Scandinavia And The French Revolution

The French Revolution was the beginning of the modern political era. The king and queen were overthrown, and guillotined, with the intention of creating a republic, where the people rule themselves and the president or prime minister is like a hired manager. But the revolution ended up in the rule of Napoleon, who was the prototype of the modern dictator although that was not the intention. An example of the influence of Napoleon is that the revolutionaries created the Metric System and his enthusiasm for it is why the world is using it today.

The French Revolution has swept the world. There have been two major, and numerous minor, reenactments of it. What I mean by major reenactments is where the basic direction of the revolution was changed. 

The first major reenactment was the October Revolution of 1917. The royal family of Russia was overthrown and executed, in favor of Communism. The original French Revolution was political, this changed the direction to economics. 

The second major reenactment was the Iranian Revolution of 1979. The original and first reenactment of the French Revolution had been away from religion. The Iranian Revolution turned the direction back toward religion, and not just Islam. Unlike the first two the royal family of Iran, the Shah, were overthrown but managed to escape.

One common factor in reenactments is some reenactment of the Storming of the Bastille. This was the signature event of the French Revolution. The October Revolution had the Storming of the Winter Palace as it's signature event and the Iranian Revolution had the Storming of the U.S. Embassy.

The French Revolution, and it's tremendous influence on the world, is described in detail in the book-length compound posting, "America And The Modern World Explained By Way Of Paris", December 2015.

During the recent weekly visits to Scandinavia, I noticed how the French Revolution had played out there.

Sweden had been a great power and had ruled neighboring Finland for six hundred years. It had lost great power status following a defeat by Russia in what is now Ukraine. This was the beginning of Russia as a great power, but Sweden still ruled Finland and had joined the coalition against Napoleon. Russia later gained control of Finland and moved the capital from Turku, which faced toward Sweden, to Helsinki, which was closer to the Russian capital of St. Petersburg.

Russia had also been invaded by Napoleon. The invasion was ultimately unsuccessful but the October Revolution, more than a century later in 1917, was virtually a mirror image of the French Revolution that had ultimately resulted in Napoleon coming to power. The overthrow and execution of the Tsar in Russia resulted in a civil war between the Reds, the Communists, and the Whites, a coalition of their opponents. The Reds won in Russia, but the Whites won in Finland and it managed to gain independence from Russia.

Unlike the other Scandinavian countries, Finland had not been a monarchy itself because it had been ruled by first Sweden, and then Russia. What is interesting is that Sweden had earlier elected a foreigner as their king, a French veteran of the revolution and then one of Napoleon's top officers named Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte. His descendants are still the royal family of Sweden.

Following it's independence in 1917, a brief attempt was made to establish a monarchy in Finland. In a similar way as Sweden, a foreigner was elected as king. The Kaisers still ruled Germany and had helped the Whites to win the civil war in Finland. A member of the Kaisers' family was elected as king of Finland. But it was never implemented and the Kaisers were overthrown not long afterward.

The idea of choosing a foreigner as king is primarily so that no faction in the country will rule over the others. It was actually a Viking named Rurik, likely from Sweden, who was chosen to rule over Russian tribes who had difficulty getting along with each other. The descendants of Rurik would rule for centuries, first the state known as Kievan Rus and then the successor nations of Russia, Belarus and, Ukraine. The Rurikids ruled Russia up until the time of the Romanovs.

But the French Revolution played out in Scandinavia in that, while Denmark, Sweden and, Norway were monarchies, Finland chose a Napoleonic figure. Marshal Carl Mannerheim was very much in the mode of Napoleon, a leader in a military uniform who is considered as the "father" of modern Finland.