Like, I get that small german states were the norm, not the exception up until 1871, but Mecklenburg was sat between a lot of powers competing for baltic dominance (Denmark, Sweden, Prussia), who all tried to grab as much baltic coastline as possible. Despite this Mecklenburg seems not only to have been independent, but rarely even involved in war.
Does anyone know the reason for this? I've read that Mecklenburg was very de-centralized and feudal up until unification, does that have anything to do with it?
I also get that this question seems to stem from a videogame type of mindset and that in the real world powers didn't just conquer for the hell of it, but seeing that Mecklenburg has a lot of coastline it appears atleast to have some strategic value. Credit to r/valledafighta
I am absolutely hoping we can get a great answer on the history of Mecklenburg! But while we wait here are a couple observations.
First, historically Mecklenburg didn't have as much coastline as the modern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern does. A lot of that state's Baltic coastline was historically in Pomerania instead of the Mecklenburg states. Mecklenburg did have some Baltic coastline, however, but a second point is that especially on the southern Baltic coast, having a lot of coastline isn't necessarily the same as having lots of viable ports.
The state of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, by the 19th century, had two major ports on its bit of Baltic coastline: Rostock and Wismar, which were both Hanseatic cities. Now, both of these ports were of a lot of interest to Baltic powers: Wismar was controlled by Sweden from 1648 to 1803, and Rostock was occupied at various points by Swedes and Danes in the 17th and 18th centuries, notably during the Thirty Years War and the Great Northern War. Even when Rostock was nominally under control of the Duke of Mecklenburg, the Dukes had a lot of trouble actually enforcing their authority.
Anyway, I don't want this to detract from the larger question about how Mecklenburg stayed a separate entity for so long. This is just to note that if you're a Baltic power looking at what is of strategic interest on Mecklenburg's coast, you'd be looking at Wismar and Rostock - and the Baltic powers certainly did look at them and try to control them.
