The 25-year war between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Tsardom of Russia had increased the tax burden, the most hated of which was the "castle camp", i.e. the accommodation, subsistence and payment of wages at the expense of the peasants.

Other key explanations for the outbreak of cudgel warfare have included "the burdens of wartime and severe failed harvests, the chaos caused by war fatigue, political provocations, and the exploitation of peasants by a nobility who grew in number and wealth".

[7] Israel Larsson was named as the new governor of central and northern Ostrobothnia, and planned to support the rebellion until he fled, rather than face Fleming.

[3][8] In his work Nuijasota, sen syyt ja tapaukset (1857–1859) (English: Cudgel War, its reasons and causes), historian and fennoman Yrjö Koskinen (né Forsman) saw the peasants as fighting for freedom and justice.

[9] The poet Kaarlo Kramsu praised the insurgents and lamented their defeat in patriotic poems such as Ilkka, Hannu Krankka, and Santavuoren tappelu, published in Runoelmia (1887).

After the Finnish Civil War, the debate has centered on an interpretation that emphasizes Duke Charles's role in inciting the revolt, as found in Pentti Renvall's Kuninkaanmiehiä ja kapinoitsijoita Vaasa-kauden Suomessa (1949); and an explanation that stresses the roots of the rebellion in social injustice and class conflict, as argued by Heikki Ylikangas in Nuijasota (1977).