Kingdom of Sweden

State · 980–2026 CE · at its largest around 1564 CE

Scandinavian kingdom that gradually unified the Svear and Götar peoples and became Christian during the Middle Ages; it remains a monarchy to this day.

On its lands while it lasted

Stockholm (c. 980 CE): Capital of Kingdom of Sweden (980–today), Kalmar Union (1436–1523), Swedish Empire (1612–1721), and 1 more.
Koknese (c. 1180 CE): Capital of Principality of Koknese (1180–1206).
Riga (1201 CE): Capital of Republic of Latvia (1920–today).
Jelgava (1226 CE): Capital of Duchy of Courland (1734–1793).
Kalmar Union (1397 CE): Union of the crowns of Denmark, Norway and Sweden under a single monarch, created under Margaret I and lasting until 1523.
Uppsala (c. 1402 CE): Capital of Kalmar Union (1402–1436).
Gustavus Adolphus (1594 CE – 1632 CE): King of Sweden from 1611 who made his country a great power. His intervention in the Thirty Years' War saved the Protestant cause; he died at the Battle of Lützen.
Great Northern War (1700–1721 CE): A coalition led by Russia fought the Swedish Empire from 1700 to 1721. Russia's victory, sealed by the Treaty of Nystad, made it the leading power of northern Europe.
Saint Petersburg (1703 CE): Peter the Great founded Saint Petersburg on the Neva delta in 1703 as a 'window to Europe'. It was Russia's capital from 1712 to 1918.
Catherine the Great (1729 CE – 1796 CE): German-born Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She expanded Russia to the Black Sea and into partitioned Poland and corresponded with Enlightenment thinkers.
Emancipation of the Russian serfs (1861 CE): Tsar Alexander II's manifesto of 1861 abolished serfdom throughout the Russian Empire, freeing more than 20 million privately owned serfs.
Periodic table (1869 CE): Dmitri Mendeleev in Saint Petersburg published his periodic table of the chemical elements in 1869, leaving gaps for elements that were later discovered.
October Revolution (1917 CE): In November 1917 (October in the old calendar) Lenin's Bolsheviks overthrew the Provisional Government in Petrograd, storming the Winter Palace and creating the first communist state.
Tallinn (c. 1919 CE): Capital of Estonia (1919–1939), Republic of Estonia (1992–today).
Siege of Leningrad (1941–1944 CE): German and Finnish forces blockaded Leningrad for 872 days from September 1941 to January 1944. Around a million civilians died, mostly from starvation.