Historisk tidskrift 128:3 • 2008
Innehåll (Contents) 2008:3
Uppsatser (Articles)
Krigets och fredens relativa tillstånd. Ålänningarna och krigets
och fredens villkor 1808–1856
Martin Hårdstedt
Fulltext (pdf)
Summary
The relativity of war and peace – the condition of war and
peace on the Åland Islands 1808–1856
It is often difficult to determine when war turns into peace.
Peace is not estab- lished at an exact moment, but grows gradually
out of a state of war. In times of peace, preparation for war
can be so extensive that peace differs only marginally from
war. Hence, the concept of war needs to be refined. The situation
on the Åland Islands in the period 1808-1856 shows how the
transition from peace to war was not an absolute phenomenon.
In 1809, the islands were transferred from Sweden to Russia.
To the islanders, the most noticeable consequence of their
al- tered status was the annual quartering of Russian soldiers
in their homes. At times, Russian troops were quartered in
as many as 60 percent of the households on the islands. Soldiers
stayed for months, sometimes for as long as ten months in a
year. The quartering of soldiers never led to serious confrontations,
but a bal- anced relationship could be maintained between the
Russian military and the Ålanders. The islanders supplied the
military with fuel and transports. The con- struction of the
fortress at Bomarsund affected the islanders only indirectly,
however. With the outbreak of the Crimean War the Ålanders
were placed in a difficult situation. French and British troops
captured and destroyed Fort Bomar- sund in the summer of 1854.
The constitutional status of the islands was uncertain and
the islanders suffered a crisis of loyalty. In 1856, Åland
was demilitarised.
Keywords
military history, Åland, Finnish history, the Crimean War,
The Finnish War 1808–1809, logistics, war and society, military
quartering, peacetime crises
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