Does Charles Xii of Sweden Deserve the Reputation of Being Classed as a Military Genius?

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Charles XII of Sweden came to power in 1697 when he was 15 years old. He soon gained a reputation of being Europe’s greatest military leader of the time. He was involved in major battles early on in his reign. Some believe he was the great military leader that many at the time gave him the title of, with his first campaign being a winning one against Denmark-Norway. Others disagree, saying he didn’t think of the bigger picture for the country when going to war. He is seen as a great military leader due to his winning campaign against Denmark-Norway in 1700. This is because Denmark-Norway was a major power in the Baltic at the time, and Charles did not take long to force the country into peace. Also, the fact that Charles was 18/19 when he defeated Denmark-Norway makes him more of genius as he did it so young. Another reason for him being a military genius is his tactics. A good example of this is when he defeated the Russians in Narva. Even though he was outnumbered almost 4 to 1, he used a snowstorm to advance on the Russians whilst they were blinded by the storm, and using his state of the art artillery and his superior fighting methods attacked the Russians when they were least expecting it. Charles only lost 2000 compared to the 8000-10000 men Tsar Peter lost. On the other hand, many believe that he wasn’t a great military leader. A reason for this is when Charles didn’t advance on Moscow when he had defeated the Russians at Narva. This turned out be the downfall of Charles and Sweden because the Russians learnt from their defeat, and ended up defeating the Swedish in the Great Northern War. If the Swedish had advanced on Moscow and not turned towards Poland, they would have crushed the Russian forces and would have won the war in the end. Another reason is the expense of the Great Northern War. As Sweden was winning they were spending a lot of money and
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