the conclusion that there was a critique of Royal power, and that the conspirators wanted to revert to the form of government that had existed under Sweden's Age of Liberty. On August 25 an additional document was spread, the avertissement which called for the King's abdication. The opinion was however shifting, Jägerhorn’s actions in St. Petersburg and his actions of splitting Sweden and Finland was seen as treason, and this made the conspiracy falter. Results Gustav III who was present with the army in Finland was unsure how to proceed, but to the King's amazement, Denmark declared war on Sweden. This new theatre of war against Denmark in the South gave the king a good excuse to leave Finland and return to Stockholm, without it looking as a retreat. He gathered support, foremost among the burgers and the peasants, both of whom despised the officers from the nobility. During the fall of 1788, the king ordered the arrest of the conspirators, and with popular support he called for the Riksdag of 1789 in which he with popular support could increase his own power by the Union and Security Act. Two of the conspirators ended up as refugees in Russia, nine were sentenced to death, although only one, Johan Henrik Hästesko, was executed, while the rest were either deported or put in prison. The idea of a separate Finnish nation was subsequently echoed by Alexander I at the Diet of Porvoo, when he formed the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland from the eastern part of Sweden as a part of Imperial Russia. Long-term effects It may be argued, that king Gustav used the Anjala conspiracy to win support for a revision of the Swedish Constitution in order to strengthen his own position and weaken the influence of his opponents. But it may also be argued that this was what he had aimed at with the war itself; and that even after the unsuccessful attack on Russia he might indeed have been fully capable of achieving this, even without the boost in public opinion the Anjala conspiracy offered. A conclusion might be that the conspiracy maybe is more significant as an indicator of the situation in Sweden of the late 18th century, than as an actual agent in history. The military officers, who had supported the events with the best of intentions for their country, became further alienated by the condemnations from