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145-493: As part of Peter the Great 's establishment of St Petersburg as the new Russian capital, he established an imperial cabinet of curiosities dedicated to preserving "natural and human curiosities and rarities" in the manner of some of the other European courts since the 16th century. Such cabinets allowed rulers and the elite to acquire a fuller knowledge of the world and to demonstrate their control over it. Peter's personal collection

290-658: A Governing Senate in 1711, the Collegium in 1717 and the Table of Ranks in 1722 had a lasting impact on Russia, and many institutions of the Russian government trace their origins to his reign. Peter grew up at Izmaylovo Estate and was educated at the Amusement Palace from an early age by several tutors commissioned by his father, most notably Nikita Zotov , Patrick Gordon , and Paul Menesius . When his father died in 1676, he left

435-553: A ukase ordering malformed stillborn infants to be sent from anywhere in Russia to the imperial collection. He subsequently had them put on show in the Kunstkamera as examples of accidents of nature. The present Kunstkamera is a turreted Petrine Baroque building designed by Prussian architect Georg Johann Mattarnovy . Its foundation stone was laid in 1719 and it was fully completed in 1727. A separate building had become necessary after

580-505: A certain amount per annum should revert to the Crown. The same Riksdag decided that the king was not bound by any particular constitution , but only by law and statutes, and not even obligated to consult the Privy Council , but was to be regarded as a sovereign lord. The Privy Council changed its official title from Riksråd (council of state) to kungligt råd (royal council); a visible sign that

725-448: A city famously dubbed by Francesco Algarotti as the "window to the West". In 1714, Peter relocated the capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg, a status it retained until 1918. Peter had a great interest in plants, animals and minerals, in malformed creatures or exceptions to the law of nature for his cabinet of curiosities . He encouraged research of deformities, all along trying to debunk

870-617: A common interest in lizards . Together they went to see patients. He arrived in Utrecht on a barge and met stadtholder William III in a tavern. When he visited the States-General of the Netherlands he left the hall and the astonished attendees with his wig pulled over his head, according Massie. He visited Jan van der Heyden , the inventor of a fire hose . He collected paintings by Adam Silo with ships and seascapes . In October 1697,

1015-548: A convent, where she gave up her name and her position as a member of the royal family. Meanwhile, he was a frequent guest in German quarter, where he met Anna and Willem Mons . In 1692 he sent Eberhard Isbrand Ides as envoy to the Kangxi Emperor of China. In 1693 he sailed to Solovetsky Monastery and accepted divine providence after surviving a storm. Still, Peter could not acquire actual control over Russian affairs. Power

1160-629: A cook, a priest, six trumpeters, 70 soldiers from the Preobrazhensky regiment , four dwarfs and a monkey which he purchased in Amsterdam; Jacob Bruce accompanied him. Peter stayed at 21 Norfolk Street, Strand , and met with Bishop of Salisbury Gilbert Burnet and Thomas Osborne and posed for Sir Godfrey Kneller . He watched the proceedings within the Parliament from a rooftop window. At some time, he had an affair with actress Letitia Cross . He visited

1305-465: A couple of northern German provinces. After France intervened on the same side as Sweden, fortunes shifted again. As the war continued, the civilian and military death toll grew, and when it was over, it had led to severe depopulation in the German states. Although exact population estimates do not exist, historians estimate that the population of the Holy Roman Empire fell by one-third as a result of

1450-593: A decree was issued that allowed factory owners, regardless of whether they had a noble rank, to buy serfs . Peter made a temporary peace with the Ottoman Empire that allowed him to keep the captured fort of Azov, and turned his attention to Russian maritime supremacy. He sought to acquire control of the Baltic Sea, which had been taken by the Swedish Empire a half-century earlier. Peter declared war on Sweden, which

1595-571: A factory for the development in the Samara Oblast . In 1721 the shipyard Petrozavod and Petrodvorets Watch Factory was established. Some 3,500 new words—German, French, Dutch, English, Italian, Swedish in origin—entered Russian in Peter's period, roughly one-fourth of them shipping and naval terms. As part of his reforms, Peter started an industrialization effort that was slow but eventually successful. Russian manufacturing and main exports were based on

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1740-487: A fire. 59°56′30″N 30°18′16″E  /  59.94167°N 30.30444°E  / 59.94167; 30.30444 Peter the Great Peter I ( [ˈpʲɵtr ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪt͡ɕ] ; Russian : Пётр I Алексеевич , romanized :  Pyotr I Alekseyevich ; 9 June [ O.S. 30 May] 1672 – 8 February [ O.S. 28 January] 1725), was Tsar of all Russia from 1682, and

1885-507: A general European war. He achieved passage over the Belts and emerged triumphant, only to die of sheer exhaustion. Immediately after his death, a regency was appointed to govern Sweden during the minority of his only son and successor, Charles XI of Sweden , who was four years old. The regency council moved quickly to end the war with Sweden's numerous enemies, which now included the Tsardom of Russia ,

2030-470: A keen interest in The Education of a Christian Prince which offers advice to rulers on how to govern justly and wisely. He introduced into the concept of the autocrat's power the notion of the monarch 's duties. He considered it necessary to take care of his subjects, to protect them from enemies, to work for their benefit. Above all, he put the interests of Russia. He saw his mission in turning it into

2175-612: A more conventional approach and arranged his marriage to Eudoxia Lopukhina in 1689. The marriage was a failure, and 10 years later, Peter forced his wife to become a nun and thus freed himself from the union. By the summer of 1689, Peter, planned to take power from his half-sister Sophia, whose position had been weakened by two unsuccessful Crimean campaigns against the Crimean Khanate in an attempt to stop devastating Crimean Tatar raids into Russia's southern lands. When she learned of his designs, Sophia conspired with some leaders of

2320-570: A new state body known as the Governing Senate . Normally, the Boyar duma would have exercised power during his absence. Peter, however, mistrusted the boyars; he instead abolished the Duma and created a Senate of ten members. The Senate was founded as the highest state institution to supervise all judicial, financial and administrative affairs. Originally established only for the time of the monarch's absence,

2465-458: A personal dislike of the French king and developed a strong anti-French bias. The remainder of the reign of Charles XI is remarkable for a revolution, in which the government of Sweden was transformed to a semi-absolute monarchy. The king emerged from the war convinced that if Sweden were to retain its position as a great power, it needed to reform its whole economic system radically and circumscribe

2610-414: A power similar to Western countries, and subordinated his own life and the lives of his subjects to the realization of this idea. Gradually penetrated the idea that the task should be solved with the help of reforms, which will be carried out at the autocrat's will, who creates good and punishes evil. He considered the morality of a statesman separately from the morality of a private person and believed that

2755-483: A range of roughly 50 meters, and then to draw their swords before the battalion resumed their attack. The two foremost ranks then discharged at a range of roughly 20 meters before drawing their swords, and the charge began. At this range, the powerful muskets usually felled many enemy troops and was demoralising to them. Directly after the volley, the Swedes charged the enemy ranks with pikes , bayonets and sabres. Note that

