Northeastern Eurasia (1684–1827 CE)

Imperial Frontiers, Salmon Rivers, and the Making of a Northern Sea–Steppe System

Geography & Environmental Context

From the Baltic–Black Sea corridor across the forest–steppe of East Europe to the taiga, tundra, and Pacific rims of Siberia and Northeast Asia, this macro-region bridged three oceanic worlds: the Arctic, the North Atlantic–Baltic, and the North Pacific. Anchors ranged from the Dnieper–Don–Volga and Neva to the Ob–Yenisei–Lena–Kolyma river highways; from the Pontic steppe and Polesia wetlands to the Amur–Ussuri lowlands, Sakhalin, Okhotsk coast, Chukotka, Wrangel, and Hokkaidō. Permafrosted interiors, salmon-rich rivers, and storm-beaten coasts met fertile chernozem belts—a continent-spanning frontier of grain, furs, timber, fish, and salt.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The Little Ice Age lingered with severe winters (notably 1708–1709) and short growing seasons. Baltic freeze-ups delayed shipping; Tambora (1816–1817) and earlier cool pulses triggered dearth from Finland to Ukraine. In Siberia, rivers were ice roads most of the year, and taiga fires alternated with deep frosts; along the Sea of Okhotsk and Chukchi coasts, gales and sea ice shortened sailing windows even as ice-edge fisheries boomed. Hokkaidō endured snowy winters yet sustained abundant salmon and herring runs.

Subsistence & Settlement

• East Europe (Belarus–Ukraine–European Russia): Peasant communes rotated rye, oats, barley, wheat, flax, and hemp; chernozem frontiers (Novorossiya) turned to estate grain and sheep; Odessa (1794) rose as a Black Sea grain port. Cossack borderlands mixed fishing, apiaries, horse breeding, and mobile farming.

• Northwest Asia (W/C Siberia): Indigenous Khanty, Mansi, Nenets, Evenki and others combined fishing, hunting (sable), and reindeer herding; Russian ostrogs (Tobolsk–Tomsk–Krasnoyarsk–Irkutsk) spread plough agriculture along river terraces; promyshlenniki pursued fur frontiers.

• Northeast Asia (Amur–Okhotsk–Chukotka–Hokkaidō): Daur, Nanai, Nivkh, Udege, Evenki, Chukchi, Siberian Yupik, and Ainu economies centered on salmon, sturgeon, marine mammals, reindeer, and garden grains/beans; Russian wintering posts dotted the Lena–Kolyma–Anadyr; Matsumae traders controlled Hokkaidō’s SW littoral.

Technology & Material Culture

• Agro-forestry & mills: Estate granaries, wind/watermills, and flax/hemp scutching in East Europe; drainage and rotations raised yields.

• River–snow logistics: Birch-bark canoes, skis, sledges, and portages linked basins; in the south, barges moved bulk grain to Baltic and Black Sea outlets.

• Maritime gear: Copper-sheathed hulls, chronometers, and sturdy Okhotsk craft; Ainu and Amur communities maintained weirs, net fisheries, and smokehouses.

• Trade kits: Iron pots, beads, textiles, tobacco, vodka, firearms into indigenous markets; outflow of furs, hides, fish oils, potash, tar, timber, and grain.

• Sacred and civic builds: Orthodox churches and wooden chapels along Siberian rivers; Ukrainian Baroque façades; ancestor shrines, masks, and bear-sending paraphernalia among Amur and Ainu communities.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Baltic & Black Sea “windows”: St. Petersburg (1703) opened a northern outlet (timber, hemp, tar, flax); successive Russo-Ottoman wars unlocked a Black Sea export front (Kherson–Mykolaiv–Odessa).

• Trans-Siberian rivers: Ob–Irtysh–Yenisei–Lena functioned as summer barge routes/winter roads; overland portages and the Omsk–Semipalatinsk steppe link tied Siberia to Central Asia.

