Colonial Natural Resources and Swedish Foreign Policy 1914-1989
The project explores, from a Swedish perspective, the interaction between two central features of what historians have called the "short twentieth century" (1914-1989): the unprecedented geopolitical turbulence during the period and the explosive growth of global natural resource extraction, supplying rapidly growing industrial economies. The project will contribute to new perspectives on Swedish foreign, security, and industrial policy, and to recent debates on the "colonialist history of non-colonialist countries."
We will test three hypotheses: (1) that colonial natural resources became so important for Swedish industry that the government found it necessary to actively support Swedish involvement in what may be called "global resource colonialism"; (2) that the government made active use of colonial natural resources as a foreign policy tool in its efforts to build stable political relations with resource-rich countries and regions in the (post)colonial world; and (3) that Sweden's neutrality policy and official status as a non-aligned country proved instrumental in strengthening Swedish (post)colonial resource interests.
Using a theoretical framework built on the concepts of "strategic resources," "securitization," "economic vs. political levers," and "national styles," we explore the links between Swedish industrial and political actors in three resource-rich colonial regions: Africa, Siberia/Central Asia, and the Arctic.
We will test three hypotheses: (1) that colonial natural resources became so important for Swedish industry that the government found it necessary to actively support Swedish involvement in what may be called "global resource colonialism"; (2) that the government made active use of colonial natural resources as a foreign policy tool in its efforts to build stable political relations with resource-rich countries and regions in the (post)colonial world; and (3) that Sweden's neutrality policy and official status as a non-aligned country proved instrumental in strengthening Swedish (post)colonial resource interests.
Using a theoretical framework built on the concepts of "strategic resources," "securitization," "economic vs. political levers," and "national styles," we explore the links between Swedish industrial and political actors in three resource-rich colonial regions: Africa, Siberia/Central Asia, and the Arctic.
Final report
Purpose and ambition
The project explored, from a Swedish perspective, the interaction between two central features of what historians have called the "short twentieth century" (1914-1989): the unprecedented geopolitical turbulence during the period and the explosive growth of global natural-resource extraction, supplying rapidly growing industrial economies. The project had the ambition to contribute to new perspectives on Swedish foreign, security and industrial policy, and to recent debates on the colonial history of countries that have not, or only to a marginal extent, possessed formal colonies.
Carrying out the project
The project was divided into three main phases. In the first, preparatory phase we conducted an overview of actual Swedish involvement in (post)colonial resource extraction during the period of interest. We did this by consulting a number of newspapers and trade journals of relevance, such as Affärsvärlden and the Financial Times. In the second, main phase of the project we turned to in-depth case studies, based on archival research, of Swedish resource relations within three broadly defined regions, which differ in terms of their (post)colonial characteristics: Africa, Asia and the (non-Swedish) Arctic. In Africa we studied, in particular, Swedish large-scale investments in iron ore extraction in French North Africa (during the Interwar period) and Liberia (from the 1950s). In Asia we targeted Swedish resource relations with the Soviet Union’s colonial regions and with Turkey and China. In the (non-Swedish) Arctic we studied Swedish colonial-style activities in Spitsbergen and Greenland. The third and final phase of the project was devoted to comparing and synthesizing our findings in a co-authored monograph.
Results and conclusions
Firstly, we found that Swedish actors’ contribution to and participation in colonial-style natural-resource extraction has historically been much more multifaceted and intricate than we had expected. Geographically, Swedish players were active almost everywhere in the world where there were natural resources of any value. The case studies, however, did not primarily point to the use of these resources in Sweden itself (that is, by way of import). Rather, the industrial actors first and foremost sought niches where they could play a role, their overarching goal being to profit from their competence in the global natural-resource arena and – as far as foreign policy actors are concerned – mobilizing these industrial Swedish activities for political purposes.
Secondly, the project generated a novel periodization regarding the history of Sweden in the colonial arena in the industrial age. In an earlier project, funded by the Swedish Research Council (“Sweden and the Origins of Global Resource Colonialism”), in which the period at focus was 1870-1914, we found that the years around 1870 roughly mark a starting point for extensive Swedish colonial initiatives regarding resource extraction and that Swedish foreign policy went through a transformation from around 1905. But we did not have the chance of following this finding up in the context of that earlier project. This is what we had the chance to do in the RJ project.
