The territory and its borders

Sweden, Denmark, and Norway were separate kingdoms in the early medieval period. Finland had been conquered and brought under the Swedish crown from the 12th to the 14th century. During the Kalmar union (1388–97 to 1523) all four countries were more or less united. The early modern history of Sweden is one of the rise and fall of a great power. Sweden split from the Kalmar union and started an expansion that led to the so-called great power period in Swedish history. The first wave of expansion crossed the Baltic Sea; between 1561 and 1620 Sweden swallowed the Kexholm province that is present-day North Estonia, Ingria, and Livonia. In the 17th century Riga was actually the largest Swedish town. The second wave of expansion was directed toward Denmark-Norway: in 1645 and 1658–60 Sweden conquered Gotland, Jämtland, and Härjedalen, then Scania, Halland, Blekinge, and Bohuslän. The third wave secured German territories, from Vorpommern to Bremen-Verden.

This status as an important European power ended with the Great Nordic War 1700–21, when Sweden lost southern Karelia, most of its German, and all of its Baltic territories. During the War of Finland in 1808–9 Russia conquered the whole of Finland including the Åland Islands. This loss was somewhat compensated, as Norway was separated from Denmark after the Napoleonic wars and given to Sweden in 1814. Norway, however, was never integrated into the Swedish realm; two separate and internally sovereign states joined in a personal union under the Swedish king.