<span>The 17th century saw Sweden as an European "Great Power" and one of the major military and political combatants on the continent during the Thirty Years' War. By mid-century, the kingdom included part of Norway, all of Finland and stretched into Russia. Sweden's control of portions of modern Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Germany made the Baltic Sea essentially a Swedish lake.</span>
The people of Maryland had a long tradition of slave-holding andties to the south. They wanted to secede from the Union, butPresident Lincoln would not allow it. Maryland surrounded thecapital of the US on three sides and if they seceded, the capitalwould have to secede also.
