Swedish Empire to Great Famine - History of Finland Pt 8

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This animated series covers the history of Finland and the Finns. In this episode we look at the 1600s and the Swedish Empire. This period saw Sweden rise to a great military power bringing chaos and destruction to Northern Europe, with a large portion of its army consisting of Finns, especially in the cavalry. The rise to an empire was however followed by a disastrous famine of 1695-97 which killed up to a third of Finland's population!
00:00 Sweden & Finland in the early 1600s
01:15 Finns in the Swedish Empire
01:49 MyHeritage
03:56 Finnish society during the Swedish Empire era
05:48 Lutheran church in the 1600s
06:24 Swedish-Finnish forces in the Thirty Years' War
07:53 Aftermath of the war
08:47 Disastrous famine of 1695-97
10:44 Great Northern War ends the Swedish Empire
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[@Anttimation]

Sign up for a 14-day free trial and enjoy all the amazing features MyHeritage has to offer: bit.ly/AnttimationMH

[@lapazet2135]

You should sell these visualisations of the finnish history series as posters.

[@Anttimation]

Coming soon! 😉

[@kapoink835]

"katotaas mite toi äännetää" XDD loistava

[@Anttimation]

Huomasin vasta videon melkein valmistuttua että ääniraitaan oli jäänyt tommonen. Kuulosti ihan hauskalta niin jätin sen sinne :D

[@kapoink835]

Iha komee iha komee

[@miialuostarinen6648]

Nauratti muakin 😂👍 mukava video!

[@l.a.raustadt518]

I have My Heritage and that's how I found was 55% Finn and 26% Swede. Live in Minneapolis Minnesota USA. Subscribed.

[@Anttimation]

Interesting! Many of the Finnish immigrants settled around Michigan/Minnesota for forestry work and familiar landscape

[@haliaeetus8221]

​@@AnttimationI know one who moved from Michigan to Finland a decade ago. He doesn't look like a Finn but has the heritage.

[@christianbergman9668]

Very interesting to hear about swedish history from a finnish perspective.

[@Anttimation]

Thanks! This era especially has often been overlooked by historians re: Finnish perspective because of the significance of Swedish military history at the time.

[@nattygsbord]

@@Anttimation I think it is strange to read a book about Swedish military history and just leaving Finland out. And yes it might be harder to research because of the language... but on the other hand.. it feels strange to write a book about Swedish fortifications and leaving out the most important ones like Sveaborgs fästning and Viborg. Kastelholms slott do also have an important role as well in Swedish history for political reasons and not so much militarily.

[@Anttimation]

@@nattygsbord absolutely.

[@iemaatta]

It is about the Swedish poor attitude towards Finland. Not about language barrier. All of the Finnish historical sources pre 20th century are written in Swedish. There is also lots of historical research that has been published in Swedish (in Finland), but that attracts no interest in Sweden.The only explanation is the attitude towards the former "colony", Finland. I hope this attitude changes and Swedish historians start paying attention to Finland and Finnish sources and historians. There is lots of interesting stuff in and about Finland.

[@nattygsbord]