• Amur–Okhotsk–Pacific: The Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689) fixed a Qing–Russian line; Okhotsk became Russia’s Pacific lifeline; Bering’s voyages (1728, 1741) projected to Alaska.

• Hokkaidō littoral: Canoe routes knit Ainu villages; Matsumae intermediaries funneled rice, sake, and lacquerware north in exchange for fish, furs, and crafts.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Orthodox & imperial: Icons, pilgrimages, parish schools, and baroque/neoclassical cityscapes in Kyiv–St. Petersburg–Moscow; Cossack dumy and kobzar song preserved frontier memory.

• Indigenous cosmologies: Shamanic drums, bear rituals, river and mountain shrines structured relations with animal masters and waters; Ainu iomante remained a central rite.

• Border syncretisms: Crosses beside carved idols; firearms, silk robes, and lacquer bowls reinterpreted as prestige ritual items; Jesuit/Orthodox/mission outposts mingled with men’s houses and clan lodges.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Risk portfolios: Salmon weirs, stone/wooden fish traps, oil rendering, and cached stores carried Arctic and taiga households through long winters; reindeer routes adjusted to snow cover.

• Commune & kin relief: Mir/obshchina land repartition and labor exchange in East Europe; parish charity, confraternities, and brotherhoods mitigated dearth.

• Frontier agronomy: Shelterbelts and spring sowings on steppe; rye/oats on floodplains; mixed household economies (spinning, weaving, seasonal wage-work) buffered shocks.

Political & Military Shocks

• East European re-maps: Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1772, 1793, 1795); Crimean annexation (1783); Russo-Ottoman wars (1768–1774; 1787–1792; 1806–1812) opened the Northern Black Sea corridor; 1812 invasion forged a continental war economy.

• Siberian incorporation: Fort lines, yasak fur tribute, and missionary courts consolidated imperial rule; Kiakhta (1727) regulated China–Russia caravan exchange.

• Amur frontier & Pacific turn: Qing patrols contained Russian access after Nerchinsk; Okhotsk staged Pacific expeditions; coastal violence and disease shadowed contact zones.

• Hokkaidō: Matsumae monopoly tightened over Ainu trade, sowing tensions that presaged 19th-century conflict.

Transition

Between 1684 and 1827, Northeastern Eurasia shifted from mosaic frontiers to an integrated river-and-sea system of empires. East Europe became a grain-export engine tied to the Baltic and a newly forged Black Sea corridor; Siberia turned into a transcontinental fur and transit realm; Northeast Asia emerged as Russia’s Pacific hinge, bounded by Qing defenses and Matsumae controls yet newly linked to Alaska by Bering’s routes.
Amid wars, partitions, and missions, indigenous lifeways—reindeer herding, salmon fisheries, shamanic rites—endured and adapted. By 1827, the region stood enmeshed in global trade and imperial logistics, its salmon rivers and steppe grain, tar forests and Okhotsk ships, together powering a northern world poised for the accelerations and ruptures of the nineteenth century.

East Europe (1684–1827 CE): Imperial Frontiers, Cossack Borderlands, and the Making of a Black Sea Corridor

Geography & Environmental Context

East Europe comprises Belarus, Ukraine, the European portion of Russia, and the sixteen Russian republics west of the Urals. Anchors include the Belarusian Plain and Polesia wetlands; the Dnieper, Dniester, Don, Volga–Okaupper and middle basins; the Forest–Steppe and Pontic Steppe belts; the Black Sea littoral from the Dniester estuary to the Sea of Azov; the Carpathian foothills (western Ukraine); and the Baltic access via St. Petersburg on the Neva. Soils ranged from chernozem steppe to mixed-forest podzols and peat marsh, shaping distinct agrarian and pastoral zones.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The tail of the Little Ice Age brought sharp winters (notably the Great Frost of 1709) and intermittent droughts or wet years across the steppe. Harvest crises struck in the 1690s and 1816–1817 (the “Year Without a Summer,” after Tambora), stressing grain markets from the Volga to the Dnieper. Steppe aridity alternated with grassland fires; marshlands in Polesia expanded and contracted with precipitation cycles. River freeze-up and spring floods governed transport calendars on the Dnieper, Volga, and Don.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Forest & Forest–Steppe (Belarus, central Russia): Peasant communes (mir / obshchina) practiced cereal rotations of rye, oats, barley, wheat, with flax and hemp; dairying and swine husbandry complemented mixed farming.

