Sweden

Sweden Swed. Sverige, officially Kingdom of Sweden, constitutional monarchy (2005 est. pop. 9,002,000), 173,648 sq mi (449,750 sq km), N Europe, occupying the eastern part of the Scandinavian peninsula. It borders on Norway in the west, on Finland in the northeast, on the Gulf of Bothnia in the east, on the Baltic Sea in the south, and on the Øresund (The Sound), the Kattegat, and the Skagerrak in the southwest. The country includes several islands, notably Gotland and Öland , in the Baltic. Stockholm is Sweden's capital and largest city.

Land and People

Sweden falls into two main geographical regions: the north (Norrland), comprising about two thirds of the country, which is mountainous (except for a narrow strip of lowland along the Gulf of Bothnia); and the south (Svealand and Götaland), which is mostly low-lying and where most of the population lives. About 65% of Sweden's land area is forested, and less than 10% is arable. The country has several large rivers, which generally flow in a southeastward direction; these include the Götaälv, the Dalälven, the Indalsälven, the Ångermanälven, the Umeälv, the Skellefteälven, the Luleälv, and the Torneälv. There are also a number of large lakes, including lakes Vänern, Vättern, Mälaren, Storsjön, Hjälmaren, Siljan, and Uddjaur. The highest point in Sweden is Kebnekaise (6,965 ft/2,123 m), located in the Kölen (Kjölen) Mts. in Lapland .

The great majority of the nation's population speaks Swedish and is descended from Scandinavian tribes (see Germans ); there is a sizable Finnish-speaking minority and a small Lapp-speaking minority. About 12% of the population is foreign born. Most Swedes belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church; the metropolitan see is at Uppsala . It was long the official state church, but it was disestablished in 2000. The Nobel Prizes (except the Peace Prize) are awarded annually in Sweden. Social welfare legislation has long been advanced and comprehensive, providing for pensions, maternity benefits, health insurance, and allowances for all children.

Economy

Sweden is a highly industrialized country and has one of the highest living standards in the world. Since 1940 there has been a great movement of workers from farms to cities; nevertheless, agricultural output has increased considerably with the application of scientific farming methods. In 2006 industry contributed about 28% of the annual national income and agriculture about 1%. Transportation, communication, and trade are also important. Farming is concentrated in the southern part of the country; the leading commodities produced are dairy products, grain (including fodder crops), sugar beets, and potatoes. Large numbers of poultry, hogs, and cattle are raised.

Sweden is one of the world's leading producers of iron ore; important mines are at Kiruna and Gällivare. Copper, lead, and zinc ores and pyrite are also extracted. The country's chief industrial centers are Stockholm, Göteborg , Malmö , Uppsala, Västerås , Helsingborg , and Norrköping . Food processing is important and the leading manufactures include iron and steel, machinery, precision equipment, forest products, chemicals, and motor vehicles. Sweden is known for its decorative and folk arts, fine glassware (made especially at Orrefors ), and high-quality steel cutlery and blades. Much hydroelectric power is generated. The country's beautiful scenery and handsome towns and cities attract large numbers of tourists.

Sweden carries on a large foreign trade, and the value of exports usually slightly exceeds that of imports. The chief exports are machinery, motor vehicles, paper goods, pulp and wood, iron and steel products, and chemicals.The main imports are machinery, petroleum and petroleum products, chemicals, motor vehicles, iron and steel, foodstuffs, and clothing. The principal trade partners are Germany, Norway, Denmark, Great Britain, and Finland.

Government

Sweden is a constitutional monarchy governed under the constitution of 1975, which replaced that of 1809. The hereditary monarch is the head of state but has little power. The prime minister, who is the head of government, is elected by the Parliament. Legislative power is vested in the unicameral Parliament or Riksdag, whose 349 members are elected by a system of proportional representation to four-year terms. The country's executive is the cabinet, headed by the prime minister, which must have the confidence of the Riksdag. Public administration is to a large extent decentralized, so that elected county and municipal governments play a major role in running the country. Administratively, Sweden is divided into 21 counties.