​@@iemaatta I am tired of people that always assumes "racism" and "colonial attitude" to things. This is a SJW-mentality with a totally ignorant view of history. SJW behaves like religious people and their "God of the gaps".. but instead of God, they explain everything in the world that they don't understand with racism as a default explanation. Personally do I find it more likely that historians are formed by the world we have today. And thus we often gain extremely historically ignorant perspectives like this stupid colonialist view so popular among "Finnish historians". I view them in the same way I view historians in other countries. Like ignorant Danish historians that says that "Denmark was forever doomed to be a tiny little peaceful country with little or no significance in big world politics". Well this idiotic perspective ignores Denmarks enormous power it had during the viking age when it ruled over Denmark, Norway and England, and northern France and parts of northern Germany. It ignores the early middle ages when it was it was a crusader Kingdom and considered an equal to the German empire - which was the most powerful Kingdom of Europe. And it also ignores the Kalmar union. In Sweden we have a similiar ignorant view of history that are current borders are the natural ones. But a person born in the 1600s would probably disagree. Scania and Jämtland were considered as less Swedish than Finland that had been Swedish for many hundreds of years. The importance of the baltic sea is also totally lost to Swedish historians. With Finland, the Baltics, Germany and ports in Poland was Sweden an empire around the Baltic sea. So it was natural for Sweden to take great interest in maritime affairs, and the location of the capital city Stockholm was in the middle of this Kingdom. But with the loss of Finland and the Baltics did Sweden become a land based country instead with the Capitol city on the east coast. Sweden today is not the same like it was in the 1600s. Just like Denmark was not the same peaceful country it think of itself today. The Swedish empire started no wars of itself (with the exception of the Polish war in 1650) but it was still warlike country, with religious fanatism and intolerance, and militarism. Denmark was the same, and even more warmongering altough less succesful on the battlefield. So the self-image Danes, Finns, and Swedes have do fit badly togheter with history of the past. It is tempting to look at history through a current day lens, but that leads to ignorant misunderstandings of history if one does not take a critical look. But on the other hand, it is also understandable that people wants to look at history through a perspective which would be useful for the current day and age, because why should one otherwise bother with this topic called history? I think Swedish historians have not yet made any fully documented list of all regiments of the Swedish army out of lazyness and difficulty of gathering information rather than racism. And I think the burden of truth lies on the shoulders of people like you to prove your case if you think otherwise. I think it is more likely Swedish historians had a problem getting information before internet was invented. I also think that gathering information about all Finnish, German, Estonian, and Latvian regiments in the Swedish army was hard. And information is fragmented and not much are known. The worlds oldest complete military uniform exist in Sweden, but its from the 1760s so I imagine its hard and almost impossible to know what all regimental uniforms and flags in the army looked like. And then there are also other troops that fought for Sweden like German and Scottish mercenaries. And captured prisoners of war like Danes pressed into Swedish service to fight against Russia, or Saxon troops used to fight Denmark, and captured French and Bavarian batallions. So there are many hurdles to get a full picture of the Swedish army of the 1600 and 1700s. Recently however did Martin Markelius make one attempt at listing all the regiments of the Swedish army of the late 1700s where he also included all Finnish and German regiments with their uniforms. I think its time for historians to start taking a broader perspective than just looking at Sweden from the current land borders. And since Finland have been part of Sweden for 800 years its only natural to include it into Swedish history. It would feel strange to write history otherwise. One cannot understand economic history of Sweden by ignoring Finland, or economic history of Denmark by ignoring Norway and Iceland. To me that is absurd. The mercantilist view of division of labor and economies of scale could not be understood if one is dumb enough to not look at it from a wider perspective. Denmark wanted all parts of its Kingdom to succeed, just like Sweden. That meant that the empire as the whole got more money. Forbidding from making their own grain was not about opressing Norwegians - as stupid norwegian nationalists might believe - but rather it was about helping Denmarks farmers exporting more food by making Norway a consumer of Danish food instead of producing it themselves. And likewise did the Danish King let Norway get a monopoly of all iron sold in the Danish Kingdom, not because he wanted to make peoples life more miserable, but rather because he wanted to give Norwegian iron producers a larger safe home market. And Finlands production of tar for the Swedish empire followed the same principle. And at some periods of time it helped to make Finland rich, and in other time periods did this industry suffer a downturn and Finlands economy suffered a downturn as a result. One cannot also not understand Danish economic history if one would ignore the importance of the sound dues just because Scania is no longer a Danish province. The King of Denmark got half of his income from this money source.. so ignoring it would be dumb. And just as it would be dumb for Swedish military historians to not understand the great strategic threat of russia and the importance of Sveaborgsfästning and Viborgs fästning for the protection of Swedens eastern border against Russia in the 15th, 16th, 17th,18th and 19th century. Would it be stupid for a Finnish historian to ignore all strategic realities from a Swedish perspective during that time period. Too often are there a navel gazing perspective. As if Swedens only should exist to serve Finland and nothing else. I think that is a very arrogant view. Its like when people in the baltics today say "thanks Sweden for joining Nato, now I can sleep much safer". And the thought in my head is just, okay you do not care one bit if this decision is good or not for us people living in Sweden. You only care about yourself. And you just wants to use us as cannon fodder for your wars. But you are not so keen on fighting for us if we needs help. And just to confirm this arrogant prick behaviour, do people like Artur Rehi love to tell west Europeans how stupid and naive they are and how much better people in Estonia knows, And what a best best country they are. The way he have acted have only made me see Estonians like him as arrogant. He do not think that my country holds any value at all on its own. But it only exist to serve his little tiny plot of land. And the same mentality could be seen among many Finnish historians. All I see is arrogance and hypocrisy.

