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När gränslandet fick fred: Halland under 1700-talet
351 pages, Hardcover
Published December 10, 2010
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April 22, 2017
Excellent historical non-fiction about the time when the western counties of Sweden went from Danish to Swedish ownership. Peace in the borderlands was a long time coming, and for some 70 years it was a land ravaged by the effects of constant wars.
Halland, which had been a Danish county since well, forever, changed jurisdiction only some 350 years ago. And it was not an easy process. Not to mention that constant wars between Sweden and Denmark strangled all trade that traditionally took place. In addition to this, on and off wars drained resources, until Charles XII's reign of "constant war", which put such a drain on both people and resources as to destroy and ruin the county of Halland for 150 years to come.
Around the year 1725, Halland was in such a poor state that the populace was starving, the country was emptied of able bodied men to till the earth after they had all been drafted as soldiers, farms were being deserted, there wasn't enough seed grain to sustain the existing farms, and not even the burgers in the cities had enough to guarantee a livelihood.
While the misery created by a succession of war-mad kings, over-use of resources and frankly poor economic politics were astounding and tragic in ways that were completely skipped over in history class (after all, Charles XII was the hero king no? while in reality he was a war-maddened psychopath who should have been shot by his own far sooner than he really was, since he was solely responsible for the death and destruction of a whole generation of Swedish men, and immense suffering for the population he left bereaved) what impressed me the most was the resilience and the every day resistance of the populace, despite all their hardship.
The amount of written evidence of how every day people petitioned the authorities, how they used existing legal framework, passive resistance, avoidance, and every other method available to get by is a testimony to quite a lot of ingenuity, resilience and a often quite a lot of clear-headed thinking. It's strange to read these voices from the past, some of them quite likely ancestors of mine, with views, complaints and struggles not so very different from our own.
There are a lot of communications between civil servants of different kinds, and especially Axel von Faltzburg, county governor from 1710-1728 stands out as an important character. In reality, he was the King's representative in the county, but in practice, he quite often came out in support of the Halland populace and ended up being an important player in trying to prevent some of the dire consequences of the war effort. Reading about his efforts all these years later, one has to wonder what went through his head when he tried to balance his responsibility to the king and country (and the war effort) and not committing treason or mutiny, while at the same time being extremely conscious of the misery, suffering and at times even mutinous atmosphere in the county he was the head of. In a time that seems crazy in hindsight, his words and reasoning seems remarkably sensible and sane.
The every man and woman also get their voices heard in this volume, and it's very interesting to read about what they thought of their own situation and lives in this rather unsettling time. Some voices are eerily timeless, like the maid who got raped by a soldier stationed at the farm she worked at, at which point she got convicted of adultery : "Woe to any woman who ends up in my situation". I'm sure a lot of women in this day and age can recognise themselves in the words she uttered some 300 years ago. Some things change for the better while others stay the same.
Reading this book is pretty heavy going as it is very dense, filled with facts and sometimes a bewildering amount of details regarding local and regional administration of the time. At the same time, it is extremely interesting, and covers a period in time that is, in my experience, often skipped completely in school, or touched so briefly as to only include what a great warrior king Charles XII was. Of course, once you read something closer to the actual historical record, you realise what a big, fat lie that was, and on account of all my ancestors who suffered and died under his reign and the long, grim 150 years after he was, very fortuitously, shot, I'd like to say FUCK YOU CHARLES XII. I hope you burn in hell forever, if there is ever an afterlife.
Halland, which had been a Danish county since well, forever, changed jurisdiction only some 350 years ago. And it was not an easy process. Not to mention that constant wars between Sweden and Denmark strangled all trade that traditionally took place. In addition to this, on and off wars drained resources, until Charles XII's reign of "constant war", which put such a drain on both people and resources as to destroy and ruin the county of Halland for 150 years to come.
Around the year 1725, Halland was in such a poor state that the populace was starving, the country was emptied of able bodied men to till the earth after they had all been drafted as soldiers, farms were being deserted, there wasn't enough seed grain to sustain the existing farms, and not even the burgers in the cities had enough to guarantee a livelihood.
While the misery created by a succession of war-mad kings, over-use of resources and frankly poor economic politics were astounding and tragic in ways that were completely skipped over in history class (after all, Charles XII was the hero king no? while in reality he was a war-maddened psychopath who should have been shot by his own far sooner than he really was, since he was solely responsible for the death and destruction of a whole generation of Swedish men, and immense suffering for the population he left bereaved) what impressed me the most was the resilience and the every day resistance of the populace, despite all their hardship.
The amount of written evidence of how every day people petitioned the authorities, how they used existing legal framework, passive resistance, avoidance, and every other method available to get by is a testimony to quite a lot of ingenuity, resilience and a often quite a lot of clear-headed thinking. It's strange to read these voices from the past, some of them quite likely ancestors of mine, with views, complaints and struggles not so very different from our own.
There are a lot of communications between civil servants of different kinds, and especially Axel von Faltzburg, county governor from 1710-1728 stands out as an important character. In reality, he was the King's representative in the county, but in practice, he quite often came out in support of the Halland populace and ended up being an important player in trying to prevent some of the dire consequences of the war effort. Reading about his efforts all these years later, one has to wonder what went through his head when he tried to balance his responsibility to the king and country (and the war effort) and not committing treason or mutiny, while at the same time being extremely conscious of the misery, suffering and at times even mutinous atmosphere in the county he was the head of. In a time that seems crazy in hindsight, his words and reasoning seems remarkably sensible and sane.
The every man and woman also get their voices heard in this volume, and it's very interesting to read about what they thought of their own situation and lives in this rather unsettling time. Some voices are eerily timeless, like the maid who got raped by a soldier stationed at the farm she worked at, at which point she got convicted of adultery : "Woe to any woman who ends up in my situation". I'm sure a lot of women in this day and age can recognise themselves in the words she uttered some 300 years ago. Some things change for the better while others stay the same.
Reading this book is pretty heavy going as it is very dense, filled with facts and sometimes a bewildering amount of details regarding local and regional administration of the time. At the same time, it is extremely interesting, and covers a period in time that is, in my experience, often skipped completely in school, or touched so briefly as to only include what a great warrior king Charles XII was. Of course, once you read something closer to the actual historical record, you realise what a big, fat lie that was, and on account of all my ancestors who suffered and died under his reign and the long, grim 150 years after he was, very fortuitously, shot, I'd like to say FUCK YOU CHARLES XII. I hope you burn in hell forever, if there is ever an afterlife.
Displaying 1 of 1 review