Stories on the Making of Geography in Sweden

“Geography we learn on the march”, King Karl XII remarked in the late 17th century, “history we make ourselves”. The foundations of geography as a scholarly field in Sweden can clearly be traced to the expansionary ethos of the 16th and 17th centuries, particularly to the reign of Gustav II Adolph (1611–1632) and the daring deeds of his Chancellor, Axel Oxenstierna. Enlightenment themes have also left their mark on 20th-century practices and on the alternating tides of exploration abroad and inventory and planning at home through the 19th and 20th centuries. As a university discipline, geography in Sweden dates from the early 20th century, and its preferred styles of practice, substantive foci and scale of endeavour still shape and are shaped by the changing priorities of Swedish society.