History

Origins of Sweden

In early historic times, Svealand was inhabited by the Svear (mentioned as the Suiones by Tacitus in the late 1st cent. AD). They engaged in wars with their southern neighbors, who inhabited Götaland and who according to an unproved tradition were the ancestors of the Goths. By the 6th cent. AD the Svear had conquered the Götar, with whom they merged. The early Swedes were combined and confused with other Scandinavians (e.g., the piratical Vikings and Norsemen ). The Swedes alone, known as Varangians in Russia, extended (10th cent.) their influence to the Black Sea. The Swedish kings warred for centuries with their Danish and Norwegian neighbors.

St. Ansgar introduced Christianity c.829, but paganism was fully eradicated only in the 12th cent. by Eric IX , who also conquered Finland. The royal authority was weakened before the 13th cent. by the rise of an independent feudal class. The Swedish cities also began to acquire wide rights at that time and were strongly influenced by German merchants of the Hanseatic League , active especially at Visby . In 1319, Sweden and Norway were united under Magnus VII , and in 1397 Queen Margaret I effected the personal union of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark through the Kalmar Union .

However, Margaret's successors, whose rule was centered in Denmark, were unable to control the Swedes. Real power was held for long periods by regents (notably those of the Sture family) chosen by the Swedish diet. Christian II , who asserted his claim to Sweden by force of arms, ordered a massacre (1520) of Swedish nobles at Stockholm. This "Stockholm Blood Bath" stirred the Swedes to new resistance; at Strängnäs , in 1523, they made Gustavus Vasa their king as Gustavus I .

Growth of the Swedish State

The founder of the modern Swedish state, Gustavus eliminated the influence of the Hanseatic League in Sweden, strengthened the central authority, made (1544) the kingship hereditary in the Vasa dynasty, and made Lutheranism the state religion. However, he was unable to regain the southern provinces, held by Denmark. His successor, Eric XIV (reigned 1560-68), began the Swedish conquest of Livonia by taking (1561) its northern section (Estonia).

Swedish interests in E Europe were further enhanced by the marriage of John III (reigned 1569-92), Eric's successor, to the sister of Sigismund II of Poland. Their son, Sigismund III of Poland, was a Roman Catholic; his accession (1592) to the Swedish throne was deeply resented by the Protestant Swedes. He was deposed in 1599, and his uncle became regent and then king of Sweden as Charles IX (reigned 1607-11).

Charles's son, Gustavus II (Gustavus Adolphus; reigned 1611-32), made Sweden a great European power. Through a war with Russia, he acquired (1617) Ingermanland and Karelia; from Poland he took nearly all of Livonia. By his victories at Breitenfeld (1631) and Lützen (1632) in the Thirty Years War , Gustavus made Sweden the dominant Protestant power of continental Europe. Axel Oxenstierna , appointed chancellor by Gustavus in 1612, was highly influential during Gustavus's reign and the first half of the reign of Queen Christina (1632-54).

In the 17th cent. Swedish colonial aspirations in North America (see New Sweden ) proved short-lived. The Peace of Westphalia (1648; see Westphalia, Peace of ), which ended the Thirty Years War, gave W Pomerania , Wismar , and the archbishopric of Bremen to Sweden, making the Swedish kings princes of the Holy Roman Empire. Charles X , who became king on the abdication (1654) of Christina, successfully led wars against Poland and Denmark. The southern provinces of Sweden were definitively recovered from Denmark in 1660. Under Charles XI (reigned 1660-97), Sweden became an absolute monarchy, and the great nobles lost their independence.

In the Northern War (1700-1721), which broke out shortly after the accession of Charles XII (reigned 1697-1718), Sweden was crushed after gaining its greatest military triumphs (e.g., at Narva and in Livonia). Under the treaties of Stockholm (1720) and Nystad (1721), Sweden ceded the archbishopric of Bremen to Hanover, part of Pomerania to Prussia, and Livonia, Ingermanland, and Karelia to Russia. Internally, Sweden was torn in the 18th cent. by political intrigue and civil discord. Ulrica Eleonora (d.1741) succeeded her brother, Charles XII, in 1718, but abdicated (1720) in favor of her husband, Frederick I (d. 1751), a prince of Hesse-Kassel.

