Pohjola, Atlantti, maailma

This book is a collection of eight essays on the Nordic countries, the Atlantic Ocean, and the world. The authors examine the history of transnational interaction from the seventeenth century to the twentieth century, and they provide a good reminder that Sweden and Denmark have also been imperialistic and colonial in trying to build their empires not only in northern Europe but also on the west coast of Africa and in North America. The authors use the terms “Black Atlantic” and “Red Atlantic” to refer to African and Native American influences on trade and interaction across the Atlantic. While four of the essays deal with Nordic colonialism in Africa, two examine American connections, one looks at Samuel von Pufendorf's concept of “Atlantic Sweden,” and one concentrates on Atlantic trade. Kaarle Wirta looks at the many faces of Hendrik Carloff, an adventurer and entrepreneur who worked for the Dutch West India Company, the Swedish Africa Company, and the Danish Africa Company. Some sources suggest that Carloff may have been born in Finland, but Wirta believes that he was most likely from Rostock in eastern Germany. Wirta's piece is a good biography of Carloff, but it goes beyond the usual biographical notes in trying to place Carloff and the companies he worked for within a larger picture of entrepreneurship and trade in the seventeenth-century Atlantic region

Adventure · Ancient history · Archaeology · Art history · Atlantic slave trade · Atlantic World · Biography · Colonialism · Danish · Economic history · Ethnology · Geography · Arctic and Russian Policy Studies · European and International Law Studies · History · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology