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The Forgotten History Of The Northern Crusades
Northern Europe’s Arctic Holy Wars
When people think of the Crusades, they think of sandy oases with palm trees, dusty desert fortresses, and a clash between Medieval Muslims and Feudal Christians. However, there was another series of crusades fought between Christians and pagans, except these battles did not take place under the scorching sun of the Holy Land but under the unsleeping Arctic Sun far to the north.
The Northern Crusades, as they are known, were a series of religious struggles between recently converted Scandinavian Christians and pagan holdouts. Multiple wars were fought between Danes and Finns, Swedes and Tavastians, Poles and Prussians. The battles were characterized by feudal states and kingdoms fighting against dispersed tribes. By rising powers and falling powers. By old ways versus the new ways.
The Northern Crusades took place during the 12th and 13th centuries. They were also pillars of building national identities in numerous Eastern European states and were highly romanticized during the Renaissance and Industrial Revolutions.
The Swedish Crusades
There were three Swedish Crusades that took place between 1150 CE and 1293 CE. The crusades largely targeted pagan tribes in the lands that now make up Finland. The tribes consisted of Finns, Tavastians, and Karelians. The newly minted Christian Swedes targeted the dispersed pagan tribes to their east in a series of campaigns that sought to bring Finland under Swedish control. The Swedish Crusades were the events that gave Sweden a claim to Finland. It was a claim that would stand for hundreds of years until Finland was absorbed by the Russian Empire much later.
Many people dispute the historical value of these Crusades. Many modern scholars believe that these crusades were invented by Swedish nationalists in a bid to give them a more militant, religious and glorious history. They were also used to bolster the claims that Sweden had long been masters of Finland.
