"Battles and Sieges of the Great Northern War" Topic

"When the Great Northern War started in 1700 Sweden was the dominant military power in north-eastern Europe, controlling most provinces along the shores of the Baltic Sea. But it was a country with very limited resources and incapable of defending its position if attacked by several countries at once. Sweden's neighbours knew that and Denmark-Norway, Saxony and Russia secretly formed a coalition and launched a surprise attack on three fronts. At a later stage they were joined by Prussia and Hanover. But despite the coalition members' optimistic expectations of quick gains, the Swedish army led by Charles XII proved to be a formidable foe. This war that eventually led to the end of Sweden's age of greatness also contained its greatest moments. Almost always fighting against numerically superior armies (usually at least two times greater) Sweden managed to win a series of great battlefield victories at Narva, Düna, Kliszow, Fraustadt, Holowczyn, Helsingborg and Gadebusch. But Sweden also suffered its most catastrophic defeat ever at Poltava and the list of fortresses falling to the enemies during the latter half of the war is very long. The growing power of Russia proved too much and in the end it replaced Sweden as the dominant power in the Baltic Sea region.

The following list of battles and sieges is a selection of the most important events of the Great Northern War. All dates are according to the contemporary Swedish calendar which differs from the Julian calendar (Old Style) by one day until 1712 and from the Gregorian calendar (New Style) with ten days until 1712 when the difference increased to eleven days. This means that the battle of Narva is shown to have happened on 20 November, even though the Gregorian calendar which we use today date it to 30 November and the Russians who used the Julian calendar at the time date the battle to 19 November…"
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