Invasions, Insurgency and Interventions:: Sweden's Wars in Prussia, Poland and Denmark: 1654-1658

This dissertation engages Sweden's actions from 1654 to 1658 during part of the Second Northern War. It is the story with modern lessons. The book details Sweden's advanced military, the decision making process for going to war, the methods of achieving overwhelming initial victory, the problems of facing a religiously inspired insurgency and civil war within Poland. The book also details the decline of Sweden's military position as it tries to transition to counterinsurgency operations, deal with the intervention of foreign states in the conflict advancing their own goals, and allies who promise too much and deliver too few. Ultimately, Sweden is able to find decisive victory which will permanently transform Scandinavia but only on battlefields far from the original start of the war and only after getting an army to walk on water.