2900-457: A result of Sweden's intervention, Sweden helped secure religious liberty in Europe for Protestants, becoming a leading power of Continental Protestantism for 90 years. The elevation of Sweden to the rank of an imperial power required that it remain a military monarchy, armed for possible emergency. Sweden's poverty and sparse population meant the country was ill-suited for imperial status. However, in

3045-786: A search for a foreign expert in the German Quarter . Peter befriended Andrew Vinius , a bibliophile, who taught him Dutch and two Dutch carpenters, Frans Timmerman and Karsten Brandt. Peter studied arithmetic, geometry, and military sciences ( fortification ). He was not interested in a musical education but liked fireworks and drumming. Peter was not particularly concerned that others ruled in his name; Boris Golitsyn and Fyodor Apraksin played an important role. He engaged in such pastimes as shipbuilding in Pereslavl-Zalessky and sailing at Lake Pleshcheyevo , as well as mock battles with his toy army . Peter's mother sought to force him to adopt

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3190-560: A ship in Emmerich am Rhein and sailed to Zaandam, where he arrived on 18 August 1697. Peter studied saw-mills , manufacturing and shipbuilding in Zaandam but left after a week. He sailed to Amsterdam after he was recognized and attacked. The log-cabin he rented became the Czar Peter House . He sailed to Texel to see a fleet. Through the mediation of Nicolaas Witsen , an expert on Russia,

3335-406: A sword and a quill in one right hand") and courageous behavior he demonstrated to his subjects his personal positive example, showed how to act, fully devoting himself to the fulfillment of duty and service to the fatherland . Peter reigned for around 43 years. He implemented sweeping reforms aimed at modernizing Russia. Heavily influenced by his advisors, like Jacob Bruce , Peter reorganized

3480-596: A visit to a friend's mansion near Nigtevecht , a silk manufacture and a paper-mill. At five in the morning he was received by Herman Boerhaave who showed Peter the Botanical Garden . In April 1717 he continued his travel to Austrian Netherlands , Dunkirk and Calais. In Paris he obtained many books, requested to become a member of the Academie de Sciences and visited the parliament, the Sorbonne and Madame Maintenon . Via

3625-774: A vote in the Imperial Diet and enabled it to "direct" the Lower Saxon Circle alternately with Brandenburg . France and Sweden, moreover, became joint guarantors of the treaty with the Holy Roman Emperor and were entrusted with carrying out its provisions, as enacted by the executive congress of Nuremberg in 1650. After the peaces of Brömsebro and Westphalia, Sweden was the third-largest area of control in Europe by land area, only surpassed by Russia and Spain. Sweden reached its largest territorial extent during this time under

3770-533: The streltsy (Russia's elite military corps) in April–May 1682. In the subsequent conflict, some of Peter's relatives and friends were murdered, including Artamon Matveyev, and Peter witnessed some of these acts of political violence. The streltsy made it possible for Sophia, the Miloslavskys (the clan of Ivan ) and their allies to insist that Peter and Ivan be proclaimed joint tsars, with Ivan being acclaimed as

3915-775: The Azov campaigns to take the fortress, but his attempts ended in failure. Peter returned to Moscow in November 1695 and began building a large navy in Voronezh . He launched about thirty ships against the Ottomans in 1696, capturing Azov in July of that year. He appointed Alexander Gordon , who later would publish a biography on Peter. Peter used to hold all his important meetings and numerous celebrations in Le Fort 's palace. Peter knew that Russia could not face

4060-706: The Battle of Breitenfeld (1631) , the infantry was almost entirely reliant on their firepower and saw very limited offensive use; but under the leadership of Johan Banér , who took command after the defeat at Nördlingen, the Gustavian brigade system was finally changed into the battalion system recognisable from the War of the Spanish Succession and the Great Northern War (the depth was lowered from six ranks to three or four when

4205-634: The Julian calendar , which replaced the Byzantine calendar that was long used in Russia, but the Russian Orthodox Church was particularly resistant to this change. In 1703, he introduced the first Russian newspaper, Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti , and ordered the civil script , a reform of Russian orthography largely designed by himself. On the shores of the Neva River, he founded Saint Petersburg ,

4350-670: The Moscow Print Yard . In 1707, Tsar Peter I bought a fully equipped printing house in Holland , including staff. Peter replaced the Cyrillic numerals with Arabic numerals (1705–1710) and the Cyrillic font with a civil script (1708–1710). In 1708, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz became an advisor and offered to write new laws for the country. In December Russia was divided into eight governorates ( guberniya ). Matwei Petrowitsch Gagarin

4495-591: The Napoleonic Wars , and Finland was ceded to Russia in 1809 , marking the end of Sweden’s period as a great power. Sweden emerged as a great European power under Axel Oxenstierna and King Gustavus Adolphus . As a result of acquiring territories seized from Russia and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , as well as its involvement in the Thirty Years' War , Sweden found itself transformed into

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4640-513: The North Sea and some overseas colonies , including New Sweden . The beginning of the period is usually taken as the reign of Gustavus Adolphus , who ascended the throne in 1611, and its end as the loss of territories in 1721 following the Great Northern War . After the death of Gustavus Adolphus in 1632, the empire was controlled for lengthy periods by part of the high nobility , such as

4785-540: The Ottoman Empire . Following the defeat at Poltava, Poland and Denmark re-entered the war, along with other countries wanting parts of the Swedish provinces. In the following years, most of them would fall, and Russia occupied the eastern half of Sweden (present-day Finland ). Despite these setbacks, Charles XII twice tried to invade Norway to force Denmark-Norway out of the war again. On 30 November 1718, King Charles XII

4930-589: The Oxenstierna family, acting as regents for minor monarchs. The interests of the high nobility contrasted with the uniformity policy (i.e., upholding the traditional equality in status of the Swedish estates favoured by the kings and peasantry). In territories acquired during the periods of de facto noble rule, serfdom was not abolished, and there was also a trend to set up respective estates in Sweden proper . The Great Reduction of 1680 put an end to these efforts of

5075-619: The Palace of Saint-Cloud , the Grand Trianon at Versailles, Fontainebleau , Spa he travelled on to Maastricht , at that time one of the most important fortresses in Europe. He went back Amsterdam to attend a Treaty with France and Prussia on 15 August. He achieved a diplomatic success, and his international prestige, consolidated. Again he visited the Hortus Botanicus and left the city early September 1717, heading for Berlin. In October he

5220-520: The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 granted Sweden territories as war reparations . Sweden demanded Silesia , Pomerania (which had been in its possession since the Treaty of Stettin (1630) , and a war indemnity of 20,000,000 Riksdaler . Through the efforts of Johan Oxenstierna and Johan Adler Salvius it obtained: These German possessions were to be held as fiefs of the Holy Roman Empire. This allowed Sweden

