| This Mere Men article has not been expanded past 1947 yet. |
| Kingdom of Sweden Konungariket Sverige (Swedish) Timeline: Mere Men
OTL equivalent: Sweden | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||
| Anthem: Du gamla, du fria |
||||||
| Capital (and largest city) | Stockholm | |||||
| Official languages | Swedish | |||||
| Religion | Lutheran, irreligious, other | |||||
| Demonym | Swedes | |||||
| Government | ||||||
| - | King | |||||
| - | Prime Minister | |||||
| Legislature | Riksdag | |||||
| Establishment | ||||||
| - | Unification of Sweden | 12th century | ||||
| - | Breakup of the Kalmar Union | 6 June 1523 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 447,425 km2 172,752 sq mi |
||||
| - | Water (%) | 9.0 | ||||
| Currency | Swedish krona | |||||
| Time zone | CET | |||||
Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden (Swedish: Konungariket Sverige) is a Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It neighbours Norway and Finland. The capital and largest city of Sweden is Stockholm.
History[]
Sweden declared itself strictly neutral when the Second World War broke out in Europe. After the Soviet Union invaded Finland, Sweden began providing material support for Finland, but remained non-belligerent in the conflict. Despite the support of Finland, Sweden was firmly opposed to British requests to allow transport of Allied expeditionary forces to the east fearing that Allies could seize the iron mines in northern Sweden, which were an important source for Swedish trade. When Allied troops landed in Norway on 20 March, Swedish government condemned the action and mobilised its army. Skirmishes occured on the northern border when the Allied soldiers attempted to cross the Swedish border, but the hostilities quickly ended as they withdrew back to Norway. As Germany carried out its own invasion of Denmark and Norway, the Supreme Commander of the army Olof Thörnell even suggested joining the invasion and liberating Norway, but this was rejected by the government. As Wehrmacht reached the Allied defensive line in Trondheim, the German government also began requesting rights to pass through Swedish territory to supply their units.
Sven Olov Lindholm, the leader of a Nazi political party Swedish Socialist Union (Svensk socialistisk samling), sensed an opportunity to assume power in Sweden after the German government attempted to get Vidkun Quisling recognised as the Prime Minister by the Norwegian king and visited Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler in Berlin. During the meeting, Lindholm promised to use the connections between members of his party and the Swedish king, Gustaf V, to provide Germany the needed concessions. As the war in Norway and especially Finland progressed, requests from Britain, Germany and even Finland became increasingly more pressuring, but the government of Per Albin Hansson still adhered to the policy of strict neutrality, only sending weapons to Finland. After the Finnish army evacuated Karelia, the Allies attempted to supply Finland through the Norwegian port of Kirkenes, but after the Red Army entered Norway and cut the port off from Finland, British government again requested transit rights through northern Sweden, which was followed by another request of this sort.
Hansson, an avid proponent of Swedish neutrality, realised that Sweden will have to join the war on either side or risk being invaded by both powers at the same time, and reached a conclusion with the government that Sweden should join the Allies and declare war on Germany and the Soviet Union. This conclusion was presented to Gustaf on 16 April, the King, however, favoured Germany, viewing Britain and France as the ones responsible for the conflict in Norway. While the government had support among some general, the Supreme Commander supported the King, as did Lindholm and the SSS. After four days of tensions, known as the Midspring crisis (Midvårkrisen), Hansson resigned as Prime Minister. The King, after a several meetings with remaining members of the govenrment, some members of the Riksdag, the leadership of SSS and the ambassador of Germany decided to appoint pro-German Minister of Justice Karl Gustaf Westman as Prime Minister, who decided to include the SSS in his government, appointing Lindholm to his former office on German insistence. This move angered most of both the Swedish political scene and population, and majority of the pro-Allied politicians including Hansson left for London through Norway, where they assembled a government-in-exile and asked the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to intervene in Sweden. The British government obliged and crossed into Sweden, but was repelled.
Victory against the invading British force led to a slight increase in the new government's popularity, although it still remained largely unpopular across most of Sweden's population. In the fraudulent 1940 election, SSS won the majority of the votes and achieved control of the Riksdag. Per Engdahl, one of Lindholm's critics, later split from the SSS after Lindholm, cautious about cooperation with Germany, refused to officially enter the war. Engdahl, who held more favourable opinion of Germany, hoped to muster German support for a coup against Lindholm, but the German government refused. Gustav V initially supported Lindholm and his policies, but after the government began the construction of concentration camps in Sjöbo in 1941 and on Stora Karlsö later in 1943, the King began clashing with Lindholm, who hoped to reduce the monarchy to a representative institution and become the supreme leader (Ledare) of the Swedish nation as other fascists have done before, such as Benito Mussolini in Italy. The King, however, also did not dismiss Lindholm, fearing it would prompt a German invasion of Sweden. Nonetheless, he tried to prevent Lindholms attempts to usurp power and often demanded lesser punishments and often even release of both political prisoners and Jews.
After the Soviet invasion of Germany, Sweden again declared neutrality, but the government provided weapons and volunteers to Germany. Although the Soviet Union shared border with Sweden through Finland and was involved in fighting with German forces in northern Norway, the Soviet government respected Swedish neutrality. In 1945, the Soviet High Command prepared plans for an invasion of Gotland and establishment of a military base on the island to take place in 1946, but they never carried them out. As British troops landed in Norway in 1947 to accept the surrender of German forces still stationed there, Gustav V finally dismissed Lindholm and reached the government-in-exile, inviting it to reassume power in Stockholm.