Breaking new ground in the study of European colonialism, this book focuses on a nation historically positioned between the Western and Eastern Empires of Europe - Finland. Although Finland never had overseas colonies, the authors argue that the country was undeniably involved in the colonial world, with Finns adopting ideologies and identities that cannot easily be disentangled from colonialism.

This book explores the concepts of 'colonial complicity' and 'colonialism without colonies' in relation to Finland, a nation that was oppressed, but also itself complicit in colonialism. It offers insights into European colonialism on the margins of the continent and within a nation that has traditionally declared its innocence and exceptionalism. The book shows that Finns were active participants in various colonial contexts, including Southern Africa and Sápmi in the North. Demonstrating that colonialism was a common practice shared by all European nations, with or without formal colonies, this book provides essential reading for anyone interested in European colonial history.

Raita Merivirta is an Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of European and World History at the University of Turku, Finland. She is a specialist in postcolonial history, literature and cultural studies, and the author of The Emergency and the Indian English Novel: Memory, Culture and Politics (Routledge, 2019).

Leila Koivunen is a Professor of global history and intercultural interaction in the Department of European and World History at the University of Turku, Finland. She is a specialist in the history of cultural encounters and the processes of intercultural knowledge formation, especially between Africa and Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Timo Särkkä is a Docent in economic history in the Department of History and Ethnology at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland and in 2021-2022 a Visiting Professor in Global History Division, Institute for Open and Transdisciplinary Research Initiatives (OTRI) at Osaka University in Japan. He specialises in global economic history with an emphasis on economic imperialism.

Autorentext

Raita Merivirta is an Academy of Finland Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of European and World History at the University of Turku, Finland. She is a specialist in postcolonial history, literature and cultural studies, and the author of The Emergency and the Indian English Novel: Memory, Culture and Politics (Routledge, 2019).

Leila Koivunen is a Professor of global history and intercultural interaction in the Department of European and World History at the University of Turku, Finland. She is a specialist in the history of cultural encounters and the processes of intercultural knowledge formation, especially between Africa and Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Timo Särkkä is a Docent in Economic History at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and a Visiting Professor in the Global History Division of the Institute for Open and Transdisciplinary Research Initiatives (OTRI) at Osaka University in Japan. He specialises in global economic history with an emphasis on economic imperialism.

Inhalt

Foreword

1. Finns in the Colonial World

Part I: State, Nation and Colonialism in Finland

2. Wisdom of the Oppressed: Finnish Colonial Complicities in the Age of the Russian Empire

3. Finnish Parliamentarians' Conceptions of Imperialism and Colonialism, 1917-1995

4. Settler Colonial Eyes: Finnish Travel Writers and the Colonization of Petsamo

5. Nation-building and Colonialism: The Early Skolt Sami Research of Väinö Tanner

Part II: Colonial Encounters in Finland

6. "Queensland Cannibals" Encountered in Finland (1886): Locally Rooted Visions of Exhibitions of Colonized People

7. Colonialism, Race and White Innocence in Finnish Children's Literature: Anni Swan's 1920s' Serial "Uutisasukkaana Austraaliassa"

8. Encountering Colonial Worlds through Missionary Maps in the Late Nineteenth-Century Grand Duchy of Finland

Part III: Finns' Colonial Encounters Abroad

9. From the Eastern Front to the Western Frontier: The Transimperial Life of a Finnish Worker during the First World War

10. Photography and the Religious Encounter: Finnish Missionaries' Representations of the Owambo, Namibia

11. "Did you really have a place in the Boer War?": Colonial Conflict and the Contested Production of "Finnish" Nationality, 1899-1908

12. The "Pioneer Men": Making of Finnish Settler Identity in Southern Africa pre-1914