Fourteen thousand years ago the whole of the present country of Sweden was
covered by a thick ice cap. As the ice slowly retreated, man came to Sweden and
the first known human dwelling place, which has been found in southern Sweden,
dates from around 10,000 BC. It is clear that from the period 8000 to 6000 BC
the country as a whole began to be populated by peoples who lived by hunting and
fishing and who used simple stone tools. Dwelling places and graves dating from
the Stone Age, which is generally regarded as lasting until about 1800 BC, are
being found in increasing numbers. Stone tools became more sophisticated during
that period, which was succeeded in the Nordic region by the Bronze Age from
1800 to 500 BC. This period gets its name from the bronze weapons and religious
objects which characterize the archaeological discoveries dating from these
centuries, even though stone tools continued to dominate everyday life. The
Bronze Age is marked in the Nordic region, especially in Denmark but also in
Sweden, by a high level of culture, as is shown, for example, by the artefacts
found in graves. After about 500 BC such artefacts become more rare as iron
began to be more generally used. During the Early Iron Age (500 BC- 400 AD), the
period of the great migrations (400- 550) and the socalled Vendel period (550-
800)--so named because of the magnificent boat graves found at Vendel in Uppland--the
population of Sweden became a settled one and agriculture came to form the basis
for the economy and for society.
The Vikinq Age and Early Christianity
The Viking Age, 800- 1050, was characterized by a marked expansion, which in
the case of Sweden was mainly directed eastwards. Many Viking expeditions set
off from Sweden with the mixed purpose of plunder and trade along the coasts of
the Baltic Sea and the rivers which stretched deep into present- day Russia,
where Swedish Vikings established trading stations and short- lived
principalities, like that of Rurik at Novgorod. The Vikings active in the east
travelled as far as the Black and Caspian Seas, where they developed trading
links with the Byzantine Empire and the Arab dominions. At the same time,
Christianity first reached Sweden with the mission of Ansgar, who visited the
country from the Carolingian Empire in the ninth century. However, it was not
until the eleventh century that Sweden was Christianized. Even then the old
pagan Nordic religion survived until far into the twelfth century, and Sweden
did not obtain an archbishop of its own until 1164. Sweden's expansion in the
east continued during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries through the
incorporation of Finland into the Swedish kingdom after several crusades.
The Founding of the Kingdom
The various provinces of Sweden, which had previously been independent
entities, were absorbed around 1000 into a single unit whose centre of gravity
lay partly in Västergötland and Östergötland and partly in the provinces around
Lake Mälaren, especially Uppland. From the middle of the twelfth century onward
there was a hard struggle for temporal power in this kingdom between the Sverker
and Erik families, which held the crown alternately between 1160 and 1250.
However, during this period the main administrative units were still the
provinces, each of which had its own assembly (ting), lawmen and laws. It
was first during the latter part of the thirteenth century that the crown gained
a greater measure of influence and was able, with the introduction of royal
castles and provincial administration, to assert the authority of the central
government and to impose laws and ordinances valid for the whole kingdom. In
1280 King Magnus Ladulås (1275- 90) issued a statute which involved the
establishment of a temporal nobility and the organization of society on the
feudal model. A council containing representatives of the aristocracy and the
church was set up to advise the king. In 1350, during the reign of Magnus
Eriksson (1319- 64), the various provincial law codes were superseded by a law
code that was valid for the whole country.
The Hansa Period
Trade increased during the fourteenth century, especially with the German
towns which were grouped under the leadership of Lübeck in the Hansa League. For
the following 200 years, until the middle of the sixteenth century, the Hansa
dominated Sweden's trade, and a large number of towns were founded in Sweden as
a consequence of the lively commercial activity connected with the Hansa.
Agriculture was and remained the basis for economic life and it too developed
during these years through the introduction of the three- field system and
improved tools. However, the Black Death, which reached Sweden in 1350, led to a
long period of economic decline marked by a smaller population and many
abandoned farms. The crisis cannot really be said to have been surmounted until
the latter part of the fifteenth century, at the same time as the production of
iron in central Sweden began to play an increasingly important role in the
country's economy.
