When your sugardaddy is also your enemy
Historical note: Sweden and the Dutch Republic are quite an interesting duo, and they flop from friends/allies to enemies pretty often. The Dutch and French for example spend large quantities of money on Sweden so they could keep on fighting within the Thirty Years War. In other times it was other countries giving Sweden money to fight against the Dutch Republic, but then subsequently failing and having to accept whichever demands the Dutch gave them (this happened..multiple times). In the 16th and 17th century the Dutch also held a dominance in the Baltic sea, especially concerning trade in that region. Whilst Denmark and Sweden fought each other for Dominium Maris Baltici, the Dutch maintained Baltic equilibrium, aka Dutch dominance. Later this power got shifted over to Britain.
Two quotes from the book "Empires of the Sea: Maritime Power Networks in World History."
"The Swedish-Dutch relations in the seventeenth century show a clear hierarchy. It leaves the political dominance of Sweden in the Baltic Sea region as a second order dominance, depending on the will and power of the Dutch Republic and its economic elites."
"It is reasonable to conclude that the Swedish dominance in the Baltic region has to be considered a borrowed empire. Borrowed not only with regard to financial dependence of the Swedish war activities from other powers but also with regard to the political intentions of those economic powers which dominated the Baltic trade with western and southern Europe."