The constitution of 1720 gave increased powers to the Riksdag (diet) and the political scene was dominated (1738-65) by the faction known as the Hats, who favored an aggressive anti-Russian policy in alliance with France and who represented the nobility and the bureaucracy. They were successfully challenged in 1765 by the Caps, who sought peaceful relations with Russia and who represented the lesser estates. In 1751 the house of Oldenburg-Holstein-Gottorp gained the Swedish throne when Adolphus Frederick became king. His son, Gustavus III (reigned 1771-92), restored absolutism in 1772 but was later assassinated by a conspiracy of nobles. Gustavus IV (reigned 1792-1809), a despotic ruler, involved Sweden in war with Napoleon I and then (1806-9) with Russia. A coup (1809) placed his uncle, Charles XIII , on the throne, and later in the same year Sweden was forced to cede Finland to Russia.

A constitutional monarchy was established by the constitution of 1809, which, although modified considerably (e.g., in 1866 and 1969), remained in effect until Jan. 1, 1975. From 1810, Swedish affairs were in the hands of Charles's adopted heir, Marshal Bernadotte (later Charles XIV ). Sweden again joined the allies against Napoleon in 1813; this was the last war in which Sweden has participated. The Congress of Vienna compensated (1814) Sweden for its loss of Pomerania and Finland with Norway , which remained a separate kingdom in personal union with Sweden until 1905.

Sweden since 1814

The history of 19th-century Sweden, under Charles XIV (reigned 1818-44), Oscar I (1844-59), Charles XV (1859-72), and Oscar II (1872-1907), was one of progressive liberalization in government and of industrial development. Freedom of the press (1844) and internal free trade (1864) were established, and the suffrage bill of 1865 enfranchised the middle class. The accelerated industrial development of the late 19th cent. was accompanied by the rise of the Social Democratic party, which dominated Swedish politics after 1920. From 1870 to 1914 about 1.5 million Swedes emigrated to the United States, mostly to the Midwest.

Relations with Norway were strained throughout the 19th cent., and in 1905 the union of Norway and Sweden was peacefully terminated. Under Gustavus V (reigned 1907-50), Sweden averted involvement in World War I and II, making armed neutrality the basis of its foreign policy, and, except for the early 1920s and early 1930s, enjoyed economic prosperity. Universal taxpayer suffrage was introduced in 1907, and in 1910 a workers' compensation insurance law began the long series of Swedish welfare legislation. Sweden entered the United Nations in 1946, and Dag Hammarskjöld , a Swedish diplomat, was secretary-general of the organization from 1953 until his death in 1961. In 1950, Gustavus VI ascended the throne; he was succeeded in 1973 by Charles XVI Gustavus . Sweden refused to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949 in order not to compromise its neutrality, and for similar reasons withdrew its first application for full membership in the European Community in 1971.

The Social Democrats, led by Tage Erlander from 1946 to 1969 and thereafter by Olof Palme , controlled the government after 1945, usually at the head of coalition governments. Considerable new social welfare legislation was passed, but from the mid-1960s Swedish economic growth slowed, and there were sizable increases in unemployment and in the rate of inflation in the early 1970s. Palme was replaced in 1976 by Thorbjörn Fälldin, a Center party member who led a coalition that ended 44 years of domination by the Social Democrats.

The period was marked by a heated national debate over nuclear power. Fälldin resigned in 1978 when he was forced to compromise on his decision to halt the building of nuclear power plants. Ola Ullsten became prime minister briefly, but Fälldin was returned to power after a general election in 1979. In 1982 the Social Democrats resumed power under the leadership of Olof Palme, who was assassinated by an unidentified gunman in 1986. Palme was succeeded by Ingvar Carlsson. In 1991 the Social Democrats lost power and Carl Bildt, a Conservative, became prime minister; his government enacted austerity measures.

Carlsson and the Social Democrats were returned to power in the 1994 elections. Sweden joined the European Union in 1995. Carlsson resigned as prime minister in 1996 and was succeeded by his finance minister, Göran Persson , who continued in office following the 1998 elections, despite a setback for the Social Democrats. In 2002, Swedish voters again returned the Social Democrats to power, this time with an increased percentage of the vote. Sweden has deregulated many sectors of its economy while retaining its welfare state, and the country has experienced steady growth since the mid-1990s. A center-right coalition, led by the Moderate party, defeated the Social Democrats in Sept., 2006. Fredrik Reinfeldt , leader of the Moderates, became prime minister of a four-party coalition in October.

