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Utilizing such concepts as “colonial complicity” and “colonialism without colonies”, this chapter examines the case of Finns and Finland as a nation that was once oppressed but also itself complicit in colonialism. It argues that although the Finnish nation has historically been positioned in Europe between western and eastern empires, Finns were not only passive victims of (Russian) imperial rule but also active participants in the creation of imperial vocabulary in various colonial contexts, including Sápmi in the North.This chapter argues that although Finns never had overseas colonies, they were involved in the colonial world, sending out colonizers and producing images of colonial “others”, when they, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, felt the need to project themselves as white and European (not Russian or non-white, such as Mongols). Finns adopted, adapted, and created common European knowledge about colonized areas, cultures, and people and participated in constructing racial hierarchies. These racialized notions were also applied to the Sámi. Furthermore, Finns benefitted economically from colonialism, sent out missionaries to Owambo in present-day Namibia to spread the ideas of Western/White/Christian superiority and instruct the Owambo in European ways. Finns were also involved in several colonial enterprises of other European colonizing powers, such as in the Belgian Congo or aboard Captain Cook’s vessel on his journey to the Antipodes.

The British paper trade history was defined since the mid-1850s by a quest for a new raw material to replace rags. The requirements of the paper trade were first met by a discovery that esparto grass from Spain, and later from North Africa, could be utilised in British mills. Beginning in the late 1870s, the success of using esparto encouraged mill developments in British India. The increased dependence on imported wood pulp, the likelihood of a pulp famine, and the consequent increase in price for imported wood pulp drew attention to the possibility of making commercial volumes of good quality pulp from indigenous Indian grasses. Bamboo began being treated after the First World War, when the Government of India offered financial incentives to induce the creation of a bamboo pulp and paper industry. The bamboo pulping process entered the period of commercial production in 1922 but developed in an economically viable manner only after tariff protection had become effective in 1925. The technology was developed under British auspices, but was later adopted by Indian paper producers in response to the rising costs of imported wood pulp. peerReviewed

The volume has provided us with illustrative, well-documented case studies of technological transformation in the global pulp and paper industry. The research has focused on the roles played by the availability of technology, knowledge, investments, and raw materials on the one hand and demand characteristics on the other, within local, regional, national and transnational organisational frameworks. It has dealt with the relationships between technology transfer, technology leadership, raw material dependence, and product variety on a global scale. The investigation has followed the tradition of in-depth and rich historical descriptions based on primary sources and secondary literature. The research was motivated by the realisation that analysing the evolution of the global pulp and paper industry using a comparative method is a very revealing way of exposing its complexities and identifying some of the challenges it is facing today. This concluding chapter briefly summarises the key findings of the research and outlines potential avenues for pursuing future research. nonPeerReviewed

This article discusses settler identity formation, in the colonial polity known as Rhodesia, using Finnish nationals as a case study. It studies the involvement of Finns in natural resource extraction in Rhodesia at a time when the colonial economy and settler domination were still in their infancy, and examines both Finnish participation in colonial practices and the limitations of Finns as colonialists. White settlers in Rhodesia have typically been categorised as ‘Europeans’ partly because of their sense of representing a generalised idea of Western civilisation and partly in order to underline contrasts between black and white experiences in the history of colonialism. By focusing on the more specific provenance of the settlers (their nationality and country of origin), it is possible to reveal idiosyncrasies through which we can appreciate settler identity formation more precisely. Finnish settlers, in their various capacities as prospectors, soldiers, hunters and planters, adapted ideas and identities that cannot easily be disentangled from those of colonisers.

This article provides a rare opportunity to follow the inception of mining and mine exploration economy in the first years of the European presence in colonial Zambia and Katanga as seen through the eyes of prospectors and mining experts working for the London-based company Tanganyika Concessions Limited. It draws on company records as well as the personal records of the early company employees who worked in North Western Rhodesia and adjoining Katanga until 1906. The most thought-provoking documents include diaries, letters and photographs, which depict the organisation and processes of early mining work, modes of mine exploration, and relations within the first mining communities and between white management and African labour. The wide range of available materials makes the Tanganyika Concessions a relevant case study; they offer a fuller picture of the inception of European mining and mine exploration in North Western Rhodesia and Katanga than is available elsewhere. Taken as a whole, they provide insight into the operation of colonising processes: in particular how these processes took place, why they were considered desirable by various interest groups, and the impact that these processes had on physical and human environments in parts of North Western Rhodesia and Katanga. peerReviewed

Britain was the first country in the world to enter into the business of mechanised papermaking. It continued in the lead in the field of papermaking until the 1890s, after which the momentum of being the first nation successfully to mechanise the production of paper was gradually lost to some of its major competitors in North America and Continental Europe. The first part of the twentieth century was characterised by industry growth disturbed by the First World War, the economic depression of the early 1930s and the Second World War. The post-Second World War era signified the decline of the role of the Empire as a market and business-making area for British companies and also the decline of the British-owned paper industry itself. British entry into the Common Market in 1973 oriented the British paper industry towards Europe.