Vol. 1 No. 1 (2024)
Research

Rural Inferno: Environmental and Socio-Economic Consequences of Wildfires in Seventeenth-century Western Finland

PDF HTML
  • Jakob Starlander
Jakob Starlander
Bern university
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3197/whpcch.63842135436336

Published 2024-11-18

Keywords

  • Wildfire,
  • Forest,
  • Agriculture,
  • Climate,
  • Environmental Hazards

How to Cite

Starlander, J. (2024). Rural Inferno: Environmental and Socio-Economic Consequences of Wildfires in Seventeenth-century Western Finland. Climates and Cultures in History, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.3197/whpcch.63842135436336

Copyright (c) 2024 Jakob Starlander

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

This article addresses the impact of wildfires on rural peasant communities during the pre-modern period. It demonstrates how and when wildfires started, what was done to limit their occurrence, what economic and environmental consequences followed, and what social safety-nets existed. By using the case of Lower Satakunta (Western Finland) during the seventeenth century, the article reveals that the occurrence of wildfires was strongly correlated with agricultural methods, climate variability, and weather conditions. The environmental consequences often led to substantial loss of forest and agricultural lands and the economic consequences were often such that, without aid from the local community, the future existence of peasant households was impossible. Nevertheless, through the renewed medieval laws on fire support (Sw. brandstod), peasant communities were able to create socio-economic safety nets that helped them withstand and recover from fire disasters.