The result is that we now see how Swedish foreign policy actors from around 1910 onwards increasingly get interested in contributing to and otherwise influencing Swedish participation in colonial natural resource projects. When moving through the nineteenth century we can discern what we in our book call a “golden age” of Swedish colonial natural resource activities. This golden age extends from around 1910 to around 1965, and is characterized by a far-reaching consensus between state and private actors about the great perceived value for Sweden of having Swedish actors engaging in natural resource extraction in colonial regions. The actors all pull in the same direction and there are very few conflicts between state and industrial interests. This consensus says that it is a natural task for Swedish foreign policy to assist Swedish industrial actors in natural-resource projects abroad. At the same time the foreign policy actors understand that colonial natural-resource projects can be of use to them, too, as such projects can contribute to strengthening Sweden’s political relations with the colonial powers and, further on, also with the new political leaders in the decolonized countries. From the mid-1960s, however, Swedish foreign policy gets increasingly fragmented and new actor groups challenge the existing consensus, which is expressed especially in the debate about Swedish development aid. What was previously regarded as suitable and advantageous in Swedish industrial participation in colonial natural-resource projects was from now on increasingly questioned and problematized. All in all we arrive at the conclusion that the history of Swedish foreign policy and colonial natural resources can be divided into three more or less distinct periods:
1. 1870-1910
2. 1910-1965
3. 1965-1990
Thirdly, we found that Sweden’s neutrality policy was instrumental in strengthening the Swedish (post)colonial natural resource interests. Swedish actors, especially during the “golden age”, skilfully mobilized Sweden’s neutrality policy – and, in wider terms, the popular foreign perception of Sweden as a small, innocent nation – for securing advantages vis-à-vis competitors in the resource-colonial arena and for the long-term building up of strong foreign policy linked to natural-resource interests.
New research questions
Our research has given us ample reason to pose new conceptual questions, in both theoretical and empirical terms, about “colonialism” and, in particular, “resource colonialism”.
Dissemination of research results and cooperation
The project group has through the life of the project, on a continuous basis, disseminated research results, first and foremost through national and international conferences, and has cooperated in various constellations via international networks. In this way we have been able to bring in valuable comments, alternative viewpoints and unexpected perspectives on our own research, discuss related research projects carried out elsewhere and not least put our project in a wider empirical and theoretical context. The project leader, Per Högselius, has, among other things, given two keynote lectures on natural resources and colonialism at international conferences and, on behalf of the project, contributed to co-authored journal articles with foreign participants and with a broader natural resource-historical focus. This has been of great help and inspiration for contextualizing our Swedish “case”. We have also been active in publishing popular-science essays that relate to our research theme.
An important component regarding our external cooperation took the form of a workshop with 20 participants that we, with additional financial support from RJ, arranged at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in June 2018, organized in cooperation with the main European research network in the history of technology, Tensions of Europe (www.toe.eu). The workshop was a great success and enabled us to connect our analyses of Swedish colonialism in the natural resource area with broader discussions based on in-depth empirical research from numerous countries and regions. ToE also has a special natural resource theme group in which several project members have been very active.
The project explored, from a Swedish perspective, the interaction between two central features of what historians have called the "short twentieth century" (1914-1989): the unprecedented geopolitical turbulence during the period and the explosive growth of global natural-resource extraction, supplying rapidly growing industrial economies. The project had the ambition to contribute to new perspectives on Swedish foreign, security and industrial policy, and to recent debates on the colonial history of countries that have not, or only to a marginal extent, possessed formal colonies.
Carrying out the project
The project was divided into three main phases. In the first, preparatory phase we conducted an overview of actual Swedish involvement in (post)colonial resource extraction during the period of interest. We did this by consulting a number of newspapers and trade journals of relevance, such as Affärsvärlden and the Financial Times. In the second, main phase of the project we turned to in-depth case studies, based on archival research, of Swedish resource relations within three broadly defined regions, which differ in terms of their (post)colonial characteristics: Africa, Asia and the (non-Swedish) Arctic. In Africa we studied, in particular, Swedish large-scale investments in iron ore extraction in French North Africa (during the Interwar period) and Liberia (from the 1950s). In Asia we targeted Swedish resource relations with the Soviet Union’s colonial regions and with Turkey and China. In the (non-Swedish) Arctic we studied Swedish colonial-style activities in Spitsbergen and Greenland. The third and final phase of the project was devoted to comparing and synthesizing our findings in a co-authored monograph.