[@pabodie8219]

Learning how extremely intertwined Finnish history is with Swedish, it makes it even more tragic that it got split up by Russia. Although it makes me happy that you were able to become independent and be a prosperous, beautiful nation that it is today.

[@Anttimation]

Yeah! History is fascinating and things could have gone very differently. It's mind blowing to think sometimes.

[@helkdona226]

for me this is the one i wanted to see the most. my family came to north America through new Sweden so i assume my ancestor fought for Sweden

[@Anttimation]

Quite possibly. How much do you know about your ancestors around the time of arriving in America?

[@helkdona226]

@Anttimation I know that they arrived in Fort Cristina 1637ish. Which got taken by the Dutch, which got taken by the British. What I don't know is if my ancestor was a soldier or a colonist farmer? When I looked into it as far as I could (I don't speak Dutch,Swedish,Finnish)

[@Anttimation]

@@helkdona226Ah those colonial settler's from Sweden's failed project. That's a very interesting piece of history!

[@johnl5316]

My Satakunta ancestors have had their farms for 500 years.

[@Anttimation]

May they have them for another 500 years!

[@MessiahsandMythology]

Amazing they could cram 30 years of war into a single year. Swedes in 1648 were built different.

[@Anttimation]

I thought I'd replied to this but apparently not! Yes, it is not without a reason Gustav II Adolph is considered a great military leader! 😁

[@Esti-xg7tg]

My oldest ancestor that I know of, is a witch from 1560's, and a famous war hero at the time. Back then, he and his village had to fight Russians, and got no help from Swedish crown but had to fight with farming tools etc against actual soldiers. Apparently he could make soldiers out of pine cones and feathers when they - the Finnish peasants - were greatly outnumbered and so win several times. Eventually he disappeared though, and nobody knew what happened to him. I hope he didn't end up killed in witch trials, as he was not Christian and was also known to disturb the ceremonies in the church. 🤭 Very proud of him actually. And I think that my Sapmi-Dna comes from him, heard some stories about it when living in Lapland which felt like home to me unlike southern Finland...but I digress. Thought you might enjoy more family heritage stories. 😉 If I ever do the test, would be indeed nice to know more also of my maternal side - there I only know my grandparents who are gone by now, unfortunately... Should have asked so much more when they were alive, but as teenie it didn't really interest me too much, sad to admit...Great video as always! 👍

[@Anttimation]

Thank you! Quite a bit of history you've got! Yeah, I should also ask older family members to tell their stories while there is time.

[@WMfin]

Väkevää! I wouldn't mind having some deeper dives to various subjects later. For example own video for the Great Famine, or (Finno-) Swedish military structure, ruotu and rustholli and how they worked..!

[@Anttimation]

Three out of four at least are in the plans! 😁

[@angelsmagick]

Amazing work as usual 😅 sending all my best to you and Thank You! PS I met an A Ampiainen in Gothenburg in the 80,s.

[@Anttimation]

Thanks again! Hmm, maybe a distant relative of mine then

[@kotimikro69]

"Jumalan vihan ruoska" Sounds more like a black metal song title than a book title :D

[@Anttimation]

I'd be surprised if there isn't a song with that title! If I remember correctly, it's from some period text

[@Robert-gc9gc]

You're a great storyteller❤

[@Anttimation]

Thanks man! It's quite a bit of work to choose what to include, try to keep it factually correct and entertaining. Glad you enjoy these!

[@johnl5316]

in the much noted Salem witch trials in Massachusetts only about 20 people were killed, some male some female.

