Unity

This chapter gives an in-depth description of Scandinavianism. It presents the core tenets of the ideology and its changing placements within the general political spectrum. It explains the different types of Scandinavianism such as cultural, political, dynastic and practical Scandinavianism and their adherents. This includes an analysis of how different historical experiences cause different generations to prefer different types of Scandinavianism. The generation born around 1780, for example, clearly preferred cultural Scandinavianism, whereas the generation born during the Napoleonic Wars preferred political Scandinavianism. This leads to a discussion of how Scandinavianists saw themselves and understood their Scandinavian identity. Here it is argued that the Scandinavianist ideology existed both in a ‘weak’ and in a ‘strong’ form. The former was pan-national, while the latter was national. Hence, the former saw a Scandinavian identity as an extension of a national Norwegian, Swedish or Danish national identity, while the latter saw Scandinavia as the nation. Hereafter, the chapter analyses how Scandinavianists selected and constructed a useable past, how the ideology was expressed within philology, art and literature, and how it was disseminated through networks, meetings, conferences, student assemblies, societies and the public sphere.