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The military history of Sweden is very diverse. During the last millennium, the military has developed from a peasant army to one of the world's best organized conscripted armies during the thirty years war in early 17th century.
Middle Ages
The Russo-Swedish War (1495–1497) was a result of an alliance between Ivan III of Russia and Hans of Denmark, who was waging war against the Sture family of Sweden in the hope of regaining the Swedish throne. Ivan III sent Princes Daniil Shchenya and Vasily Shuisky to lay siege to the Swedish castle of Vyborg. The siege lasted for three months and ended when a castellan set his supply of powder on fire, thus "scaring the Muscovites out of their wits", as the Swedish records say. The following year Russian generals Vasily Kosoy and Andrey Chelyadnin severely devastated Swedish Finland as far as Hämeenlinna (Tavastehus). Another detachment sailed along the shore, forcing the Finns into subservience.
Sten Sture the Elder, who was then at Turku (Åbo), was enraged at the news of the Russian expedition and sent Svante Nilsson with 2,000 men to take Ivangorod, a new fortress which Ivan III had built to protect Russian Ingria against Livonian Knights. The fortress was taken but was impossible to defend it for a considerable period of time — Svante Nilsson proposed to hand it over to the Knights, an offer which they declined. Thereupon the Swedes set the fortress ablaze and sailed home. After the Swedish throne fell to Hans of Denmark, hostilities were suspended until 1508, when Sweden and Russia ratified a peace treaty for 60 years. Sweden and Russia would fight many wars in the following centuries (see Russo-Swedish Wars)
Swedish War of Liberation
The Swedish War of Liberation (1521–1523) was a civil war in which the Swedish nobleman Gustav Vasa successfully deposed the Danish king Kristian II, as regent of the Kalmar Union in Sweden.
Polish–Swedish Wars
The Polish–Swedish wars were a series of wars between the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Sweden, in the wider meaning to the series of wars in which both Sweden and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth participated between 1563 and 1721, in the narrower meaning denoting the two wars between 1600 and 1629.
Kalmar War
The Kalmar War lasted from 1611 to 1613 over Baltic trade.
The Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought between 1618 and 1648, principally on the territory of today's Germany, and involved most of the major European continental powers, including Sweden. Although it was from the outset a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics, the rivalry between the Habsburg dynasty and other powers was also a central motive.
Sweden held, for a time, control of the principal trade routes of the Baltic; and the increment of revenue resulting from this commanding position was of material assistance during the earlier stages of the war in Germany, whither the Swedish king Gustavus II Adolphus transferred his forces in June 1630. Gustavus, later to be called "the Lion of the North" due to his skills as a commander, intervened on the Protestant side in the German civil war. Using new military techniques such as lighter and more mobile artillery and cavalry shocks, he won an astounding victory at the Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631. In the Battle of Lützen in November 6 1632, he was killed, though, and Sweden lost their warrior-king. The battle itself was a draw, but two years later the tide turned at Nördlingen, where Imperial troops won a convincing victory over the Protestant Army. In order to prevent the Habsburg's from winning the war, France, who had already given subsidies to Sweden, intervened on the Protestant side. The war dragged on for many years until a peace agreement was at last reached in 1648. At the Peace of Westphalia Sweden received an indemnity, as well as control of Western Pomerania and the bishoprics of Bremen and Verden. It thus won control of the mouth of the Oder, Elbe, and Weser Rivers, and acquired three voices in the Council of Princes of the German Reichstag.
Swedish Empire
Swedish kings Gustavus II Adolphus and Charles XII were famous strategists.
- Caroleans ("karoliner")
- Swedish allotment system
Dutch-Swedish War
The Dutch-Swedish War (1658-1660), was a Dutch intervention in the Northern Wars, in which Sweden tried to extend its control over the Baltic Sea.
The Scanian War
The Scanian War was fought between the union of Denmark-Norway and Sweden from 1675–1679. The war was prompted by the Swedish involvement in the Franco-Dutch War. Sweden had allied with France against several European countries. The United Provinces, under attack by France, sought support from Denmark-Norway.
The Danish objective was to retrieve the Scanian lands that had been given to Sweden after the Northern Wars. Although the Danish offensive was initially a great success, Swedish counter-offensives nullified much of the gain. Eventually, a French-dictated peace was negotiated stipulating that all territory lost by Sweden be returned.
Great Northern War
The Great Northern War took place between 1700 and 1721. It was fought between a coalition of Russia, Denmark-Norway, and Saxony (also the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, from 1701, and Prussia and Hanover from 1715) and Sweden, which was helped by the Ottoman Empire.
The war began as a coordinated attack on Sweden by the coalition in 1700 and ended in 1721 with the Treaty of Nystad and the Stockholm treaties. A result of the war was the end of the Swedish Empire. Russia supplanted Sweden as the dominant Power on the Baltic Sea and became a major player in European politics.
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars comprised a series of global conflicts fought during Napoleon Bonaparte's imperial rule over France (1805–1815). They formed to some extent an extension of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789. Sweden was part of the Fourth Coalition alliance organized against Napoleon's French Empire in 1806-1807. Sweden was also part of the Sixth Coalition. The principal battles involving Sweden included the Battle of Großbeeren and the Battle of Leipzig.
World War II
Swedish neutrality had been policy of Sweden since the end of the Napoleonic Wars, including during World War II. See Sweden during World War II''
Cold war
Sweden kept the non-alignment policy as well as the conscription-based army. The Swedish Air Force became one of the world's most prominent thanks to SAAB and other contractors.
Post-cold war
During the 1990s, the armed forces budget was cut and several regiments were closed down. Several regiment towns have protested against downsizings, and government has tried to prevent rising unemployment by relocating state agencies to these towns.
The number of enlisted recruits has decreased.
Since the ending of the cold war, and despite a continuing position of neutrality, Sweden has been slowly playing an increased role in international operations, including NATO operations in Kosovo (KFOR) and Afghanistan (the International Security Assistance Force)