The Liberal Youth of Sweden traces its roots back to Verdandi, a radical student organisation founded in 1882 by Karl Staaff, the future prime minister and leader of the Liberal Coalition Party. In 1910 the Swedish Freeminded Youth League () was formed as the youth wing of the Freeminded National Association, Sweden's first grassroots liberal organisation, with Eric Festin as its first chairperson. The youth league was active during the First World War, but lost members afterwards. In 1923 the Freeminded National Association split over the prohibition of alcohol, and though the youth league tried to stay together it too split in 1927.