Dominium maris baltici

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The term Dominium maris baltici is a Latin word and refers translated dominion over the Baltic Sea or in spirit Baltic rule .

Concept history

The catchphrase was supposedly first used in 1563 by King Sigismund II August of Poland-Lithuania in the fight against Sweden and referred to the mastery of the shipping routes to and on the Baltic Sea . The term was used for the first time in an official document in the Treaty of The Hague in 1614 , in which the Netherlands undertook to accept the Swedish claim to so-called sovereignty over the Baltic Sea. The term has been handed down in current historical research.

Event history

Kalmar War

One can, however, speak of a Dominium maris Baltici in the sense of an attempt to gain dominance over the entire Baltic Sea area among the Vikings in the Middle Ages. The late Middle Ages (13th to 15th centuries) were characterized by the formation of the two great unions, that of Krewo between Poland and Lithuania (1385) and that of Kalmar between Denmark-Norway and Sweden (1397). Parallel to these integration processes, however, a disintegration process took place in the eastern half: The Rus fell apart, resulting in Novgorod's independence and the submission of Moscow to the Golden Horde . At the same time, there was a clear increase in German influence in the entire region - be it in the form of colonial foundations such as the Livonian religious order , be it in the form of the adoption of German legal models or through German immigration in the course of the Hanseatic League activities. These legal, demographic and cultural developments mainly affected the cities, here Lübeck and Stockholm , Visby and Wyborg , Stralsund and Riga , Rostock and Reval .

The Reformation , which began at the beginning of the early modern period , only left out Roman Catholic Poland-Lithuania, the Orthodox north-west Russia and partially Ingermanland and Karelia in north-eastern Europe .

First phase (1560-1630)

The real struggle for supremacy began after the collapse of the old medieval powers (Livonia and the Teutonic Order ) at the beginning of the 16th century.

In the struggle for control of the Baltic Sea, Denmark was able to take supremacy in the Baltic Sea area, as it controlled access from the North Sea to the Baltic Sea in the Øresund and thus had considerable income to finance military operations; the sound tariff was one of the most important sources of income for the Danish kingdom. First in the Seven Years' War and then in the Kalma War it was able to maintain this position against Sweden. This position has come under increasing pressure , especially since the Reformation and Counter-Reformation . In the period of Swedish expansion from the turn of the 17th century, these made the Danes increasingly disputed their position

Conquest of Novgorod in 1611

Sweden had gained a foothold in Estonia since 1561 and expanded this position in wars with Russia in 1570–1583 and 1590–1595.

The tsarist Russia was under Ivan IV. Also started an acquisition and expansion policy (1533-1584). The latter was directed against the Baltic countries since 1558 (see Livonian War ). But Russia has not yet been able to gain a foothold on the Baltic Sea. After the end of the Rurikid dynasty in 1598 and the death of the Boyar Tsar Boris Godunov , Russia was plunged into a time of turmoil, the Smuta (1605–1613). There were Polish and Swedish interventions and in 1610 even Moscow was occupied by Polish troops.

With the conclusion of the Peace of Stolbowo, which ended the Ingermanland War between Russia and Sweden in 1617 and the successful fixing of Gustav II Adolf's trade-policy conception, further Swedish-Russian relations were determined for the rest of the 17th century. The Swedish possessions upstream from Russia remained an impenetrable barrier throughout the 17th century. The Russians could not enter the Baltic Sea on any boat without Swedish approval. And the Swedes never gave the Russians that approval. Instead, the Russians set up their own courtyard in Stockholm. All attempts by Russian merchants to actively trade beyond the Swedish sphere of influence were crushed in the bud by the Swedish government.

In the course of the 17th century, Poland-Lithuania also intervened in the struggle for Baltic sovereignty. 1587 was Sigismund III. Wasa , who united the race of the Jagiellonians and the Wasa in his person, was elected king. In 1592 Sigismund III. additionally Swedish king and thus established a Swedish-Polish personal union . However , when he was elected, the Sejm had obliged him to be permanently present in Poland. So Sigismund III. appoint a regent in Sweden. 1603 tried Sigismund III. Wasa regaining the throne of his Swedish homeland, which he lost as a result of the Battle of Stångebro in 1598 and his deposition as King of Sweden by the Swedish Diet in 1599. This resulted in the end of the personal union between Sweden and Poland, which existed from 1592 onwards, and provoked the outbreak of the Swedish-Polish wars 1600–1629 . For Poland this brought the loss of Livonia and Prussian coastal areas.

Second phase (1630-1660)

The second phase in the struggle for the Dominium Maris Baltici from 1630 to 1660 was initially determined by the question of whether Denmark could continue to exist as a separate state structure. Due to the Torstensson War , a partial conflict of the Thirty Years War ( Peace of Brömsebro 1645, Peace of Westphalia 1648), the Dominium maris Baltici largely went to Sweden. The next armed conflict was the Second Northern War , followed by the Scandinavian War from 1674 to 1679. These three conflicts led to the cession of several Danish provinces, but thanks to the Danish fleet and the help of the Netherlands , Sweden was unable to conquer the Danish heartland.