The Kalmar Union
In 1389, through inheritance and family ties, the crowns of Denmark, Norway
and Sweden were united under the rule of the Danish Queen Margareta. In 1397,
the socalled Union of Kalmar was concluded under her leadership. It involved an
undertaking that the three Scandinavian countries should have one and the same
king. In fact, however, the whole union period, 1397- 1521, was marked by
conflict between the central government, represented by the king, on the one
hand and the high nobility along with intermittently rebellious burghers and
peasants on the other. These conflicts, which became interwoven with efforts to
maintain Sweden's national unity and the economic interests it shared with the
Hansa, culminated in the so- called bloodbath of Stockholm in 1520, when eighty
of the leading men in Sweden were executed at the instigation of the Danish
union king, Kristian II. This event provoked a rebellion, which in 1521 led to
the deposition of Kristian II and the seizure of power by a Swedish nobleman,
Gustav Vasa, who was elected king of Sweden in 1523.
The Vasa Period
The foundations of the Swedish national state were laid during the reign of
Gustav Vasa (1523- 60). The church was turned into a national institution, its
estates were confiscated by the state and the Protestant Reformation was
introduced in several stages. At the same time the administration was
reorganized along German lines and power was concentrated in the hands of the
king. The position of the crown was strengthened further in 1544 when a
hereditary monarchy was introduced. Before that time the country had been an
elective monarchy, and the aristocracy had been able to assert itself every time
the throne fell vacant. The efforts of the higher nobility to re- establish the
power of the council during the reigns of Erik XIV (1560- 68),Johan III (1568-
92) and Sigismund (1592- 99) failed in the long run. During the reigns of Karl
IX (1599- 1611) and Gustav II Adolf--Gustavus Adolphus--(1611- 32), the crown
was able to maintain and strengthen its position. After the death of Gustav II
Adolf at the Battle of Lützen in 1632, the higher nobility succeeded in
introducing a new constitution, the Form of Government of 1634, which created a
number of central administrative bodies and placed effective power in their
hands. However, this constitution only applied during periods when the monarch
was a minor--first in the case of Queen Kristina and then in that of Karl XI--and
lost all actuality in 1680 when Karl XI repossessed crown land which had
previously been transferred to the nobility. This move definitively turned the
nobility into a bureaucratic class obedient to the king's will in everything.
From Great Power Policy to Neutrality
Since the dissolution of the union with Denmark and Norway, Swedish foreign
policy had aimed at gaining domination of the Baltic Sea, and this led from the
1560s onwards to repeated wars with Denmark. After Sweden intervened in 1630
with great success in the Thirty Years' War on the side of the German
Protestants and Gustav II Adolf had become one of Europe's leading monarchs,
Sweden defeated Denmark in the two wars of 1643- 45 and 165758. These victories
led to the incorporation into Sweden of the previously Danish provinces of Skåne,
Halland, Blekinge and Gotland and of the previously Norwegian provinces of
Bohuslän, Jämtland and Härjedalen. Finland, as well as a number of provinces in
northern Germany and the present- day Baltic republics, also belonged to Sweden,
and after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 and the Peace of Roskilde with Denmark
in 1658 Sweden was a great power in northern Europe. The country even founded a
short- lived colony in what is now Delaware in North America. However, Sweden
was, except for some small iron works and the copper mine at
Falun, a purely agrarian country based on a natural economy, and lacked the
resources to maintain its position as a great power in the long run. After its
defeat in the Great Northern War (1700- 21) against the combined forces of
Denmark, Poland and Russia, Sweden lost most of its provinces on the other side
of the Baltic Sea and was reduced to largely the same frontiers as present- day
Sweden and Finland. During the Napoleonic Wars, Finland was finally surrendered
to Russia and Sweden's last possessions in northern Germany were also lost. As
compensation for these losses, the French marshal Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, who
had been elected heir to the Swedish throne in 1810, succeeded in obtaining
Norway, which was forced into a union with Sweden in 1814. This union was
peacefully dissolved in 1905 after many internal disputes. Since the short war
fought against Norway in 1814 in connection with the creation of the union,
Sweden has not been involved in any war and has also since the First World War
pursued a foreign policy of nonalignment in peacetime and neutrality in wartime,
basing its security on a strong national defence. Nonetheless, Sweden joined the
League of Nations in 1920 and the United Nations in 1946, and within the
framework of these has taken part in several international peacekeeping missons.
