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PODCAST

The Scandinavian History Podcast

Mikael Shainkman

A chronological journey through the history of Scandinavia from the last ice age to the dawn of the space age. Geographically, we cover the five modern Nordic countries of Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Sweden and Finland—as well as a few other bits and pieces here and there where it‘s relevant. Visit the SHP shop: bit.ly/podshpshop Make a donation: patreon.com/scandinavianhistory

history

All Episodes

33:19

126 War or Peace?

The Scandinavian History Podcast ·

2026/01/30

In the first half of 1814, Bernadotte had been busy wrapping up the war on the continent. But as summer arrived, the Swedes turned their full attention to Norway. Stockholm demanded that the Norwegians scrap their new constitution, ditch their new king and submit to Sweden. When the Norwegians refused, the Swedes threatened war.

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35:00

125 Norway Resurrected

The Scandinavian History Podcast ·

2026/01/16

During a few intense spring weeks in 1814, 112 representatives of the Norwegian people came together at Eidsvoll to draw up a constitution for Norway. They hoped the country would be an independent kingdom, but at the same time rumors of a Swedish invasion were swirling in the background.

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35:34

124 Crisis Means Opportunity

The Scandinavian History Podcast ·

2026/01/02

The Napoleonic Wars strained the Danish-Norwegian union bringing starvation, unrest and a crisis of legitimacy. Even worse, Sweden exploited the fact that Copenhagen had sided with the losing French, and forced king Frederik VI to hand over Norway to Sweden. But the Norwegians didn’t want to join a new union with Sweden, and saw an opportunity.

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32:38

123 The Prince of the Curved Bridge

The Scandinavian History Podcast ·

2025/12/19

After the death of Karl August, only five months after he had been elected crown prince, the Swedes needed to find another heir to the throne. The main candidate was yet another Danish prince, but there were those who had other ideas.

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31:57

122 The Men of 1809

The Scandinavian History Podcast ·

2025/12/05

King Gustav IV Adolf was blamed for the loss of Finland, and even before the war against Russia ended, he was ousted in a coup. His uncle Karl was given the crown, but everyone knew this wasn’t a long term solution. Karl was old and childless, so the search for a new crown prince started immediately.

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33:25

121 The Grand Duchy

The Scandinavian History Podcast ·

2025/11/21

When peace returned in 1809, the population of Finland found themselves to be the newest subjects of the Russian emperor. In the years that followed, they reshaped their political and economic lives, turning away from Sweden but at the same time resisting Russification.

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35:42

120 The Finnish War

The Scandinavian History Podcast ·

2025/11/07

The Franco-Russian treaty at Tilsit in 1807 spelled trouble for Sweden as well as for Denmark. Just like the Danes, the Swedes underestimated the threat of the new alliance, and soon found themselves fighting yet another war against Russia in Finland.

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31:06

119 The Bombardment of Copenhagen

The Scandinavian History Podcast ·

2025/10/24

The years following the French Revolution were plagued by seemingly endless wars. But the governments in both Copenhagen and Stockholm preferred to stay out of the fighting, instead making money trading with all sides. It worked for a while, but eventually the fires of war reached Scandinavia as well.

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32:22

118 In the French Shadow

The Scandinavian History Podcast ·

2025/10/10

The French revolution was a cataclysmic event that changed the world forever, both politically and culturally. Even though it was far away, Scandinavia did not remain untouched by these continental developements. And perhaps that's only fair, since a dramatic Nordic event allegedly contributed to the revolution in the first place.

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32:54

117 Assassins!

The Scandinavian History Podcast ·

2025/09/26

His war against Russia had shown Gustav III that the Swedish aristocracy was a real threat to his reign. He thought he could eliminate the threat by forcing a new set of laws through the riksdag, strengthening the crown and limiting the power of the nobility. But instead of rolling over and capitulating, the aristocrats decided to fight back.

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33:39

116 Wag the Dog

The Scandinavian History Podcast ·

2025/09/12

A few years after his coup, the opposition against Gustav III was growing. In an attempt to improve his popularity–and to reclaim some of the land lost in the War of the Hats–he decided to start a war against Russia. Unfortunately for the king, he wasn’t allowed to start wars, but Gustav wasn’t going to let minor details like that stop him.

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30:09

115 The Swedish Sun King

The Scandinavian History Podcast ·

2025/08/29

King Adolf Fredrik and queen Louisa Ulrika never managed to wrest power away from the Riksdag during the Age of Liberty. But Louisa Ulrika had high hopes that their son, Gustav, would follow in their footsteps and reassert royal authority–despite the best efforts of the politicians to train him to be a docile and powerless monarch.

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33:04

114 Gray Eminences

The Scandinavian History Podcast ·

2025/08/15

If your system of government puts all the power in the hands of one man, you’d better hope the man holding all that power knows what he’s doing. If he doesn’t, things can quickly turn ugly. Unless, of course, there’s someone else standing in the wings discreetly guiding the power-holding hand to avoid disaster.

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31:01

113 Science and Industry

The Scandinavian History Podcast ·

2025/08/01

The Age of Liberty wasn’t only corruption, palace intrigues and failed wars. Thanks to a policy encouraging science and industry, significant progress was made, and some of the discoveries and inventions from those days are still with us today.

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35:52

112 The Last Dalacarlian Revolt

The Scandinavian History Podcast ·

2025/07/18

When the result of the War of the Hats became known in Sweden, it was met with dismay. Not only did the Russians take even more territory, but they also wanted to decide who’d be the next king of Sweden. In Dalarna, people weren’t having any of it.

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32:16

111 The War of the Hats

The Scandinavian History Podcast ·

2025/07/04

In 1741, the Hats finally got the war against Russia that they’d been working so hard to achieve. Finally, they’d be able to recapture the territory lost during the Great Northern War and restore Sweden’s honor. Unfortunately, it soon turned out that even though they had spent years trying to start the war, they had done little to make sure that the army in Finland would be ready for it.

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33:12

110 Hats and Caps

The Scandinavian History Podcast ·

2025/06/20

After the death of Karl XII, Swedish monarchs lost almost all their power. Instead, the Riksdag asserted itself as the most influential body in Swedish political life. Among bribes, personal vendettas and dreams of reestablishing the empire, two political parties emerged.

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31:14

109 The Sami

The Scandinavian History Podcast ·

2025/06/06

From the 16th century onward, Denmark and Sweden increased their efforts to assert control over northern Scandinavia, a territory where few Scandinavians had ever gone, and even fewer lived. But that doesn’t mean the region was uninhabited. The Sami people lived there, and as the Norwegians, Swedes and Finns moved north, the Sami way of life came under threat.

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32:41

108 Scandinavian Slave Trade

The Scandinavian History Podcast ·

2025/05/23

In the 18th century, when the triangular trade between Europe, Africa and the Americas was booming, Denmark and Sweden established footholds in the West Indies. They tried to make money on trade, buying and selling sugar, tobacco, cotton–and people.

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32:19

107 Colonialism

The Scandinavian History Podcast ·

2025/05/09

In the 1600s, both Denmark and Sweden joined the race to establish colonies overseas. The Danes returned to Greenland, but also set up outposts in India. These colonial projects were quite successful. The Swedes, on the other hand, were less fortunate trying to gain a foothold in North America.

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129 results

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