• Pontic Steppe & Southern Ukraine: Rapid 18th–early 19th c. colonization (Novorossiya) introduced large estate grain, sheep, and horse herding; Odessa (1794) rose as a grain port.

• Cossack borderlands: The Left-Bank and Zaporozhian lands balanced river fishing, apiaries, horse breeding, and mobile farming under semi-military communities; the Zaporozhian Sich was dissolved (1775).

• Volga–Oka heartlands: Densely nucleated villages supplied state grain stores and urban markets; cottage linen and metalwork spread around river towns.

• Carpathian piedmont: Smallholdings mixed rye, potatoes (increasingly after the late 18th c.), and pastoralism.

Technology & Material Culture

Wooden ard and iron-tipped ploughs coexisted; scythes, flails, and windmills/watermills processed grain. State-fostered industry expanded in European Russia (iron foundries at the Ural forelands, textile districts near Moscow). River craft—dubrovy, strugi, and barges—moved bulk goods; road stations (yam) supported courier lines. Orthodox ecclesiastical art (icon-painting, wood churches), Cossack arms and dress, Ukrainian baroque church façades, Belarusian weaving, and folk instruments (bandura, gusli) marked regional styles.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

Major corridors knitted the region into Eurasia:

• River highways: Dnieper to the Black Sea; Volga north–south between the Upper Volga and Caspian; Don–Volga portages tied steppe to heartland.

• Black Sea corridor: After the Russo-Ottoman wars, seizure and settlement of the Northern Black Sea opened export fronts through Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Odessa, linking chernozem grain to Mediterranean markets.

• Baltic window: St. Petersburg (founded 1703) funneled timber, hemp, tar, and flax to northern Europe; canals linked Neva–Volga basins.

• Steppe routes: Former Tatar and Cossack trails converted to postal and military roads as fort lines advanced.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

Orthodox Christianity remained the dominant frame (cathedrals, pilgrimage networks), alongside Greek-Catholic (Uniate) parishes in parts of Right-Bank Ukraine and Belarus. Cossack lore, dumy epics, and kobzar song carried frontier memory; Russian byliny and Old Believer hymnody persisted in forests and river towns. Kyiv-Mohyla intellectual circles and St. Petersburg/Moscow academies shaped elite culture; vernacular printing and parish schooling widened literacy slowly. Urban baroque and neoclassicism recast capitals, while folk wood architecture and embroidery sustained local aesthetics.

Technology & Material Culture (State & War)

Gun foundries, uniforms depots, and road/bridge building followed imperial logistics. Fortified lines stepped southward; naval yards on the Neva and Black Sea built fleets. The agrarian export complex—estate granaries, threshing barns, and river ports—scaled up with customs houses and brokers.

Movement & Interaction Corridors (War & Diplomacy)

• Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1772, 1793, 1795): Brought Belarus and Right-Bank territories under imperial rule, reorganized as guberniya administrations.

• Crimean Khanate annexation (1783): Cleared the path for steppe colonization and Black Sea ports.

• Russo-Ottoman wars (e.g., 1768–1774, 1787–1792, 1806–1812) shifted the Danube–Black Sea balance (bold frontiers, new fortresses).

• French invasion of Russia (1812): Battle of Borodino, burning of Moscow, Berezina—devastation and mass mobilization reshaped supply systems and peasant obligations.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

Peasant communes shared risk through land repartition and labor exchange; estate managers diversified with sheep (merino booms), flax, and distilling. Steppe settlers planted shelterbelts and timed sowings to spring moisture; riverine granaries and state stores buffered dearth years. Fishing, beekeeping, and woodland foraging supplied protein and calories during shortfalls; rebuilding after wartime scorched-earth relied on communal labor and state grain loans.

