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

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Finnish Colonial Encounters

Part of the book series: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies ((CIPCSS))

Abstract

Connecting Finnish Petsamo to histories of settler colonialism and colonial travel writings, this chapter look at four Finnish travelogues through the settler colonial lens. It argues that these Finnish travel writers looked at Petsamo through settler colonial eyes: in other words, they made claims for Finnish settler colonization, promoted the idea, and assessed its feasibility. They commented on the nature of the region and its potential riches; described the villages, homes, and domestic customs; and commented on the outlook and habits of the people. The travelogues made the colonized land familiar to their Finnish audience and occupied it, in language that combined views of its past with its new reality as a Finnish space.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Pälsi 1931, 9, 11. All translations from Finnish to English in this article by the author.

  2. 2.

    More on Sami histories and Sami-Finnish colonial encounters, see Nyyssönen in this volume, and especially Lehtola 2012, 2015; Nyyssönen 2013.

  3. 3.

    On Finnish painters making and creating Petsamo as part of Finland through their works, see Hautala-Hirvioja 2016, http://tahiti.fi/01-2016/tieteelliset-artikkelit/petsamo-%E2%80%93-miehinen-ja-karu-eldorado/ (accessed June 1, 2020).

  4. 4.

    Pratt 2007, 3. On colonialism and travel writings, see also Hulme and Youngs 2002; Edwards and Graulund 2011. See also the special issue on colonial travel writing and the Maghreb, in Studies in Travel Writing 21.3. (2017).

  5. 5.

    Mills 1991, 2.

  6. 6.

    See, for instance, Wrobel 2013.

  7. 7.

    Translations included the works of travelers such as Ida Pfeiffer, Richard Francis Burton, and Friedrich Gerstäcker.

  8. 8.

    Stanley 1885; from the original The Congo and the Founding of Its Free State (New York: Harpers & Brothers, 1885).

  9. 9.

    Some scholars in Sami and Indigenous studies have applied the term settler colonialism in Finnish context. See Kuokkanen 2017. https://politiikasta.fi/syntymapaivalahja-suomelle/; Kuokkanen 2020; Magga 2018.

  10. 10.

    Wolfe 2006. See also Veracini 2010; Lahti 2017.

  11. 11.

    On settler colonialism as a global historical phenomenon, see, for example, Belich 2011; Zu Lu 2019; Uchida 2014; Fujikane and Okamura 2008; Cavanagh and Veracini 2017; Jacobs 2009; Lahti and Weaver-Hightower 2020.

  12. 12.

    The Finnish research literature here is rather extensive. See, for instance, Roselius and Silvennoinen 2019; Näre and Kirves 2014; Manninen 1980.

  13. 13.

    Paasilinna 1984, 280.

  14. 14.

    Suomen Tilastollinen Vuosikirja (Statistical Yearbook of Finland) 1940, 1941, 42–43.

  15. 15.

    Paasilinna 1984, 288–289.

  16. 16.

    Lähteenmäki 2017, 77–81; Onnela and Vahtola 1999; Petsamo 1920–1944: Suomi Jäämeren rannalla, 2018.

  17. 17.

    Olin 1921, 5.

  18. 18.

    Metsola & Relas 2017. On Pälsi’s earlier travel writings, see Pälsi 1919, 1927.

  19. 19.

    Kennedy 2005, 93.

  20. 20.

    Olin 1921, 7–25, quotes from 10.

  21. 21.

    Olin 1921, 81–85, see also 77–79 for depictions of wild, perilous nature.

  22. 22.

    Lampén 1921, 9–28; Pälsi 1931, 9–25.

  23. 23.

    Pälsi 1931, 27–33, quotes from 28–29, 95.

  24. 24.

    Kennedy 2013; Lahti 2010, 349–374.

  25. 25.

    Launis 1922, 12–16.

  26. 26.

    On Finnish perceptions of Lapland, see Lehtola 1997.

  27. 27.

    Quote from Pälsi 1931, 95.

  28. 28.

    Lampén 1921, 81.

  29. 29.

    Olin 1921, 36.

  30. 30.

    Lampén 1921, 58.

  31. 31.

    Lampén 1921, 71–72.

  32. 32.

    Launis 1922, 21.

  33. 33.

    Pälsi 1931, 95.

  34. 34.

    See Kennedy 2013; Youngs 1994; Reimann-Dawe 2016, 99–116.

  35. 35.

    Koivunen 2008, 209.

  36. 36.

    Pälsi 1931, 95–96.

  37. 37.

    Petsamo 1920–1944, 82–83, 114. On Petsamo’s population, see also Suomen tilastollinen vuosikirja, 42–43.

  38. 38.

    Olin 1921, 16–17.

  39. 39.

    Launis 1922, 57–60, quote 58.

  40. 40.

    Olin 1921, 25.

  41. 41.

    Launis 1922, 8–18, quotes from 9, 11, 16, 18, 29.

  42. 42.

    For the colonial tropes used against Native Americans, see Littlefield and Knack 1996; Jacobs 2009; Lahti 2012.

  43. 43.

    Lampén 1921, 72.

  44. 44.

    Lampén 1921, 78–79. On ethnographic exhibitions, see also Koivunen in this volume.

  45. 45.

    Ames 2008, esp. 18–19; Thode-Aroa 1989; Kivekäs 2016.

  46. 46.

    Lehtola 2009, 338.

  47. 47.

    See, for instance, Isaaksson & Jokisalo 2005; Kemiläinen 1998.

  48. 48.

    Bhabha 1984, 126.

  49. 49.

    Lampén 1921, 106–107, 110.

  50. 50.

    Lampén 1921, 152–157, quotes from 152–153, 93.

  51. 51.

    Pälsi 1931, 52–53.

  52. 52.

    Onnela, ”Petsamon väestöhistoriaa,” in Onnela & Vahtola 1999, 108, 119.

  53. 53.

    Pälsi 1931, 53–54.

  54. 54.

    Launis 1922, 21, 24–25.

  55. 55.

    Lampén 1921, 72–73.

  56. 56.

    Lampén 1921, 89–105, quotes 89, 91, 94.

  57. 57.

    Lampén 1921, 105.

  58. 58.

    Launis 1922, 24, 29.

  59. 59.

    Olin 1921, 98.

  60. 60.

    Pälsi 1931, 101.

  61. 61.

    Olin 1921, 5.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Janne Lahti

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  1. Janne Lahti
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  1. Department of European and World History, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Raita Merivirta

  2. Department of European and World History, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Leila Koivunen

  3. Department of History and Ethnology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Timo Särkkä

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Lahti, J. (2021). Settler Colonial Eyes: Finnish Travel Writers and the Colonization of Petsamo. In: Merivirta, R., Koivunen, L., Särkkä, T. (eds) Finnish Colonial Encounters. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80610-1_4

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