Sweden's Silent Empire: The African Trade That Built Stockholm

While Sweden’s global influence is often traced to the Thirty Years' War or its modern welfare state, a quieter, more complex chapter involves its unexpected role in the transatlantic slave trade. This episode explores how Gustavus Adolphus’s vision for a colonial empire evolved into the Swedish South Company’s ventures in West Africa and the Caribbean. We examine the establishment of Fort Christianborg on the Gold Coast and the plantation colony of Saint Barthélemy, uncovering the human cost behind the nation’s economic expansion. Through the stories of traders, enslaved people, and the royal court, we reveal how this brief but brutal imperial project shaped Sweden’s early modern identity and left lasting scars that are only recently being fully acknowledged. Listeners will discover the specific mechanisms of this trade, the key figures like Peter Kalm who documented the era, and how these events fit into the broader narrative of Northern Europe’s engagement with global systems of power. #SwedishColonialism #SlaveTradeHistory #SaintBarthelemy #GoldCoastAfrica #GustavusAdolphus #SwedishSouthCompany #FortChristianborg #TransatlanticSlavery #NordicHistory #SwedishEmpire #CaribbeanHistory #AfricanDiaspora #ColonialStockholm #PeterKalm #WestIndiaCompany #18thCenturySweden #GlobalHistory #FexingoHistory Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo