From Zenith to Twilight

Abstract

Usually regarded by historians as the definite end point of political Scandinavianism, Denmark’s defeat in 1864 was anything but. As this chapter shows, efforts to bring about Scandinavian unification by any means possible continued into 1865 with the hatching of yet another plan for revolution, presented to Charles XV with the names of high-ranking politicians involved. Moreover, leading Scandinavianists contributed to the formation of new Scandinavian societies with a view to begin a long-term nurturing of a broader revolutionary movement. The chapter argues that it was only in July 1866 that political Scandinavianism was dealt a blow from which it never recovered. At this point it became clear that the introduction of Swedish parliamentary reform in late 1865 would not be followed by the Scandinavianist reshuffle of the Swedish government that Charles XV and several Scandinavianists had come to anticipate, whereas Prussia’s victory over Austria dashed Scandinavianist hopes that Bismarck would see a united Scandinavia as a useful ally and pay for it with the return of Northern Schleswig. Thus, Scandinavianism was left to continue along a “practical” path as a number of smaller-scale reforms continued to be pursued. There was also a coda to the question of dynastic unification of Scandinavia through the engagement and marriage in 1868–1869 of the Danish crown prince and Charles XV’s daughter, putting a definite end to revolutionary Scandinavianist aspirations of installing a Bernadotte on the Danish throne. The chapter concludes by discussing a brief resurgence of Scandinavianist aims during the Franco-Prussian War, although there was never really a question of Scandinavian involvement in this conflict.