and the Viking Age in Sweden ended in the 990s with the conversion of Uppsala to Catholic Christianity. This era was perhaps one of Sweden's greatest with wealth flowing to the country from all over the Eastern world and Old Norse literally being spoken from Constantinople to the high Arctic.

Christianization and Danish rule

Initially, the years immediately after Christianization went quite well. During this time Sweden constituted its self fully as a nation state and developed a fledgling national identity separate from being "Norse". Sweden engaged in many attempts to convert its population fully to Catholicism, which was quite resistant, especially in much of the north where the influence of Denmark and the German traders was never felt. The Swedish Crown also heavily colonised and settled coastal Finland with Swedish Catholics, and more generally subjugated and conquered neighbouring Finnish and Sámi tribes. After several centuries of all these religious and dynastic conflicts, Sweden was united with Denmark and Norway in a personal union. It was known as the Kalmar Union and was the work of the nobility of all Scandinavia to prevent German northward expansion into the Baltic and North seas. Initially, the union was popular in Sweden as it allowed merchants to have unrestricted trading access to the Danish Empire and to simultaneously kick out the Hanseatic League and the Germans from all Swedish ports. However, over time, the Union became increasingly unpopular as Danish dominance and superiority became blatantly obvious. Sweden ended up revolting several times, mostly to no avail. Eventually however, during one of these revolts, something unthinkable happens. After the revolt was crushed, Christian II of Denmark, Sweden and Norway rounded up a large proportion of the Swedish nobility in Stockholm and executed them for treason. This event was known as the Stockholm Bloodbath and immediately after the whole nation rallied under Gustav Vasa and kicked the Danes out of Sweden permanently. Gustav Vasa was coronated as the first independent King of Sweden for 200 hundred years in 1523. This war also marked the end of the Kalmar Union as a whole and the remainder of it was reorganised into the state of Denmark-Norway.

First 200 years of Independence and Reform

Gustav Vasa and his descendants made many important reforms to the country immediately after independence from Denmark. The first of these was the Protestant reformation which hit Sweden in the 1530s and the Swedish Riksdag, and by extension the nation, officially declared its self to be Protestant in 1544. This was used as a way to curb the power and wealth of the Catholic Church in Swedish society. There were also many reforms to make taxation and bureaucracy more efficient. The Vasa dynasty also continued the tradition of blocking Hanseatic traders from Swedish ports, and contemporary sources say that even speaking German could get you kicked out of the country or at worst lynched by the local population. During this time Sweden's population grew rapidly due to an influx of grain and Sweden's military capacity became frighting. This would set up nicely for the era of great power that was to come.

The Swedish Empire and Dominium Maris Baltici

From the 17th century onwards Sweden began an era of rapid conquest that would change its history forever. Sweden first set its eyes on the Danish territories to the south and obliterated Denmark in the Second Northern War in which the Danes lost all of Skåneland and the island of Gotland. This event was described as traumatising for the Danish nation as Skåne had been a historic part of Denmark since time immemorial. Norway also lost a lot of land to Swedish aggression with the counties of Jemtland, Båhuslen and even Trøndelag being lost to the Swedish Crown. After Sweden had formalised its borders at home, it set off on a rapid conquest of the Baltic coast, taking much of modern day Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, St. Petersburg and even Northern Germany. All these military victories made the Swedish Army and Navy one of the strongest in Europe and elevated the nation to one of the greatest powers in the contemporary world. Sweden even tired its hand at overseas colonialism and took a few settlements in North America and the Caribbean. The Swedish flag now flew across much of Northern Europe and Swedish dominance seemed assured for centuries to come. However, Russia was having none of it. After a long and brutal war that lasted 21 years in the early 1700s, Russia and Poland kicked Sweden out of the Baltics and Germany permanently in a major tactical and moral victory. This definitively marked the end of the Swedish Empire, and although short-lived (only about 100 years), it had a massive cultural and geopolitical impact on Northern Europe. The legacy of this empire would continue to inspire the Swedish people and army for centuries to come.

