Sweden
1852-54 - Europe Ablaze!
Although Russian desires for expansion at Turkish expense had been checked, they were by no means ended. From 1850 onwards, a slow, intricate dance of overture, promise, alliance, and counter-alliance writhed through the courts of Europe. Firmest in the anti-Russian camp were Sweden and Prussia, both worried by the growing power of their already-mighty neighbour - and, if truth were told, eager to expand at her expense. Their historic alliance with Austria was renewed; that Power, however, had troubles of her own, as years of mismanagement had decimated her armed forces.
The key to victory against Russia, it was soon realised, would be France. She alone had the power to tie up the Prussian army - mainstay of the Central Alliance - in a two-front war. Likewise, the French armies, committed to the Eastern Front, could turn hard-fought war into certain victory. Overtures, therefore, were made, and an alliance signed. Perfidious France! Her armies were worthy of a better nation.
The minor powers, too, aligned themselves. Greece, of course, stood firm with Russia, eager to torment the hereditary foe and establish a new Magna Graeciae. The Netherlands, allied to both Prussia and France, could only hope their mighty sponsors would not find themselves at loggerheads. Spain alone remained aloof, though blocking Netherlands' expansion in South America.
The war broke out in June of 1853, when Russia delivered an ultimatum - essentially a demand that Turkish sovereignty be handed over to the Czar - to the Sultan, and it was refused. Great Britain, always mindful of her jugular vein, the route to India, intervened on the Turkish side. More unexpectedly for the Russians, so did Austria, Prussia, and Sweden.
The Central Alliance's plans were immediately foiled by the defection of France to the Russian side. A comfortable superiority was suddenly transformed to a desperate struggle. At first, nonetheless, all went well : Prussian troops struck deep into Russian Poland, overwhelming the scattered garrisons, and Sweden did likewise in Finnland. But, vast as these gains might seem, the Eastern was not the decisive front.
The war was to be decided in Saarbrucken, a tiny province on the Franco-Prussian border, devoid of fame until this war. The first, rushed attacks by French regular troops were held off easily. But French military might grew daily, as the mobilisation schedule proceeded. Soon, where corps of fifty thousand men had marched before, armies of hundreds of thousands were clashing - and dying.
Not all the fighting was done on the battlefield. The belligerent Powers, desperately seeking advantage over their enemies, courted the uncommitted ones with every means available. In this, France proved more successful than the Central Alliance. Italy, unified only a year before, was eager not only to prove her newfound status as a Great Power, but also to claim vast territories by rushing to the aid of the victors. Fortunately, the mountains of western Austria prevented her making major gains before a front of sorts could be stabilised, although the situation was clearly a difficult one, and not improved by a small French expeditionary force landing in Kotor.
In Finnland, Swedish troops brushed aside all resistance, taking Tornio and Marienholm without difficulty, and marching two divisions-worth of Russians into captivity. Greece had advanced deep into Ottoman lands, although the Russians, forced to commit troops to three entirely unexpected fronts, had made small gains - indeed, her original foe was almost forgotten, an afterthought in the strain of fighting three European Powers. The Netherlands, at the crunch, had chosen not to antagonise Prussia, with whom they shared a border; but her belligerence remained no more than nominal.
One major Power remained uncommitted, and Swedish efforts were bent almost entirely to securing the allegiance of Spain. French troops were completely committed to the Saarbrucken front; not a single gendarme remained in the south or in Africa to oppose a Spanish advance. But Spain proved reluctant, as her internal troubles had left the economy very shaky and the army little better. Only liberal promises of French territory - extending even to Marseilles - enabled the Swedish negotiators to overcome her inertia.
The question was, could the Prussian troops defending Saarbrucken hold while Spain prepared for war? The fate of Sweden now depended on these brave German boys, fighting and suffocating in the mud that had already claimed two hundred thousand of their comrades' lives. The French, attacking in their bright blue-and-red uniforms, were in worse straits still; three hundred thousand had fallen in battle, and another hundred thousand succumbed to the harsh winter of 1853-54. But the French had the manpower to absorb these losses and continue fighting; Prussia, now desperately fending off the Russian steamroller, did not.
The Spanish offensive was promised for April. In March, the Prussian troops could no longer maintain their front. There was no rout, no grand riding down of fleeing troops. The Prussians were slaughtered where they fought, sheer French numbers at last beating down a resistance that even their enemies could not but admire.
With the collapse of her army in the West, Prussia was left in dire straits; nor was the rest of the Alliance able to send any help. Austria had fought the Italians and the French expeditionary force to a standstill, and continued to hold the line against Russian forces; but every man was needed for those fronts, and none could be spared for Prussia. Sweden had advanced deep into Finnland, but Russian resistance grew every day; already they had committed more divisions to this minor front than the entire Swedish army. Superior Swedish artillery could make up the difference for a while; but Russian manpower seemed inexhaustible.
No choice was left but to sue for peace while any hope of an honourable end to the war remained. The peace conference was held in Geneva, Switzerland being one of the few remaining neutrals in this Europe-spanning conflict. By their own lights, the victors were merciful. A humbled Prussia, her army crushed, was left to her internal troubles and impending bankruptcy. Austria was forced to cede the Po plains to Italy, completing the rise to greatness of that new Power. But no crushing burden of reparations or intolerable annexations were imposed, or even considered.
To the victors, the spoils. Greece, supported by her now-unopposed Great Power patrons, gained considerable territory at Ottoman expense, nearly doubling her size. France, now unworried about Prussian interference, divided Belgium with the Netherlands. Turkey, the linchpin of all the deaths and trouble, was left to eke out a few more years of existence on Russian mercy - thin stuff at the best of times. The Russians contented themselves with the gains of their protege Greece, the humbling of two old rivals, and a newfound reputation for magnanimity in victory.
Sweden, of all the Central Alliance, had come out the best. Her armies in Finland were undefeated, had indeed put the Russians to flight in the early stages of the war. Her economy, though weakened, had survived - unlike that of Prussia, crippled by war debts. At the beginning of the war, the decision had been made to evacuate Tunisia in order to concentrate on Russia; King Oscar had overruled the objections of the Colonial Ministry thus : "If France stands with us, Tunisia is safe. If France stands with Russia, no power on Earth can hold Tunisia out of their hands, and we must look to the peace conference to regain it - or give it up, should such be God's will." It was a deliberate gamble on the ability of the Central Alliance to defeat Russia and dictate the peace. As it turned out, though, the victorious Great Powers, intent on humbling their equals, had no time for swatting Sweden. Tunisia was never invaded; indeed, the whole of North Africa was left denuded of soldiers for the entirety of the war.
At the end of the war, then, Sweden had made no territorial concessions; did not suffer from a crippled economy; and her losses (around fifteen thousand men), though terrible to those who had to bear them, were slight - even negligible - in comparison to the sufferings of Prussia, Russia and France, with their half-million dead. Moreover, since the march through Finnland had been from victory to victory, a useful national myth of invincibility was born. Ignoring such minor matters as the twenty Russian divisions just arriving as the peace was signed, and the fact that Finnland had always been a minor front to the Russians, the Swedes held up their heads in the proud knowledge that they, and they alone of the Central Alliance, were undefeated in battle against the Bear. It was a pride that would be sorely needed in the years to come.
