Christopher Collstedt, History, Lund University

2008-2013

In today's media, research and political debate military violence against civilians in armed conflict is strikingly often defined as illegitimate and deviant acts, the very antithesis of civilization, humanity and social order. The project "In the Shadows of War. The Legal Handling of Military Violence in Southern Sweden c.a. 1658-1700" is dealing with these as it seems universal notions of violence from a historical perspective.

The study is focusing the discourse of military force against civilians, that is, how and under what circumstances such violence has been translated into speech and thus ascribed meaning and significance throughout history. The analysis focuses on the construction of discourse of violence in Sweden during the 1600s, especially as it emerged in the war-torn and politically unstable regions of Skåne and Blekinge during the second half of the century. However, my intention has not "only" been to provide an important contribution to the research on the perceptions of violence and innocent suffering in the early modern period, although such a study may appear to be highly relevant in itself. An overarching purpose of this book has been to problematize current perceptions of violence and abuse against civilians, as a discourse, often strongly associated with modernity, and particularly with supposedly humane legal developments after the Second World War

Inspired by Michel Foucault's genealogical understanding of history as well as the Norwegian historian Erling Sandmo´s innovative development of the same for the exploration of "violence" as a historical / discursive phenomenon, I have had the ambition to develop a kind of genealogy of the modern official discourse of violence against civilians. Against this background, I have tried to clarify and problematize the different worldviews and (local) knowledge systems (and the relationship between them) that are embedded in the discourse of violence against civilians and how the knowledge of such acts of violence have been produced and transmitted in various situations and contexts. This complex history is explored through in-depth analyses of martial laws and regulations, governmental reports and judicial sources from the military courts of Skåne and Blekinge.

The project's main results

The study shows how the historical foundation for current understandings of violence against civilians, that is in the case of Sweden, were formed during the 1600s. It argues that the current discourse on violence against civilians is a result of two overarching discursive processes during this century - one is epistemological and the other is political-legal. In the Middle Ages religion was a kind of epistemology, that is a basis for knowing and for the production of knowledge. Fundamentally, for the vast majority of people in the 1600's, nature and the physical world was seen as a micro cosmos of a larger divine and moral order. In this world the "analogy" or "metaphor" that is, the idea that everything in the physical world refers to a larger system of meaning, the epistemological foundation of how to interpret and organize the world. The epistemological reorientation that can be noticed in several fields in the course of the seventeenth century shows that this way of understanding of the world began to crumble. At the same time the analogy lost its meaning as a figure of thought. In its place the natural and empirically ascertainable "difference" was introduced as the basic epistemological principle for the organization of knowledge. Of fundamental importance was the development and establishment of the rationalist natural law, which opened up for a more "modern" understanding of man and the world. This had a direct impact also on the development of law and jurisprudence concerning military violence against civilians.

During the 1600s the so called Articles of War established a complex system of ethical, legal, cultural and somewhat territorial distinctions and boundaries. A sharp distinction between combatants and non-combatants were created between the groups as "we" today describes as "military" and "civilian", that is, two essentially different groups with different functions, positions, responsibilities and identities.

However the Swedish Articles of War expresses not only a state political-legal discourse. It was, I argue, even an essential part of a larger discussion focusing on the ethical aspects of military violence and human suffering, known as the doctrine of Jus in Bello, such as it was understood an presented by prominent international lawyers such as Hugo Grotius. The hallmark of this doctrine is its emphasis on the innocents, that is groups that not take part in armed conflicts, such as children, women, old men, priests, students, peasants, merchants and prisoners of war would. This notion is clearly represented in the Swedish Articles of War

Over the course of the 1600s, a series of significant changes was made in the legislation. On especially important change is that the protection of the civilian population expanded, at least in theory. In the Articles of War from 1683, it is no longer "our subjects" that is the object of protection, but the more universal "man", with no regards to the individual's gender, age, occupation, religion and membership in a larger territorial and political community. The discursive change that has taken place, can be understood as a manifestation of a shift from a particularistic ethical system towards a more universalistic and modern one.

The source material from the military courts regarding military violence against civilians reveals a multi-layered discourse that includes different perceptions of human vulnerability and innocent suffering. The "typical" victims of the military violence were unarmed men, women and children, priests, farmers and artisans who lived their lives a Christian, peaceful and morally irreproachable way and had shown an allegiance to the Swedish Crown. In some cases, the judicial discourse recognizes the right of innocent suffering on an even deeper level, through short but informative notes about the person. It drew particular attention to circumstances such as pregnancy, age and physical impairment. Even the victim's expressions of emotional states such as fear and anxiety associated with the violent incident was recognized. Explicit references to the moral philosophical doctrine of Jus in Bello is not to be found in the judicial narratives, the ethical notion that non-combatants and innocent groups should be spared from the soldiers' violence and abuse, is apparent, although in other words.

New research questions / projects generated by the project
A particularly interesting and important issue that have arisen during the work are questions concerning perception of men as victims of violent crimes. Today, men's vulnerability and position as victims of other men's violence seems to be a blind spot in social and political discourse. Even in a scientific context this is an unexplored field. It seems particularly relevant to investigate this "silence" from an historical perspective. I have formulated a project with the working title "Men as victims of violence. Views on violence between men in public discourse and legal handling. The project runs for three years and is funded by Brottsofferfonden

Seminars, conferences, etc.

I have presented the project in a number of seminars and conferences, for example the international conference "Krig og samfunn in Scandinavia" organized by scholars at the University of Oslo. I have also presented papers on matters that are linked to the project, such as the construction of the early modern public sphere, and the relationship between notions of honour and modern science.