Transition

From 1684 to 1827, East Europe shifted from marsh-and-frontier mosaics to an imperial agrarian–export region tied to the Baltic and, crucially, to the Black Sea. The Cossack order was incorporated and dismantled; partitions, annexations, and wars with the Ottomans redrew maps; 1812 forged a continental wartime economy. By the 1820s, chernozem grain, new ports, and canalized river systems bound the region to global markets—while village mirinstitutions, Orthodox ritual calendars, and steppe colonization rhythms still governed everyday life.

North Europe (1684–1827 CE)

Imperial Borderlands, Oceanic Gateways, and Peasant Resilience

Geography & Environmental Context

North Europe here unites two interlocking maritime rims: the Northeast Baltic world—Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Kaliningrad, and eastern Denmark & Norway (with Copenhagen and Oslo)—and the Northwest Atlantic world—Iceland, Ireland, the United Kingdom, western Norway, and western Denmark. Anchors ranged from the Åland–Stockholm archipelagos, Gulf of Finland/Bothnia, and Daugava–Nemunas basins to the Thames, Mersey, Clyde, the Norwegian fjords, and the Øresund strait. Forested interiors, lake belts, fertile lowlands, and ice-bound seas met stormy Atlantic corridors—a geography built for timber, tar, grain, fish, and ships.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The Little Ice Age lingered: long, freezing winters locked the Baltic, delaying sailings; poor summers in the 1690sdrove famines in Finland and the Baltic provinces. On the Atlantic rim, gales and storm surges battered coasts; Laki (1783–84) darkened Iceland and chilled Europe; Tambora (1816–17) brought the “Year Without a Summer,” spiking dearth from Ireland to the Baltic. Fisheries and fuelwood buffered many communities; so did later adoption of potatoesand fodder crops.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Scandinavian/Baltic belt: Mixed grain (rye, barley, oats), livestock, and forestry; svedjebruk (slash-and-burn) persisted in Finland; Baltic estates worked serf labor for export rye and oats.

• Norway & Iceland: Cod/herring and smallholder farming sustained fjord and island settlements; inland Norwegians blended grain, timber, and stock.

• Britain & Ireland: Southeast England specialized in wheat; oats/potatoes/cattle dominated Ireland and the Scottish Highlands (amid Clearances).

• Urban nodes: Stockholm, Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius, Copenhagen, Oslo, London, Dublin, Edinburgh, Bergen—administrative and mercantile hubs for grain, tar, timber, sailcloth, and fish.

Technology & Material Culture

• Agro-forestry: Danish and Swedish drainage and rotations raised yields; Baltic baronial estates scaled up grain and flax; Norwegian sawmills and Swedish tar/iron fed navies.

• Ship & sea: Copper-sheathed hulls, chronometers, and improved rigs extended range; Copenhagen’s dockyards and British yards turned out fleets.

• Industry & crafts: Meissen-influenced porcelains in the Baltic towns; hemp, flax, sailcloth, potash, and pitch supplied Europe’s maritime expansion. In Britain, early steam engines, canals, and mechanized textiles signaled industrial takeoff.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Baltic highway: Danzig–Riga–Stockholm–Copenhagen to Amsterdam/London moved rye, timber, tar, hemp, and sailcloth.

• Øresund tolls: Gave Copenhagen leverage over Baltic traffic until Napoleonic disruption.

• Atlantic lanes: The Thames–Clyde–Mersey estuaries connected coal, iron, and textiles to imperial routes; Irish cattle, butter, and linen provisioned fleets.

• Overland ties: Riga–Vilnius–Tallinn linked to Moscow/Warsaw; Scottish drovers’ roads, Irish canals, and British turnpikes integrated hinterlands.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Confessions & capitals: Lutheran parish life shaped Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland; Catholictraditions anchored Lithuania and parts of Ireland; Orthodox communities persisted in the eastern Baltic.

