"Wars are good for the economy": Warfare and Industrialization in Sweden

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Industrial archaeology has been defined in the anthropological literature of the last several decades to analyze the period, related archaeological record, and resultant and surrounding socioeconomic changes of western industrialization—the establishment of large-scale manufacturing—from 1800 CE to the present. In considering a "movement" such as industrialization to be both the result of human agency and of outside conditions around it, I think it is possible, where appropriate, to extend the scope of this sub-field to before the oft-cited mark of 1800 CE. By the 17th century, after the dissolution of the Kalmar Union, Sweden had become a nation-state and would continue to engage in warfare with Denmark for several more centuries. Swedes made preparations for warfare in early modern Europe, with its theaters on land and sea, and increasing sophistication in engaging on both, possible through adapting pre-existing routines of supplementing farming with other economic choices. This background allowed them to increase the scales of resource acquisition, transportation, and ultimately production related to military needs. I look at how industrial archaeology’s methodologies and theoretical lenses help to research how early modern, especially naval, warfare was possible with a largely agrarian, rural population.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 26087