His descendants held the dynasty for nearly 250 years, almost without interruption.
Gustavo I created a strong central government, supported by efficient land and naval forces, promoted foreign trade, agriculture, mining and internal trade. He also founded the Swedish national church after expropriating the assets of the Catholic Church. By accepting Luther's doctrines and defying papal authority, Gustav I made Sweden the first country to break relations with Rome.
In 1560, with the death of Gustav I, the Swedish monarchy, transformed from an elective to a hereditary one, was consolidated. The crown was passed on to Erik XIV, his eldest son. In 1568, however, Erik's brother John joined another brother, Charles, deposed the Swedish king and ascended the throne as John III. Married to a sister of the Polish king, John III tried to move closer to Catholicism, despite opposition from the Swedish people. His son Sigismund, an ardent Catholic, inherited the Polish throne in 1587. Later ascending to the Swedish stock, he also tried to establish Catholicism in the country, which sparked a revolt that brought his uncle Charles IX to the throne in 1599.
Gustav II Adolfo, son of Charles IX, was one of the most capable sovereigns in Swedish history. He inherited the throne when the country was engaged in military campaigns against Poland, Denmark and Russia. With the help of Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, Gustavo II was able to carry out a series of remarkable measures, which made him his reign one of the great times in Swedish history and thanks to which the country rose to the status of great power. His efforts led to the end of the war with Denmark (1613) and Russia (1617). The armistice with Poland (1629) also favored Sweden.
By the time of his death, at the battle of Lützen, in November 1632, Sweden already dominated almost the entire coast of the Baltic Sea. His daughter Cristina succeeded him to the throne at the age of six. Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna headed the Regency Council until the Queen's majority. The peace of Westphalia, concluded during Christina's reign in 1648, ended the Thirty Years' War and consecrated Swedish hegemony in that sea. Converted to Catholicism, Cristina abdicated in 1654, in favor of her cousin Carlos Gustavo, who reigned under the title of Charles X.
In the war against the Danes, during his reign, Sweden conquered Scania, Blekinge, Halland and Bohuslän, thus establishing its current natural borders.
In 1660, his son Carlos XI succeeded him. During his youth, power was exercised by a regency, who founded the Bank of Sweden and the University of Lund in 1668. Between 1675 and 1679, Sweden returned to war with Denmark and Norway, who had invaded the Scania region. During the reign of Charles XI, the arts flourished, Stockholm developed and the Danish and Norwegian provinces fully incorporated into Sweden.
The king's death in 1697 brought his son Charles XII to the Swedish throne, whose reign was marked by the catastrophic results of his defeat in the great Nordic war (1700-1721) against Denmark, Poland and the Russia. After losing the decisive battle at Poltava (1709), the king fled to Turkey. He returned five years later, accompanied by a single soldier. While trying to invade Norway, after reorganizing his forces, he died in 1718.
Constitutional monarchy
With the death of Charles XII, his sister, Ulrika Eleonora, came to the throne of Sweden. The constitutionalist forces in the army and administration, whose influence had grown after the Swedish defeat against the Russia, forced her to accept the status of elected queen and swear obedience to a constitution that would be drawn up by the Parliament. Crowned in 1719, Ulrika Eleonora, of an authoritarian temperament, did not adjust to the country's new political conditions and abdicated, in 1720, in favor of her husband, Frederick of Hessen-Kassel. The new reign began with the signing in 1721 of the peace of Nystad, which ceded Ingria, Estonia, Livonia and part of southeastern Finland to Russia.
Two parties were formed in Parliament, that of the "hats" (an allusion to the format of military caps), determined to recover by force, the lost territories, and that of the "bonnets" (an allusion to sleeping hats), in favor of a peaceful policy. The "bonnets" dominated the government from 1738 to 1765 and, in an attempt to nullify the consequences of the Treaty of Nystad, they were again defeated by Russia, which occupied the whole of Finland in 1742.
The succession problem that arose after the death of Ulrika Eleonora, without direct heirs, allowed Sweden to negotiate the return of Finland in exchange for the designation of the Russian candidate, Adolfo Frederick de Holstein-Gottorp, as heir presumptive. Adolfo Frederico ascended the throne in 1751, following the death of Frederico I. Dominated by his wife Luisa Ulrika - sister of Frederick the Great of Prussia - the king tried unsuccessfully, through a coup d'état, to regain royal power. The result of the unsuccessful attempt was the complete removal of the royal family from the system of government.
Gustavo III, son of Adolfo Frederico, led a popular revolt in 1772, which managed to regain the prestige of the crown. With the help of Marie Antoinette of France, he repelled the Russians and defeated them at the battle of Svensksund in 1790. The war left behind a situation of internal instability, aggravated by considerable financial strain. The internal dissension then reached its height, which resulted in a conspiracy against the king, who was assassinated in 1792 by an army officer.
