The settler tree and the Indigenous forest: Lars Östlund, Macarena Fernández Génova, Miguel Cáceres, Elle Eriksson, ‘Timber colonialism in the periphery: Timber frontiers and indigenous peoples land use in northern Scandinavia and southern Patagonia in the late 19th and early 20th century’, Journal of Historical Geography, 89, 2025, pp. 213-225 | settler colonial studies blog

The settler tree and the Indigenous forest: Lars Östlund, Macarena Fernández Génova, Miguel Cáceres, Elle Eriksson, ‘Timber colonialism in the periphery: Timber frontiers and indigenous peoples land use in northern Scandinavia and southern Patagonia in the late 19th and early 20th century’, Journal of Historical Geography, 89, 2025, pp. 213-225

08Aug25

Abstract: During the nineteenth century an intense exploitation of natural resources such as wood and timber in what was considered “marginal” or remote regions started, and was driven by an ever-increasing demand in industrialized regions. One common denominator for the timber exploitation that opened the global expansion of capitalism beyond the borders of Europe was the brutal intrusions into Indigenous territories. The overall aim of this study is to analyse two timber frontier movements in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century: one in northern Sweden and one in southern Chile, intruding into previously un-logged old-growth forests on ancestral Indigenous territories. The large-scale commercial logging began around the mid-nineteenth century in both regions. It was driven by external demand and financed by national and/or international capital. New logging entrepreneurs moved into the territories and established sawmills, brought in workers to run the sawmills, cut trees in the forest and transported the timber to the sawmills. In northern Sweden the logging industry was the main economic activity, while in southern Patagonia the logging of timber was one of several forms of natural resource exploitations complemented by mining, rangeland sheep herding and trade through the region. In both regions, the logging frontier was often intertwined with agricultural expansion promoted by the state and global capitalism. In both studied regions the colonial legacy of the nineteenth century timber frontiers has left a heavy burden on the forest landscapes, on the rights of the Indigenous peoples whose lands were exploited and on the present legal situation. Challenges for the future are to re-establish recognition of Indigenous heritage and land tenure rights in both regions, according to international conventions, as well as restoring ecological qualities to the associated forest ecosystems for the sustainability of Indigenous practices.

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