Two Thousand Years of Sweden Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tacitus

Written around 98 AD, "De origine et situ Germanorum" ("Of the Origins and Situation of the Germans"), commonly known as "Germania", is the earliest surviving historical and ethnographic treatise on the Germanic peoples who lived outside the boundaries of the Roman Empire. After a general description of the lands inhabited by those peoples, as well as their laws and customs, Tacitus describes each people individually, starting from those who lived closer to the Roman borders. In Chapter 44, the historian (whose work is based on second-hand sources, mainly a lost work by Pliny the Elder) mentions the Suiones, who are described as expert seafarers, their two-prowed ships (an apt description of Viking longships) always ready to run into shore. The name "Suiones" is believed to have derived from a Proto-Germanic reflexive pronominal root (as in Latin "suus"), meaning "one's own (tribesmen)"; the name "Sweden" ('Suecia" in Latin, and "Sverige" in Swedish) also contains this root. .

Even though Sweden is rarely mentioned in antiquity, its territory (especially the south) is believed to have been inhabited for over 10,000 years. The map in the photo depicts the Roman Empire and its neighbouring lands in 125 AD, under Emperor Hadrian - a few years after Tacitus's death.

Tacitus is the only historian out of the four options provided: the other three are all famous Roman poets.

Answer: Varangians

Derived from the Old Norse "Væringjar" (meaning "sworn companion"), the name "Varangians" was given by Byzantine Greeks to the mainly Swedish Vikings that, between the 9th and the 11th centuries, settled in various parts of Eastern Europe. The first mention of the Varangians (called
"Varyags" in Old East Slavic - a name that also appears in J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings") is found in the "Russian Primary Chronicle", a 12th-century chronicle that narrates the origin of the land of Rus'. The tale begins with the arrival of the Varangian chieftain Rurik and his brothers, Sineus and Truvor, at Ladoga (depicted in the painting by Russian 19th-century artist Viktor Vastnetsov shown in the photo). Rurik, who settled in Novgorod the Great, was the founder of the Rurikid dynasty that ruled Russia until the early 17th century. The name Rus' is believed to have the same origin as "Ruotsi", the Finnish name for Sweden - that is, an Old Norse word meaning "the men who row".

Like other Vikings, the Varangians engaged in piracy and trade, and engaged in frequent warfare against the Byzantine Empire. In the early 10th century, Varangians began to serve as mercenaries in the Byzantine Army; these mercenaries became the elite unit of warriors known as Varangian Guard, the bodyguards of the Emperor of Byzantium until the 14th century. Most members of the Varangian Guard were Swedish, and were distinguished by their long hair and the dragons sewn on their chainmail shirt. They were much feared for their fierceness in battle, and believed to be "berserkers", who fought in a state of trance-like fury. Many of the ancient runestones found throughout Sweden are associated with the Varangian Guard, commemorating warriors fallen while fighting in foreign lands - in particular the lands of "Garðariki" ("kingdom of cities"), the Norse name for Rus'.

While Venetians refers to people from the Republic of Venice, Vandals and Visigoths are both Germanic peoples that invaded the Roman Empire in the 5th and 6th centuries.

Answer: Finland

Sweden was the last of the three Scandinavian countries to adopt Christianity - a process that happened gradually between the 9th and the 11th centuries. King Eric IX (known as Eric the Saint), a semi-legendary monarch who ruled between 1156 and 1160, is believed to have organized the first of three "Crusades" to spread Christianity in Finland. According to the legend, Eric took Henry, the English-born Bishop of Uppsala, with him, and persuaded him to remain in Finland - where eventually Henry was killed by a peasant named Lalli. At that time, however, southwestern Finland was very likely already Christianized for the most part.

The Second Swedish Crusade, undertaken by nobleman Birger Jarl in the mid-13th century, is still debated by historians, but in any case contributed to bringing the historical Finnish province of Tavastia (the southern part of the country) under Swedish rule. The third, and final, of the Swedish crusades in Finland occurred in 1293, and was conducted against the pagan Karelians, which were raiding the Baltic Sea region and harassing travelers. Karelia (now in Russia) became part of the Swedish kingdom; the famous Vyborg Castle (located between Helsinki and St Petersburg) was built as a stronghold of the Swedish realm, and for many centuries acted as the kingdom's first defense against Russia.

