| Laplandian war | ||||||||
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| Belligerents | ||||||||
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| Casualties and losses | ||||||||
| 23,000-67,500 |
 :25,432  :59,032 |
 : 32,000  : 11,288 | ||||||
The Laplandian War was a major European conflict in the mid-1800s. Inspired by the Sami insurgency, the Laplandians decided to take up arms in rebellion against the Swedish-Norwegian Union.
Background edit
The revolutions of 1848 would spark the Sami insurgency in northern Sweden-Norway making many regions de-facto independent from Stockholm. These "pockets" of independent sami land would prove to have a strong influence over the Laplandians in northern Sweden who already had a strong regional identity. The Laplandians decided to help their Sami allies because of the similarities they shared, this would also inspire Laplandians from across the border in the duchy of Finland to revolt as well.
Battles of Boden and Kemi edit
The first weeks of the revolt in Sweden were very uneventful. The first news of the revolt reached Stockholm 6 weeks after it had begun when the insurgents in an unexpecting move managed to occupy Boden sementing the frontline between the Swedish-Norweigians and the Laplandians. However, when the uprising spilled over to Finland the response was much quicker due to the ongoing Finlandinazition of Finnish Siberia. The Finnish gendarmerie engaged the Laplandians in several small-scale battles, and although they were victorious, they were unsuccessful in dealing a serious blow to the insurgents. Without help from neither Moscow nor Helsingfors and supplies running low, the gendarmeries were forced to withdraw south to Kemi leaving almost all of Finnish Siberia (also known as Finnish Laplandia) to the Laplandians.
During the fall of 1854, Kemi was burned down by the gendarmeries after a four-week-long siege to prevent the city from getting into enemy hands. This was the largest Finnish defeat of the war and the day the Burnig of Kemi started is still a holiday in Kemi today where the towns folk get together annually for a huge fire fest. (See Kemi fire fest)
The Danish intervention edit
After numerous failed attempts by the Bothnic regiment to retake Boden, the Swedish-Norwegian government decided to activate their defensive treaty with Denmark in the Armistice of Malmö which was signed in 1852. The Dano-Kielan government was reluctant to get involved due to still being rather destroyed after the Great German war, although, they managed to send a modest-sized force to the front which included:
From the mainland:
1100 Dano-Kielan foot soldiers
42 officers
500 Gendarmeries
5 flagships
10 cannons
From the Danish realm:
1500 German footsoldiers
50 Icelandic foot soldiers
8 Greenlandic officers
40 Scouts (See the Elite Icelandic scouting squadron)
The Swedish-Norwegian government would prove to be rather disappointed in these mediocre reinforcements. However, the Dano-Kielian government stressed that the uprising did not meet the criteria of a tier 2 level war, the defensive treaties require that at least two of these criterias needs to be reached for it to be a tier 2 level war:
- A constantly moving frontline
- Threat of Genocide or mass displacement
- War with an army that is at least 45,000 strong
- Threat of foreign intervention
- An ineffective government in wartimes
Due to the war not being able to meet these criterias, the Dano-Kielian government was only obligated to send at least 2,500 soldiers.
Upon arrival, the Danish-German soldiers were put in charge of operations in the Tuorpon line where they mainly fought Sami soldiers seeing many victories. Though, even with the Sami frontier being pushed back, Boden was still holding strong, even with the threat of being out-flanked by the Dano-German forces.
By January 1856, the Dano-German soldiers had essentially destroyed all of the remaining Sami forces after the battle of Jäkkvik, thereby putting an end to the Sami insurgency, and what was left of the Sami forces joined the Laplandian ones instead. With no one to stop them, the Dano-German soldiers would plunder and destroy much of what is seen as traditional Sami land, only one in twenty would be unscathed by the Danish-German soldiers. Having lost their Sami allies, the pressure on Boden was increased. The Laplandians attempted to build a fortified defensive line between Boden and Kalix as a response, though construction was hampered by constant assaults by the Swedish-Norwegian soldiers. Boden finally capitulated during the summer of 1856, tough, reinforcements from the silent Finnish frontier made advances by Allied forces slower and bloodier.
Russian invasions of Lapland edit
The Finnish frontier of the Laplandian War was very quiet after the battle of Kemi in 1854 due to the limited resources of the Finnish autonomous republic. As a matter of fact, the war was exclusively fought by the Finnish gendarmerie until the 19th of November 1855 during a small-scale offensive by insurgents attempting to capture the town of Ranua. While seeing moderate success, the Finnish army lacked the resources needed for an invasion of Lapland. However, during the culmination of the [[Grand Civil War (1848-1855), the new Russian government, fueled by nationalistic sentiment and skepticism towards minorities strived for a central government. Thus, almost all of Russias duchy's were annexed into the new Tzarist state. The Finnish army that could previously operate very independently from Moscow now saw itself strictly under Russian control. This was a large contributor to the fall of Boden because now there was not a large enough influx of soldiers from the Finnish front to defend such a large city due to them being needed for the Russian threat from the south.
First Invasion edit
The Tzar of Russia wanted a quick end to the war and to show what the new tzarist Russia was capable of when it wasn't fighting a revolution on all fronts. Therefore, the Russian invasion army was the biggest army ever assembled to have stepped foot into Finland. The Russian invasion force stood 150,000 strong (which included 5000 cavalry) and was stationed in Vasa- However, it was plagued by inexperience and incompetence, they had already lost 7000 men on the road to Vasa by a lack of supplies (though, the real number is most likely much higher).