Conditional Hospitality Toward Internal Refugees: Sweden During the Great Northern War, 1700–1721

Abstract

AbstractDuring the early eighteenth century, the eastern coastline of Sweden received an unprecedented number of internal refugees fleeing from Russian attacks in Finland and Sweden’s Baltic territories. This chapter traces the reception of these refugees in terms of delegated and conditional hospitality, and the responses it provoked. While the king formulated policies of hospitality, he delegated the coordination of efforts and the responsibility for separating deserving refugees from undeserving ones to a commission. The practical tasks of providing funds and performing day-to-day hospitality were delegated to local communities and individual subjects. The conditions of hospitality are revealed in the security measures that authorities and communities imposed on the refugees. By analyzing these measures and the responses they provoked from the refugees, I argue that hospitality hinged on the refugees being in Sweden temporarily—as soon as the war ended, they were expected to return home. Furthermore, the hospitality proved frail as the security measures led to autoimmunization: attempts by the commission to separate deserving from undeserving refugees created rifts between hosts and guests, aggravating the situation.