At the age of 13, Gustavo IV ascended the throne, under the regency of his uncle Charles, Duke of Södermanland. Four years later, in 1796, Gustavo IV took over the government. He then joined a coalition of England, Russia and Austria against France, which ended up losing the last Swedish possessions in Germany. By the Treaty of Tilsit (1807), Napoleon and Alexander I of Russia agreed to attack Sweden if she did not declare war on England. Faced with Gustavo IV's refusal, Finland was invaded. In March 1809 the king was deposed. The Parliament amended the constitution to limit the powers of the throne and elected the then regent Charles as king, under the title of Charles XIII, who reigned until 1818.
Bernadotte Dynasty
Carlos XIII died without leaving any descendants. The choice of the new sovereign therefore fell to one of Napoleon's marshals, Jean Bernadotte, elected crown prince in 1810. Rather than attacking Russia and reclaiming Finland, as expected, the designated heir allied with Napoleon's enemies and attacked Denmark. As compensation for Finland's loss, he demanded Norway. The Danes surrendered, but the Norwegians, after declaring their independence, chose as king a Danish prince, Cristiano Frederico.
Faced with Bernadotte's military threat, Frederick renounced the throne and endorsed the union with Sweden, ratified in 1815. This was the last war in which Sweden participated.
Later, in 1818, Bernadotte ascended the throne as Charles XIV John and founded the present house of Sweden. After a peaceful reign, he was succeeded in 1844 by his son Oscar I, who continued the policy of peace and internal progress. This was followed by Charles XV and his brother Oscar II, in whose reign the union with Norway was dissolved in 1905, and they consolidated in Parliament the three key parties in Swedish political life during the 20th century: the Conservative, the Liberal and the Social Democratic.
20th century. Crowned in 1907, Gustavo V had the longest reign in Swedish history: 43 years. During World War I, the country maintained its neutrality, but foreign trade was seriously affected, which caused serious supply problems. Until 1917, conservatives and liberals alternated in government. The interwar period was marked, however, by the rise of the Social Democratic Party, which undertook a broad policy to combat the economic crisis of the 1930s.
On the occasion of the outbreak of the Second World War, the social-democratic government, led by Prime Minister Per Albin Hansson (who would be elected to the post three more times), strengthened the defense and proclaimed the neutrality of the parents. The Russo-Finnish war led to the formation of a coalition government, with representatives from all parties. The Nazi invasion of Denmark and Norway isolated Sweden from the West, which was very weak. militarily, it was forced to make several concessions to Germany, especially regarding the transit of troops and weapons.
After the conflict ended in 1945, the Social Democrats returned to governing in isolation. The following year Sweden became a member of the United Nations and, with Hansson's death, Tage Fritiof Erlander became prime minister. The period 1946-1950 marked extensive reforms in the field of social security and social assistance, as well as the expansion of universities and all higher education. In 1950, King Gustavo VI ascended the throne. Social achievements were expanded in 1959, with the law guaranteeing a compulsory pension to all workers, which conservatives saw as a threat to the country's complete socialization.
A new electoral reform in 1968 established the unicameral system to be adopted in 1971. The last bicameral Parliament, elected in 1968, consolidated the supremacy of the Social Democrats. The following year, Sweden changed its head of government for the first time since 1946: Prime Minister Tage Erlander resigned and was replaced by Olof Palme. From then onwards, the Social Democrats no longer obtained a majority in the elections, but they always formed the government with the support of the Communists. In 1973, King Gustavo VI Adolfo, the last to de facto hold political power, before the 1971 constitutional reform, died. His son, Carlos XVI Gustavo, succeeded him.
In the 1976 elections the Social Democratic government was defeated. A coalition of centrists, liberals and conservatives was formed, and the leader of the center party, Thorbjörn Fälldin, took over as prime minister, ending 44 years of unbroken rule by social democracy in the country. Fälldin resigned in October 1978, due to an impasse created around the main point of his government program: the use of nuclear energy to generate electricity. To replace him, another representative of the same coalition was chosen, the liberal Ola Ullsten.
After the 1979 general elections, Fälldin re-formed his cabinet, supported by a coalition of centrists, moderates and liberals. Two years later, the Moderate Party withdrew, and Fälldin formed a new government. The Social Democrats triumphed in the 1982 election and returned to power. Its leader, Olof Palme, carried out, as head of government, a policy of strict cost containment and, in the plan external, faced problems in relations with the Soviet Union, accused of carrying out submarine maneuvers in waters Swedish. The Social Democrats were confirmed in power in the 1985 elections, but had to side with the Communists to win a parliamentary majority.