Publications

1.Våldets väsen. Synen på militärers våld mot civilbefolkning i 1600-talets Sverige

2.Generalauditör Croneborg och våldets historia. Den militärrättsliga bedömningen av våld under 1600-talet” i Maria Sjöberg (red.): Sammanflätat. Civilt och militärt i det tidigmoderna Sverige, Opuscula Historica Upsaliensia 40, Uppsala 2009

Duellanten och rättvisan. Duellbrott och synen på manlighet i stormaktsväldets slutskede (Doktorsavhandling), Lund 2007. ISBN 978-91-976529-3-3

Våldets väsen. Synen på militärers våld mot civilbefolkning i 1600-talets Sverige, Lund, 2012, (sakkunniggranskad monografi)
ISBN 978-91-87199-07-3

"Som en adlig vederlike. Duellbrottet i det svenska stormaktsväldet", i Eva Österberg och Marie Lindstedt Cronberg, (red.) Våldets mening. Makt, minne, myt, Lund 2004
ISBN 91-89116-77-1

"Den dödsbringande äran. Duellen som en form av hedersmord på män", i Kenneth Johansson (red.) Hedersmord . Tusen år av hederskulturer, Lund 2005, ISBN 91-89442-39-3

"Våld som konst och förfinad handling. En historia om kroppar, manlighet och kultur" i Scandia, Lund, 2005, ISBN 0036-5483
 
"Duellpolitik och duellestetik under 1800-talets första hälft. Representationer av våld i politisk debatt och skönlitterär fiktion", i Eva Österberg & Marie Lindstedt Cronberg, Våld. Representation och verklighet  (red.), Lund 2006
ISBN 91-89116-87-9

”Kyrkoherden och krigskrönikören. Synen på militärt våld under 1600-talet” i Marie Lindstedt Cronberg & Catharina Stenqvist (red.) Förmoderna livshållningar : dygder, värden och kunskapsvägar från antiken till upplysningen, Lund 2008
ISBN 978-91-85509-06-5

“The morality tale of a duellist: narratives of duelling in early modern Swedish courts” in Militär und Gesellschaft in der frühen Neuzeit, Universität Potsdam, 2008.

”Generalauditör Croneborg och våldets historia. Den militärrättsliga bedömningen av våld under 1600-talet” i Maria Sjöberg (red.): Sammanflätat. Civilt och militärt i det tidigmoderna Sverige, Opuscula Historica Upsaliensia 40, Uppsala 2009
ISBN 978-91-977312-3-2

”Heder och kunskapssyn i 1700-talets medicinvetenskapliga debatt” i Marie Lindstedt Cronberg och Catharina Stenqvist (red.) Dygder och odygder. Förmoderna perspektiv på tillvaron, Lund, 2010, ISBN 9789-71-95537-66-8

"Ärans män. Manlig identitet, ära och våld i det tidiga 1700-talets svenska elitkultur.", i Kompendium i genushistoria. Del I. (Stencil.) Historiska Institutionen, Lund 2004


Conferencepapers

“Justice and the Duellist. Crimes of Duelling and Perceptions of Masculinity in the Final Phases of Sweden’s Period as a Great Power” textbidrag till konferensen Deutungsfelder des Duells i Dresden den 17-18 april 2008 (publicerat under samma namn i Militär und Gesellschaft)

”Kyrkoherden och krigskrönikören. Skånska krigets berättelser och synen på militärt våld under 1600-talet textbidrag till konferensen Livshållningar: Idéer, dygder och värden i förmodern tid, Åkersberg, Höör, 6-7 mars 2008 (publicerat som ”Kyrkoherden och krigskrönikören. Synen på militärt våld under 1600-talet”)

"Herman Schützer och sanningens historia. Heder och kunskapssyn i 1700-talets medicinvetenskapliga debatt” textbidrag till konferensen Dygder och laster, Åkersberg, Höör den 10-12 mars 2009 (publicerat som ”Heder och kunskapssyn i 1700-talets medicinvetenskapliga debatt”)

”Tidigmodern forskning i Sverige. Hur står det till egentligen? Bidrag till konferens vid Halmstad högskola som arrangerats av seminariet för Tidigmoderna studier vid Göteborgs universitet, den 16 oktober 2009 (baserat på rapporten Förmodernitet. Trender och tendenser i svensk forskning 1995-2008, uppdragsforskning för Riksbankens jubileumsfond, 2009).

”Synen på våld i gränslandet mellan ”civilt” och ”militärt” paper presenterat vid Svenska historikermötet i Göteborg, 2011

”Kungamaktens ord. Begreppet offentlig i tidigmodern juridisk-politisk diskurs” paper
nr 1 presenterat vid workshop i Stockholm på temat Förmoderna offentligheter, nov 2011

”Märkta för livet. Offentlighetens makt och människor i 1500-talets Malmö” paper nr 2 presenterat vid workshop i Stockholm på temat Förmoderna offentligheter, maj 2012.


Reviews
av Gudrun Andersson, Esbjörn Larsson och Patrik Winton (red.) Med börd, svärd och pengar: eliters manifestation, maktutövning och reproduktion 1650-1900, Uppsala, 2003, recenserad i Scandia, 2004

av Maud Webster, Banditer: en historia om heder, hämnd och desperados, Lund, 2008, recenserad i Historisk tidskrift, 2009:4

av Karin Sennefelt, Politikens hjärta. Medborgarskap, manlighet och plats i frihetstidens Stockholm, (Stockholmia förlag, 2011), recenserad i Historisk tidskrift, kommande 2012


http://www.hist.lu.se/person/ChristopherCollstedt