In the power vacuum thus created, Russia became the leading Baltic force, receiving Livonia, Estonia, Ingria and most of Karelia from Sweden.
The Age of Freedom
The eighteenth century saw absolutism discredited in Sweden. A new constitution vested power in the Estates, who reduced the new king Frederick I's role to that of nominal head of state. The chancellor wielded the real power and under Arvid Horn the country found a penod or stability. His party, nicknamed the "Caps'. opposed by the hawkish "Hats", who forced wa with Russia in 1741, a disaster in which Sweae lost all of Finland and had its whole east coa burned and bombed. Most of Finland was returned with the agreement to elect Adolphus Frederick (a relation of the crown prince of Russia) to the Swedish throne on Frederick i's death which duly occurred in 1751.
During his reign Adolphus repeatedly tried to reassert royal power, but found that the constitution was only strengthened against him. The Estates' power was such that they issued a stamp with his name when Adolphus refused to sign any bills. The resurrected "Hats" forced entry into the Seven Years' War in 1757 on the French side, another disastrous venture as the Prussians repelled every Swedish attack.
The aristocratic parties were in a state of constant flux. Although elections of sorts were held to provide delegates for the Д (parliament), foreign sympathies, bribery and bickering were hardly conducive to a democratic administration. Cabals continued to rule Sweden, the economy was stagnant, and reform delayed. It was, however, an age of intellectual and scientific advance, surprising in a country that had lost nfiuch of its cultural impetus. Carl von Linne, the botanist whose classification of plants is still used, was professor at Uppsala from 1741 to 1778. Anders Celsius initiated the use of the centigrade temperature scale; Carl Scheele discovered chlorine. A royal decree of 1748 organised Europe's first fullscale census, a five yearly event by 1775. Other fields flourished, too. Emmanuel Swedenborg, the philosopher, died in 1772, his mystical works encouraging new theological sects; and the period encapsulated the life of Carl Michael Bellman |174095|, the celebrated Swedish poet, whose work did much to identify and foster a popular nationalism.
With the accession of Gustav III in 1771, the crown began to regain the ascendancy. A new constitution was forced upon a divided Riksdag and proved a balance between earlier absolutism and the later aristocratic squabbles. A popular l