Why did the Kalmar Union and Denmark-Norway Collapse?

Why did the Kalmar Union and Denmark-Norway Collapse?

Despite each having their own cultures and people, and now being entirely independent of each other, the three Nordic nations, in particular, have a curiously intertwined history. But why exactly did they end up united? What happened to the Kalmar Union that would eventually be succeeded by Denmark-Norway? And why would Denmark-Norway eventually collapse?...

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[kakan]

Fun fact: the father of Gustav Vasa was locked out from the castle at the day when Kristian II killed all those nobles. However, still believing it was just a big fiest, the father angrily and stubbornly made sure he was let in to the castle so he could rejoin the first. He was one of the nobles that got killed that day.

[samuellassman]

Scandinavia is Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The nordic countries is Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Iceland.

[LaerkeHonoka]

I love Denmark Norway and Sweden！ I am Japanese and I have pretty much lived all my life in Denmark

[shadithakis]

Man imagine if the Kalmar union stayed together. That would've changed a lot

[PatriSjodin]

Fun fact about Gustav Vasa: He was only much later (after his death) be known by that name. In his day, dynastic names like Vasa wasn't that established until the 17th century in Sweden. Furthermore, the man we know as Gustav had a thing for constantly changing the spelling and pronunciation of his name (like a early Starbucks prank) so in one document he signed "Gustav", another "Gystaf" and so on.

[staffan-]

Interestingly, Denmark did NOT hand over "all of Norway" to Sweden, since Iceland, Faroe Islands and Greenland technically were part of Norway. Hence why Greenland and Faroe Islands are still Danish.

[Zzrik]

I think the problem with the union was that one nation had more pull than the other two and thus could force the other two nations into conflicts they didn't want. Denmark seemed more interested in its own growth and power and less about doing what was best for the union as a whole. I can see why Sweden got put up with it since neither Norway or Sweden would ever be allowed to rule over the union as long as the Danish Crown continued to act as the rulers of the union and ignoring the wishes and ideas from the other member nations. I think something similar like the rule after the death of Caesar could have worked where you had not one but 3 people rulling together to keep things going.

[TheAurgelmir]

I wish the English speaking world would stop throwing Finland and Iceland into the "Scandinavian Countries."
They are not. They are Nordic Countries, but not Scandinavia. They aren't considered as such by the people who live there. So please, stop perpetuating this myth.
(And no, I don't care that "in English we consider them as such." Doesn't change the fact)

The video description even makes the mistake worse by calling it "The three Nordic Countries" completely flipping the script on the right usages of both terms...

[davidmb]

The funny thing is that if Sweden had had Male preference succession laws (like they had until the Bernadottes took the throne), Louise (daughter of Charles XV) would have become Queen of Sweden and Norway, and as she was married to King Frederick VIII of Denmark, their son, Christian X would in fact have become the ruler of all three kingdoms.

[atrebuchet]

I can't help but notice that you refer to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden as the 3 "Nordic" Nations and you refer to Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland you called them the "Scandinavian" countries, When in fact these descriptions should be reversed as Finland is not Scandinavian.

[cellmon]

Nice video. But the map is a little bit wrong. You haven't included Halland as a part of Denmark and Bohuslän is still a part of Denmark-Norway after the Karl X war(both on the west coast). It's actually kind of important because the reason my homecity Gothenburg was founded was because there were only a small bit of swedish land on the west coast and therefore the only place you could have a port.

[kianodoganofficial]

I noted that most Historical youtube channels uses pretty much the same music source as soundtrack.
And I love it!

[freddiecawston]

Britain: "Independent countries defending their neutrality and minding their own business... That's offensive!"

[samuelmargueret]

The only thing i'm waiting during the week !! If you and others historical channel were not here i would not be there anymore too !! Thank you guys

[lhulugren]

The Map is not correct in the west cost of Sweden, which belonged to Norway-Denmark until around to the middle of 17th centuary (except for the Gothenburg area).

[gnomo.mágico]

Have you ever heard of the term Fenoscandia or Fino- Scandia? It's used when you want to refer to Norway, Sweden and Finland together. Just the three.

[niclasbrusch]

More detail about the Brits motivation to attack Denmark-Norway: Denmark-Norway had the second biggest navy in Europe at the time, surpassed only by who else but the Brits. The Brits were therefore afraid of the Danish-Norwegian navy falling in the hands of the french. Which made them send a letter to the Danish king telling them to let the Brits protect their navy and/or side with the Brits or get crushed. Denmark-Norway wanted to remain neutral and hence, the navy got destroyed and stolen.

[Troender]

During the break up of the Kalmar Union, the Norwegian nobility tried to break away too. After the Plague most of the nobility was gone so the Archbishop was the leader of the Norwegian Council which represented Norway. The Danes chased him out of Norway and burned down his castle and palace. Then the Danes introduced the Reformation to get rid of the competition from the Catholic Church. Norway was reduced from 1 of 2 kingdoms in the Union, to merely a province of Denmark. The council representing Norway was abolished.

During the wars with Sweden a lot of men from the Trøndelag region served in the Danish-Norwegian army. Some were left in Trøndelag to help with the farming. After a war Trøndelag was handed over to Sweden in 1658. During the occupation Sweden forcefully deported men from Trøndelag to fight in their wars in Estonia. So many men were taken away that there were trouble with the harvest. There was famine in the region because of this. The population grew again only after many years. This has been classified as a genocide by some historians.

Trondheim was liberated from the Swedes the 11th of December 1658 after a long siege. In downtown Trondheim several canonballs have been found in burned ruins during archeological excavations. The archeologists believe that they are from this siege.

[HappyCatholicDane]

The Kalmar Union collapsed, but I wouldn’t use that word about Denmark-Norway.

[timawaviking]

I literally just spoke with my friends about Denmark-Norway this week and now you released a video about it.. Are you watching me?!