5365-777: The Royal Mint four times; it is not clear whether he ever met Isaac Newton , the mint's warden , who introduced milling on the coinage. Peter was impressed by the Great Recoinage of 1696 , according to Massie. At some time he visited Spithead , Plymouth , with captain John Perry to watch a mock battle . In February he attended a Fleet Review in Deptford , and inspected the Woolwich Dockyard and Royal Arsenal with Anthony Deane . For three months he stayed at Sayes Court as

5510-776: The Spanish Netherlands . The anti-French faction prevailed; and in April 1668, Sweden acceded to the Triple Alliance , which ended the French acquisitions through the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle . For the next four years, Sweden remained true to the Triple Alliance; but, in 1672, Louis XIV succeeded in isolating the Dutch Republic and regaining Sweden as an ally. By the Treaty of Stockholm on 14 April 1672, Sweden entered an agreement with

5655-455: The Treaties of Nijmegen on 7 February and of St. Germain on 29 June 1679, Sweden received almost full restitution of its German territory. By the Treaty of Fontainebleau confirmed by the subsequent Peace of Lund on 2 September, Denmark–Norway was to return all the land it had captured to Sweden on 4 October 1679. While Sweden could never have gained these concessions alone, Charles XI formed

5800-461: The Treaty of Altranstädt (1706) , he would go on to lead a campaign in Russia that would end in a staggering defeat for the Swedes. The Russian victory at the Battle of Poltava put an end to Sweden's eastbound expansion, and by the time of Charles XII's death in 1718 the Empire had been severely diminished both territorially and militarily. The last traces of occupied continental territory vanished during

5945-506: The treaty of Oliva in 1660. Gustav II Adolph inherited the Polish war together with the Kalmar War against Denmark–Norway when Charles IX died in 1611. The war against Denmark–Norway was a terrible loss that forced Sweden to pay a ransom of 1 million silverdaler to regain Älvsborg (final payment, 1619). The Polish war was interrupted by a series of truces caused by Sweden's weakness along with

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6090-425: The wheellock pistol as the primary weapon of the cavalry . Horsemen rode knee-by-knee in a tight formation. When in range, they switched to gallop and charged, and at a range of ten yards, shot both their pistols. A standard regiment numbered 250 simultaneous shots that would blast a hole in the enemy ranks. They then continued the charge with sabres ( värjor ), aiming to break the enemy formation. The infantry

6235-640: The "indelningsverk" — a system of military tenure in which national forces were bound to the soil. This tied to the "rust hail tenure", under which the tenants, instead of paying rent, were obliged to equip and maintain a cavalry soldier and horse; while the knekthållare supplied duly equipped foot soldiers. Soldiers were provided with holdings on which they lived in times of peace. Formerly, ordinary conscription had existed alongside this indelning, or distribution system, but it had proved inadequate as well as highly unpopular, and in 1682, Charles XI ended it in favor of an extended distribution system. The Swedish Royal Navy

6380-520: The 1830s, the Kunstkamera collections were dispersed to newly established imperial museums, the most important being the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, established in 1879. It has a collection approaching 2,000,000 items and has been known as the Peter the Great Museum since 1903 in order to distinguish it from the Russian Museum of Ethnography . In 1747 some objects were lost in

6525-762: The Black Sea, which would require expelling the Tatars from the surrounding areas. As part of an agreement with Poland that ceded Kiev to Russia, Peter was forced to wage war against the Crimean Khan and against the Khan's overlord, the Ottoman Sultan. Peter's primary objective became the capture of the Ottoman fortress of Azov , near the Don River . In the summer of 1695 Peter organized

6670-401: The Crown, and the burden of proof of ownership lay with the actual owner of the property, not the Crown. The amount of revenue accruing to the Crown from the whole "Reduktion" is impossible to estimate; but by these means, combined with careful management and rigid economy, Charles XI reduced the national debt by three quarters. Charles XI re-established on a broader basis the reorganization of

6815-416: The Dutch system for fighting in caracole among the cavalry, with unfortunate results. His partially reformed army suffered a disastrous defeat at Kircholm against a Polish-Lithuanian army led by Jan Karol Chodkiewicz . Charles IX's revolt against his nephew Sigismund of Poland and subsequent rise to the throne of Sweden caused a dynastic struggle for the throne of Sweden that would not finally end until

6960-531: The Estates of 1655, the king proposed that noble holders of crown property should either: 1) pay an annual sum of 200,000 Riksdaler out of the lands they would receive, or 2) surrender a fourth of the property itself, worth approximately 800,000 Riksdaler. The nobility wished to avoid taxation and stipulated that 6 November 1632, the day of Gustavus Adolphus's death, should be the limit to which retrospective taxes could be collected, and that there should be no further restitution of alienated crown property. Against this,

7105-412: The French to protect its sphere of interest containing the Dutch Republic from hostile German claims in return for 400,000 Riksdaler per annum in peace and 600,000 in wartime. In 1674, Louis XIV called upon Sweden to invade the Electorate of Brandenburg . In May 1675, a Swedish army advanced into the Mark but was defeated on 18 June at Fehrbellin and retreated to Swedish Demmin . The Fehrbellin affair

7250-480: The Great Northern War put an end to Sweden's time as a great power. As a result of eighteen years of war, Sweden gained small and scattered possessions, but had secured control of three principal rivers in northern Germany—the Oder , the Elbe and the Weser —and gained toll-collection rights for those important commercial arteries, benefitting the Swedish economy. Two principal reasons for the small reparations were France 's envy and Queen Christina 's impatience. As

7395-405: The Great established the Olonets Shipyard at Lodeynoye Pole , where Russian frigate Shtandart was built. While the Poles fought the Swedes, Peter founded the city of Saint Petersburg on 29 June 1703 on Hare Island . He forbade the building of stone edifices outside Saint Petersburg, which he intended to become Russia's capital, so that all stonemasons could participate in the construction of

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7540-411: The King and much of the Swedish army was shipped to the Baltic provinces, where Russian and Polish armies were laying siege to several towns. The Russian army was soundly defeated in the Battle of Narva , after which Charles took the army into Poland with the intent of dethroning the Polish king Augustus II . This took several years, but in 1706, with the Treaty of Altranstädt , he reached his goal. In

7685-441: The Norwegian province of Trøndelag and the Danish island of Bornholm , which had been surrendered at Roskilde. Denmark–Norway was also compelled to recognize the independence of the dukes of Holstein-Gottorp . The Russo-Swedish War (1656–1658) was terminated by the Treaty of Cardis on 2 July 1661, through which the Tsar surrendered the Baltic provinces to Sweden — Ingria , Estonia and Kexholm . Thus, Sweden emerged from

7830-404: The Ottoman Empire alone. In March 1697, he traveled "incognito" to Western Europe on an 18-month journey with a large Russian delegation—the so-called "Grand Embassy" . Peter was the first tsar to leave Russia for more than 100 years. He used a fake name, allowing him to escape social and diplomatic events, but since he was far taller than most others, he could not fool anyone. One goal was to seek