The end of the Cold War and of the political division of Europe has in the
1990s created new perspectives for Sweden`s foreign and security policy, and new
opportunities for Sweden to participate in the process of West European
integration. Sweden therefore applied for full membership of the European
Community (EC) in 1991, and became a member of the European Union (EU) on 1
January 1995 after a referendum in November 1994 that gave "Yes to the EU" 52.3
% of the votes. As an EU member, Sweden will retain its military nonalignment,
and thus does not contemplate joining any future EU defence alliance.
UP
Constitutional, Economic and Political Development
After the death of the warrior king Karl XII in 1718 and Sweden's defeat in
the Great Northern War, the Swedish Parliament (the Riksdag) and council
were strong enough to introduce a new constitution which abolished royal
absolutism and placed power in the hands of Pa liament. During the socalled Era
of LibertW (171972) Sweden developed a form of parliamentary government which
meant that the party dominant in Parliament appointed the government (the
council), which in turn was responsible before Parliament. However, Gustav III
(1771- 92) reduced the power of Parliament through a bloodless coup in
1772 and later, in 1789, he reintroduced absolutism.
In other respects, eighteenth- century Sweden was characterized by rapid
cultural development, which partly occurred in close contact with France.
Overseas trade, which also developed at a rapid pace during the eighteenth
century, was hard hit by the Napoleonic Wars, which led to general stagnation
and economic crisis in Sweden during the first part of the nineteenth century.
Even during the latter part of the century, despite the construction, of
railways and the emergence of the sawmill industry, Sweden was still a poor
country, in which 90% of the population earned its livelihood within agriculture.
One consequence of this situation was emigration, mainly to North America, which
in relative terms was very substantial: over one million Swedes out of a
population of five million emigrated between 1866 and 1914. Industry did not
begin to grow until the 1890s, though it then developed very rapidly between
1900 and 1930 and transformed Sweden into one of Europe's leading industrial
nations after the Second World War.
Domestic politics were marked by calm and peaceful development after Gustav
IV Adolf (1792- 1809) was deposed by a coup d'etat in 1809. A new
constitution characterized by the separation of powers on Montesquieu's model
was introduced. Shortly afterwards the French marshal Jean Baptiste Bernadotte
was elected heir to the Swedish throne and he became king in 1818 as Karl XIV
Johan (1818- 44) . His conservative policies put their mark on his reign, but
nevertheless a liberal opposition began to make its presence felt. In 1842,
compulsory education and elementary schools were introduced, and the
reigns of his son and grandson, Oskar I (1844- 59) and Karl XV (1859- 72),
witnessed a liberal breakthrough which involved the abolition of the guild
system in 1846; the adoption of free trade in the 1850s and 1860s; and
finally the introduction of local self- government in 1862 and the reform of
Parliament in 1866. This last reform involved the abolition of the old
Parliament of four estates, which had existed since the fifteenth century, and
its replacement by a bicameral Parliament which survived until the introduction
of a unicameral system in 1971.
Nineteenth- century Sweden was also marked by the emergence of strong popular
movements like the free churches, the temperance and women's movements and above
all the labour movement. The latter, which grew in pace with industrialization
in the latter part of the nineteenth century, was reformist in outlook after the
turn of the century and the first representatives of social democracy entered
the government as early as 1917. Universal suffrage was introduced for men in
1909 and for women in 1921, and this latter date also marked the breakthrough
for the principle of parliamentary government. Plans for a welfare society were
laid during the 1930s after the Social Democrats had become the governing party,
and it proved possible to put these plans into effect in all essentials after
the Second World War, During the Second World War, a coalition government of the
four democratic parties was formed. After the war ended, a purely Social
Democratic government resumed office under Per Albin Hansson. On Hansson's death
in 1946, Tage Erlander became prime minister and held this post without
interruption until 1969, when Olof Palme succeeded him as PM until 1976. Under
Social Democratic leadership but in close co- operation with the other
democratic parties, a number of reforms were carried out in the 1940s and '50s
that together laid the foundations of the Swedish welfare state.
