Globalization as “The White Man's Burden”: Modernity and Colonialism in a Swedish Travelogue

Nordström's writings from this period must also be seen in relation to a broader debate on the consequences of the industrialization of Norrland, which took place in Sweden during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: the benefits and dangers of industrialization were intensively discussed, as well as the question of control over natural resources (Forsgren 2015, 28-30). Because of his vision of modern development, Nordström mainly saw nature as a resource to be exploited for industrial production. [...]there is an obvious inconsistency typical for colonial discourses in Nordstrom's vision of modernity: modernization is what finally decolonized Norrland, and, at the same time, the Såmi are excluded from modernity and valued from a colonialist perspective as an object for modern "civilization" (Forsgren 2015, 187-92). Itinerant and adoptive, focusing colonial myths, activating imperial energies, what I will call the travelling metaphor formed an essential constitutive element of an intensely imagined colonial system. Because of metaphorical movement between different places, colonial territories came to be interpreted as it were, as a series of reflecting mirrors, which repeated, reinforced, and at times reversed (though within the same symbolic system) cultural signification emanating from England and Europe. [...]the tale of the chief is followed by three chapters with subtitles that underline the moral duties of the Westerners: "Den vita mänsklighetens plikt" (The Duty of White Humanity), "Demokratins plikt" (The Duty of Democracy), and "Frihet" (Freedom).