7975-412: The Ottoman Empire. Russia had defeated what was considered to be one of the world's best militaries, and the victory overturned the view that Russia was militarily incompetent. In Poland, Augustus II was restored as King. Peter, overestimating the support he would receive from his Balkan allies, attacked the Ottoman Empire, initiating the Russo-Turkish War of 1710 . Peter's campaign in the Ottoman Empire

8120-431: The Ottoman Sultan. Peter failed to expand the anti-Ottoman alliance. In Riga, the local Swedish commander Erik Dahlbergh decided to pretend that he did not recognize Peter and did not allow him to inspect the fortifications. (Three years later, Peter would cite the inhospitable reception as one of the reasons for starting the Great Northern War). He met Frederick Casimir Kettler , the Duke of Courland. In Königsberg ,

8265-407: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, known as the Deluge . By the time of the Swedish Intervention in the Thirty Years' War in 1630, Gustav II Adolph had transformed the Swedish (Gustavian) army into an army in which the cavalry fought with aggressive shock tactics, closer to the Polish tactics than the Western European . The Caracole and heavy armor were mostly abandoned, and the saber replaced

8410-427: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Electorate of Brandenburg and Denmark-Norway . The Peace of Oliva on 3 May 1660, put an end to the long feud with Poland . French mediation of this treaty also ended the quarrel between Sweden, the Holy Roman emperor and the elector of Brandenburg . This treaty confirmed both Sweden's possession of Livonia and the elector of Brandenburg's sovereignty over Prussia ; and

8555-401: The Russian Church of the opportunity to regain a single spiritual leader. Reducing the number of monasteries, he converted all monasteries with less than 30 monks into schools or churches. He encouraged the development of private entrepreneurship, but under strict state control. He initiated the construction of canals by John Perry and implemented a monetary reform, using the decimal principle as

8700-425: The Russian army along modern lines and dreamed of making Russia a maritime power . He faced much opposition to these policies at home but brutally suppressed rebellions against his authority, including by the Streltsy , Bashkirs , Astrakhan , and the greatest civil uprising of his reign, the Bulavin Rebellion . In his process to westernize Russia, he wanted members of his family to marry other European royalty. In

8845-404: The Russian people as rude, unintelligent, stubborn in their sluggishness, a child, a lazy student. He highly appreciated the state's role in the life of society, saw it as an ideal instrument for achieving high goals, saw it as a universal institution for transforming people, with the help of violence and fear, into educated, conscious, law-abiding and useful to the whole society subjects. Peter had

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8990-461: The Senate became a permanent body after his return. A special high official, the Ober-Procurator , served as the link between the ruler and the senate and acted, in Peter own words, as "the sovereign's eye". Without his signature no Senate decision could go into effect; the Senate became one of the most important institutions of Imperial Russia. In 1701, 1705 and 1712, Peter I issued decrees establishing an Engineering School in Sukharev Tower , which

9135-407: The Streltsy, who continually aroused disorder and dissent. Peter, warned by others from the Streltsy, escaped in the middle of the night to the impenetrable monastery of Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra ; there he slowly gathered adherents who perceived he would win the power struggle. Sophia was eventually overthrown, with Peter I and Ivan V continuing to act as co-tsars. Peter forced Sophia to enter

9280-574: The Strong abdicated in 1706. Swedish king Charles XII turned his attention to Russia, invading it in 1708. After crossing into Russia, Charles defeated Peter at Golovchin in July. In the Battle of Lesnaya , Charles suffered his first loss after Peter crushed a group of Swedish reinforcements marching from Riga . Deprived of this aid, Charles was forced to abandon his proposed march on Moscow. Charles XII refused to retreat to Poland or back to Sweden and instead invaded Ukraine . Peter withdrew his army southward, employing scorched earth , destroying along

9425-520: The Strong . Peter's visit was cut short, when he was informed of the second Streltsy uprising in June. The rebellion was easily crushed by General Gordon before Peter returned home early September. Peter nevertheless acted ruthlessly towards the mutineers; 4,600 rebels were sent to prison. Around 1,182 were tortured and executed, and Peter ordered that their bodies be publicly exhibited as a warning to future conspirators. The Streltsy were disbanded, and Peter's half-sister Sophia, who they sought to put on

9570-512: The Swedish Empire between 1617 and 1721. Relative to the contemporary population of Finland, this was equivalent to over a million of them dying in 20th-century Finland. Throughout the Thirty Years' War, the infantry's shock ability was continuously improved. The static nature of the infantry that served well against the cavalry-dominated Polish-Lithuanian army was enhanced during the war to produce infantry capable of both providing devastating firepower and executing offensive maneuvers. Initially, at

9715-452: The Tsar visited Delft and received an "eal viewer" from the microscopist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek . After the Peace of Ryswick he was invited by King of England to visit him. The Dutch regents considered the Tsar too inquisitive, and this affected their willingness to help the Russians. On 11 January 1698 ( O.S. ), Peter arrived at Victoria Embankment with four chamberlains, three interpreters ( Peter Shafirov , LeFort), two clock makers,

9860-436: The aid of European monarchs, but Peter's hopes were dashed. France was a traditional ally of the Ottoman Sultan, and Austria was eager to maintain peace in the east while conducting its own wars in the west. Peter, furthermore, had chosen an inopportune moment: the Europeans at the time were more concerned about the War of the Spanish Succession over who would succeed the childless King Charles II of Spain than about fighting

10005-562: The army but had effectively failed to do so. Charles IX, like most other rulers, had tried to implement the Dutch system into the army but with limited success. The lack of a strict organisation in the infantry caused the proportion of pikemen to musketeers to be far lower than the preferred ratio of 1 to 1. This, combined with the lack of funds to provide the soldiers with armour, caused the Swedish infantry to be dangerously lightly equipped and unable to deal with cavalry or heavier infantry in open terrain. Charles IX was, however, able to implement

10150-545: The basis of the monetary system (1698-–1704). Peter attracted many foreign specialists and opened an educational institution for surgery , led by Nicolaas Bidloo . In 1701, the Moscow School of Mathematics and Navigation was founded, led by Jacob Bruce ; for fifteen years, naval officers, surveyors, engineers, and gunners were educated there. In 1700, Jan Thesingh (-1701) received a monopoly on printing and importing books, maps and prints into Russia for fifteen years. In 1701 he appointed Fedor Polikarpov-Orlov as head of

10295-406: The bayonet was introduced at the end of the 17th century). Swedish tactics once again greatly diverged from the continental tactics during the second half of the 17th century. The continental tactics increasingly emphasized the firepower of the battalion, while the Swedish ( Carolean ) tactics almost exclusively relied on the shock factor as the infantry and cavalry charged the enemy. As the bayonet

10440-644: The centre of intense fighting between Swedes and Danes, with a large scale confrontation between the main armies near Lund in December 1676. After that, Scania was divided into Danish and Swedish enclaves centering around the main cities for the rest of the war. The remaining territories in Scania were mainly a no man's land where a fierce "little war" took place, with Swedish troops on the one side and Danish official and semi-official troops (freeshooters etc.) in conjunction with armed locals. Through homeland military successes of