The photo shows a late medieval depiction of Eric the Saint and Bishop Henry sailing to Finland.

Answer: Gustav Vasa

Since 1397, Sweden, Denmark and Norway had been in a personal union named after the Swedish city of Kalmar, where the first joint monarch of the three Scandinavian kingdoms was crowned. However, Denmark soon became the dominant power, to Sweden's detriment. In late 1520, following the Stockholm Bloodbath (in which his father was killed), Gustav Eriksson, a member of the noble Vasa family, became the leader of the resistance against Denmark in the Swedish War of Liberation - which eventually led to the dissolution of the Kalmar Union. He was elected king in 1523 with the name of Gustav I, and promptly put an end to elective monarchy, establishing the House of Vasa as the kingdom's ruling house. In 1536 he broke with the Catholic Church, and established the Lutheran Church of Sweden under his personal control. During his 37-year reign, Gustav introduced various reforms regarding the organization of the government, but also had to face several rebellions, which were dealt with harshly. He died in 1560 after a few years of declining health.

Gustav's flight from the Danes in the winter of 1520-21 is commemorated by the Vasaloppet ("Vasa-race"), the world's oldest cross-country ski race, held every year since 1922. A century later, the name of the Vasa reigning house was given to a massive ship built by Gustavus Adolphus, the father of Queen Christina (Q. 6), which sank during her maiden voyage in 1628. Its wreck is preserved in a museum that is one of Stockholm's most visited tourist attractions; the ship's upper transom is depicted in the photo. The House of Vasa also ruled the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1567 to 1668.

The three incorrect choices were all state leaders of the 15th and 16th century. Vlad Tepes, Voivode of Wallachia, is also known as Vlad the Impaler, while Sebastiano Venier was the Venetian admiral at the Battle of Lepanto (1571) who later became Doge, and Boris Godunov was Tsar of Russia.

Answer: Thirty Years' War

The Thirty Years' War, fought between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most savage and destructive conflicts ever fought on European territory. Directly or indirectly, this war was responsible for the death of an estimated 8 million people in Central Europe - leading to the loss of about one-third of of the population of the Holy Roman Empire, the main theatre of war. Most European powers were drawn into the struggle between the Protestant and the Catholic parts of the Empire - in particular the Habsburg monarchy of Austria and Spain, and the French House of Bourbon, which were vying for European supremacy. Sweden entered the conflict in 1630 as part of the Anti-Imperial Alliance; it was involved in a number of important battles, one of which (the Battle of Lützen) claimed the life of King Gustavus Adolphus (see Q. 4), nicknamed "The Lion of the North", and considered the founder of the Swedish Empire. Though Sweden's fortunes shifted during the war, the conflict established the kingdom as a military force to be reckoned with.

The Peace of Westphalia, signed in October 1648, compensated Sweden for the losses sustained during the war, granting it a sizable part of the former Duchy of Pomerania (on the Baltic coast of present-day Germany and Poland), the town of Wismar (also on the Baltic coast), and the bishoprics of Bremen and Verden, on the North Sea - as well as the hefty sum of 5 million thalers, which were mostly used to pay troops. As a consequence of the treaty, Sweden found itself in control of the third-largest area in Europe after Russia and Spain, reaching its largest territorial extent in 1658, under King Karl X Gustav.

The painting by Dutch artist Gerard ter Borch depicts the ratification of the Peace that took place in Münster in 1648.