• Learning & letters: Uppsala, Lund, Copenhagen fostered Enlightenment science; Vilnius shone in Jesuit scholarship; London/Edinburgh powered the Scottish Enlightenment.

• Popular cultures: Pansori-like analogues here were folk epics, sagas, runo-songs, woodcarving, and embroidery—arts that carried identity across shifting borders.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Risk portfolios: Slash-and-burn rye, tar production, and forest by-products hedged poor harvests in the north; cod/herring filled lean years.

• Communal welfare: Lutheran parish relief, Orthodox brotherhoods, Catholic confraternities, and municipal granaries mitigated famine.

• Agrarian change: Potatoes, clover, and enclosure (Britain/Denmark) lifted yields; Baltic households added gardens, flax, and seasonal wage-work to survive volatility.

Political & Military Shocks

• Great Northern War (1700–1721): Sweden’s imperial retreat; Estonia, Livonia, Ingria ceded to Russia.

• State realignments: Finland ceded to Russia (1809, Grand Duchy); Denmark–Norway split after the Gunboat War and Copenhagen (1807)—Norway entered union with Sweden (1814).

• British ascendancy: Naval supremacy, Acts of Union (1707, 1801), and global war redirected trade and industry; blockades reshaped Baltic exports.

• Napoleonic era: Øresund politics, privateering, and neutral convoys re-routed shipping; Dutch decline opened room for British and Russian leverage in northern seas.

Transition

From 1684 to 1827, North Europe shifted from Swedish–Danish dominance in a frozen sea to a Russian Baltic and British Atlantic order. Borders moved—Finland to Russia, Norway to union with Sweden—yet parish life, commons, and fisheries underwrote endurance. By the 1820s, the region was knit into global circuits as supplier of grain, timber, tar, sailcloth, fish, coal, iron, and textiles. The age ended with monarchies restored, but with industrial, maritime, and national currents already remapping the northern rim of Europe.

Northeast Europe (1684–1827 CE)

Imperial Borderlands, Enlightenment Currents, and Peasant Resilience

Geography & Environmental Context

Northeast Europe includes Sweden, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, and eastern Denmark and Norway (including Copenhagen and Oslo). Anchors include the Baltic Sea littoral (from Skåne to Riga), the archipelagos of Åland and Stockholm, the Gulf of Finland and Gulf of Bothnia, the forests and lakes of Karelia, the Daugava and Nemunas river basins, and the capitals Stockholm, Copenhagen, Oslo, Riga, Tallinn, and Vilnius. The landscape mixed maritime corridors, forested interiors, fertile plains, and ice-bound winters, making it one of Europe’s most contested frontiers between Scandinavia, Russia, and Central Europe.

Climate & Environmental Shifts

The Little Ice Age remained influential: long winters froze the Baltic for months, delaying shipping until late spring. Grain harvests faltered in Finland and the Baltic provinces during poor summers, producing recurrent famines (notably in the 1690s). Storm surges damaged Danish and Swedish coasts, while in Norway and Finland fisheries buffered crop failures. By the early 19th century, climatic swings—such as the Tambora eruption in 1815—again caused food shortages, heightening social vulnerability.

Subsistence & Settlement

• Scandinavia: Mixed farming dominated Denmark and southern Sweden, while northern zones relied on rye, barley, livestock, forestry, and coastal fisheries. Finland combined shifting cultivation and rye paddies with slash-and-burn (svedjebruk).

• Baltic provinces: Grain estates worked by serfs supplied rye, oats, and barley for export. Forests yielded tar, pitch, and timber.

• Norway: Coastal communities depended on cod and herring, supplemented by small-scale farming.

• Urban centers: Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius, Copenhagen, and Stockholm grew as administrative and mercantile hubs, tied to the Baltic’s export economy.

Technology & Material Culture

• Agriculture: Crop rotations and drainage projects in Denmark and Sweden improved yields; serf estates in the Baltic stuck to older forms but increased scale.

