The deaths of a whole series of kings between 1696 and 1700 – Carlos II of Spain (1700), Karl XI of Sweden (1697), Christian V of Denmark (1699), Ivan V of Russia (1696), John Sobieski of Poland (1696) – was one of the major factors in bringing on the pair of great wars that began at the end of that short period. However, it will not do to emphasize the personal too greatly, for the death of William III (1702) did not seriously affect the process towards war in the west, which was already well under way, and Peter the Great’s stated reason for attacking Sweden – that he had been insulted on a visit to Riga – only trivializes a major event. There were, that is, plenty of other factors driving the nervous and anxious states of Europe into wars, and once they began it proved to be extremely difficult to end them, which is perhaps the best indication that the causes were fundamental, even if the stated reasons were often only superficial.

There were two major conflicts. The War of the Spanish Succession (1702–1713) involved Britain, the Dutch, France, Spain and Austria (plus many of the German states); the Great Northern War (1700–1721), longer but more diffuse, involved Denmark, Sweden, Russia, Poland, and eventually Prussia and Hanover, but not all of them at the same time. The separation between the two regions remained almost complete until late in the Northern War, and even then it was only in Hanover and Prussia that an overlap occurred. However, the Elector of Hanover succeeded to the British throne as King George I in 1714, and this was one cause of the long British involvement in Baltic affairs for the next decade and more. In these conflicts there were certain fundamental antagonisms: in the west between England (later Britain) and France; in the north between Sweden and Denmark–Norway, and between Sweden and Russia.

There was also, however, the economic involvement of British and Dutch traders in the Baltic while the wars went on, and here was another aspect of the ‘overlap’. All the Baltic states were producers of naval stores, and all were involved in the wars, so that they were liable to attempt to increase the tax take on exports, or alternatively the productive regions might suffer such damage that supplies were cut off.