Sweden

H

Napoleonic Wars

Gustav’s son and successor, Gustav IV Adolph, strongly opposed Napoleon of France, and in 1805 he participated in the Third Coalition against Naopleon, joining Britain, Russia, and Austria. Russia deserted the coalition for an alliance with Napoleon in 1807 and a year later invaded Finland, then a Swedish possession. Gustav was deposed by an army revolt in 1809. The Riksdag then formulated a new constitution, which remained in force until 1975, and in 1809 elected as king the ex-king’s uncle, Charles XIII.

Sweden concluded two treaties, one with Russia in 1809, ceding most of Finland and Ahvenanmaa (Åland Islands), and another with France in 1810, by which a pro-Napoleonic policy was adopted. Charles XIII was childless and left no heir to the Swedish throne. In an effort to appease Napoleon, the Riksdag chose Jean Baptiste Jules Bernadotte, prince of Pontecorvo and a field marshal of Napoleon, as crown prince. Bernadotte accepted the offer. An act establishing the succession in the Bernadotte dynasty was enacted in 1810.

Bernadotte almost immediately withdrew his allegiance to France. Instead of attempting to regain Finland by attacking Russia, Bernadotte turned against Napoleon and participated in the defeat of France at Leipzig in 1813. He then attacked Napoleon’s ally Denmark and forced the Danes to cede Norway to Sweden. The Congress of Vienna, in 1815, recognized the union of Norway with Sweden. Bernadotte thus brought about a union of Sweden and Norway that lasted from 1814 to 1905. In 1818, Bernadotte became King Charles XIV John. His army was the last in Sweden’s history to go to war.

I

The Early Bernadottes

The reign of Charles XIV John (1818 to 1844) was characterized by a conflict for control between the throne and the Riksdag. As a foreigner, the king was unpopular. But he was an able administrator, and under his rule the united kingdoms of Norway and Sweden made considerable progress materially, politically, and culturally. His successors, Oscar I, Charles XV, and Oscar II, were accepted as Swedes, and they initiated an extensive series of constitutional and social reforms. Free enterprise was encouraged, and free public education was instituted. During the reign of Oscar II, Sweden made notable progress in social legislation, including the introduction of factory safety laws, accident insurance and pension funds for workers, and the limitation of working hours for women and children. The reforms culminated in 1865 with the replacement of the Riksdag’s four traditional estates with a bicameral (two-chamber) elected legislature.

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J

Industrialization and the Modern Era

In the 19th century there was a tremendous growth in Sweden’s population. However, repeated crop failures in the second half of the century led to massive waves of emigration, which reached their peak in the 1880s. The majority of emigrants came to the United States, where Swedish communities were established throughout the Midwest. By 1900 one-fifth of Sweden’s population had emigrated to the United States. While many Swedes were leaving the country, others moved from the farms to the cities. During the 1870s, Sweden’s transition from an agrarian to an industrial economy proceeded at a rapid rate. New methods of processing minerals made formerly unproductive mines profitable once again, and new markets for manufactured goods inspired still more industrialization.

As Sweden’s economy changed toward the end of the 19th century, so did its politics. The Social Democratic Party was founded and many trade unions (see Trade Unions in Europe) and cooperatives developed. So did a strong temperance league. When the Norwegian parliament voted to end the union with Sweden in 1905, Sweden reluctantly agreed. In 1907 Gustav V succeeded to the throne, and two years later constitutional amendments extended the voting franchise and inaugurated proportional representation.

During World War I, Sweden remained neutral while retaining its commitment to trade freely with belligerent nations, including Germany. The Allied Powers, in turn, enforced a blockade that brought Sweden’s trade to a virtual standstill. Food shortages and other hardships in Sweden ensued. Sweden subsequently entered an agreement with Norway and Denmark to defend its neutrality and to protect the common economic interests of the Scandinavian countries. By 1918 universal suffrage was adopted. Sweden joined the League of Nations in 1920.

Led by the great Swedish statesman Karl Hjalmar Branting, the Social Democratic Party became the leading force in Swedish politics, and in 1920 the world’s first freely elected labor government took office in Sweden. Socialist governments remained in power until 1928, enacting wide-ranging social reforms. The Conservative Party gained power in 1928, but the Social Democrats regained office in 1932 amid the worldwide depression.

K

Neutrality and Defense Questions

In the late 1930s, when another world war seemed imminent in Europe, military preparedness and national defense became of paramount interest. On the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Sweden again declared its neutrality. However, when German forces captured Norway and Denmark, Sweden had to allow German troops and supplies to cross its soil. Swedish sympathies were with the Allied Powers, and the country sheltered more than 200,000 refugees from Germany’s Nazi government (see National Socialism). Raoul Wallenberg, a young member of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families, played a heroic role in the closing months of the war. Working from Swedish diplomatic offices in Budapest, Wallenberg saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from Nazi extermination by distributing Swedish passports, operating “safe houses,” and other measures.

In July 1945, after the close of hostilities in Europe, the wartime coalition cabinet resigned and the Social Democrats, under Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson, resumed full control of the government. Social Democratic leader Tage Erlander, formerly minister of education and religious affairs, became prime minister in October 1946, after the death of Hansson. The following month Sweden joined the United Nations, just as it had joined the League of Nations 26 years earlier. Swedish diplomat Dag Hammarskjöld, who served eight years as the UN’s secretary general beginning in 1953, was influential in developing the powers and scope of the secretary general’s office.

Sweden maintained a neutral stance in the ensuing Cold War. In 1948 it joined the United States-sponsored European Recovery Program, along with the other Western European nations, but it refused to become a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, formed in 1949. Failing in efforts to form a Scandinavian defense bloc without ties to the East or West, Sweden began systematically to strengthen its defenses. In 1950 King Gustav V died and his eldest son, Gustav VI Adolph, assumed the Swedish throne.

L

Expanded Welfare State

Conflicting proposals for financing the expansion of Sweden’s old-age pensions stirred a national controversy in 1957. In a popular referendum held in October, the Social Democrats’ proposal, which called for compulsory contributions and for a government guarantee of the value of the benefits against inflation, won a plurality but not a majority of the votes. Nevertheless, the Social Democrats pressed for enactment of the plan, leading their coalition partners, the Agrarians, to withdraw from the government. A new government headed by Tage Erlander and consisting wholly of Social Democrats was formed late in October.

In April 1958 the United States agreed to grant Sweden financial aid to construct a nuclear reactor. In the same month the Erlander government fell because of interparty disagreement over the pension plan, but elections in June returned him to power. The government won parliamentary approval of the pension plan in May 1959. Later that year Sweden became a founding member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). Elections in 1960 resulted in another Social Democratic victory, and Erlander remained prime minister.

The Swedish economy boomed during the 1960s, making the country one of the world’s richest in per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) by the end of the decade. When Erlander retired from his post in 1969, the vigorous and youthful Olof Palme, former education minister, was named to succeed him. Palme’s tenure marked the continued expansion of the welfare state and a decrease in wage differentials among all workers through collective bargaining and government policies. A constitutional revision effective in 1971 reorganized the legislature into a unicameral body and implemented a new electoral system. In 1973 Gustav VI Adolph died and was succeeded by his grandson, Carl XVI Gustaf. On January 1, 1975, a new constitution, dissolving the remaining powers of the king, came into force.

Swedish opposition to the Vietnam War strained relations with the United States beginning in the late 1960s. Many young U.S. opponents of the war received political asylum in Sweden. Criticism of U.S. military actions by Prime Minister Palme in 1972 led the United States to nearly sever diplomatic relations with Sweden until 1974.

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