10585-450: The continent, was lost on 5 November. A defensive alliance with John III of Poland was rendered inoperative on 4 August 1677, by the annihilation of Sweden's sea-power; the Battle of Öland , 17 June 1676; the Battle of Fehmarn , June 1677, and most notable on 1–2 July the Battle of Køge Bay . The difficulties concerning the Polish king continued. The Scanian provinces (Scania, Halland and Blegind/ Blekinge ), once eastern Denmark, became

10730-424: The councilors were no longer the king's colleagues, but rather his servants. Thus, Sweden had become an absolute monarchy but enacted the right of the Swedish people, in parliament , to be consulted on all important matters. The Riksdag, completely overshadowed by the Crown, did little more than register the royal decrees during the reign of Charles XI of Sweden ; but it continued to exist as an essential part of

10875-674: The court apothecary; Johann Daniel Schumacher was appointed secretary and librarian of the Kunstkamera . The country's first scientific library was opened in his palace in the Summer Garden. Peter ordered the development of Aptekarsky Island , headquarters for the Medical Clerical Office and the Main Pharmacy. Gottlieb Schober was commissioned to examine hot springs and discovered rich deposits of sulfur ; Peter immediately set up

11020-623: The end of April 1698 he left after being shown how to make watches, and carpeting coffins. Back in Holland he visited Harderwijk and Cleves. The Embassy next went to Leipzig, Dresden, where he met with the Queen of Poland . Three times he visited the Kunstsammlung , then Königstein Fortress , Prague, Vienna, to pay a visit to Leopold I . At Rava-Ruska , he crossed the border and Peter spoke with Augustus II

11165-408: The financial extravagance of Christina. However, his own desire for military glory may have caused problems for his country. In three days, he persuaded the Swedish estates of the potential of his attack on the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . However, when he left Stockholm for Warsaw on 10 July 1654, he gained more personal glory than advantage for his country. The Polish-Swedish War expanded into

11310-443: The finest arsenals in the world. After Charles XI's death, the throne was inherited by his underage son, Charles XII . After a brief regency, he was declared to be of age to rule. Three years later, in 1700, Denmark–Norway, Poland and Russia, the countries that had lost the most territory to Sweden, jointly declared war. Denmark–Norway was soon forced to peace after a joint intervention of Swedish, English and Dutch armies, whereafter

11455-480: The first Emperor of all Russia , known as Peter the Great , from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned jointly with his half-brother Ivan V until 1696. From this year, Peter was an absolute monarch , an autocrat who remained the ultimate authority and organized a well-ordered police state . Most of Peter's reign was consumed by long wars against the Ottoman and Swedish Empires . Despite initial difficulties,

11600-584: The forces of Charles XII, rather than employ a slow methodical siege, attacked immediately using a blinding snowstorm to their advantage. After the battle, Charles XII decided to concentrate his forces against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, which gave Peter time to reorganize the Russian army and conquered Nyenschantz in the Ingrian campaign . Bidloo had to organize a military hospital. Robert Bruce

11745-539: The foremost model of many later Swedish kings . At the time Finns were an essential part of the Swedish military. Roughly 2/5 of the infantry and 3/7 of the cavalry in the army were from Finland . They served in their own units which used Finnish as their main language. Commands were also given in Finnish. The Finnish cavalry in the Swedish army was called Hakkapeliitat after their battle cry " Hakkaa päälle! ". Approximately 110,000 soldiers from Finland died serving

11890-418: The genius Leibniz . Blumentrost and Areskine accompanied him. In early December Peter arrived in Amsterdam and visited Nicolaas Witsen . He bought the anatomic and herbarium collection of Frederik Ruysch , Levinus Vincent and Albertus Seba . He obtained many paintings among other from Maria Sibylla Merian for his Kunstkamera and Rembrandt's "David and Jonathan" for Peterhof Palace . He paid

12035-481: The government. Moreover, this transfer of authority was a voluntary act. The people, knowing the king to be their ally, trusted and cooperated with him. The Riksdag of 1682 declared that the king was empowered to bestow fiefs and take them back again, making the king the disposer of his subjects' temporal property. Presently, this new principle of autocracy was extended to the king's legislative authority, when on 9 December 1682, all four estates not only confirmed that

12180-600: The great German rivers lay within Swedish territory, which also included two-thirds of Lake Ladoga and one-half of Lake Peipus . Stockholm , the capital, lay in the very centre of the empire, whose second greatest city was Riga , on the other side of the sea. This empire contained about a quarter of the population of modern Sweden, at only 2,500,000 people, or about 2.3 people per square kilometer. However, Sweden's expansion had been possible partly due to turmoil and weakness in countries in its vicinity, and when they became more stable, they began to look for chances to regain what

12325-570: The guest of John Evelyn , a member of the Royal Society . He was trained on a telescope at the Greenwich Observatory by John Flamsteed . Peter communicated with Thomas Story and William Penn about their position that believers should not join the military. King William III presented a schooner with a whole crew to Peter I in exchange for the monopoly right of English merchants to trade tobacco in Russia (see Charles Whitworth ). At

12470-481: The king held the legislative powers enjoyed by his predecessors, but even gave him the right of interpreting and amending the common law. The recovery of the alienated crown lands occupied Charles XI for the rest of his life. He created a commission, which was ultimately converted into a permanent department of state. It acted on the principle that the titles of all private landed estates might be called in question, because at some time or other they must have belonged to

12615-454: The king of Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth renounced to all claims to the Swedish crown. The treaty compelled Denmark–Norway to reopen direct negotiations with Sweden. Eventually, under the Treaty of Copenhagen on 27 May 1660, Sweden kept the three formerly Danish Scanian provinces and the formerly Norwegian Bohuslän province, which Denmark-Norway had surrendered by the Treaty of Roskilde two years previously; but Sweden had to relinquish

12760-451: The latter half of the 17th century, the major difference between the Swedish army and those common on the continent was the relative lack of firepower and the use of pikes and sabres. Sweden and Russia were the only countries at the time using pikes. In contemporary Europe, infantry were equipped with a musket, while in the Swedish army, every third man had a pike. The pikemen were normally deployed four men deep with musketeers of equal depth on

12905-677: The leader of Protestantism . During the Thirty Years' War, Sweden managed to conquer approximately half of the member states of the Holy Roman Empire . The fortunes of war would shift back and forth several times. After its defeat in the Battle of Nördlingen (1634) , confidence in Sweden among the Swedish-controlled German states was damaged, and several of the provinces refused further Swedish military support, leaving Sweden with only

13050-441: The meantime, Russia had managed to take possession of several towns by the Baltic Sea. Instead of trying to retake these, Charles chose to march directly on Moscow, but due to extreme weather, difficulties with his supply lines and the Russian scorched earth strategy, he was forced to turn towards Ukraine . In 1709, the Swedish army was defeated and captured in the Battle of Poltava ; Charles managed to escape south to Bender in

