As I mentioned before the end of the 17th century was a period of autocracy. The time between 1700 and 1721 is called The Great Northern War. The king was Karl the XIIth, with the by name The Warrior King. He fought against Denmark, Poland and Russia. He beat the Russians at Narva. Karl had 10 000 and the Russians were 30 000. But Russia had a tsar, Peter the Great, who was modernizing his country and his army. In the battle at Poltava Karl was defeated. He went to Turkey to look for help against Russia.
In 1718 the king was in Norway (then it belonged to Denmark) trying to conquer Denmark. A shot killed him the 30 of November. The Swedes didn´t want to come to the peace negotiations after the Russian war and to force them Peter let attack the places along the East coast. In the Peace of Nystad Sweden lost almost all of its conquests from the 17th century. Only Finland and the southern provinces were left (and a few in Germany).
The country was exhausted after the wars the late years, of taxes to pay the wars and the autocracy. Karl´s sister inherited the crown. She assigned the crown to her husband Fredrik I. He didn´t take so much interest in being king, and the estates (the four estates) came to power.
The period until 1772 is called The Time of Freedom. There were two groups, not exactly parties, hats and caps that alternated in power. It was kind of an early form of parlamentarism. The peasants estate was held outside the centre of power The Secret Committee. Arvid Horn was the strong man during this period. The Russians had rather important influence during this period (at least the second part of the period).
Carolus Linneaus (Carl von Linné) lived in this century, one of our most famous scientists. He divided the plants into different classes and species.
In 1772 Gustav III came to power through a coup d´etat. The Council of the Realm lost its power. The king let introduce a new constitution that gave him more power. The peasants got more influence and the other estates less. Those who lost didn´t like his politics and in year 1792, at a costume ball, a man named Anckarström shot him. Some days later the king Gustav III died and his son Gustav IV was crowned king. (1796, he was only 13 years old 1792) .
Gustav IV was the king who finally gambled away the Swedish possibilities to be a Great Power in Europe. In a war against Russia he lost Finland, which belonged to Sweden since 600 years. The army accomplished a coup d´etat and dethroned Gustav IV. They wanted another king who could reconquer Finland. In France was a field marshal by name Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. 1818 he was crowned king of Sweden, but did he win back Finland (?), no, instead he conquered Norway… (from the Danes).