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| 2. Sweden |
| 1523–1654 |
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| The HOUSE OF VASA, under whom Sweden became the strongest power in the Baltic. | 1 |
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| 1523–60 |
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| GUSTAVUS I. War with Lübeck, concluded by the Treaty of 1537, put an end to the trade monopoly of the Hanseatic League in the Baltic region. In the internal life of Sweden, the most important event was the progress of the Reformation. Olaus Petri successfully preached Lutheran doctrine and translated the New Testament into Swedish (1526). | 2 |
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| 1527 |
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| By the decision of the riksdag (parliament) of Västeras, bishops were made entirely dependent on the king; payment of the Peter's pence to the pope was discontinued; church estates were partially secularized. | 3 |
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| 1529 |
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| The ordinances of the Synod of Örebro modified the church service in the Protestant sense. | 4 |
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| 1560–68 |
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| As the Swedish crown was made hereditary, Gustavus Vasa was succeeded by his son ERIC XIV. Under him Baltic expansion continued and Sweden came into the possession of Reval (1561) and the adjoining territory. Toward the end of his life Eric became insane and finally was deposed. Under his brother John III and John's son Sigismund (king of Poland since 1587), Sweden participated in the Livonian War (See 1557–71), in which it acquired all of Estonia with Narva, by the Treaty of Teusina (1595). | 5 |
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| 1593 |
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| Sigismund's attempt to restore Catholicism was met by the reaffirmation of the Protestant faith, based on the Confession of Augsburg, at the Convention of Uppsala, while his absolutist tendencies provoked. | 6 |
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| 1599 |
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| A rebellion ended in Sigismund's deposition. He was succeeded by the youngest son of Gustavus Vasa. | 7 |
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| 1604–11 |
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| CHARLES IX (in virtual control of the government since 1599), under whom Sweden intervened in Russia during the Time of Troubles (See 1609–18). | 8 |
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| 1611–32 |
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| Under his son and successor, GUSTAVUS II ADOLPHUS, war with Russia was ended by the Treaty of Stolbovo (1617), in which Sweden acquired eastern Carelia and Ingria, cutting Russia off from the Baltic Sea. | 9 |
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| 1621–29 |
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| A war with Poland, the result of dynastic competition, in the course of which Sweden occupied all of Livonia. (For Swedish participation in the Thirty Years' War, see (See 1630, July)). | 10 |
| The domestic policy of Gustavus Adolphus was one of conciliation. A royal charter (1611) gave the council and the estates a voice in all questions of legislation and a power of veto in matters of war and peace. Administration and courts were modernized, education promoted, commerce and industry sponsored, foreign immigration invited. The king's chief collaborator was his chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna (1583–1654). | 11 |
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| 1632–54 |
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| Oxenstierna became the ruler of Sweden under Gustavus Adolphus's daughter, CHRISTINA. (For Swedish acquisitions under the Treaties of Westphalia, (See Sweden and Finland). (See Sweden and Finland) | 12 |
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