Page "Swedish Livonia" Paragraph 1

Riga was the second largest city in the Swedish Empire at the time.

Together with other Baltic Sea dominions, Livonia served to secure the Swedish dominium maris baltici.

In contrast to Swedish Estonia, which had submitted to Swedish rule voluntarily in 1561 and where traditional local laws remained largely untouched, the uniformity policy was applied in Swedish Livonia under Karl XI of Sweden: serfdom was abolished, peasants were offered education as well as military, administrative or ecclesiastical careers, and nobles had to transfer domains to the king in the Great Reduction.