History of Finland IV: The bleakest time in Finnish history

This is the fourth part of a blog series where I delve into the significant phases of Finnish history. In the previous post, I discussed the rebellion of the peasants who feared becoming serfs but ultimately lost their battle, resulting in the permanent weakening of their previously strong position in relation to the nobility.

Following the Cudgel War, Charles, Duke of Södermanland, ascended to power in Sweden after defeating King Sigismund in the Battle of Stångebro. As King Charles IX, he successfully curbed the nobility's thirst for power during his reign. However, after his sudden demise in 1611, the situation underwent a transformation.

This presented an opportunity for the high nobility to place the underage Gustaf Adolph on the throne, whose decisions were heavily influenced by the dominance of the nobility itself, the ruling Council of State, and the Estates General, all of which were effectively controlled by the high nobility. Consequently, the king found himself compelled to advocate for the privileges of the nobility, resulting in his position being somewhat like the first of his peers. As a result, the king also had an interest in promoting the interests of the high nobility.

As a result of this development, approximately 63 percent of the kingdom's land came under the ownership of the nobility. Consequently, the position of ordinary peasants and even lower nobility further deteriorated. However, they still served a purpose as representatives in the Estates General, which was established to endorse the privileges of the high nobility.

Soon, the nobility acquired exclusive rights to the highest positions, which were rapidly created. Consequently, power, legal authority, and wealth in the country shifted into the hands of the upper echelons of nobility, while the significance of local parish meetings, which were closer to the people, diminished.

Nevertheless, the peasants in the northern regions were spared from serfdom due to the sparse population. Unlike the southern European cities that attracted the surrounding rural population, the small settlements in the north lacked the same appeal, eliminating the need to bind peasants to the land.

Consequently, the Finnish and Swedish peasants were formally allowed to maintain their free status. However, the decrease in the number of farms and cultivated areas between 1570 and 1660, instead of growth, clearly indicates their actual distress. Moreover, the common people bore the burden of conscription by the great power, directed by the nobles towards difficult people in their own fiefdoms and neighboring estates, seeking to redeem them for their own control when their own men became depleted.

Simultaneously, the common people endured an unprecedentedly stringent discipline, resulting in various side effects such as witch hunts in the wealthiest peasant regions, religious revivalist movements, and devastating famines that claimed the lives of at least a quarter, if not a third, of Finland's population. The destructiveness of these famines was not only caused by the well-known Little Ice Age but also by rural poverty, which eroded people's ability to withstand years of poor harvests.

Furthermore, even during the worst famine years, Finland, under the rule of the nobility, saw the exportation of grain instead of utilizing it to feed the starving population. Meanwhile, cities on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea decayed due to the mercantilist ideology centered around a Stockholm-dominated trade system.

The position of the peasants was further weakened not only by the Swedish conscription that transformed Finland into a massive military camp but also by the constant need for funds to sustain a military perpetually engaged in warfare. This necessity stemmed from the fact that approximately half of the state's income was allocated to military endeavors. The nobility benefited from these wars, as they provided various advantages to the military class, from advancing their own careers to amassing land.

Overall, the era of the aristocracy represented the darkest period in Finnish history for the common people. However, it also sowed the seeds of its own destruction, as the nobility's insatiable thirst for power and wealth, coupled with their incessant warfare, gradually weakened the entire kingdom and ultimately left it vulnerable and defenseless in the face of external threats.

