Distant neighbours : trade, diplomacy and political exchange between Sweden and Spain in the early modern period

At the dawn of the Early Modern Age, the Iberian Peninsula and the Nordic world were not only geographically, but also diplomatically, commercially, and culturally apart. Southern and northern Europe belonged to different international arenas structured around two main seas: the Mediterranean and the Baltic. While connections from and to the Iberian Peninsula revolved around the Mediterranean Sea, with an emerging colonial projection towards the Atlantic Ocean, the Baltic Sea was the main geographical theatre for the disputes and alliances of Nordic countries. This situation changed in the late sixteenth century, when the Iberian and the Nordic countries began looking northwards and southwards, respectively, for solutions to their diplomatic and economic challenges. Connections, while light and sporadic at the beginning, developed during the following three centuries, as the scale of trade and war grew across Europe. The present book explores the construction of these connections between Spain and the Nordic world in the Early Modern Age. It consists of six chapters written by junior scholars within the frame of SWESP, the research network for the study of Swedish and Spanish connections.