Editing Great Northern War (section)

=== Allied camp ===
[[File:August II of Poland and Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia.PNG|thumb|[[Augustus II of Poland]] (left) and [[Frederick William I of Prussia]] (right)]]
[[Peter the Great]] became Tsar in 1682 upon the death of his elder brother [[Feodor III of Russia|Feodor]] but did not become the actual ruler until 1689. He commenced reforming the country, turning the [[Tsardom of Russia|Russian tsardom]] into a [[Russian Empire|modernized empire]] relying on trade and on a strong, professional army and navy. He greatly expanded the size of Russia during his reign while providing access to the Baltic, Black, and Caspian seas. Beside Peter, the principal Russian commanders were [[Aleksandr Danilovich Menshikov]] and [[Boris Sheremetev]].

[[Augustus II the Strong]], [[Electorate of Saxony|elector of Saxony]] and another cousin of Charles XII,<ref group=nb name=cousins /> gained the Polish crown after the death of King [[John III Sobieski]] in 1696. His ambitions to transform the [[Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth]] into an absolute monarchy were not realized due to the zealous nature of the Polish nobility and the previously initiated laws that decreased the power of the monarch. His meeting with Peter the Great in [[Rawa Ruska]] in September 1698, where the plans to attack Sweden were made, became legendary for its decadence.

[[Frederick IV of Denmark]]-Norway, another cousin of Charles XII,<ref group=nb name=cousins /> succeeded [[Christian V of Denmark|Christian V]] in 1699 and continued his anti-Swedish policies. After the setbacks of 1700, he focused on transforming his state, an absolute monarchy, in a manner similar to Charles XI of Sweden. He did not achieve his main goal: to regain the former eastern Danish provinces lost to Sweden in the course of the 17th century. He was not able to keep northern Swedish Pomerania, Danish from 1712 to 1715. He did put an end to the Swedish threat south of Denmark. He ended Sweden's exemption from the [[Sound Dues]] (transit taxes/tariffs on cargo moved between the North Sea and the Baltic Sea).

[[Frederick William I of Prussia|Frederick William I]] entered the war as [[Electorate of Brandenburg|elector of Brandenburg]] and [[Kingdom of Prussia|king in Prussia]]—the royal title had been secured in 1701. He was determined to gain the [[Oder]] estuary with its access to the [[Baltic Sea]] for the Brandenburgian core areas, which had been a state goal [[Brandenburg-Pomeranian conflict|for centuries]].

[[George I of Great Britain|George I]] of the [[House of Hanover]], elector of [[Electorate of Hanover|Hanover]] and, since 1714, king of Great Britain and of Ireland, took the opportunity to connect his landlocked German electorate to the [[North Sea]].