What if Sweden Won the Great Northern War?

The Swedish Empire was once a leading power in Europe. Its fall led to Russia's rise. What if in an alternate timeline Sweden never lost that prestige? What if it won the Great Northern War?

[obama]

“He didn’t drink, he didn’t even have sex, all he wanted to do is conquer”

As a hoi4 player I feel personally attacked

[barracuda]

I tried preserving the Swedish Empire in Empire Total War; you just end up in a constant state of warfare that you're barely able to sustain, against far greater numbers.

[gagetolinwrites]

It is so interesting how both the Swedes and the Swiss were both well known for being fantastic fighters, and both are also well known for being neutral for centuries.

[ural]

As Estonian i can say that Swedes (especially some rulers like Gustavus Adolphus) were liked by our pesants and do to this day beeing part of swedish empire is seen second best to independence (1918-1940 and 1991-current). It's literally named "Good old Swedish times."

[rafaradzik]

Just a small thing: technically Poladn-Lithuania was neutral, and it was Saxony who declared war on Sweden. It just so happened that Augustus, king of Saxony, was also the elected king of Poland-Lithuania.

[conserva-chan]

A vid on if the Sino-Soviet split never happened or was patched up in the 70s would be beyond amazing

[lunddecastro]

This theme reminds me of what Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said about wars. In the Gulag Archipelago he wrote that Sweden was fortunate for losing the Northern War because it stopped caring about expansion and just went about being a peaceful, happy nation while Russia started centuries of conquest that just made its people more opressed and ultimately created a system that collapsed under its own lust for prestige. A very thoughtful insight, imo

[Nrmandy]

Back in 2016 I did a presentation on the Great Northern War for a very minor class I had which was about public speaking. Students in the class didn't believe this war was real (because of how wacky the events were I guess?), and one kid said "It was the Great War and had nothing to do with Sweden" I was dumbfounded.
Even the teacher asked me if I made it up.

Edit: no I'm not American or was this in America.

[fredrikkirderf]

there was actually a Swedish plan to join WW2.
Operation 'free Denmark' and 'free Norway' were planned to go ahead less than a week after Germany surrendered and it was unnecessary.
Almost worth a video in itself

[DeerMapping]

I feel like nordic alternate history should be explored more, they had quite a lot of impact in the earlier history of Europe. All that's mostly talked about nowadays is Finland and WW2

[Kulsprutejojjo]

As a Swede myself, I can say that you did a good job at portraying the most likely outcomes of the Great Northern War. Due to Sweden's general lack of manpower and focus on quality over quantity approach, it's only fair to assume that even if we did win the war, we'd still never be able to match the likes of Great Britain or Germany on the greater European scene. We'd remain formidable adversaries, yes, but I doubt we'd ever be able to expand much further than Scandinavia proper due to the issue of spreading our forces too thin. It doesn't matter how immensely skilled your troops are if they're few in number and spread so thin that they can't possibly cover all fronts. At some point you'd have to realize that focusing on retaining what you can control is much more important than trying to reach for what you can't.

I definitely appreciate this video because of this. As always, it focuses on the feasible ways the war could have ended differently, and the most plausible possibilities that arise from these scenarios.

[Maviel]

As a Swede I always chuckle at the neutrality meme. We've never been neutral, just very good at turning with the winds while making it seem we never pick a side. Opportunistic.

That said, great video.

[CosmicCreeper]

*Swedish Nationalist has entered the chat*

“If Denmark remains a country by the end of this video I’m rioting”

[GuildsmanPirate]

I like how these videos are usually doubling down as little history lessons. I wasn’t too familiar with the Great Northern War, but an alternate history teaches of the real history simultaneously. It’s cool

[aze]

I think one thing you neglected to mention was that the rest of the European great powers that could have intervened were distracted by the War of the Spanish Succession until the war had turned against Sweden. Considering that the latter war almost ended in a diplomatic settlement, a different alternate history scenario to look into would have been "How would the Great Northern War have turned out if the War of the Spanish Succession did not break out?"

[SamaritanPrime]

In this universe, Sabaton writes the Swedish national anthem.

[eliashornwall]

As a very liberal, globalast Swede, there are only three things that can make me a hardcore nationalist: football, hating Denmark, and at the top of the list: Swedish Alternate History. Thank you for this gift.

Edit: I want too say that I don’t have anything to do with the clusterfuck in the replies (though I can’t exactly say I didn’t see it coming a mile away)

[echo]

I've been waiting for this video for years. It's been the alt history scenario I've been the most interested in ever since I learned about the Great Northern war

[gaivsivlivs]

For Swedish speakers, there’s a great novel about this called ”Redovisningsavdelning Marviken”. It’s not a ”full” alt-history story though, rather a sci-fi and Tom Clancy-esque thriller within an alt-history timeline

[stellarose]

Hearing my own country getting compared to Italy had me clenching my heart in pain 😭😭😭