Erövring och efterblivenhet? - Den svenska stormaktsexpansionen i ett världssystemanalytiskt perspektiv

Sammanfattning: The thesis aims at understanding, from a world-system analytical perspective, the economic and social structures behind the Swedish territorial expansion in the 17th century, given the economic backwardness of the country in a Western European comparison. Through a study of the works of Eli F. Heckscher and Immanuel Wallerstein among others, the thesis investigates the internal dynamics of the Swedish society at the time, as well as the role played by the Swedish state in the European world-economy, in order to understand the internal and external logic of the expansion. It is argued that the territorial expansion was in the interest of the feudal nobility that, due to the relative strength of the peasant class, found itself obligated to find sources of surplus revenue other than the Swedish soil. Moreover, the amount of available wood used as cheap fuel made it possible to produce and export iron and copper in order to finance the expansion. The exportation of iron and copper was highly profitable in an era of high demand in the European world-market, due to the financial strains of the Spanish Empire and the Thirty Years’ War. Moreover, it is concluded that a process of initial modernization of the class relations took place – articulated by a fusion of the interests of the state, the upper nobility and foreign investors -, which favored Swedish capital accumulation, albeit the economy was still too weak in the 17th century for Sweden to become a core country of the world-system.