, reading: "Dethrone
Oscar he is not fit to be a king – rather the Republic! Reform! Down with the Royal house – long live the
Aftonbladet! Death to the king – Republic! Republic! – the people! Brunkeberg this evening." The writer's identity is unknown. The precise year of the formation of the
Kingdom of Sweden is lost to history, but Sweden was already a
kingdom prior to the year
1000 AD and has never in its history been a republic. Because of their trade with, for example, the
Dutch Republic from the
16th century and onwards, the Swedes were not entirely unfamiliar with the phenomenon of a republic, but the first attempt to developing a republican Sweden came during the
French Revolution. In the early 19th century, this was still a marginal movement. In 1830, it was for the first time that a prominent Swedish politician,
Lars Johan Hierta, advocated for a republic, though without using the word "republic": in the newspaper
Aftonbladet, that he himself had founded that same year, he pleaded for ousting king
Charles XIV John of Sweden. The next opportunity that a republic was discussed came during the European
Revolutions of 1848. Sweden went through a short period of upheaval, the
Marsoroligheterna ("March Disturbances"). On 18 and 19 March, riots broke out in
Stockholm, during which about thirty people were killed by the army. During this time, controversial posters carrying the word "republic" were hung in several places in Stockholm and the surrounding region. Moreover, activists demanded equal and
universal suffrage. The Social Democratic Party had stated its intention to establish a republic in its party platform ever since its foundation in 1889. However, when it came into power in 1920, the desire had worn off. This is attributed to the pragmatism of its then leader
Hjalmar Branting. In 1997, the Swedish Republican Association was founded. In 2010, the umbrella
Alliance of European Republican Movements (AERM) was founded in Stockholm, in which Swedish republicans cooperate with other European republican groups. == Literature ==