Third phase (1660-1720)

The Swedish dominance was in the Great Northern War (1700-1721) by the emerging superpower Russia replaced . The Russian Dominium maris Baltici , founded by Tsar Peter I , existed until the second half of the 18th century, when Denmark succeeded in agreeing a peaceful north with Russia as part of the policy of a European balance of power (1765, 1773 ). With the partition of Poland in the 19th century, Sweden-Finland was broken up by Russia. The Russian-imperial reshaping of large parts of northeastern Europe led to a strong dominance of Russia.

See also

literature

  • Nils Ahnlund : Dominium maris baltici. In: ders .: Tradition och historia. Stockholm 1956, pp. 114-130.
  • Walther Hubatsch : Unrest in the north. Studies on German-Scandinavian history. Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1956, pp. 46, 89.
  • John Paul : Europe in the Baltic Sea Region. Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1961, pp. 67, 93.
  • Heinz Schilling : Confessionalization and State Interests. International Relations 1559–1660. Handbook of the History of International Relations, ed. by Heinz Duchhardt , Volume 2. Schöningh, Paderborn a. a. 2007, Chapter IV: The Nordic-Baltic circle of powers and the struggle for the Dominium maris Baltici, pp. 308–345.
  • Christoph Kampmann : Europe and the Reich in the Thirty Years War. History of a European conflict. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2008, Chapter II.1.c: The struggle for supremacy in the Baltic Sea region (Dominium Maris Baltici) , pp. 11-14.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stewart P. Oakley: War and Peace in the Baltic, 1560-1790. Routledge, London 1991, p. 24 .
  2. ^ Heinz Schilling: Denominationalization and State Interests. International Relations 1559–1660 (= Handbook of the History of International Relations. Volume 2). Edited by Heinz Duchhardt. Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2007, p. 341 .
  3. ↑ Martin Meier: Western Pomerania north of the Peene under Danish administration 1715 to 1721. Oldenbourg, Munich 2008, p. 15 f.
  4. ↑ Christoph Kampmann: Europe and the Empire in the Thirty Years War. History of a European conflict. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2008, p. 12 .
  5. ^ Johannes Schildhauer: Reformation in the Baltic Sea region and the beginning of the struggle for the Dominium maris Baltici in the 16th century. In: Konrad Fritze , Eckhard Müller-Mertens , Johannes Schildhauer (eds.): The Baltic and North Sea area. Politics - ideology - culture from the 12th to the 17th century. Böhlau, Weimar 1986, pp. 19-35.
  6. ↑ Ursula Voges: The struggle for the Dominium Maris Baltici 1629 to 1645. Sweden and Denmark from the peace of Lübeck to the peace of Brömsebro. Sporn, Zeulenroda 1938; Sune Dalgård : Østersø, Vestersø, Nordsø. Dominium maris Baltici, maris Septentrionalis 1638. In: Historisk tidsskrift. 11th series, Volume 5 (1956), pp. 295-320 ( img.kb.dk [PDF; 1.31 MB; with an English summary p. 319 f.]).
  7. ↑ Ralph Tuchtenhagen: Brief history of Sweden p. 52.
  8. ↑ Yearbooks for the History of Eastern Europe JBfGOE. Edited on behalf of the Eastern European Institute in Munich . Stuttgart 1968, p. 87.
  9. ^ Władysław Czapliński : The struggle for the Dominium maris Baltici and the Baltic politics of Poland in the XVII. Century. In: Acta Poloniae Historica. 1973, 28, pp. 123-135.
  10. ↑ Andrea Schmidt-Rösler: Poland - From the Middle Ages to the Present. Verlag Friedrich-Pustet, Regensburg 1996, pp. 41-42.
  11. ↑ Göran Rystad : Dominium Maris Baltici - dröm och Verklighet. Sveriges freder 1645–1661. In: Kerstin Abukhanfusa (Ed.): Mare nostrum. Om Westfaliska freden and Östersjön som ett svenskt maktcentrum. Riksarkivet, Stockholm 1999, pp. 95-105.
  12. ^ Eckardt Opitz : Schleswig-Holstein in the entire Danish state at the end of the Bernstorff era. From French hegemony to the “balance of power”. European politics after 1721 and the “calm of the north”. In: Eva Heinzelmann, Stefanie Robl, Thomas Riis (eds.): The entire Danish state. An underrated empire? Ludwig, Kiel 2006, pp. 203-217. See also Otto Brandt : The problem of the “calm of the north” in the 18th century. In: Historical magazine . 140 (1929), pp. 550-564.