13195-466: The middle of the 17th century, with France as a firm ally, the incompatibility between its powers and its pretensions was not so obvious. A major reason why Sweden could be so successful in wars with such a scarce number of soldiers was its advanced military tactics. Sweden was able to reform its military tactics continuously throughout the period. Prior to Gustavus Adolphus's reforms, both his father, Charles IX, and his uncle Erik XIV had tried to reform

13340-460: The mining and lumber industries. In 1719, the privileges of miners were enshrined in law with the Berg Privilege, which allowed representatives of all classes to search for ores and build metallurgical plants. At the same time, manufacturers and artisans were exempted from state taxes and recruiting , and their houses were exempt from the post of troops. The law also guaranteed the inheritance of

13485-660: The new city. While the city was being built along the Neva he lived in a modest three-room log cabin (with a study but without a fire-place) which had to make room for the first version of the Winter Palace . The first buildings which appeared were a shipyard at the Admiralty , Kronstadt (1704-1706) and the Peter and Paul Fortress (1706). Peter took his whole family on a boat trip to Kronstadt. Following several defeats, Polish King Augustus II

13630-469: The nobility and required them to return estates once gained from the crown to the king. Serfdom, however, remained in force in the dominions acquired in the Holy Roman Empire and in Swedish Estonia , where a consequent application of the uniformity policy was hindered by the treaties by which they were gained. After its victories in the Thirty Years' War and the subsequent Peace of Westphalia Sweden

13775-507: The over-taxed lower estates protested, and the Diet had to be suspended. The king intervened, not to quell the commons, as the senate insisted, but to compel the nobility to give way. He proposed a special committee to investigate the matter before the meeting of the next Riksdag and that a proportional contribution should be levied on all classes in the meantime. Both groups accepted this arrangement. Charles X Gustav had done his best to recover from

13920-399: The ownership of factories, proclaimed industrial activity a matter of state importance and protected manufacturers from interference in their affairs by local authorities. The same law established the Collegium of Mining , and managed the entire mining and metallurgical industry , and local administrations. The Demidovs became the first Russian exporters of iron to Western Europe . In 1721,

14065-555: The past, his ancestors had been snubbed at the idea; however, it was proving fruitful. He negotiated with Frederick William, Duke of Courland to marry his niece, Anna Ivanovna . He used the wedding in order to launch his new capital, St Petersburg, where he had already ordered building projects of westernized palaces and buildings. Peter hired Italian and German architects to design it. He attracted Domenico Trezzini , Carlo Bartolomeo Rastrelli , Jean-Baptiste Alexandre Le Blond and Andreas Schlüter . To improve his nation's position on

14210-457: The people and the nobility. Primarily a soldier, he directed his ambition towards military glory; but he was also an unusually sharp-sighted politician. While placing great emphasis on military strength, he also understood that domestic unity was necessary for a powerful foreign policy. The most pressing domestic question was the reduction , or restitution of alienated crown lands. At the Riksdag of

14355-544: The pikes were used as an offensive weapon: in close combat, they had the advantage over their foes' weapons thanks to their range. After the bayonet was introduced in the Carolean army (1700–1706), the final volley was delayed until the soldiers were inside bayonet range. Every infantry battalion had grenadiers attached. They supported the infantry attack by lobbing grenades from the flanks. They also formed units of their own. They were otherwise equipped like infantry. Thus, in

14500-544: The possibility of future joint ventures with the Knights, including action against the Turks and the possibility of a future Russian naval base. On 12 September 1698, Peter officially founded the first Russian Navy base, Taganrog on the Sea of Azov . In 1699, Peter changed the date of the celebration of the new year from 1 September to 1 January. Traditionally, the years were reckoned from

14645-582: The power of the aristocracy. Charles XI felt that he could do it now that he had allies in the lower orders to support him. The Riksdag of Stockholm, October 1680, began a new era of Swedish history. On the motion of the Estate of Peasants, the question of the recovery of the alienated crown lands was brought before the Riksdag, and a resolution of the Diet directed that all countships , baronies , domains, manors and other estates producing an annual rent of more than

14790-589: The purchase of large collections from the Dutch pharmacologist Albertus Seba in 1716 and the Dutch anatomist Frederik Ruysch in 1717. Examination and organization of these collections also spurred the creation of the Russian Academy of Sciences . A third acquisition came from Jacob de Wilde , a collector of gems and scientific instruments. These purchases were largely organized by Robert Erskine , Peter's chief physician, and his secretary Johann Daniel Schumacher . In

14935-532: The purported creation of the World , but after Peter's reforms, they were to be counted from the birth of Christ . Thus, in the year 7207 of the old Russian calendar, Peter proclaimed that the Julian Calendar was in effect and the year was 1700. On the death of Lefort in 1699, Menshikov succeeded him as Peter's prime favourite and confidant. In 1700, Peter I prevented the election of a new patriarch and deprived

15080-548: The quarrelsome Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin with which Peter wanted an alliance. He obtained the assistance of the Frederick William I of Prussia who sieged the strong Swedish fortress Wismar . In Altona he met with Danish diplomats, supporting Prussia. He sailed to Copenhagen heading an allied fleet. In Wittenberg he visited the monastery, where Luther lived. In May he went on to Bad Pyrmont , and, because of his physical problems he stayed at this spa. There he met with

15225-497: The rule of Charles X Gustav (1654–1660) after the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658. For the moment, Sweden held a tenuous position of leadership. Careful statesmanship might mean permanent dominion on the Baltic shore, but left little room for mistakes. The extravagance of Gustavus Adolphus's two immediate successors, Christina and Charles X Gustav , caused great difficulties for the new empire. Christina's financial extravagance brought

15370-473: The same year, Peter also sought to end arranged marriages , which were the norm among the Russian nobility , because he thought such a practice was barbaric and led to domestic violence, since the partners usually resented each other. In 1698, Peter sent a delegation to Malta , under boyar Boris Sheremetev , to observe the training and abilities of the Knights of Malta and their fleet . Sheremetev investigated

15515-664: The seas, Peter sought more maritime outlets. His only outlet at the time was the White Sea at Arkhangelsk . The Baltic Sea was at the time controlled by Sweden in the north, while the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea were controlled by the Ottoman Empire and Safavid Empire respectively in the south. The country's need for metal was exacerbated by the outbreak of wars for access to the Black and Baltic Seas. Peter attempted to acquire control of

15660-437: The senior. Sophia then acted as regent during the minority of the sovereigns and exercised all power. For seven years, she ruled as an autocrat. From 1682 to 1689, Peter and his mother were banned to Preobrazhenskoye . At the age of 16, he discovered an English boat on the estate, had it restored and learned to sail. He received a sextant , but did not know how to use it. Peter was fascinated by sundials . Therefore, he began

15805-473: The southern half of modern Estonia ), driving the Swedes out of Finland . In 1714, the Russian fleet won the Battle of Gangut . During the Great Wrath most of Finland was occupied by Russian forces. In January 1716, Tsar Peter traveled in the Baltic region to discuss peace negotiations and how to protect the sea trade route from the Swedes. He visited Riga, Königsberg and Danzig . There his niece married