The original blog post in Finnish: Suomen historian kurjin aika

All the blog posts in this series:
History of Finland I: How did Finland become culturally part of the West?
History of Finland II: From a hinterland of the Union into a modern state
History of Finland III: The legal and economic weakening of the position of the people
History of Finland IV: The bleakest time in Finnish history
History of Finland V: The pursuit of economic profit saved the country
History of Finland VI: Age of freedom and utility
History of Finland VII: The dictator of the era of Enlightenment promoted capitalist economy
History of Finland VIII: Joining of Finland to Russia led to an increase in crime
History of Finland IX: Enlightended dictator initiated economic growth
History of Finland X: The birth of Finnish identity
History of Finland XI: Finnish democracy and gender equality for women
History of Finland XII: Bloody civil war
History of Finland XIII: The far-right's rebellion
History of Finland XIV: The end of the first Finnish Republic
History of Finland XV: Paasikivi-Kekkonen doctrine
History of Finland XVI: Through rise and fall to a new kind of future

History of Finland III: The legal and economic weakening of the position of the people

This is the third part of a blog series in which I go through the significant phases of Finnish history. In the second post, I described how Finland became a part of an early modern state, where the power was concentrated in the hands of the king, who also had the means to use it.

After Gustav Vasa, there was a long power struggle in Sweden. First, the throne was inherited by Eric XIV, then John III, and his son Sigismund. Finally, after various twists and turns, Dude Charles, i.e., Charles IX, came to power. During this power struggle, the Swedish nobility tactfully maneuvered between the different parties and thus managed to improve its position, which was also strengthened by the wars that Sweden was fighting at the same time - after all, the nobility was ultimately a military class.

The longest of the Swedish wars was the war between Sweden and Russia at the end of the 16th century, which was preceded by a heated exchange of words. This 25-year-long conflict, known as the "Long Wrath," ended with the Treaty of Tyavzino in 1595, in which victorious Sweden's power expanded to include areas from the depths of the Gulf of Finland to the desolate borders of Lapland.

Sweden fought the war using a mercenary army, as was customary at the time, and the maintenance of this so-called castle camp was a burden on the peasants. There were widespread abuses associated with this, resulting in people having to sell their valuables and even their land due to financial difficulties. Thus, the wealth gap between the estates grew rapidly.

After the Treaty of Tyavzino, the peasants assumed that their burdens would end, but this did not happen. Instead, Klaus Fleming, the governor appointed by King Sigismund Vasa - who was staying in Poland - and effectively the dictator of Finland, kept his army ready. This provided the nobility and the wealthiest segment of the peasant population, the cavalry farmers, the opportunity to continue to increase their profits during peacetime as they had done during wartime by equipping the cavalry.

Since the maintenance of garrisons had severely impoverished ordinary peasants during the long war, the future seemed extremely bleak for them. This created a tremendous fear among the people of becoming tied to their estates as serfs, as had happened earlier in Central Europe.

As a result, Finland's first civil war, known as the "Cudgel War" erupted, and Fleming's cavalry brutally defeated the peasant armies: nearly 3,000 peasants were killed, a remarkably high number considering that there were less than 30,000 farms in Finland at the end of the 16th century. The outcome of the lost war was the formation of a class society, in which the legal and economic status of the common people was weak, and the position of the nobility was even stronger than before.

The original blog post in Finnish:
Kansan aseman oikeudellinen ja taloudellinen heikentyminen

All the blog posts in this series:
History of Finland I: How did Finland become culturally part of the West?
History of Finland II: From a hinterland of the Union into a modern state
History of Finland III: The legal and economic weakening of the position of the people
History of Finland IV: The bleakest time in Finnish history
History of Finland V: The pursuit of economic profit saved the country
History of Finland VI: Age of freedom and utility
History of Finland VII: The dictator of the era of Enlightenment promoted capitalist economy
History of Finland VIII: Joining of Finland to Russia led to an increase in crime
History of Finland IX: Enlightended dictator initiated economic growth
History of Finland X: The birth of Finnish identity
History of Finland XI: Finnish democracy and gender equality for women
History of Finland XII: Bloody civil war
History of Finland XIII: The far-right's rebellion
History of Finland XIV: The end of the first Finnish Republic
History of Finland XV: Paasikivi-Kekkonen doctrine
History of Finland XVI: Through rise and fall to a new kind of future