Second Northern War
Part of Northern Wars

March across the Belts
Date1655–1660
Location
Result

Territorial
changes

Belligerents

Sweden
Brandenburg Brandenburg-Prussia
Transylvania
Ukrainian Cossacks (1657)
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
Wallachia
Moldavia

Susquehannock

Poland–Lithuania
Denmark–Norway
Habsburg Monarchy
Russia (1656–58)
Crimean Khanate

Brandenburg-Prussia
 Dutch Republic
Commanders and leaders
Charles X Gustav
Arvid Wittenberg
Magnus de la Gardie
Carl Gustaf Wrangel
Gustaf Otto Stenbock
Per Brahe the Younger
Johan Risingh
Frederick William I
George II Rákóczi
Col. Anton Zhdanovich
John II Casimir Vasa
Stefan Czarniecki
Janusz Radziwiłł
Paweł Jan Sapieha
Stanisław Lanckoroński
Stanisław Potocki
Wincenty Gosiewski
Frederick III
Ulrik Frederik Gyldenløve
Anders Bille 
Iver Krabbe
Alexis of Russia
Matvey Sheremetev 
Frederick William I
Raimondo Montecuccoli
Jean-Louis Raduit de Souches
Dutch Republic Peter Stuyvesant
Casualties and losses
70,000 Swedish dead (mercenaries not included)

Colonial Actions

edit
Potential addition to the Second Northern War article.

In the early 17th Century, both Sweden and the Dutch Republic had established colonies in eastern North America: New Sweden and New Netherland, respectively. These colonies had a long-standing dispute over the land around the Delaware River, which had first been claimed by the Dutch, but was occupied almost exclusively by the Swedish. In 1654, at the peak of this dispute, Swedish Governor Johan Risingh seized the Dutch Fort Casimir, which was renamed Fort Trinity. Upon the outbreak of the Second Northern War, Dutch Director-General Peter Stuyvesant took the opportunity to strike back at New Sweden, and launched an assault on the colony on September 11, 1655. Fort Casimir was recaptured, and by September 15, an armed squadron of Dutch ships had fully occupied the Swedish colony.

This marked the end of Swedish colonization of continental North America, much to the chagrin of the Susquehannock, a highly influential Native American nation who were one of the greatest powers on the Eastern Seaboard at the time. The Susquehannock were close allies of the Swedish colonists, and treated New Sweden as something of a protectorate. In response to the Dutch removal of their main European trading partner, they launched a series of attacks on Dutch settlements in modern-day Manhattan, Staten Island, Yonkers, Jersey City and the Bronx on September 15, while Stuyvesant and most of the Dutch colonial military were still in New Sweden. These attacks devastated the Dutch, who withdrew into New Amsterdam, abandoning many of their outlying settlements.