The Loss of Finland, the Union with Norway, and the beginnings of armed neutrality

Sweden for the next 100 years after the nation's defeat in the Great Northern War entered a long period of general decline. While other European powers expanded their empires and came to consolidate much of the continent, Sweden was left with Finland as it's only major territorial possession. As time went on the economy stagnated and many Swedes left the homeland for America in search of a better and richer life. Much of the country was poor and wealth no longer flowed through Stockholm, Kalmar, Gothenburg and Malmö like it did back in the days of the Empire. Eventually after 100 years of this stagnation and emigration, Russia attacked Sweden for one final blow of death. The war lasted barley a year and Sweden lost the entirety of mainland Finland to the Russian Empire, however due to the incompetency of the Russian Baltic Fleet, they managed to hold onto the Åland Islands. The loss of Finland was traumatising for Sweden because tens of thousands of ethnic Swedes were now stuck on the wrong side of this new border. In 1812, Sweden entered the War of the Sixth Coalition in the hopes of countering French power in continental Europe. After France was kicked out of Russia and the war was won, the major powers decided to punish Denmark for siding with Napoleon and had plans to transfer Norway to Swedish rule. Norway, however, rebelled and although they lost the war, the Norwegians forced Sweden to accept their constitution which meant they retained a significant amount of autonomy in internal affairs. From the Swedish perspective, the Union was quite a prosperous time. The nation had regained some of its lost honour and prestige with the Norwegians now firmly subjugated. However, not wishing for a repeat of previous centuries, the Swedish government opted for a system of permanent neutrality in international affairs. From the 1850s onwards, the Union came under increasing strain from both sides. Nationalist sentiment on both sides of the border caused tensions to flair up regularly and it was obvious to many in Stockholm that the honeymoon period was over. The Swedish economy had stabilised at a steady growth and many average Swedes didn't see the need to hold on to Norway. This continued for a couple of decades right up until 1905 when a constitutional crisis broke out. The Norwegian Parliament attempted to pass a highly controversial bill that would give Norway control over it's own foreign affairs. This move was vetoed by the Swedish King, but the Norwegian Government refused to accept it and resigned. The King then refused to appoint a new government, and in lieu of this the Norwegian Parliament voted to unanimously dissolve the Union. Sweden recognised the decision later that year and did not take up arms against Norway.

The World Wars

Sweden remained neutral during the First World War and had a tendency to play both sides. Sweden exported large amounts of iron ore to the Germans and also traded food supplies with the Brits and Americans. Overall WW1 went and came for the Swedes with little affect. In the late 1920s and and early 30s, Sweden was hit by the depression. However the nation weathered this international crises much better than neighbouring Denmark and Norway, which were both severely hit with thousands losing their jobs. Swedish industry and finance of course suffered, but comparatively to other parts of Europe it was much less severe. At the breakout of WWII, Sweden once again remained neutral. The war however still had a massive effect on Sweden because after Denmark and Norway were invaded and occupied it put the country in an extremely precarious situation. Sweden had to balance the demands of both Nazi Germany and the British without agitating them or triggering an invasion. The Swedish Government had duck and dive to avoid and invasion by either side of the war, engaging in thoroughly complicated realpolitik. Sweden was heavily criticised during the war for the fact that it sold iron and steel which would be used for all kinds of heinous purposes by the Nazis, including the German bombardment of Norway, in which thousands of innocent civilians died. Sweden also allowed German soldiers to pass through the country during the campaigns against Norway and Russia. Although, during the later years of the war, Sweden also extensively helped the allies by way of intelligence and provided crucial knowledge to SOE and the CIA which ultimately helped the allies win the war in the east. The Swedes also trained Danish and Norwegian resistance fighters throughout the war, and also took in thousands of Jews fleeing Nazi persecution. This resulted in the country having one of the largest Jewish minorities in Europe.

The Present

At the conclusion of the Second World War, Sweden stood in a simultaneously bad and good situation. On one hand, they had betrayed their brothers in Denmark, Finland and Norway by refusing to come to their aid when their sovereignty was violated, thus leading to an atmosphere of mistrust and even outright hatred toward Sweden in these countries. And on the other hand, their infrastructure, military and economy remained practically unscathed. Where as nearly all European nations had to spend millions or even billions rebuilding themselves and rearming themselves, Sweden acted as if nothing had happened. The country now stood with a growing population of 7 million, a large and capable military, and a flourishing economy. If Sweden could successfully navigate the icy waters of the upcoming Cold War, the nation could easily once again become one of the greatest powers in Northern Europe.

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