Denmark's Commercial Rivalry with Swedish Empire

Denmark's Preeminence in the Baltic Upended by Sweden

Jun 14, 2009

The seventeenth century ushered in an era of Swedish military might and territorial wars, while Denmark tried fleetingly to expand their commercial empire.

Swedish Military Power in the Seventeenth Century

Sweden in the seventeenth century was a precarious military power, and the continuation of wars with Poland (1655-1659), referred to the as the great Deluge or Swedish occupation in the Northern Wars, only seemed to expand their military prowess amongst the Eastern and Baltic powers. Christian IV of Denmark was constantly a threat to Swedish military perseverance in the early seventeenth century, under the weaker Karl IX, but found that by the end of his reign that the Swedes were presumably the most potent military force in Europe. In fact, during the Torstensson War (or Hannibal War from 1643-1645) king Christian IV not only lost an eye in a naval battle but also was forced to surrender, under the terms of the Treaty of Broemsbro , the northern Swedish mainland provinces of Härjedal and Jämtland, and the strategically important islands of Øsel and Gotland in the Baltic sea, thus further reducing the already dwindling Danish realm. The biggest loss to Denmark, although, occurred under Frederick III against Karl X of Sweden.

As the Northern Wars advanced into Jütland, Karl X marched his troops through southern Denmark to the almost defenseless Zealand, covered as it was with a permeable layer of thin ice, and took command of the island. Frederick III was caught unprepared, and the result was the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658, in which Denmark lost the provinces of the now eastern Swedish mainland, a third of Denmark’s entire territory. (Lauring 159-163) By 1659, Denmark was “resoundingly defeated” (Kirby 189) but suffered further humiliation when the capital of Copenhagen was literally “stormed” by Charles X’s army. The siege was repelled by citizen arms and great assistance by the Dutch, who, for economical reasons, did not want to stand to see Sweden as supreme leader of the Baltic. Soon after, under pressure from an exhausted economy, Denmark, of course, declared Frederick III its absolute monarch.

Sweden and Denmark had long held their positions as intermittent rivals and enemies. Around 1638, under Queen Christina, the Swedes founded their colony New Sweden in North America in the areas that spanned from Delaware to New Jersey. The areas were later reclaimed by the Dutch in 1655. At this period Denmark’s only colony was the small coastal town of Tranquebar in India, which had been almost abandoned in 1640. The Danish effort at colonization in this period vied closely with intercepting the actions of the powerful nation of Sweden, and by this notion of rivalry as well as more important economic concerns, ventured into West Africa, or more specifically, the Gold Coast. The 15-mile stretch of coast in what is present-day Ghana established a number of national forts among the Dutch—who had rid them of their Portuguese founders— British, Danish, Swedish, and even at one time, the House of Brandenburg. The Swedish forts, such as Carolusborg Castle, however, were all lost to Danish and Dutch forces by 1663.

It was the interests of further exploration as well as the small success in Africa that pushed Denmark to charter the Danish West Indian Company in 1672 for the purpose of establishing a colony on St. Thomas in the Caribbean. Sweden did not pursue any further colonization efforts in the seventeenth century, for the country was not in as an extreme position to pursue new mercantilist trade, as was the plundered state of Denmark. Sweden realized it had more to lose in competing with a trade that the Dutch, and now the English, were at the point of monopolizing. It was not until the late eighteenth century, and a presiding alliance and offer from France, that Sweden made their first successful overseas colonial venture with the establishment of Saint Barthélemy in 1784, a colonization that was to last a little under a century before being returned to the French.

Derry, T.K. A History of Scandanavia: Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland. University of Minnesota Press: Minneapolis, 1979, pp. 110-164

Friedrich, Carl J. The Rise of Modern Europe: The Age of Baroque 1610-1660. Harper & Row: New York. 1952

Kirby, David. Northern Europe in the Early Modern Period: The Baltic World 1492–1772. Longman Publishers: London. 1990

Lauring, Paulle. A History of the Kingdom of Denmark. Translated by David Hohnen. Høst & Søn: Copenhagen. 1960

Nørregård, Georg. Danish Settlements in West Africa 1658–1850. Translated by Sigurd Mammen. Boston University Press: Boston. 1962

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