1600s
In 1632, the second university of the Kingdom of Sweden was founded in Tartu.
King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden at the reopening of the monument to Gustaf II Adolf, founder of the University
The monument of Gustaf II Adolf Although the living standards of the Estonian peasantry did not improve much under Swedish rule, progress in the spheres of education and land tenancy and, most especially, the harshness of the era that followed, ensured that this period became imprinted as 'the good old Swedish time' in the Estonian collective memory.
Trading on the Baltic — the main basis of wealth for Estonia — soon recovered from the ebb caused by the war, Tallinn and Narva gaining prominence as the centres of Sweden's eastern trade.
Print by Adam Olearius
o Tallinn in 1634.
Print by a 17th century German scholar and traveller Adam Olearius
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