Battle of Poltava
Russia replaces Sweden as a great power
Peter I's Russian army crushed the Swedish forces of Charles XII, who fled to the Ottoman Empire. The victory turned the Great Northern War: Sweden lost its great-power status and Russia gained it.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Did you know
The brutal winter of 1709, the 'Great Frost', struck all of Europe and wore down Charles XII's Swedish army before Poltava.
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Europe
- 1687 Newton's Principia — 22 years earlier
- 1688–1689 Glorious Revolution — 21 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Louis XIV (aged 71)
- Isaac Newton (aged 66)
- Kangxi Emperor (aged 55)
- Peter the Great (aged 37)
- Johann Sebastian Bach (aged 24)
- Voltaire (aged 15)
- Benjamin Franklin (aged 3)
- Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (aged 63)
- Tokugawa Tsunayoshi (aged 63)
- Queen Anne (aged 44)