Neutrality’s Empire

Per Högselius is Professor of History of Technology at KTH Royal Institute of Technology. His research and teaching focuses on energy history and extractivism in an international context. His book Red Gas: Russia and the Origins of European Energy Dependence (2013) won the Marshall Shulman Book Prize, awarded by the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES).

“The book’s… demonstration of the importance of the colonial world to the success of Sweden’s commerce and industry constitutes a significant revision of predominantly Eurocentric narratives of Sweden’s economic history. The individual case studies are novel and excellently researched, and will undoubtedly contribute to the conversation about Sweden’s involvement in colonialism for years to come.” • Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History“This is a very important intervention into both histories of Swedish colonialism and also into theoretical understandings of colonialism. It usefully extends consideration of Sweden’s role beyond the traditional colonial era of the 16-18th centuries to consider the 19th and 20th centuries- as such, it is addressing Sweden’s role within the emergent forces of globalization.” • Audrey Horning, William & Mary College“This is an extremely important book. It explores Swedish initiation and involvement in extractivist colonial and neocolonial projects in Africa and Asia, drawing attention to the discourses and politics that allowed Swedish companies, individuals, and state to operate as colonial and neocolonial actors without drawing objection or criticism.” • Magdalena Naum, Lund University

• List of FiguresAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Sweden’s Colonial ExperiencePart I: AfricaChapter 1. The Scramble for Africa: Sweden-Norway at the Berlin Conference 1884–85Chapter 2. Toward a Swedish Colonial Presence in AfricaChapter 3. Anti-Neocolonial Mining? The Politics of Swedish Extractivism in Cold War Africa, by Karl BrunoPart II: EurasiaChapter 4. The Nobel Brothers and the Origins of Russian Petro-ColonialismChapter 5. “No Undue Ambitions”: Sweden’s Quest for China’s Natural ResourcesChapter 6. Dirty Mining, Stainless Steel: Challenging the Great Powers in Post-Ottoman TurkeyChapter 7. Tapping into the Soviet Union’s Colonial Resource WealthConclusion: Understanding Swedish Colonialism in the Industrial AgeBibliographyIndex