The Great Power Age of Sweden through the Ages: A Sketch of its Historiography

Abstract

In Swedish history, the 17th century is usually named stormaktstiden (Great Power Age) and Sweden of the time is called a stormakt (great power). This terminology is not evident and it has a history. Before the middle of the 19th century, historians did not denote the 17th century as an age of any specific greatness, although king Gustav II Adolf was lauded for his performance in the Thirty Year’s War. The concept ”great power” came into being at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and was used about contemporary European foreign politics. In Sweden, it came into use common use in the 1850s. Around 1870, stormakt and stormaktstid were used to denote the Swedish 17th century and that usage made its way into historical works in the next decade.

Originally, historians seem to have been aware of the fact that this was a symbolic use of a terminology of contemporary politics, but soon in the early 20th century, it had become a commonplace to name 17th century Sweden a great power and see the Great Power Age as an age of Swedish greatness. The use of this terminology has since than accelerated, while the positive connotations of Greatness largely disappeared in the middle of the last century. Instead, the negative consequences of Sweden’s projection of power outside its borders, both for its neighbours and its subjects, are often stressed.

There is a lack of precision and clarity in the use of this terminology. ”Great power” is seldom defined by historians. There are diverging statements as to just how great the Swedish great power was. Some historians state that Sweden was one of the leading powers in Europe, while others, more realistically, confine it to a leading role in the Baltic area. None of these claims are, however, based on any deeper arguments about Sweden’s place in a European political context. Since Sweden in the 17th century took lively part in the development of the emerging European state system, a system of global historical significance since it has come to cover the entire earth, studies of Sweden’s power politics in a transnational perspective could bring important contributions to the scholarly field of global history.