Bibliography

See R. N. Bain, Charles XII and the Collapse of the Swedish Empire, 1682-1719 (1895, repr. 1969); C. J. Hallendorf and Adolf Schüch, History of Sweden (1929, repr. 1970); Wilfrid Fleisher, Sweden, The Welfare State (1956, repr. 1973); Ingvar Andersson, A History of Sweden (tr. 1968, repr. 1975); Kurt Samuelsson, From Great Power to Welfare State (1968); R. F. Tomasson, Sweden: Prototype of Modern Society (1970); M. D. Hancock, Sweden: The Politics of Post Industrial Change (1972); Vilhelm Moberg, A History of the Swedish People (2 vol., tr. 1972 and 1974); Michael Roberts, The Age of Liberty: Sweden 1719-1772 (1985); L. B. Sather and Alan Swanson, Sweden (1987); B. P. Bosworth and A. M. Rivlin, ed., The Swedish Economy (1987); David Popenoe, Disturbing the Nest: Sweden and the Decline of Families in Modern Society (1988); Ebba Dohlman, National Welfare and Economic Interdependence: The Case of Sweden's Foreign Trade Policy (1989).

Sweden. In September 1939 Sweden was a peaceful democracy on the northern periphery of Europe with a population of just under 6.5 million. Although full parliamentary democracy had only been introduced less than 20 years earlier, the country had a centuries-old tradition of constitutional government and the rule of law. Neither the far right nor the far left had been able to achieve any real strength in Swedish politics, which were dominated by four parties committed to the existing political system: the Conservatives, the Liberals, the Agrarian Union, and the Social Democrats. The government was a stable, majority coalition of the Social Democrats and the Agrarians, headed by Per Albin Hansson, the Social Democratic leader. In December 1939 a national government was formed under Hansson's leadership by extending the existing coalition to include the Conservatives and the Liberals.

Sweden had not been at war since 1814 and by 1939 was one of Europe's long-standing, traditional neutrals. This, of course, was no guarantee of future safety and in a number of important respects Sweden was in a weak position in 1939. Although a rearmament programme had been initiated in 1936, the Swedish armed forces still lacked modern military equipment in significant quantities and military weakness remained a factor underlying Swedish policy until the last years of the war. In 1937 the total personnel of the Swedish Army was 403,000 men and it possessed 79 anti-aircraft guns and no tanks. In 1945 the corresponding figures were 600,000 men, 2,750 anti-aircraft guns, and 766 tanks. The strength of the Swedish Air Force grew from 257 aircraft of all types in 1936 to 596 in 1940 and 1,018 in 1945, while the Swedish Navy had 47 vessels of all types in service in September 1939 and 126 in May 1945.

Economically, Sweden was dependent on foreign trade. It needed to import a number of vital commodities, above all oil and coal and, in trying to sustain this trade, lost no fewer than 241 ships, 26 of which were seized by the Germans. A factor which compensated for military and economic vulnerability was Sweden's geographic remoteness from the centre of Europe. It also had the advantage of being surrounded by neighbours that served as buffer states: Norway in the west, Denmark in the south, and Finland in the east. Moreover, Swedish territory in itself was unlikely to be of overriding importance to any belligerent, except in one respect: Germany obtained well over half its vital iron ore imports from the far north of the country (see Table).

Sweden: German imports of Swedish iron ore (all figures are in millions of tons)

	German domestic production of iron	Total German iron ore imports	German iron ore imports from Sweden
Source: Contributor.
1939	14.7	19.6	10.0
1940	19.2	9.9	8.4
1941	18.1	17.4	9.2
1942	15.3	17.8	7.9
1943	15.2	19.6	9.6
1944	–	8.2	3.4

Within Sweden, the neutralist tradition was long-established and widely supported. This did not mean that Swedes had no views or sympathies in relation to the fate of Europe. Conservative and military circles were anxious that the USSR might try to reconquer Finland and that communist revolution might sweep through Europe in the wake of a German collapse. The pre-war balance in Europe between Moscow, Berlin/Rome, and Paris/London was not disadvantageous to Sweden, and the prospect that the war would end (as in fact it did) with Germany's removal as a Great Power and Soviet domination of much of Europe was unwelcome to mainstream Swedish opinion. On the other hand, there was widespread distaste for German Nazism, and not only on the left of the political spectrum. Many Swedes regarded the prospect that Hitler would ultimately triumph as a catastrophe for Europe.

