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SURVEY OF ITS HISTORY.
97
Sweden proper (Skåne, Halland, Blekinge, Gottland, Bohuslän, Härjedalen,
and Jämtland), which had hitherto belonged to Denmark or Norway. This was
an immensely valuable territorial acquisition, which increased the Swedish
population by almost one third and gave the country the boundaries which, under
modern conditions, must be termed its only natural ones. Moreover, of all the
territorial acquisitions made in its period of political greatness, these are the
only provinces that Sweden still has in her possession.
In 1658 the Swedish power had reached its culmination. Even after some
cessions had been made in 1660, it embraced the whole of present Sweden and
Finland, and in addition Esthonia, Livonia, a part of Ingria, Hither Pomerania,
Wismar, Bremen and Verden — a total area of 900 000 sq.km, with a
population estimated at that time at about 3 millions of people, corresponding, at
present, to about 4 times as many.
These stupendous wars, and the position of a Great Power so unexpectedly
acquired, reacted powerfully upon the internal conditions of Sweden. The greatly
augmented connections with foreign countries showed their force by exerting
a strong influence upon Swedish intellectual culture, which was promoted to a
high degree by the enlightened care and interest of Gustavus Adolphus, Axel
Oxenstierna, and Charles XI. The position of Sweden as a military power was
purchased, however, by her people at the price of heavy economic sacrifices; and
the common people could only with the greatest difficulty bear the heavy
burden of taxation and the continual recurrening military levies. The nobles
enriched themselves to a great extent by means of the war, and continually
increased their power as well as their wealth. Lordly castles, filled with foreign
booty, rose in all parts of the country, and the fiefs which the nobles received
in payment for their services to the country, made them masters of an
ever-increasing share of the land. The Edict of Reduction (or Compulsion, Forfeiture),
whereby the estates of the nobles so obtained reverted to the Crown, became
at last an inevitable necessity, and this tremendous economic revolution,
which completely broke the power of the nobility and transformed its members,
in a considerable measure, into a nobility of state officials, was carried out in
due legal form by Charles XI. The constitution of the Church was fixed at the
same time; and its clergy reached the height of their ecclesiastico-political
greatness during the seventeenth century.
Sweeping changes were made in the Form of Government. Gustavus
Adolphus prepared, and Axel Oxenstierna carried out in 1634, the reform of
the administration, which made national unity complete, and placed at its head
a monarchical power, supported by a powerful Council, composed of the chief
representatives of the highest noble families and forming an admirably
organized ruling body based on a corporate system. The balance of power within the
State was for some time disturbed, to the advantage of the nobles, by the great
wealth of that class, and also through the increased influence accruing to the
Council during the long regencies. But the royal power had everywhere emerged
from the Thirty Years War with increased strength, and royal absolutism
soon made its triumphal march through Europe; and in the long run Sweden
could not remain untouched by this movement. The great extremities in which
the State found itself after the wars entered upon by the feeble Regency during
the youth of Charles XI, aroused a general ill-will against the Council and the
nobility; and the forcible measures which were found necessary for the salvation
of the country could not be carried out without a royal absolutism, which under
these conditions almost assumed the character of an ancient Roman dictatorship.
Indeed, about 1680, absolution was embodied in the constitution; and Charles
XI devoted himself with the strictest conscientiousness to the welfare of his
kingdom. — The absolutism then introduced did not, however, involve the aboli-
7—133179. Smeden. I.
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