[@Anttimation]

Ahh interesting. By its reputation one could think that hundreds were killed

[@johnl5316]

As it turns out Per Brahe The Younger and I are cousins via Guillaume X 'le Toulousain' ou 'le Saint' d'Aquitaine, X Duc d'Aquitaine VIII Comte de Poitou.....So, we never did meet

[@Anttimation]

Damn. Could have been an interesting meeting.

[@p40148]

Great work, keep'em coming.

[@OldForestBushcraft]

Once again, awesome job! Thank you for doing this!

[@Anttimation]

Thanks so much! It's great to hear you find these worth the effort

[@PaulSoderlind-jv2kh]

Well drawn and pretty cool commentary.

[@Anttimation]

Thank you! 🙏

[@elsakristina2689]

Gustav Adolf’s daughter Queen Kristina was actually conceived while he and his wife Maria Eleonora were visiting Turku (Åbo) in 1626. And that’s so lucky that you can trace your family history that far back!

[@Anttimation]

Interesting piece of information! So Kristina was "made in Finland" then, sort of. Yeah I was surprised to find branches going back that far, even if they're those of cousins of cousins or so. There are pretty good records sometimes up to even late 1500s but before that mostly nobility, which I haven't found in my family tree.

[@elsakristina2689]

@@Anttimation Pretty much, lol. It’s really amazing. I wonder if there’s anything like that in my family tree. I do have Swedish ancestry but we don’t know who would be part of that.

[@metaldiver]

Good as always😊

[@Anttimation]

Thanks as always! :)

[@HS-su3cf]

Hammar can also mean a near vertical cliff. A farm lying by such a feature can have been named "Hammar", and many used the name of their farm as a family name. Also I think more people were executed for bestiality than witchcraft in Sweden.

[@Anttimation]

Interesting! Didn't know re: hammar

[@jakkeledin4645]

Finns was famous that reason : no screaming in battle! All oppposite soldiers keep that odd and scary. They only say; Hakkaa päälle! And start fightning. That give Finns name Hakkapeliitta. Hakkapeliitta was only Finns soldiers.

[@Anttimation]

They were they for the fighting business. Not small talk 😉

[@heh9392]

Do you mean the Academy as the University of Turku?

[@Anttimation]

Yes, although it's the university of Helsinki actually. Originally founded in Turku.

[@hachimaki]

Your bourgeoisie comment made me look it up, since here in Sweden we used to say bönder (peasants), borgare (burghers/bourgeoisie) and adel (nobility). So apparently you can use the word burghers instead of bourgeoisie (at least accord to Google's translating app).

[@Anttimation]

Interesting! I would probably pronounce it like... Burgers

[@johnl5316]

Gustaf Adolf Vasa Vasa, II, King of Sweden and I are cousins via Richard 1st Earl of Cornwall, Count of Poitou

[@markusrimpelainen1680]

Kiitos Annti

[@Anttimation]

Kiitos itsellesi!

[@xandrecarnes9888]

I believe Finland should buy Estonia these two are very similar.

[@Anttimation]

I doubt Estonia is for sale :D

[@scanpolar]

When did my home country become Finland when it was part of Swedish empire ? When the original Finns knew that they were Finns not Swedish . Finland is Suomi in Finnish and the people living there are called "suomalainen ". Swedish speaking society living in Finland were "svensk " and their empire was called "Sverige " in their own language . Finland was not an official state with own customs system like many Finn-American histories describe . Lot of Finnish saunas were imported to America which in that time also was not an official independent state . Only SVERIGE was an empire .

[@Anttimation]

I'm not sure I get your point..? Maybe you haven't seen the previous parts of this series but I aim to tell the history (and prehistory) of Finnish people living in what is today's Finland. So the story goes much further back in time than Finland as a nation.

[@user-mb8jv7je6i]

Thank you very much!

[@Anttimation]

Thanks for watching!

[@xandrecarnes9888]

Swedes should apologize to the Finnish people genocide against the Finnish.

[@xandrecarnes9888]

That sounds like a genocide.

[@Anttimation]

They finally intend to return Finnish skulls taken in the 1800s for examination with the racist hypothesis of Finns being inferior creatures.

[@fallenknight3016]

Großfinnland

[@Sebastian-pv5gi]

'promo sm' 😘