12 ATLASES
History of Sweden in maps
Sweden as it appears in 12 interactive history atlases, from 790 to 2015: Sweden. Each era below lists who ruled the land and when control changed, linked to the dated map that shows it.
WW2 is free in full, and chapter 1 of every atlas is free. A free account opens 3 more chapters a day. Starter, at $9 a month, opens all 21 with no daily limit — see the plans.
Free printable Industrial Revolution study guide, sent by email ↓
What was Sweden before it was Sweden? The sections below follow this land through every era covered by the Maps of History atlases: who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed. Each line links to the dated map. Modern borders serve as an approximation, as each atlas says on the map itself.
Sweden · Norse and Aztecs
Swedes sailed east across the Baltic and along the rivers of Russia toward Byzantium and the Islamic world. Much of the silver found in Scandinavian hoards came back by these routes: Gotland alone has yielded hundreds of hoards, many containing Islamic coins. The eastern trade helped pay for ships and warriors, including those whose western voyages fill this atlas.
| Norse homelands & settlements — the opening position |
NORSE AND AZTECS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Sweden · Industrial Revolution
Sweden was poor and rural before becoming one of Europe’s fastest-growing economies after 1870. Timber and iron ore, followed by hydroelectric power, supported sawmills, paper mills, steelworks and engineering firms. Among these was SKF, the ball-bearing maker founded in 1907. Around a million Swedes emigrated to America between the 1850s and 1914, showing how hard life had been before industry arrived.
| Industrialising — the opening position | |
| Industrialising | |
| Industrial economy | |
| Industrialising | |
| Industrial economy |
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Sweden · Age of Revolutions
| Neutral / uncommitted — the opening position | |
| The conservative monarchies |
AGE OF REVOLUTIONS: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Sweden · Meiji Japan and post-Soviet Russia
| Non-aligned or stateless — the opening position |
MEIJI JAPAN AND POST-SOVIET RUSSIA: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Sweden · Russian Revolution
Neutral Sweden served as both a doorstep and a counting-house for the revolution. Lenin’s sealed-train party crossed it in April 1917, when his comrades insisted that he buy new boots in Stockholm. Once the blockade bit, Swedish banks became a conduit for Bolshevik gold reaching the West. The Finnish civil war and fighting in the Baltic brought Bolshevism close to Sweden’s doorstep. Stockholm sheltered refugees from both sides and quarrelled with the new Finland over the Åland Islands.
| Neutral or independent — the opening position |
RUSSIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Sweden · WWI
Sweden · Stalin’s Soviet Union
STALIN’S SOVIET UNION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Sweden · Road to WW2
| Neutral & unaligned — the opening position |
ROAD TO WW2: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Sweden · WW2
Sweden’s position between larger powers required difficult choices. It sold Germany iron ore used to build tanks, some shipped via Narvik (Ch. 3), while also sheltering Danish Jews and Allied airmen. Together with Switzerland, it offers a case study in the constraints on small neutral states.
Sweden · Cold War
COLD WAR: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Sweden · Feminism and the Tunisian Revolution
| Right won in law — the opening position | |
| Partial or unequal; treaty signed only; transition | |
| No reform yet / outside this story | |
| Right won in law |
FEMINISM AND THE TUNISIAN REVOLUTION: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Sweden · Refugee crises
Neutral Sweden offered asylum early. It received about 30,000 Estonians and Latvians fleeing the Soviet advance, and in 1945 the Swedish Red Cross’s White Buses carried about 15,000 concentration-camp prisoners to Sweden. Thousands more survivors arrived by sea that summer. In 1946 Sweden also controversially handed over to the Soviet Union about 150 Baltic soldiers who had served in German uniform.
REFUGEE CRISES: EVERY CHAPTER AND MAP →
Related
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