The Regency of Sweden

Starting Resource: 36 -- From Land: 33 -- From Trade: 3 Capital Territory: Stockholm Nation Class: Large Total Starting Military Infantry: 12 Cavalry: 1 Knights: 0 Artillery: 1 Generals: 2 Merchantmen: 2 Frigates: 2 Ships of the Line: 1

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Starting as early as the 5th century AD raiding parties and colonists began leaving Scandinavia in search of wealth and a better life within the rest of Europe. Initially these were the Angles and the Saxons moving into England, later to be followed by the Danes and the Norse. Tales of Viking expeditions are wide spread through the west. A similar, even more powerful movement happened in the east in the middle of the ninth century. Large numbers of people left Sweden to establish settlements along the major rivers of Russia. These became trading posts influencing much of eastern Europe. These settlements eventually came to rule over the Slavs of the Russian steppe and the many principalities of early Russia were formed. While nominally independent, those principalities still relieve heavily on trade with Sweden and officially recognized the King of Sweden as their monarch. For a time a rise in Danish power and civil war in Russia left the Swedes too occupied to expand their domains further. Russia had been lost to them completely and was rapidly becoming a rival. Eventually the Swedes faced off against the Principality of Novogorod for control of Finland, which finally fell to Sweden while the nation was backed by the unified might of the Union of Kalmar. By 1483 Sweden had withdrawn from the Union of Kalmar and its chief opposition was the Kingdom of Denmark and the Principality of Moscow. Though alliances with either of these two nations may allow the Swedes to expand their already strong navy and let them embark on conquests overseas on the far side of the Baltic or beyond. Visit the 1483 Discussion Forums to chat about Sweden.