How are Scandinavian countries so prosperous despite not engaging in external colonialism ?
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Being in the right place at the right time. I think the (somewhat lazy) thinkers attribute this to some form of colonialization. The better and more contemporary explanation is the global trade order and industrialization.
All of the countries have fairly small populations. They are mostly maritime nations. Trade and specialization allowed them to achieve high productivity and output through the latter half of the 20th century. This would not have been possible without a relatively stable trade order. Of course, Norway also had the benefit of lots of oil and gas.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Pension_Fund_of_Norway](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Pension_Fund_of_Norway)
Unlike a certain Oceanic country I may or may not live in (rhymes with Bostralia), Norway didn’t squander its natural resources on cheap political stunts for short-term advantage and the like and made sure it got its fair share of its value and then went on to invest it all very sensibly indeed.
Not being part of ww2 helped alot for sweden. Gai ed lots of wealth aften by being one of few countries with intact production
Sweden (we) avoided two world wars which benefited us greatly economically in comparison to the rest of Europe.
In addition, we come from a country whose climate required both a lot of planning and innovation to manage life. Its cold and dark for many parts of the year and growing food is more challenging than many other places in the world.
You see the fruit of this culture in the amount of well known companies that originates from such a small country and also, I would argue, the vast amount of musicians.
IKEA, H&M, Spotify…
However, today we have a massive private debt and our growth and unemployment rates are not looking good either
Our welfare system also has its fair amount of challenges with an imbalance in demand and supply.
They do participate heavily in global exploitation. They get electronics and clothes by people working 60 hour weeks in shitty conditions for a low pay. Minerals from dangerous mines in Africa and South America. Their consumption-based carbon footprint is massive, but mostly externalized.
Crazy what happens when you invest in your own people so they can return the favor someday.
The Nordic countries learned 5,000 years ago that you prosper if you look out for each other and help each other.
When you raise up everyone instead of the .1% you gain so much more.
They are mostly smaller, homogeneous, high trust societies. So basically, the people who live there are more similar and cohesive compared to larger, more divided countries.
When you look at how many people live in the US of a certain national origin vs how many live in the country of that origin, Irish has a 10-1 ratio or something like that. Norwegians are the only other country with more Norwegian-Americans than Norwegians. Sweden and Finland are next on the list.
Also the countries are good at trading and have access to the sea. Denmark taxed the trade to the baltics into the 1850s (when the US decided they didn’t want to pay the tax in Øresund). Denmark-Norway also tried to be neutral in the napoleon wars so we could trade with everyone. It failed but the point is that just because we didn’t have our own colonies didn’t mean we didn’t benefit from trading with other countries’ colonies.
And in modern days because we invest in education and have open and free economies.
It is industry and the high productivity that goes with it that leads to wealth not colonialism. That is why Scandinavia is wealthy while Portugal and Spain were, until recently, poor despite having extensive colonies.
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