Answer: René Descartes

The only surviving legitimate child of Gustavus Adolphus, Christina became Queen of Sweden in 1632, at the age of 6, after her father's death in the Battle of Lützen (see Q. 5); Axel Oxenstierna, who had been her father's right-hand man, acted as regent before she reached her majority. A fascinating, though controversial character, this very well-educated woman reigned for over 20 years before her conversion to Catholicism and subsequent abdication in favour of her cousin, Charles Gustav. She liked to dress in masculine clothing, was keenly interested in science, philosophy, art, theatre, and music, and refused to consider marriage. In 1651, worn out by an excess of work, Christina suffered a nervous breakdown, which led to her abdication in June 1654. A few months later, the former queen converted to Catholicism (in which she had been interested for a long time), and settled in Rome, where she died in 1689. For her role in the Catholic Counter-Reformation, Christina was given a sumptuous funeral, and was buried in the Vatican Grotto. She was the last ruler of the House of Vasa, which became extinct in 1672, with the death of John II Casimir, King of Poland.

René Descartes, the eminent French scientist and philosopher known for his statement "I think, therefore I am", corresponded with Christina for some time, and was invited by the Queen to Stockholm - which she aimed to make into the "Athens of the North" - to establish a new academy. Descartes accepted, and left for Sweden in the winter of 1649. The Queen and Descartes met only a few times, realizing they did not much care for each other. Those few meetings in Stockholm's cold and draughty royal castle, however, were enough for Descartes to catch pneumonia, which led to its death in February 1650.

The portrait of Queen Christina was done by French artist Sébastien Bourdon, who was Christina's first court painter. While Blaise Pascal was a contemporary of Descartes, Lavoisier lived in the 18th century, and Pasteur in the 19th.

Answer: Peter the Great

Sweden's status as one of Europe's major powers was consolidated in the 1650s by the successful military campaigns of Charles X Gustav during the Second Northern War, which brought about the acquisition of the former Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the defeat of Denmark, the kingdom's arch-rival. However, after Charles X's death in 1660, the Empire began to lose important territories on the southern Baltic coast. The next king, Charles XI, was more preoccupied with strengthening the power of the crown - becoming an absolute monarch like Louis XIV had done in France - and keeping the peace after so many years of war. Upon his death in 1696, his underage son became king with the name of Charles XII - a highly skilled military leader who pitted himself against the rising power of Russia led by Tsar Peter I, known as the Great.

Charles XII's involvement in the Great Northern War (1700-1721) eventually brought about the downfall of the Swedish Empire, in spite of an impressive string of victories in the early years of the conflict. On 8 July 1709, a much larger Russian force - commanded by the Tsar himself - defeated the Swedish Army at the Battle of Poltava, in present-day Ukraine. Charles spent the remaining years of his life trying to defend Sweden from the attacks of Russia, Denmark and other countries, but was eventually killed by a shot to the head in 1718, during a siege in Norway. The Poltava disaster nearly destroyed the mighty Swedish army, and the kingdom's expansion in Northern Europe was brought to an abrupt halt - never again to recover. The Russian Empire founded by Peter the Great became the dominant power in Northern and Eastern Europe, where it held sway for almost two centuries. After Charles XII's death, Sweden became a parliamentary monarchy.

The portrait of Peter the Great in the photo was painted by French artist Jean-Marc Nattier during the Tsar's stay in Amsterdam. The three monarchs listed as incorrect answers also ruled their countries at the turn of the 18th century.

Answer: Bernadotte

After half a century of parliamentary monarchy (the "Age of Liberty") following Charles XII's death, in the 1770s Sweden reverted to absolute monarchy - though an "enlightened" version of it - with Gustav III. His successor, Gustav IV, found himself embroiled in the Napoleonic Wars - an involvement that ended up in defeat, with Sweden losing the remainder of Pomerania to Prussia, and Finland to Russia. It was the loss of Finland that triggered the military uprising that forced Gustav IV to abdicate and go into exile with his family. Since his successor, his uncle Charles XIII, had no heirs, French Marshal Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was chosen as heir-presumptive, in order to strengthen Sweden's ties with Napoleon. In November 1810 he was formally adopted by Charles XIII, and - upon the latter's death in 1818 - ascended the throne with the name of Charles XIV John, King of Sweden and Norway. Bernadotte's defeat of Denmark in 1814, which led to Swedish control of Norway until 1905, was to be the last war fought by Sweden (see Q. 10). Charles XVI John's rule ushered a new era of peace and prosperity for Sweden, after years of turmoil and financial mismanagement. The painting by Per Krafft the Younger, who was court painter at the time, depicts the coronation of Charles XIV John in Stockholm Cathedral, on 11 May 1818.