15950-412: The sovereign in the name of state interests can go to murder, violence, forgery and deceit. He went through the naval service, starting from the lowest ranks: bombardier (1695), captain (1696), colonel (1706), schout-bij-nacht (1709), vice-admiral (1714), admiral (1721). By hard daily work (according to the figurative expression of Peter the Great himself, he was simultaneously "forced to hold

16095-548: The sovereignty to Peter's elder half-brother, the crippled Feodor III . Throughout this period, the government was largely run by Artamon Matveyev , an enlightened friend of Alexis, the political head of the Naryshkin family and one of Peter's greatest childhood benefactors. This position changed when Feodor died in 1682. As Feodor did not leave any children, a dispute arose between the Miloslavsky family ( Maria Miloslavskaya

16240-422: The state to the verge of bankruptcy, and the financial difficulties caused public unrest before her abdication. The Swedish people feared that the external, artificial greatness of their country might be purchased with the loss of their civil and political liberties. The Swedish people looked to a new king to address the problem of too much power vested in the nobility. Charles X Gustav was a strong arbiter between

16385-563: The superstitious fear of monsters . He promoted industrialization in the Russian Empire and higher education. The Russian Academy of Sciences and the Saint Petersburg State University were founded in 1724, and invited Christian Wolff and Willem 's Gravesande . Peter is primarily credited with the modernization of the country, quickly transforming it into a major European power. His administrative reforms, creating

16530-464: The surrounding states for its lack of defence of Protestantism. Charles X Gustav's attempt to gain the favour of Brandenburg by dividing Poland not only reversed his original policy, but also created a new southern rival almost as dangerous as Denmark–Norway in the west. In 1660, after five years of warfare, Sweden had obtained peace and the opportunity to organize and develop the new vast realm. The fifteen-year regency that followed Charles X Gustav

16675-529: The throne, was kept in strictest seclusion at Novodevichy Convent . Peter's visits to the West impressed upon him the notion that European customs were in several respects superior to Russian traditions. He commanded all of his courtiers and officials to wear European clothing (no caftans ) and cut off their long beards, causing Boyars and Old Believers , who were very fond of their beards, great upset. Boyars who sought to retain their beards were required to pay an annual beard tax of one hundred rubles . In

16820-513: The tsar engaged many skilled workers such as builders of locks, fortresses, shipwrights, and seamen—including Cornelis Cruys , a vice-admiral who became, under Franz Lefort , the tsar's advisor in maritime affairs; engineer Menno van Coehoorn refused. Peter put his knowledge of shipbuilding to use in helping build Russia's navy. Peter and Witsen visited Frederik Ruysch who had all the specimens exposed in five rooms. He taught Peter how to catch butterflies and how to preserve them. They also had

16965-417: The tsar was apprenticed for two months to an artillery engineer. (Decrees were issued on the construction of the first Ural blast furnace plants.) In July he met Sophia of Hanover at Coppenbrügge castle. She described him: "The tsar is a tall, handsome man, with an attractive face. He has a lively mind is very witty. Only, someone so well endowed by nature could be a little better mannered." Peter rented

17110-521: The tsar was given the opportunity to gain practical experience in shipyard, belonging to the Dutch East India Company , for a period of four months, under the supervision of Gerrit Claesz Pool . The diligent and capable tsar assisted in the construction of an East Indiaman Peter and Paul specially laid down for him. Peter felt that the ship's carpenters in Holland worked too much by eye and lacked accurate construction drawings. During his stay

17255-525: The unwillingness of the Polish nobility to fight a war considered only to be in Sigismund III's personal interest. The costly peace with Denmark and Poland–Lithuania's inability to mount a seaborne attack on the Swedish mainland gave time for Gustavus Adolphus to reform his armies. The continuation of the Polish war in 1625–1629 ended with a ceasefire in Stary Targ ( Truce of Altmark ) on 26 September 1629 that

17400-479: The war not only a military power, but also one of the largest states of Europe, possessing more than twice as much territory as modern Sweden. The land area of Sweden was 1,100,000 km . While modern Sweden is bounded by the Baltic, during the 17th century the Baltic formed a bond between various widely dispersed dominions . All the islands in the Baltic, except the Danish group, belonged to Sweden. The estuaries of all

17545-518: The war. Sweden founded overseas colonies , principally in the New World. New Sweden was founded in the valley of the Delaware River in 1638, and Sweden later laid claim to a number of Caribbean islands. A string of Swedish forts and trading posts was constructed along the coast of West Africa as well, but these were not designed for Swedish settlers. At the conclusion of the Thirty Years' War,

17690-712: The wars were ultimately successful and led to expansion to the Sea of Azov and the Baltic Sea , thus laying the groundwork for the Imperial Russian Navy . His victory in the Great Northern War ended Sweden's era as a great power and was followed by the proclamation of the Russian Empire . Peter led a cultural revolution that replaced some of the traditionalist and medieval social and political systems with ones that were modern, scientific, Westernized , and based on radical Enlightenment . In December 1699, he introduced

17835-470: The way anything that could assist the Swedes. Deprived of local supplies, the Swedish army was forced to halt its advance in the winter of 1708–1709. In the summer of 1709, they resumed their efforts to capture Russian-ruled Ukraine , culminating in the Battle of Poltava on 27 June. The battle was a decisive defeat for the Swedish forces, ending Charles' campaign in Ukraine and forcing him south to seek refuge in

17980-519: The young Swedish king and the diplomatic activity of Louis XIV, a peace congress began sessions at Nijmegen in March 1677. In the beginning of April 1678, the French king dictated the terms of a peace. One of his chief conditions was the complete restitution of Sweden, as he needed a strong Swedish ally. However, Charles XI refused to go along with ceding territories to its enemies, which led the French king to negotiate on behalf of Sweden without its consent. By

18125-640: Was a mere skirmish , with actual casualties numbering fewer than 600 men, but it made Sweden appear vulnerable and enabled neighbouring countries to attack in the Scanian War . At this point, the empire began to crumble. In 1675, Swedish Pomerania and the Duchy of Bremen were taken by the Brandenburgers, Austrians , and Danes. In December 1677, the elector of Brandenburg captured Stettin . Stralsund fell on 15 October 1678. Greifswald , Sweden's last possession on

18270-415: Was appointed commander-in-chief of St. Petersburg. After the defeat at Narva, Peter I gave the order to melt the church bells into cannons and mortars. In 1701, Peter ordered the construction of Novodvinsk Fortress north of Archangelsk. Everybody was convinced they knew: his Majesty will wage war. In the siege of Nöteborg Russian forces captured the Swedish fortress, renamed Shlisselburg . In 1702 Peter

