In August of 1721, Sweden and Russia concluded the last peace treaty of the Great Northern War. In the treaty, a substantial part of the Swedish Empire was ceded to Russia. Sweden lost Ingria, Estonia, Ösel, Livonia and the southeastern parts of Finland. In peace treaties prior to the treaty with Russia, Sweden had ceded the German province of Bremen-Verden to Hanover and parts of the German province of Pomerania to Brandenburg/Prussia. After more than twenty-two years of defensive warfare, which at times had been turned into offensives, Sweden had lost much of its most valuable territory. Some of the territory had been of the highest strategic value, since it had kept Russia barred from the shores of the Baltic Sea. The losses were the result of concerted attacks, first by Saxony, Denmark and Russia, with Brandenburg/Prussia and Hanover joining later. Poland-Lithuania also became involved in the war against Sweden.
The Great Northern War became one of the more traumatic experiences in Swedish collective memory. The status as a power in Europe was lost, never to be recovered. Among disasters in Swedish early modern history, the Great Northern War compares only to the loss of Finland in 1808–1809. The Great Northern War has not gone unnoticed by historians, quite the opposite. Literature on the war counts well over a thousand titles, and the stream of it goes on. Warfare can be studied on a number of levels, for example, foreign policy and diplomatic levels, levels of domestic politics and leadership, the economic level, the geographical level and the military level. The geographical level dictated the circumstances under which the other levels had to operate. Of the various levels, the military level tends to be decisive, once a war is a fact; other factors will act in support of, or as constraints to, the military level. The military level could be subdivided into the field-army level, the fortress level and the navy level.
Author(s): Ulf Sundberg
Publisher: Åbo Akademi University Press
Year: 2018
Language: English
Pages: 424
TRANSLATIONS xii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xiv
FOREWORD xvi
1. INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Purpose 3
1.3 Method 4
1.4 Delimitations 7
1.5 Earlier research 8
1.6 Sources 18
1.7 Note On Dates 25
2. THE SWEDISH EMPIRE 26
2.1 Introduction 26
2.2 The creation of the Swedish empire 26
2.3 Command organization 31
2.4 The defense of the Swedish empire 33
2.5 The Great Northern War 43
2.6 Opinions on the fall of the Swedish Empire 53
3. FORTRESS WARFARE 58
3.1 Introduction 58
3.2 Fortresses 61
Introduction 61
The purpose of a fortress 61
Fortress construction 64
Fortress location 74
A structure for fortress location 76
Opposing forces 86
3.3 Resolving siege battles 89
Introduction 89
Examples of siege army tactics 89
Structures for siege army tactics 93
Resolutions and siege countertactics 102
A note on siege duration 109
Summary 109
3.4 THREE LONG SIEGES IN EARLY MODERN TIMES 110
INTRODUCTION 110
Candia 1648–1669 111
Gibraltar 1779–1783 116
Cadiz 1810–1812 121
Conclusions 127
4. SIEGES 1702–1710 129
4.1 Introduction 129
4.2 Menzen 1702 132
4.3 Marienburg 1702 138
4.4 Nöteborg 1702 143
4.5 Nyenskans 1703 151
4.6 Jama 1703 157
4.7 Koporie 1703 163
4.8 Narva and Ivangorod 1704 166
Introduction 166
Prior to the siege 174
The siege 180
After the siege 205
Narva and Ivangorod - conclusions 207
4.9 Dorpat 1704 209
4.10 Viborg 1706 219
4.11 Riga 1709–1710 229
Introduction 229
Prior to the siege 237
The siege 240
After the siege 264
Riga – conclusion 264
4.12 Neumünde 1710 266
4.13 Pernau 1710 271
4.14 Arensburg 1710 277
4.15 Reval 1710 285
4.16 Viborg 1710 297
Introduction 297
Prior to the siege 302
The siege 308
After the siege 327
Viborg - conclusions 329
4.17 Kexholm 1710 330
4.18 Landskrona 1709–1710 338
4.19 Malmö 1709–1710 347
4.20 Karlshamn’s redoubt 1710 354
4.21 Conclusion 360
5. CONCLUSIONS 361
5.1 Introduction 361
5.2 The Swedish fortification system 361
5.3 Flaws and the loss of men, materiel and land 368
5.4 Why were the flaws built into the fortification system? 373
5.5 Conclusion 375
EPILOGUE 384
SWEDISH SUMMARY – SAMMANFATTNING 386
BIBLIOGRAPHY 39