Charles XIV John was married to Desirée Clary, Napoleon's one-time fiancée, whose sister was married to the French Emperor's brother, Joseph Bonaparte. The current King of Sweden (as of 2022), Carl XVI Gustaf, is a direct descendant of Charles XIV John; the rulers of Denmark, Norway, Belgium, and Luxembourg are also descended from Charles XIV John through his grandson, Oscar II, who succeeded his older brother, Charles XV, in 1872.

Molière was a 17th-century French playwright, while Robespierre was one of the leaders of the French Revolution, and Baudelaire a 19th-century poet.

Answer: famine

Having finally achieved peace under the House of Bernadotte after centuries of war, in the 19th century Sweden became more urbanized, and its population grew significantly. However, the century was not all smooth sailing for the kingdom: in the 1860s Sweden was hit by the last major famine in Europe due to natural causes. The famine spread from Finland, after the extremely rainy summer of 1966. In Sweden, 1867 came to be known as "Storvagåret" ("The Year of Great Weakness"): spring and summer were much colder than normal, with snow still on the ground in the month of June in some parts of the country - which caused the harvests to be insufficient to feed both people and cattle. With rising food prices came widespread famine, especially severe in the north of the country, where the inclement weather hindered the delivery and distribution of emergency food supplies. The following year, while warmer, was characterized by prolonged drought, which exacerbated an already difficult situation. In Finland (at the time part of the Russian Empire) the famine caused the death of over 150,000 people - about 15% of the country's population - while the death toll in Sweden was considerably lower (about 10,000 people).

In spite of extensive fundraising from both inside and outside Sweden, strict governmental regulations (which involved being willing to work in order to receive help) limited the distribution of emergency relief. In some regions of the country, starving people resorted to eat bread made with lichen flour (a practice encouraged by the authorities), which caused vomiting and chest pains. This volatile situation could have easily led to serious unrest: mass emigration to the US became a safety valve for Swedish society as a whole. It is estimated that about one million Swedes left their country between 1850 and 1910. Most of them settled in the Midwestern US, as did migrants from other Scandinavian and Baltic countries.

In the early 20th century, industrialization, which in Sweden came later than in other Western European countries, put an end to the steady flow of emigration. After WWII, Sweden gradually became a country of immigration, and now has one of Europe's highest rates of foreign-born inhabitants. The painting by Knut Ekwall, simply titled "The Emigrants", depicts the artist's own vision of the experience of many Swedish people that boarded transatlantic ships in search of a better life.

Answer: True

Like Switzerland (with which it is often confused), Sweden has been neutral for much of the past 200-odd years. Though the formal declaration of neutrality was issued in 1834 by King Charles XIV John (see Q. 8), the country has been unofficially neutral since 1814, the last year in which it was engaged in war. When WWI broke out, Sweden remained in a state of armed neutrality, and continued to trade with both the Entente and the Central Powers. The only lapse from this state occurred in 1918, when Sweden occupied the Åland Islands in the Baltic Sea after Finland declared its independence from Russia.

Sweden retained the same policy of armed neutrality during WWII, in an attempt to protect its own interests. In fact, it did allow passage through its territory to German troops, and traded extensively with the Nazi regime, supplying steel and ball bearings. Even though this realist stance was deemed essential for Sweden's survival, it was intensely criticized by people such as Winston Churchill. At the end of the war, Sweden declined NATO membership (as did Finland, though for different reasons), and kept its neutrality throughout the Cold War. It did, however, join the United Nations in 1946. It joined NATO in 2024.

The map in the photo shows the Cold War alliances in mid-1975: the countries in green are those that were not allied with either the US or Russia/China.