What if the Kalmar Union never broke up?

If the Kalmar Union never broke up, I can guarantee you that this would forever change the history of Europe! The Kalmar Union united the Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

If it never broke up, then these countries would be more powerful. This is due to them fighting many wars amongst each other after the collapse of the Kalmar Union.

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▬ Contents of this video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
00:00 - Video Intro
00:48 - Why did the Kalmar union unite?
03:07 - What wars they fought in?
04:58 - Why did the Kalmar union collapse?
10:31 - What if the Kalmar union never collapsed?

[Aethelthryth]

Баце директно на три морета, ако бяха останали.

[paragonaesir]

Fun fact.
Sweden and Denmark are the two countries with the most wars against each other in the world, at 30 different wars after the 15th century.

[dragon.]

Well I would assume there would be larger scandinavian populations, the numerous northern wars got a LOT of young men killed that never had families of their own. That snowballs over time.

I also don't think Napoleon would be much of a threat, you can't invade Denmark (except MAYBE Jutland, though its a nightmare trying to siege down a harbor city such as Kolding with uninterrupted supply lines) without first destroying the scandinavian navies, which even the british would be hard pressed to do in a timeline where Sweden and Denmark aren't constantly at each other's throats.

[TheRavenLord]

What a fun scenario. An interesting scenario in a way would be if the Vikings kept Vinland and Vinland became a power in its own way.

[eidoneverchoosen]

What if the Teutonic knight order, sword brethren men at arms order, and Livonian crossbowmen Auxiliaries conquered Eastern Europe like they almost did becoming a third or second Germany in Eastern Europe . Imagine 3 military orders with a different style of leading and governing due to their military structure.

[void_fruit]

So that's what you meant when you were talking about making a Scandinavia scenario in the Finland premiere oh. love your videos man.

[stargazer-elite]

Chapters
0:48 why did the countries unite?
3:07 what wars did they fight in?
4:58 why did the Kalmar union collapse?
10:31 what if the Kalmar union never broke up?

[stargazer-elite]

This video is great it blends all the editing styles you have tested in the past few vids perfectly

A longer explanation and alt history story

A neat organized system of explanation and the the alt history itself

A nice amount of memes, clips, gifs and pictures

Amazing maps as always

[saintemz]

One thing you didn't really bring up in the video is that not only the Swedish Nobility was displeased with the union, the peasant class (serfdom wasn't really a thing in Scandinavia except denmark proper) was heavily taxed on by the Danes and the Swedish Merchant class was further screwed on by Danish foreign policy making it difficult to export Iron and Wood to the continent. Just appeasing the nobility wouldn't have been enough to solidifying the union, a war with Livonia and Poland with promise of Swedish monopoly over the important trading cities along the coasts might have.

[MrMaximus]

bro's editor is the average facebook user 💀💀

[Usaballanimations]

Can you make a scenario if Russia was Democratic

[emayex]

I've been looking for something like this man! I also wanted to see what if the danish empire for the 1000s united today, consisting of norway, england, and denmark, maybe even also canadian colonies and iceland and greenland if you did one with all historic lands. Great video as always

[micahistory]

very interesting idea. Thank you for covering this topic!

[danielsantiagourtado]

Great video as always: Suggestion, what if Richard III defeated Henry Tudor and the Plantagenet Dynasty survived.

[Aoderic]

A few things to note:
1) The countries weren't actually united or combined. They were still three countries with their own laws and councils. They just happened to have the same king as their monarch.
2) Why did it happen? It happened simply for monastic reasons. Margaret the daughter of the Danish king, got married to the Norwegian King, he happened to be the son of the Swedish King.
When the old kings died, Margaret's son Olaf inherited the Kingdoms one by one, first Denmark then Norway, unfortunately he died at age 17 before he could be crowned king of Sweden. Since Olaf had been a minor, Margaret had been the de facto regent. And so she could choose the new heir. She chose her great nephew Eric, he was also a minor, but was crowned the three Kingdoms. Margaret remained regent until Eric came of age in 1412.
3) The name "Kalmar Union" was never the official name, and the monarchs styled themselves as the Kings of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. The "Kalmar flag" red cross on yellow, was introduced by Eric in 1430, and wasn't used more than locally at Kalmar and at the monastery at Vadstena, and there's no evidence that it was used by later kings. The Dannebrog was the only official flag used in the Nordic area until the Swedish flag was introduced in the 16th Century.
4) When a King died, a new one was chosen (it wasn't automatically inherited), and had to be recognized by the councils in each of the countries. And he then went to each of them to be crowned. It wasn't always a smooth process, and at times kings were rejected. When Eric sugested his cousin Bogislaw as heir, the Danish council first rejected Bogislaw, and then Eric was deposed in 1439 by both the Danish and Swedish council. The Norwegian council still recognised him as king until 1442.
5) You mention King Hans, and say he was King of Denmark. That is true, but he was just as much king of Norway and Sweden, sure there was squabble about his coronation, but not a violent rebellion, and he was later crowned in all three after several negotiations.
6) The bloodbath in Stockholm wasn't the idea of Christian II, It was mainly due to internal intrigues in the Swedish council. Swedish Bishop Gustav Trolle was the main instigator, and the execution likely didn't happen with the consent of King Christian, and it happened after he had left the city, so it is now believed that his signature had been forged. In any case it was naive of Christian to leave Bishop Trolle in charge. He also mismanaged his affairs in Denmark, so he was deposed there in 1523, two years after Stockholm.
So to sum up, the "Kalmar Union" was never a Country, and was never seen as such by anyone at the time, that idea is a much later romanticisation, that happened in the 19th century, when Scandinavism became popular.
It was a flimsy monastic union, that relied on the goodwill of the Noblemen in the three councils. And when that goodwill was no longer there in the case of Sweden, they chose their own king.
And thus the Union continued without Sweden, now as Denmark-Norway.

[oversightyt]

damn, Denmark is definitely happy about that

[Rockidude]

Suggestion: what if france attacked germany through belgium and britain joined the war on the other side

[SormonAusPol]

An interesting feature of the Union lasting so long would possibly be the decline in local identification. People there might no longer see themselves as Swedish, Dainish ect. and instead see themselves as Kalman. Languages like Swedish and Norwegian could be like Welsh and Scottish vs English today, where only a few 100 people speak it over the majority which speak Dainish.

[melkor]

What if the East Roman Empire was able to reform and with stronger foreign support and (this is necessary for them to not die) internal instability in the Ottoman Empire they were able to start reviving and maybe start reclaim their old land?

This all requires that they keep having good emperors like they did towards the end of the empire sadly when it was too late to save it and that they have decent generals.

Remember plague and raids had also greatly reduced their population so their armies wouldn’t even be able to be that big either. They were at the end of their resources so other ways of them surviving must be considered.

[TheWilson]

Amazing!! Yet another great video by you man!