When God brings death, the devil brings the airs.

Swedish proverb

Hello and welcome to When Diplomacy Fails, Episode 27.0, the Swedish Deluges, Part 1.

From 1655 to 1660, Sweden fought a series of wars against multiple enemies, amidst some of the most

intriguing foreign developments and shattering alterations to the political status quo of Europe

since the 30 Years' War.

By the end of this five-parter, you should be able to understand how the next phase of wars between the Dutch, French, English and Spanish came about.

It's an essential background war because it establishes Sweden's strategic position for the next few episodes,

as well as explaining why

Poland and Denmark were less than willing or able to intervene after it. It also contains a great

amount of diplomatic manoeuvring, especially when certain powers become worried that Sweden may be

going too far, and upsetting the balance of power across Europe to too great an extent.

The lessons of this war reverberate throughout successive decades,

in particular for Louis XIV, when he attacks the Dutch without prior consideration of the consequences.

Sometimes when you make diplomacy fail deliberately,

not every state will be willing to let you have free reign.

As we'll see though, Sweden did not necessarily begin the series of devastating attacks against the Poles that history has deemed the deluge,

but it did capitalize upon them, make the conflict effectively theirs, and transform the war into

one which suggested sweeping alterations to sensitive European regions that some states

were just not willing to accept.

In this episode, we get into the background.

We examine Sweden's domestic and dynastic situation, as well as its Polish neighbour and the problems that this Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth faced.

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