However, such views and sympathies did not, broadly speaking, lead to the conclusion that Sweden should abandon its neutral stance. The greatest difficulty about neutrality for Swedish opinion related not to the war as a whole but to Sweden's Nordic neighbours: Denmark, Finland, and Norway. Feelings of Nordic solidarity, combined with Sweden's interest in the continuing independence of its three neighbours, were a factor in Swedish policy throughout the war, though never one which could override the demands of power politics.

The first year of the war was marked by two serious crises for Sweden. The first was unleashed by the Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, which shattered the relative tranquillity of the region and drew the attention of the belligerents northwards. It was after the outbreak of the Finnish–Soviet war (the Winter War) that Germany began serious planning for WESERÜBUNG (the occupation of Denmark and Norway) and that France and the UK developed a scheme to occupy the Swedish orefields under the guise of assisting Finland. In Sweden, the new national government chose to steer a middle course between neutrality and intervention in the Finnish war. Armaments and other supplies were sent to Finland on a large scale, and by the end of the Winter War about 8,000 Swedish volunteers were serving in Finland, but the government repeatedly ruled out intervention by the Swedish Army and resisted Anglo-French pressure to allow Allied troops to enter Sweden en route for Finland. This refusal to intervene fully to help Finland created a moral crisis in the minds of many Swedes, but the government succeeded in retaining the support of majority opinion. During the last six weeks of the war, after Stalin's decision to seek a settlement with Finland, Sweden acted as an intermediary between the two parties in the negotiations which led to the conclusion of the Winter War in mid-March 1940.

The restoration of peace in the region proved short-lived. Less than a month after the Peace of Moscow, on 9 April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway. Once again, Nordic sentiment in Sweden was outraged, but—in contrast to its policy towards Finland—Stockholm followed a policy of strict neutrality during the two months of the Norwegian campaign and no assistance was given to Norway. On the other hand, Sweden did mobilize its army and resisted German pressure to allow the transit of munitions. What weakened Swedish resolution was the failure of Allied arms in Norway and, even more, the fall of France. In these circumstances, the government yielded on 18 June 1940 to German demands that parts of the Swedish railway network be made available for the passage of armaments to Norway and of German soldiers on leave travelling between Norway and Germany.

The presence of large German forces in Denmark and Norway made Sweden far more vulnerable to German attack and cut it off from any possibility of assistance from the west. The country remained a non-belligerent, but was enclosed within the area of German control. The transit agreement with Germany in the summer of 1940 was one manifestation of this state of affairs. So were the government's efforts to curtail the most vociferous anti-Nazi comment in the Swedish press. However, the best known of Sweden's concessions during the period when German power was at its height was the decision to allow the so-called Engelbrecht Division through Sweden. On 22 June 1941, the day of the German invasion of the USSR (see BARBAROSSA), the Germans demanded that a division stationed in Norway should be allowed to cross Sweden to Finland. After several days of intense discussion in Swedish political circles, the government acceded to the German demand.

As such concessions demonstrate, what Germany demanded was that Sweden should be responsive to the needs of the German war effort but not that it depart from actual non-belligerency. Sweden emerged from the years of German domination of the European continent as an unoccupied, independent state able, during the last years of the war, to adopt a much firmer attitude towards Germany. Large German forces remained in the Nordic region around its frontiers, but a German attack became less and less practical: the Swedish armed forces were considerably stronger than they had been in the earlier part of the war and Germany was under growing military pressure on all sides. The first and most striking indication of how the position had changed was the Swedish decision, taken under strong British and American pressure, to cancel the 1940 transit agreement with Germany from August 1943, and during the remainder of the war Sweden continued to pursue a policy which was generally accommodating to the Allies and unhelpful towards Germany.

Sweden survived the war as a non-belligerent state by following a flexible policy which responded to the political realities of the moment while retaining some freedom of manoeuvre for the future. It was a policy that was sometimes offensive to significant sections of political and public opinion, but an essential measure of national unity was always maintained. In the last resort, however, it was also a policy which only succeeded because none of the belligerents ever concluded that its interests required that Sweden be forced into the war at all costs. See also blockade runners.

Thomas Munch-Petersen

Bibliography

Carlgren, W. M. , Swedish Foreign Policy during the Second World War (London, 1977).
Munch-Petersen, T. , The Strategy of Phoney War. Britain, Sweden and the Iron Ore Question 1939–1940 (Stockholm, 1981).