• Forestry & shipbuilding: Norwegian and Swedish timber fed shipyards; Danish naval bases like Copenhagen flourished.

• Crafts & trade goods: Baltic hemp, flax, tar, and sailcloth were vital for European navies. Riga exported rye and potash; Vilnius and Kaunas were centers for crafts and printing.

• Architecture & arts: Lutheran churches in Sweden, Orthodox and Catholic cathedrals in Lithuania and Latvia, neoclassical palaces in Copenhagen and Stockholm, and manor houses across the Baltic baronies reflected elite culture.

Movement & Interaction Corridors

• Baltic Sea: A commercial highway linking Danzig, Riga, Stockholm, and Copenhagen to Amsterdam and London.

• Sound (Øresund): Danish tolls on shipping gave Copenhagen leverage until the early 19th century.

• Overland routes: Connected Vilnius, Riga, and Tallinn to Moscow and Warsaw, carrying merchants, soldiers, and ideas.

• Imperial expansion: Sweden’s empire contracted after the Great Northern War (1700–1721), ceding Estonia, Livonia, and Ingria to Russia. Denmark–Norway maintained its dual monarchy until 1814, when Norway entered union with Sweden. Finland was ceded by Sweden to Russia in 1809, becoming the Grand Duchy of Finland.

Cultural & Symbolic Expressions

• Sweden: Lutheran orthodoxy shaped village schools and parish life; universities at Uppsala and Lund fostered Enlightenment scholarship.

• Finland: Oral poetry, later recorded in the Kalevala, preserved mythic traditions alongside Lutheran faith.

• Baltic provinces: German-speaking elites dominated serf peasantry; manor culture expressed baroque and later neoclassical aesthetics.

• Lithuania: Catholic baroque churches flourished; Vilnius was a major Jesuit intellectual center until Russian annexation.

• Denmark and Norway: Lutheran culture intertwined with maritime traditions; Copenhagen became a hub of Enlightenment philosophy and art.

• Across the region, folk songs, woodcarving, embroidery, and festival calendars sustained peasant lifeways despite shifting political frontiers.

Environmental Adaptation & Resilience

• Northern strategies: Slash-and-burn rye cultivation in Finland, cod and herring fisheries in Norway, and tar production in Sweden hedged against grain shortfalls.

• Estate economies: Baltic serfs produced surpluses for export, but households relied on gardens, livestock, and forest foraging to survive lean years.

• Communal institutions: Lutheran parish relief, Orthodox brotherhoods, and Catholic confraternities offered famine and sickness support.

• Diversification: Households engaged in spinning, weaving, and seasonal labor to buffer instability.

Transition

Between 1684 and 1827, Northeast Europe shifted from Swedish dominion to Russian ascendancy. The Great Northern War ended Swedish imperial ambitions; Denmark–Norway was reshaped in Napoleonic diplomacy; Finland and the Baltic lands were absorbed into the Russian Empire. Yet resilience remained grounded in parish life, peasant commons, and the Baltic export economy. By the early 19th century, the region was enmeshed in global trade as a supplier of grain, tar, timber, and fish, even as shifting borders and climatic shocks continually tested its social fabric.

The centuries-old union between Sweden and Finland comes to an end during the Napoleonic wars.

France and Russia become allies in 1807 at Tilsit, and Napoleon subsequently urges Russia to force Sweden into joining them against Britain.

Tsar Alexander I obliges by invading Finland in 1808, and, after overwhelming Sweden's poorly-organized defenses, he conquers Finland in 1809.

Sweden formally cedes Finland to Russia by the Treaty of Hamina (Swedish, Fredrikshamn) on September 17, 1809.

Russia plans at first to annex Finland directly as a province of the Russian Empire, but in order to overcome the Finns' misgivings about Russian rule, Tsar Alexander I offers them the following solution.

Finland is not annexed to the Russian Empire but is joined to Russia instead through the person of the tsar.

In addition, Finland is made an autonomous state—the Grand Duchy of Finland—with its inherited traditions intact.

