By the 1500s, the Ottoman Empire had managed to dominate all trade routes in the Eastern Mediterranean. Afterwards, Western societies began to seek new trade routes for themselves. A similar situation was taking place in the northernmost part of Europe.
The Swedish Empire, as it was then known, was having problems with the Danish-Norwegian State in terms of trade routes. The strait between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea was under Danish-Norwegian control. Two-thirds of the state revenues came from the customs money obtained from this strait. Sweden also started to use an alternative trade route in order not to pay a large part of the annual income of a whole state as tax. Thereupon, with the effect of a small territorial dispute, the Danish-Norwegian State declared war on Sweden. The name of this war was the Kalmar War.
A rare find from the war that affected Scandinavia’s history
While Kalmar was noted as a city dubbed “the key to Sweden”, 6,000 Danish soldiers set out to capture the city. With this war, the effects of which are felt even today, the relations between the Scandinavian countries were also regulated.
Continuing to work on this interesting and important battle, archaeologists managed to unearth a sword from that period. According to Archaeologerna researchers, this sword came from among the ruins of an old farm destroyed in war. The sword is thought to be one of the intermediate types in the transition to more modern swords that began to replace traditional medieval swords.
The Kalmar War is an event that took place at an important point for European armies, according to many experts. The modernization movement of the armies, new weapons and tactics were being tested in this period. The sword was also recorded as a weapon that showed this transition.
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