18415-405: Was at the time led by the young King Charles XII . Sweden was also opposed by Denmark–Norway , Saxony , and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . The Preobrazhensky regiment took part in all major battles of the Great Northern War. Russia was ill-prepared to fight the Swedes, and their first attempt at seizing the Baltic coast ended in disaster at the Battle of Narva in 1700. In the conflict,

18560-582: Was back in St Petersburg. In 1719 New Holland Island was created. Swedish Empire The Swedish Empire or the Age of Greatness ( Swedish : stormaktstiden ) was the period in Swedish history spanning much of the 17th and early 18th centuries during which Sweden became a European great power that exercised territorial control over much of the Baltic region . During this period it also held territories on

18705-405: Was cut in the back of the throne, so that she, literally behind the scenes, could whisper to the two boys. The "Moscow Grand Discharge" started in 1677 and was completed in 1688; it affected noble families with high ranks in the administration; the ministries were also reduced in number. This provoked fierce reactions. Sophia , one of Alexis' daughters from his first marriage, led a rebellion of

18850-516: Was disastrous, and in the ensuing Treaty of the Pruth , Peter was forced to return the Black Sea ports he had seized in 1697. In return, the Sultan expelled Charles XII. The Ottomans called him Mad Peter ( Turkish : deli Petro ), for his willingness to sacrifice large numbers of his troops in wartime. Peter's northern armies took the Swedish province of Livonia (the northern half of modern Latvia , and

18995-411: Was entirely remodeled; and, the recent war having demonstrated the unsuitability of Stockholm as a naval station, the construction of a new arsenal was begun at Karlskrona . After seventeen years of financial difficulties, the twofold enterprise was completed. At the death of Charles XI, Sweden could boast of a fleet of forty-three three-deckers, manned by 11,000 men and armed with 2,648 guns, and one of

19140-642: Was first exhibited to the public at the Summer Palace in 1714, which is used by the present museum as its founding date. Peter's main interest was in natural things ( naturalia ) rather than manmade ones ( artificialia ). A major component of the original collection was a large assortment of human and animal fetuses with various birth defects , many of which Peter had acquired in 1697 from Frederick Ruysch and Levinus Vincent . Peter encouraged research into deformities , particularly in order to debunk superstitious fear of monsters. In particular, he issued

19285-470: Was granted territories in northern Germany. Sweden reached the height of its power during the Second Northern War , when its primary adversary, Denmark–Norway , was neutralized by the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658. Denmark–Norway was forced to give up a third of its territory to save the rest. Although the reign of Charles XII would see initial Swedish victories in the Peace of Travendal (1700) and

19430-449: Was in favour of the Swedes, to whom Poland ceded the larger part of Livonia together with its important port of Riga . The Swedes also got the right to tax Poland's trade on the Baltic (3.5% on the value of goods), and kept control of many of the cities in Royal and Ducal Prussia (including Piława ( Pillau ), Memel and Elbląg (Elbing). The Swedes later conducted a series of invasions into

19575-410: Was instead exercised by his mother. It was only when Natalya died in 1694 that Peter, then aged 22, became an independent sovereign. Formally, Ivan V was a co-ruler with Peter, though being ineffective. Peter became the sole ruler when Ivan died in 1696 without male offspring. Peter grew to be extremely tall, especially for the time period, reportedly standing 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m). He

19720-453: Was introduced, the pike was discarded in all armies except the Swedish and Russian by 1700. In the Swedish army tactics of that time, retreat was never covered, and they were obliged to attack or fight where they stood. This was a military doctrine that (with the advantage of hindsight) might have proven a bit rash. The infantry shock attack operated as follows. The two rear ranks of musketeers were ordered to shoot when "you could not miss,"

19865-439: Was lost. Sweden had now won considerable political influence, which was lessened by the loss of moral prestige. On Charles X Gustav 's accession in 1655, Sweden's neighbours may have become allies; however, territorial loss combined with the loss of religious liberty lessened their ties to Sweden. At Charles X Gustav's death, five years later, Sweden had not only damaged its newly claimed territories but also had become hated by

20010-452: Was meanwhile employed in a defensive manner, relying on their superior firepower to break enemy attacks. Smaller musketeer detachments (~200 men) were used during the Polish war to support the cavalry against the superior Polish-Lithuanian cavalry. Gustavus Adolphus earned the title "father of modern warfare" because of his revolutionary tactics during the Thirty Years' War, which later inspired other nations and became standard tactics. He became

20155-455: Was mortally wounded during the siege of Fredriksten Fortress in Fredrikshald, today's Halden . With his death, Swedish war efforts mostly came to a halt, although Russia continued to harass the civilian population of the Swedish coastal areas until the concluding Treaty of Nystad was finally signed in 1721. Sweden would remain a regional power of varying success until the 19th century, but

20300-433: Was noted for sloth and carelessness leading to a general neglect of business. Additionally, government corruption led Sweden to be hired by foreign powers. This "subsidy policy" dates from the Treaty of Fontainebleau of 1661, through which Sweden, in exchange for a considerable sum of money, supported the French candidate for the Polish throne. Sweden was torn between Louis XIV of France and his adversaries in plans to control

20445-486: Was seen as a "second Goliath " or Samson . Saint-Simon described him in 1717 as "tall, well-formed and slim... with a look both bewildered and fierce". Peter had noticeable facial tics, and he may have suffered from neck spasm . As a young man, Peter I adopted the Protestant model of existence in a pragmatic world of competition and personal success, which largely shaped the philosophy of his reformism . He perceived

20590-441: Was supposed to recruit up to 100 students, but had only 23. Therefore, he issued another decree in 1714 calling for compulsory education , which dictated that all Russian 10- to 15-year-old children of the nobility, government clerks, and lesser-ranked officials must learn basic arithmetic, trigonometry and geometry , and should be tested on the subjects at the end of their studies. Areskine , an iatrochemist , became head of

20735-684: Was the first governor of Siberia. Peter was visited by Cornelis de Bruijn , who spent six years in Russia and made drawings of the Kremlin. In 1711, Peter visited elector August II of Poland in Dresden, Carlsbad and Torgau where his son Aleksei married. In 1713 he visited Hamburg, sieged Tönningen with his allies. He then traveled to Hanover and was a guest of Duke Anton Ulrich of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in Salzdahlum . From Danzig he sailed to Riga, Helsingfors and Turku . In 1711, Peter established by decree

20880-452: Was the first wife of Alexis I) and Naryshkin family ( Natalya Naryshkina was his second wife) over who should inherit the throne. He jointly ruled with his elder half-brother, Ivan V , until 1696. Ivan, was next in line but was weakminded and blind. Consequently, the Boyar Duma (a council of Russian nobles) chose the 10-year-old Peter to become tsar, with his mother as regent . A hole

21025-457: Was unable to manoeuvre through the situation it faced. The administration was internally divided and hindered by the lack of unity and talent among its statesmen. The two major rivals were the military-aristocratic party headed by Magnus de la Gardie and the party of peace and economy led by Johan Gyllenstierna . The aristocratic group prevailed and brought with it a decline of morality which made it notorious to its neighbours. The administration

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