Swedish Empire

State · 1612–1814 CE · at its largest around 1632 CE

Sweden during its period as a European great power, from the reign of Gustavus Adolphus, whose victories in the Thirty Years' War brought Baltic territories, until defeat in the Great Northern War.

On its lands while it lasted

Hanseatic trade route (1356–1669 CE): The Hanseatic League of north German merchant towns, led by Lübeck, dominated Baltic and North Sea trade from London and Bruges to Novgorod, exchanging furs, wax, grain, fish and timber for cloth and salt.
Johannes Kepler (1571 CE – 1630 CE): German astronomer and mathematician who, working in Prague with Tycho Brahe’s observations, found that planets move in ellipses and formulated his three laws of planetary motion.
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.
Thirty Years' War (1618–1648 CE): A series of wars fought mainly in the Holy Roman Empire from 1618 to 1648, involving most European powers. It devastated Germany, where millions died from fighting, famine and disease.
Peace of Westphalia (1648 CE): Treaties signed at Osnabrück and Münster in 1648 ended the Thirty Years' War and the Eighty Years' War. They recognised Dutch and Swiss independence and reshaped the European state system.
Peter the Great (1672 CE – 1725 CE): Tsar and first Emperor of Russia who modernised the state and army on western European lines, defeated Sweden and founded Saint Petersburg.
Battle of Vienna (1683 CE): In September 1683 a relief army under King John III Sobieski of Poland defeated the Ottomans besieging Vienna. It began the Habsburg reconquest of Hungary.
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 CE – 1750 CE): German composer and organist, cantor of St Thomas Church in Leipzig from 1723. His works, including the Brandenburg Concertos and St Matthew Passion, are summits of Baroque music.
Wetzlar (c. 1689 CE): Capital of Holy Roman Empire (1689–1806), Holy Roman Empire Minor States (1689–1806).
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.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 CE – 1791 CE): Prolific composer from Salzburg who worked in Vienna from 1781. His operas, symphonies and concertos are central to the Classical style.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 CE – 1827 CE): Composer born in Bonn who worked in Vienna from 1792. Despite growing deafness he wrote works bridging the Classical and Romantic eras.
Partitions of Poland (1772–1795 CE): In three partitions in 1772, 1793 and 1795, Russia, Prussia and Austria divided the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth among themselves, ending its independent existence for 123 years.
Congress of Vienna (1814–1815 CE): A conference of European states chaired by Metternich in 1814–1815 that redrew the map of Europe after Napoleon's defeat and created a lasting balance of power.