In February 1986, Palme was shot by an unknown person in Stockholm and died shortly thereafter. Deputy Prime Minister Ingvar Gösta Carlsson assumed power. Four years later, after the Communists and the Green Party refused to support the austerity measures proposed by the government to curb inflation, Carlsson resigned, but after preparing a more moderate set of measures, formed a new government.
In the 1991 general elections, however, the Social Democrats were defeated and replaced in the government. by a coalition of four non-socialist parties, headed by the leader of the Moderate Party, Carl Bildt. The new prime minister's first economic measures were aimed at strengthening the market economy and reducing government spending, with the aim of pulling the country out of recession. In the same year, negotiations began for the country's admission to the European Union.
In the September 1994 general election, the Social Democrats returned to power, with Ingvar Carlsson as prime minister. Two months later, the Swedes approved, in a plebiscite, the country's entry into the European Union, scheduled for January 1, 1995. The decision ended a long period of distancing the country from the European continent, in which a policy of neutrality and defense of Third World countries was maintained.
political institutions
Sweden is a constitutional and hereditary monarchy, with a parliamentary form of government. Its constitution dates back to 1809 and was revised in 1975. The monarch is the head of state, but he does not exercise political power. Your responsibilities are just ceremonial. Legislative power is exercised by the unicameral parliament (Riksdag), whose members are elected by direct vote for a three-year term. Executive power is exercised by the cabinet, under the leadership of the prime minister, who is chosen according to his ability to control the majority voting in the Riksdag. The country's most important political party, the Social Democratic, is allied with the unions.
The judicial system consists of three levels and is presided over by the Supreme Court. The Swedish civil code bears great resemblance to those of Norway and Denmark. The figure of the ombudsman (defender of the people) is an originally Swedish institution and has been imitated by many countries, such as the United Kingdom and Spain. Its main task is to control the possible excesses of the administration and ensure respect for citizens' rights.
Sweden is a unitary state divided into 24 län (counties), at the head of each of which is a governor appointed by the executive. In each län there is also an elective council, as well as in each of the country's 284 municipalities. Part of the health and social welfare services are controlled by the län and municipalities. The latter also administer primary education.
Society
Sweden's image abroad is that of a modern state that promotes the well-being of its citizens through quasi-socialist policies aimed at guaranteeing security to the people and an equal distribution of income. The country has set up one of the most comprehensive social service networks in the world, also financed by one of the highest income taxes. The social security system offers very comprehensive benefits.
Practically the entire Swedish population is literate. Public and free, the education system is mandatory between 6 and 15 years old. Adult education is an important feature of the Swedish educational system. At least half of the adult population is enrolled in an extension course. Of the 13 major Swedish universities, the most important are Uppsala, Stockholm and Göteborg.
Health conditions in Sweden are good compared to other countries. Infant mortality is low and life expectancy at birth is high. The number of doctors available to serve the population is also high. All communities have primary health care centers. For highly specialized care, the country is divided into six major regions, each of which has at least one large hospital with several specialists and is linked to a medical school for research and teaching.
Culture
The educational and cultural level of Swedish citizens is very high. Numerous cultural institutions, such as the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, the Swedish Academy, the Royal Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, the Royal Library and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences were founded in the capital in the century XVIII.
The Nobel Foundation, created by Swedish chemist and industrialist Alfred Nobel, annually organizes the Nobel Prize award ceremony for names in science, literature and politics. Laureate chemists and physicists are chosen by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, while the nomination for the Literature Prize is made by the Swedish Academy.
Literature
The first internationally acclaimed name in Swedish literature was August Strindberg. In the early 20th century, novelist Selma Lagerlöf became the first female writer in the country to win the Nobel Prize for literature. Many other contemporary authors, however, deserved international recognition. These include Hjalmar Bergman, a novelist and playwright with an introspective tendency; Pär Lagerkvist, 1951 Nobel Prize winner; Carl Artur Vilhelm Moberg, a novelist with a socialist bent; and, in poetry, the proletarian writer Harry Edmund Martinson.
Art
Inspired by late nineteenth-century romantic nationalism, Swedish modern art has produced painters such as Carl Larsson, Bruno Liljefors and Anders Leonard Zorn. Carl Milles, who dominated monumental sculpture in the 1920s, is equally famous abroad. At the 1925 World's Fair in Paris, an important connection was established between Swedish industry and designers, which revolutionized industrial design. From then on, a style was created whose main characteristics are functionality and seriousness allied to an extreme elegance of lines.
Swedish cinema, despite its reduced production in quantitative terms, has a long tradition and is one of the most important in Europe. Filmmaker Ingmar Bergman is one of the biggest names in world cinema.