This book accounts for Scandinavian unification efforts in a time of great upheaval. The ideological repercussions of the European revolutions of 1848-1849 and the Crimean War (1853-1856) transformed both the international political system and nationalism into more ‘realist’ types. The First Schleswig War (1848-1851) having nearly turned into one of Scandinavian unification, the influence of Scandinavianism extended into the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian courts, cabinets and parliaments, a...

This book explores the intellectual grounds of Scandinavianist ideology and its political development into a national unification movement. Denmark, Norway and Sweden were nearly annihilated during the Napoleonic Wars. The lesson learned was that survival was a matter of size. Whereas their union of 1814 offered Sweden-Norway geostrategic security tempered by fear of Russia, Denmark was the biggest territorial loser of the Napoleonic Wars and faced separatism connected to German nationalis...

The Baltic Sea is more than an inland sea – it is a historic geopolitical stage. From maritime travel in the Viking era toa NATO-dominated region, this brackish inland sea has been a lifeline for people and countries in northern Europe. The Baltic Sea has served as a hub for economic and political relations – with the dominance of the Hanseatic League in the Middle Ages, the Great Power Battles between Sweden, Poland-Lithuania and Russia, and the dramatic shifts in the aftermath of the Nap...