Results and conclusions
Firstly, we found that Swedish actors’ contribution to and participation in colonial-style natural-resource extraction has historically been much more multifaceted and intricate than we had expected. Geographically, Swedish players were active almost everywhere in the world where there were natural resources of any value. The case studies, however, did not primarily point to the use of these resources in Sweden itself (that is, by way of import). Rather, the industrial actors first and foremost sought niches where they could play a role, their overarching goal being to profit from their competence in the global natural-resource arena and – as far as foreign policy actors are concerned – mobilizing these industrial Swedish activities for political purposes.
Secondly, the project generated a novel periodization regarding the history of Sweden in the colonial arena in the industrial age. In an earlier project, funded by the Swedish Research Council (“Sweden and the Origins of Global Resource Colonialism”), in which the period at focus was 1870-1914, we found that the years around 1870 roughly mark a starting point for extensive Swedish colonial initiatives regarding resource extraction and that Swedish foreign policy went through a transformation from around 1905. But we did not have the chance of following this finding up in the context of that earlier project. This is what we had the chance to do in the RJ project.
The result is that we now see how Swedish foreign policy actors from around 1910 onwards increasingly get interested in contributing to and otherwise influencing Swedish participation in colonial natural resource projects. When moving through the nineteenth century we can discern what we in our book call a “golden age” of Swedish colonial natural resource activities. This golden age extends from around 1910 to around 1965, and is characterized by a far-reaching consensus between state and private actors about the great perceived value for Sweden of having Swedish actors engaging in natural resource extraction in colonial regions. The actors all pull in the same direction and there are very few conflicts between state and industrial interests. This consensus says that it is a natural task for Swedish foreign policy to assist Swedish industrial actors in natural-resource projects abroad. At the same time the foreign policy actors understand that colonial natural-resource projects can be of use to them, too, as such projects can contribute to strengthening Sweden’s political relations with the colonial powers and, further on, also with the new political leaders in the decolonized countries. From the mid-1960s, however, Swedish foreign policy gets increasingly fragmented and new actor groups challenge the existing consensus, which is expressed especially in the debate about Swedish development aid. What was previously regarded as suitable and advantageous in Swedish industrial participation in colonial natural-resource projects was from now on increasingly questioned and problematized. All in all we arrive at the conclusion that the history of Swedish foreign policy and colonial natural resources can be divided into three more or less distinct periods:
1. 1870-1910
2. 1910-1965
3. 1965-1990
Thirdly, we found that Sweden’s neutrality policy was instrumental in strengthening the Swedish (post)colonial natural resource interests. Swedish actors, especially during the “golden age”, skilfully mobilized Sweden’s neutrality policy – and, in wider terms, the popular foreign perception of Sweden as a small, innocent nation – for securing advantages vis-à-vis competitors in the resource-colonial arena and for the long-term building up of strong foreign policy linked to natural-resource interests.
New research questions
Our research has given us ample reason to pose new conceptual questions, in both theoretical and empirical terms, about “colonialism” and, in particular, “resource colonialism”.
Dissemination of research results and cooperation
The project group has through the life of the project, on a continuous basis, disseminated research results, first and foremost through national and international conferences, and has cooperated in various constellations via international networks. In this way we have been able to bring in valuable comments, alternative viewpoints and unexpected perspectives on our own research, discuss related research projects carried out elsewhere and not least put our project in a wider empirical and theoretical context. The project leader, Per Högselius, has, among other things, given two keynote lectures on natural resources and colonialism at international conferences and, on behalf of the project, contributed to co-authored journal articles with foreign participants and with a broader natural resource-historical focus. This has been of great help and inspiration for contextualizing our Swedish “case”. We have also been active in publishing popular-science essays that relate to our research theme.
An important component regarding our external cooperation took the form of a workshop with 20 participants that we, with additional financial support from RJ, arranged at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in June 2018, organized in cooperation with the main European research network in the history of technology, Tensions of Europe (www.toe.eu). The workshop was a great success and enabled us to connect our analyses of Swedish colonialism in the natural resource area with broader discussions based on in-depth empirical research from numerous countries and regions. ToE also has a special natural resource theme group in which several project members have been very active.