Thus the laws and constitution of Finland remain unchanged, and the tsar takes the place of the Swedish king as sovereign.

The official forms of government inherited from the era of Swedish absolutism are sufficiently autocratic to allow the tsar to accept them largely intact; however, included in these forms of government is the comprehensive law code of 1734 that protects individual rights.

Imperial assurances that Finland will be autonomous and that its traditions will be respected are encoded in two 1809 decrees that constitute for the Finns the basis of their relationship with Russia.

The Finnish Diet that meets at Porvoo (Swedish, Borgå) in 1809 seconds the tsar's decrees.

As a further gesture of magnanimity, in 1812 the tsar restores to Finland the lands Russia had annexed in the eighteenth century.

These conciliatory measures were effective, and, as long as Russia respects this arrangement, the Finns will prove to be loyal subjects of the Russian Empire.

Denmark's long decades of peace come to an abrupt end during the Napoleonic Wars.

Britain feels threatened by the Armed Neutrality Treaty of 1794, which originally involves Denmark and Sweden, and later Prussia and Russia.

The British fleet attacks Copenhagen in 1801, destroying much of Denmark's navy.

Denmark nonetheless manages to remain largely uninvolved in the Napoleonic Wars until 1807.

The British fleet bombards Copenhagen again this year, causing considerable destruction to the city.

They now capture the entire Danish fleet so that it cannot be used by France to invade Britain (as the French had lost their own fleet at Trafalgar in 1805), leading to the Gunboat War (1807–1814).

The confiscation of the Danish navy is widely criticized in Britain.

Danish forces fighting on the French side in 1809 participate in defeating the anti-Bonapartist German rebellion led by Ferdinand von Schill, at the Battle of Stralsund.

By 1813, Denmark can no longer bear the war costs, and the state is bankrupt.

When in the same year the Sixth Coalition isolates Denmark by clearing Northern Germany of French forces, Frederick VI has to make peace.

Accordingly, the unfavorable Treaty of Kiel is concluded in January 1814 with Sweden and Great Britain, and another peace is signed with Russia in February.

Denmark maintains a number of colonies outside Scandinavia, starting in the seventeenth century and lasting until the twentieth century.

Christian IV (reigned 1588–1648) had first initiated the policy of expanding Denmark's overseas trade, as part of the mercantilist trend then popular in European governing circles.

Denmark had established its own first colony at Tranquebar, or Trankebar, on India's south coast, in 1620.

In the Caribbean Denmark had started a colony on St Thomas in 1671 and St John in 1718, and purchases Saint Croix from France in 1733.

Denmark maintains its Indian colony, Tranquebar, as well as several other smaller colonies there, for about two hundred years.

The Danish East India Company operates out of Tranquebar.

During its heyday, the Danish East Indian Company and the Swedish East India Company import more tea than the British East India Company—and smuggled ninety percent of it into Britain, where it sells at a huge profit.

Both of the Scandinavia-based East India Companies fold during the course of the Napoleonic Wars.

Denmark also maintains other colonies, forts, and bases in West Africa, primarily for the purpose of slave-trading.

The dissolution of the Dano-Norwegian union is demanded by the post-Napoleonic Congress of Vienna, and this is confirmed by the Treaty of Kiel in 1814.

The treaty transfers Heligoland to Great Britain and Norway from the Danish to the Swedish crown, and Denmark is to be satisfied with Swedish Pomerania, but the Norwegians revolt, declare their independence, and elect crown-prince Christian Frederick (the future Christian VIII) as their king.

However, the Norwegian independence movement fails to attract any support from the European powers.

After a brief war with Sweden, Christian has to abdicate in order to preserve Norwegian autonomy, established in a personal union with Sweden.

In favor of the Kingdom of Prussia, Denmark renounces her claims to Swedish Pomerania at the Congress of Vienna (1815), and instead is satisfied with the Duchy of Lauenburg and a Prussian payment of 3.5 million talers.

Prussia also takes over a Danish 600,000-taler debt to Sweden.