American Reacts What if Sweden Won the Great Northern War?

Original Video: • What if Sweden Won the...
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[@Jonsson474]

Sort of incorrect separating swedes and Finns as they were both part of Sweden and fighting for the same country and the same king. Finland had never been a separate country at this time. It was the eastern half of Sweden.

[@melkor3496]

The comments on his video luckily pointed this out. The Finnish part of Sweden wasn’t Finnish but Swedish back then. Finnish identity only started forming during their time in the Russian empire.

[@cynic7049]

@@melkor3496 "Swedes we are no longer, Russians we do not want to become, let us therefore be Finns."

[@SairanBurghausen]

@@melkor3496The concept of Finnishness did exist, as is most apparent from occasional bouts of Swedish distrust towards the Finnish nobility and upper classes as having "separate interests" to mainland Sweden. This is most apparent in the late 1590s when the Finnish nobility sided with Sigismun, the 1700s when many Finns of the Caps party were hounded and even arrested as "potential traitors" and for example the late 1500s when Swedish soldiers in Estonia refused to be commanded by Arvid Tavast and Yrjö Boije on the basis of their Finnishness, saying they refused to be commanded by Finns. The Swedes also generally referred to the Finnish nobility as "de finske" and "finska herrar". Finnishness AS A GENERAL RULE was a concept within the greater Swedish identity, but these are examples of times when Swedes themselves perceived Finnishness as a separate and even precarious category. Thankfully these instances are exceptions within Swedish-Finnish history. Johan III for example responded to the revolt by telling the soldiers that they had committed treason and the greatest shame in Swedish military history. Another time when Swedish soldiers said they didn't wish to go and defend a "foreign land" (Finland), Johan replied "Finland is no foreign land, but the best of Sweden's lands." Generally Finland (meaning the Finns and their leadership) and the Crown had a great relationship throughout history. Nonetheless, these cases do quite clearly show that the idea that Finnishness was pulled out of the ether in the 1800s as being utterly groundless and preposterous.

[@memoblom2112]

In Swedish the kings name is Gustav Adolf. (Gustav II Adolf). So you add several extra letters in english😊

[@fvo-steamguidesochmer8559]

Both Gustavus Adoplhus and Karl XII were military geniuses and inbetween Sweden had overall the best army and the best officer corp in Europe if not the world but that can only take you so far. The video tells you this and i think if anything i think Sweden could have kicked off a kinda of Kalmar Union 2.0 at best.

[@shar3066]

Gustavus especially. Empires are not meant to last, the bigger it gets the more enemies you get on the way, who can attack you. Never worth it when you can live in peace. But more often than not, sweden was attacked first. Russia 50/50 but denmark sure attacked whenever it could. Glad those days are over & we learned to live in peace.

[@cynic7049]

@@shar3066 Yes, Sweden had internal political reasons* to avoid starting the war if possible and just prepare for or even provoke the enemy to do so. * The original obligation of the farmers to supply the King with men was to defend Sweden, so if Sweden started the war they may decide that they didn't have to. So much better for the King to avoid that risk and let the enemy start the war.

[@funnyjupiter4499]

@@shar3066 Gustav II Adolf was a genius when it came army reforms, ideas and strategy, his tactical ability whas also nothing to sneeze at and among the best of his era. .Karl XII whas also a military genius when it came to tactics,(tactics wise i think he is the best general sweden has ever had and one of the best tactical abilities in military history),extremely good military maneuvers, aggressive and brave commander, strategy wise he was above average, more than good enough for conventional warfare at the time, but attrition war was beyond his strategic ability to solve.

[@NordicPlan760]

Hey man. I have seen you react to a lot of Swedish history, why? Are we your favorite Scandinavian country :)

[@Revament]

Såklart! Enda sedan Carolus Rex videon tror jag.

[@dlind1985]

*What a beautiful background music!* Loved it all! No stress - just with humor gives us a kind of reality that almost happened. And some did. I really appreciate your informative videos. They are very well-made and helpful.

[@christofferlahrin5149]

As you probably know, the scandivian countries have pretty similar languages (and of course also have a lot in common with english, they’re after all the same language group, and probably closer then german). Finnish though is completely different, even if obviously speak swedish due to our mutual history (used be many more though, what I’ve heard.

[@cynic7049]

It toke just over half a century to Swedify Scania enough for them to fight a Danish invasion, I believe it is realistic they could do the same to Denmark and Noway and the Finns was Swedes back then. As the famous quote from 1800 century Finland, that pretty much defined Finnish nationalism says "Swedes we are no longer, Russians we do not want to become, let us therefore be Finns."

[@scyphe]

The creator of that video forgot to research Sweden's geography and climate. The southern half isn't frozen tundra, it's oceanic and continental and happens to be the part of Sweden where a vast majority lives.

