Cutting Colonial Losses : Imperial Ideology in Media Coverage of the 1878 Transfer of Saint Barthélemy in Sweden and France
Hennessey, John LU
(2024)
In Scandinavian Journal of History
49(1).
p.46-68
- Abstract
- During the last several decades, important new research has been published on the Swedish Caribbean colony of Saint Barthélemy, but this has almost exclusively focused on its early years, during the early modern period. By the time it was returned to France in 1878, its heyday was long past. Nevertheless, this article argues that press coverage of the island’s transfer to France in the 1870s provides a useful window into colonial mentalities during an era that constituted the apex of global imperialism, even as it marked the end of Sweden’s small tropical empire. What did Swedes think about imperialism in the 1870s, and how was Sweden’s role as a colonial power viewed from abroad? Investigating a representative sample of Swedish and French... (More)
- During the last several decades, important new research has been published on the Swedish Caribbean colony of Saint Barthélemy, but this has almost exclusively focused on its early years, during the early modern period. By the time it was returned to France in 1878, its heyday was long past. Nevertheless, this article argues that press coverage of the island’s transfer to France in the 1870s provides a useful window into colonial mentalities during an era that constituted the apex of global imperialism, even as it marked the end of Sweden’s small tropical empire. What did Swedes think about imperialism in the 1870s, and how was Sweden’s role as a colonial power viewed from abroad? Investigating a representative sample of Swedish and French newspapers, this article argues that while the peaceful transfer of Sweden’s last formal colony during the high age of empire could be described as exceptional, this did not reflect exceptional humanitarian or anti-imperial attitudes in Sweden. Rather, Swedes subscribed to the contemporaneous European logic of successful colonialism as a source of national pride, but were eager to divest themselves of Saint Barthélemy since the island’s poverty was understood as a national humiliation within this same colonial discursive framework. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/56f1d45d-0c62-47fb-87a2-48f022a470d1
- author
- Hennessey, John
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2024
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- St. Barthélemy, colonialism, popular imperialism, French empire, Swedish colonialism
- in
- Scandinavian Journal of History
- volume
- 49
- issue
- 1
- pages
- 23 pages
- publisher
- Routledge
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85159710399
- ISSN
- 0346-8755
- DOI
- 10.1080/03468755.2023.2211981
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 56f1d45d-0c62-47fb-87a2-48f022a470d1
- date added to LUP
- 2023-05-04 13:31:52
- date last changed
- 2024-06-21 03:10:12
@article{56f1d45d-0c62-47fb-87a2-48f022a470d1,
abstract = {{During the last several decades, important new research has been published on the Swedish Caribbean colony of Saint Barthélemy, but this has almost exclusively focused on its early years, during the early modern period. By the time it was returned to France in 1878, its heyday was long past. Nevertheless, this article argues that press coverage of the island’s transfer to France in the 1870s provides a useful window into colonial mentalities during an era that constituted the apex of global imperialism, even as it marked the end of Sweden’s small tropical empire. What did Swedes think about imperialism in the 1870s, and how was Sweden’s role as a colonial power viewed from abroad? Investigating a representative sample of Swedish and French newspapers, this article argues that while the peaceful transfer of Sweden’s last formal colony during the high age of empire could be described as exceptional, this did not reflect exceptional humanitarian or anti-imperial attitudes in Sweden. Rather, Swedes subscribed to the contemporaneous European logic of successful colonialism as a source of national pride, but were eager to divest themselves of Saint Barthélemy since the island’s poverty was understood as a national humiliation within this same colonial discursive framework.}},
author = {{Hennessey, John}},
issn = {{0346-8755}},
keywords = {{St. Barthélemy; colonialism; popular imperialism; French empire; Swedish colonialism}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{1}},
pages = {{46--68}},
publisher = {{Routledge}},
series = {{Scandinavian Journal of History}},
title = {{Cutting Colonial Losses : Imperial Ideology in Media Coverage of the 1878 Transfer of Saint Barthélemy in Sweden and France}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03468755.2023.2211981}},
doi = {{10.1080/03468755.2023.2211981}},
volume = {{49}},
year = {{2024}},
}