Simultaneously, demands for a modernization of the 1809 constitution were
also made. After lengthy discussions and investigations, a new form of
government was adopted in 1974. This enshrines the principle that all public
power is derived from the people, who are to appoint the members of Parliament
in free elections. Parliament alone is to pass laws and is entitled to levy
taxes. The government is appointed by and responsible to Parliament. The king is
still the head of state, but his functions are reduced to purely ceremonial ones.
Gustaf VI Adolf, who came to the throne in 1950, was succeeded on his death in
1973 by Carl XVI Gustaf, who was the first Swedish king to "reign" in accordance
with the new constitution. In 1980, an amendment in the order of succession
introduced an equal right of inheritance to the crown for men and women, which
meant that Princess Victoria became the heir apparent instead of her younger
brother Carl Philip.
The international economic crisis precipitated by the dramatic hikes in oil
prices in 1973 boosted unemployment in Sweden, as elsewhere. The expansion of
industry that had taken place at a very rapid rate during the 1950s and '60s and
also the swift growth in production had, by the beginning of the 1970s, brought
about a steady and steep rise in living standards in Sweden. From the mid- 1970s
this improvement in standards took place at a slower rate, and towards the end
of the 1980s it ceased entirely.
The economic crisis resulted in the departure of the Social Democratic
government after the 1976 parliamentary elections and the formation of a non-
socialist coalition government under the leadership of Centre Party chairman
Thorbjörn Fälldin. However, conflicts concerning the continued expansion of
nuclear power prompted several government reshuffles. In the 1982 parliamentary
elections, employment and the budget deficit were among the focal issues of
debate. The elections resulted in a victory for the Social Democratic Party,
which thereafter formed a government with Olof Palme as prime minister. By a
devaluation and various other vigorous measures, the new government succeeded in
improving Sweden's economic situation. The sharp upturns in the international
trade cycle in 1983 and subsequent years enabled Sweden to balance the national
budget once more, and the government utilized this for a massive expansion of
the public sector.
The murder of Olof Palme, the prime minister, on 28 February 1986 came as a
shock to the Swedish people, who had been spared this kind of political violence
for nearly 200 years. Palme's successor as prime minister was Ingvar Carlsson,
who in all essentials retained Palme's policy.
The accelerated growth in production that had formerly characterized economic
development in Sweden ended in the 1980s. At the end of the decade and in the
early 1990s, it gave way to a fall in industrial production and a negative
balance of payments vis- a- vis the rest of the world. At the same time, the big
expansion of the public sector imposed heavlm demands on the economy. A swift
rise in unemployment contributed further to heavy deficits in the budget and a
rapidly swelling national debt. Discontent with the Social Democratic government
grew ever stronger, and the 1991 parliamentary elections resulted in its
resignation and replacement by a nonsocialist coalition government with Moderate
Party leader Carl Bildt as prime minister. Despite all its efforts to encourage
enterprise and also major savings in the public cector. this new zovernment did
not succeed in getting to grips with unemployment, nor with the rapidly growing
budget deficit and consequently increasing national debt.
The parliamentary elections of 1994 meant that the Social Democrats took the
lead once more, forming a Social Democratic minority government with Ingvar
Carlsson as prime minister.
With a persistently high unemployment rate as well as a substantial deficit
in the national budget and a growing national debt, Sweden in the mid- 199Os is
facing major problems. Raised taxes and savings characterize the policy that the
Social Democratic government is obliged to pursue. However, signs of improved
international economic trends, rising exports and a strengthened balance of
payments afford hopes of brighter future prospects. Despite the economic crisis
that affected Sweden in the first half of the 1990s, the country still features
a high average standard of living and considerable social security.
UP