[@christofferlahrin5149]

Idag väljer jag våld: ”today I’m chosig violence”…😂

[@oliversherman2414]

As a half Swede (other half being British), I love this video

[@Lottaquizzes]

Don't worry about talking to much, that is the point of a reaction channel, to hear your reaction. You should talk more!

[@Roacha9]

Like OG dude said, We wouldnt be able to "militarily occupy" Russia but put a puppet as ruler.. as Sweden did against Poland and Saxony. Charles should turned to Moscow after Narva

[@henryJBonaparte]

15:44, Hey There is Alexander Walewski in that painting!! For those who do not know, he was a son of Napoleon I and minister of foreign affairs under his cousin, Napoleon III. He's the one at the centre!

[@shar3066]

They completely missed,Jakob De la gardie, who marshed to moscow. There was a settlement, our kings son was meant to be the new ruler of "russia but the mother had so many excuses to not send him, it is a really interesting story, who has not gotten much attention. Happened in 1613 i think

[@user-pg9qb3wy7s]

Everyone wanted to be the ruler of Russia at that time

[@donkfail1]

Oh, yes! Let me make a classic "Well, actually..." while pushing up my thick glasses. We didn't sit out two world wars before creating IKEA. It actually started during WWII.

[@BerishStarr]

8:15 You just explained how I did it in EU4 🤣 I was soooo close to "Dominium maris baltici" 😭

[@laziojohnny79]

The Dutch had a small population AND a small nation and lying in between three powerful neighbours, yet they managed to build a huge empire and hold most of it for centuries, like Indonesia which was a colony of the Dutch realm for almost 400 years.

[@sakkra93]

A major issue facing a surviving Swedish Empire is the fact that they are going to be facing almost constant wars against Russia. See, for example, how many wars there were between Russia and Poland-Lithuania or Russia and the Ottoman Empire. If Charles XII wins and absolutely trounces Russia then that, at most, wins Sweden an interbellum period of about a generation before a recovered Russia comes knocking for Ingria again, and this time a Russia embittered by defeat with a further goal of recovering their honour after the national humiliation of the Great Northern War.

[@maryamniord2214]

Jag väljer våld means I chose violence. Meaning that Karl IIX did turn down the peace proposal the russian offered. He did not wanted to give the russian a fortress at the Baltic Sea and than end up lose a lot more.

[@funnyjupiter4499]

invading Poland-Lithuania after Narva was the strategically better move and Karl's generals backed his decision, the russains hade no army to speak of that could have threaten swedish holdings after narva but Poland-Lithuania still hade armies in the field that could threaten Karl's southern front and his holding in north germany meaning that if he hade invaded russain after Narva it's a big possibility that poland-lithuania would take a lot of swedish provinces if there where no army to stop them, it was not all to settle personal scores that Karl invaded poland-lithuania after Narva there were strategic reasons as well, Karl did not expect peter to burn his own lands and not to the scale that peter did, Karl hade most likely been inspired by invasion of past wars such as poland lithuania when they manage to take moscow in 1610-1612 during the Polish-Russian War, i believe that if it was not for peter the great being tsar at the time Karl invasion would have worked or the russian would have sued for peace before it came to that and itwould have been much more beneficial peace for sweden, scourged earth tactics and fabian strategy did exist long befor this war but this was the first war russia really start to use it on a larg scale and it would kickstart what the russian later become famous for and it what's the first time sweden had to deal with attrition war on a large scale.

[@Morsning]

Can you do a geogessr video?

[@laziojohnny79]

The video shows random pictures tho not Swedish places per se, e.g. the castles shown when you paused the video were Dutch and Czech

[@funnyjupiter4499]

i believe that the swedish empire could have survived well into the 1900-hundreds if it would have been able to secure strong alliances with the other great powers, it is important to remember that sweden population was increasing like the rest of europe and if we say that the swedish empire survives and thrives well into the yers of 1800- and 1900- it's populations would have been a lot larger reducing the issue with it small population, before the great northern war the swedish empire had a population of about 1,8 million and by 1800 hundreds sweden have a populations of over 2 mijon remember that is after sweden hade lost estonia and livonia as well as it german holdings and if sweden would have thrived in those hundred year it population would have been even bigger, by ww1 sweden hade a population of 5 mijon and by ww2 sweden hade a population of 6 mijon remember if sweden would have still hade it's empire it would have hade even more population now it's importan to point out that the population was rising in the other countries as well not just sweden but sweden if they still manged to keep there empire and build it up it would have had a larger population and army by 1800 and 1900, sweden had some resources and not as little as often is claimed, don't get me wrong sweden whas not swiming in resources but the problem is that most of its resources it did have where small compared to the other great powers, sweden population problem would be less and less of and issue the longer the empire was allowed to build itself up, adding strong allies it would have been possible for the swedish empire to survive well into the 1900-hundreds.

[@williambranch4283]

More Swedish meatballs? I like smoked fish and rice pudding with resins.

[@kurtlangholm8336]

I hope, that Turkey and Hungary accept Sweden into Nato. So the Scandinavian lands,can work more together.