Making Of The Modern Sweden

Abstract

Sweden is today's one of the wealthiest countries in the world. The reasons behind this success could only be understood with a historical perspective. While looking to the history of Sweden, I realized three distinctive events which shaped Swedish culture, society, politics and economy significantly. Beginning with the early modern period in the 16 th century and ending with the modern period in the second half of the 19 th century, these three events are (in the chronological order) Swedish Reformation and the reign of Gustav I in 16 th century, the rise of the Swedish Empire in 17 th century and the industrial development in Sweden during the second half of the 19 th century.In this article, the effects of these three events would be analyzed in terms of their influence on the Swedish culture, state bureaucracy, politics, society, religion, economy and military with their backgrounds. The study on the backgrounds of these event show that these influenced each other strongly. Not only this, but also the influence of them shaped Sweden as it is today. Given today's high life standards, the making of modern Sweden is a success story and understanding it with a historical analysis could be helpful for policy makers all around the world.