09/01/2026
Denmark Norway did not want a war with Sweden in 1788, but a fifteen year old treaty gave it little choice.
Catherine the Great's Russia had just been attacked by Sweden's King Gustav III, and Denmark Norway had promised years earlier to come to Russia's aid if that ever happened.
So a Danish Norwegian army crossed into Sweden's Bohuslan region purely as a diversion, never expecting much of a fight.
Gustav III, deeply unpopular at home over his own reckless war with Russia, saw the invasion as a gift.
He is said to have exclaimed that he was saved, since a foreign army on Swedish soil could rally a divided nation behind him.
The campaign that followed barely deserved the name war.
Only about six soldiers died from actual combat in the entire conflict.
Up to three thousand more died anyway, felled by hunger, disease, and relentless autumn rain rather than by any sword or musket.
Cut off from proper supply lines, Norwegian troops survived largely by eating the wild lingonberries growing along their route, which gave the war its lasting nickname.
Diplomatic pressure from Britain and Prussia forced the Danish Norwegian army to withdraw within weeks.
The two sides never even signed a formal peace treaty to end it.
A war fought almost entirely against weather and hunger still managed to reshape a kingdom's politics without a single major battle.
