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The book describes and analyses the 'Swedish Deluge' (potop
szwedski), the devastating 1655-1660 wars fought between Sweden,
the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Brandenburg-Prussia, Muscovite
Russia, Transylvania, Cossack Ukraine, the Tatar Khanate of Crimea,
and the Holy Roman Empire during the reign of Swedish King Charles
X Gustavus, an experienced former general from the Thirty Years'
War. By invading the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, King Charles
saw an opportunity to put an end to the Polish King's claim to the
Swedish throne and to gain additional territories which would
enable him to control the Baltic Sea maritime trade. The book
focuses on the Swedish-Commonwealth war, which provoked the
political and military collapse of the Commonwealth. However, since
this conflict cannot be disentangled from the simultaneous wars
between the Commonwealth and Muscovy, from 1654 to 1667, and
between Sweden and Muscovy, from 1656 to 1661, they are described
as well. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian cossacks fought for freedom from
what they perceived as the oppression of the Commonwealth. Michael
Fredholm von Essen presents new research on a war previously seldom
described in English. Moreover, the book explains the continued
development of the Swedish Army after the Thirty Years' War. It
also provides full details on the dissimilar military systems of
the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Brandenburg-Prussia, Muscovite
Russia, Cossack Ukraine, Transylvania, the Crimean Tatar Khanate,
and the Imperial expeditionary forces engaged in the Swedish
Deluge.
The book describes and analyses the early modern Swedish army
during the Thirty Years War after the death in 1632 of King
Gustavus Adolphus. At this time, military operations were handled
by field marshals under the overall command of the Swedish
Chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna. The book expands our understanding of
the Swedish army during the Thirty Years War by focusing on its
later operations, including those against Polish and Danish
opponents, and not only on the better-known operations in Germany
against the Catholic League and the Holy Roman Empire. Meanwhile,
Oxenstierna continued his administrative reforms, which enabled
Sweden consistently to raise troops, despite the small population
of Sweden and its territories, and enabled an intelligence and
logistics system which could supply the armies, despite the vast
geographical depth of operations. While the Swedish army of
Gustavus Adolphus positioned Sweden as an emerging great power, it
was the subsequent developments of the army under Oxenstierna that
enabled the Swedish rise to regional great power status. While the
army of Gustavus Adolphus has been described elsewhere, the Swedish
army's later developments are less well known. Moreover, the book
includes current research that has not yet appeared in the English
language. It also describes the 1643-1645 Swedish invasion of
Denmark ('Torstensson's War') and the battles and sieges, including
those of Vienna and Prague, that led up to the Peace of Westphalia,
which concluded the Thirty Years War. Finally, the book covers the
military aspects of the establishment of Sweden's first American
colony.
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