PDF HTML

References

  1. Agbeshie, A.A., S. Abugre, T. Atta-Darkwa and R. Awuah. 2022. ‘A review of the effects of forest fire on soil properties’. Journal of Forestry Research 33: 1419–41. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-022-01475-4
  2. Allemeyer, M. L. 2007. ‘Profane hazard or divine judgement? Coping with urban fire in the 17th century’. Historical Social Research / Historische Sozialforschung 32 (3) (121): 145–68.
  3. Bankoff, G., U. Lübken and J. Sand (eds). 2012. Flammable Cities: Urban Conflagration and the Making of the Modern World. Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10113-020-01601-0
  4. Chicco J.M., G. Mandrone and D. Vacha. 2023. ‘Effects of wildfire on soils: field studies and modelling on induced underground temperature variations’. Frontiers in Earth Science. 11:1307569: 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2023.1307569
  5. Cogos, S., S. Roturier and L. Östlund. 2020. ‘The origins of prescribed burning in Scandinavian forestry: the seminal role of Joel Wretlind in the management of fire-dependent forests’. European Journal of Forest Research 139: 393–406. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-019-01247-6
  6. Datta, R. 2021. ‘To extinguish or not to extinguish: The role of forest fire in nature and soil resilience’. Journal of King Saud University – Science 33 (6): 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksus.2021.101539
  7. Downey, S.S., M. Walker, J. Moschler, F. Penados, W. Peterman, J. Pop, R. Qin, S. A. Scaggs and S. Song. 2023. ‘An intermediate level of disturbance with customary agricultural practices increases species diversity in Maya community forests in Belize’. Communications Earth & Environment 4 (428): 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-01089-6
  8. Duiveman, A. 2021. ‘Kindled by catastrophe: Fire disasters and cultural representations of solidarity in the late Dutch Republic’. Early Modern Low Countries 5 (2): 306–31. https://doi.org/10.51750/emlc11336
  9. Garrioch, D. 2016. ‘1666 and London’s fire history: A re-evaluation’. The Historical Journal 59 (2): 319–38. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X15000382
  10. Garrioch, D. 2018. ‘Towards a fire history of European cities (late Middle Ages to late nineteenth century)’. Urban History 46 (2): 202–24. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0963926818000275
  11. Garrioch, D. 2024. ‘Large fires and climatic variability in urban Europe, 1500–1800’. Climates and Cultures in History 1 (1). https://doi.org/10.3197/whpcch.63842135436332
  12. Hägg, G. 1998. An Institutional Analysis of Insurance Regulation: The Case of Sweden, Lund: Universitet.
  13. Healey, J. 2024. ‘Social discipline and the refusal of poor relief under the English Old Poor Law, c. 1650–1730’. The Historical Journal (online first): 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0018246X23000651
  14. Hindle, S. 2004. On the Parish?: The Micro-politics of Poor Relief in Rural England c. 1550–1750. Oxford: Clarendon.
  15. Huhtamaa, H., M. Stoffel and C. Corona 2022. ‘Recession or resilience. Long-range socioeconomic consequences of the 17th century volcanic eruptions in the far north’. Climate of the Past 18: 2077–92. https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2077-2022
  16. Huhtamies, M. 2004. Knektar och bönder: knektersättare vid utskrivningarna i Nedre Satakunda under trettioåriga kriget, Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland. Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland, Helsinki.
  17. Kala, C. P. 2023. ‘Environmental and socioeconomic impacts of forest fires: A call for multilateral cooperation and management interventions’. Natural Hazards Research 3 (2): 286–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nhres.2023.04.003
  18. Kardell, L., R. Dehlén and B. Andersson. 1980. Svedjebruk förr och nu. Avdelningen för landskapsvård, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, Uppsala.
  19. Kleinman, P.J.A., D. Pimentel and R.B. Bryant. 1995. ‘The ecological sustainability of slash-and-burn agriculture’. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 52 (2–3): 235–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-8809(94)00531-I
  20. Korpiola, M. 2014. ‘Not without the consent and goodwill of the common people’. The Journal of Legal History 35 (2): 95–119. https://doi.org/10.1080/01440365.2014.925173
  21. Koskinen, U. 2017. Satakunnan historia V Maakunnan synty: (1550-1750). Pori: Satakunnan Museo/Porin kaupunki.
  22. Kuisma, M. 1984. ‘Den riksomfattande skogspolitiken, de regionala strävandena och böndernas intressen: några aspekter på det skogspolitiska beslutsfattandet (Finland 1738-ca 1770)’. In K. Bäck (ed.), Skog och brännvin: Studier i näringspolitiskt beslutsfattande i Norden på 1700-talet. Oslo: Oslo Universitetsforlag. pp. 245–67.
  23. Larsson, J. 2016. ‘Conflict-resolution mechanisms maintaining an agricultural system. Early Modern local courts as an arena for solving collective-action problems within Scandinavian civil law’. International Journal of the Commons 10 (2). https://doi.org/10.18352/ijc.666
  24. Lecina-Diaz, J., A. Alvarez and J. Retana. 2014. ‘Extreme fire severity patterns in topographic, convective and wind-driven historical wildfires of Mediterranean pine forests’. PLoS ONE 9 (1): e85127. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0085127
  25. Lindman, G. 2005. Svedjebrukets roll i västsvensk agrarhistoria. UV Väst, Avdelningen för arkeologiska undersökningar, Riksantikvarieämbetet, Mölndal.
  26. Magnus Erikssons landslag, i nusvensk tolkning av Åke Holmbäck och Elias Wessén. 1962. Stockholm: Nord. bokh. (distr.).
  27. Mhawej, M., G. Faour and J. Adjizian-Gerard. 2015. ‘Wildfire likelihood’s elements: A literature review’. Challenges 6: 282–93. https://doi.org/10.3390/challe6020282
  28. Myllyntaus, T., M. Hares and J. Kunnas. 2002. ‘Sustainability in danger? Slash-and-burn cultivation in nineteenth-century Finland and twentieth-century Southeast Asia’. Environmental History 7: 267–302. https://doi.org/10.2307/3985685
  29. Myrdal, J. and J. Söderberg. 1991. Kontinuitetens dynamik: agrar ekonomi i 1500-talets Sverige. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.
  30. Prytz, C. 2013. Familjen i kronans tjänst: donationspraxis, förhandling och statsformering under svenskt 1600-tal. Diss., Uppsala: Uppsala universitet.
  31. Rohland, E. 2011. ‘From wood to stone: The risk management of Swiss Re in The Sundsvall fire 1888’. Environment and History 17 (1): 153–69. https://doi.org/10.3197/096734011X12922359173096
  32. Sande Silva, J., F. Rego, P. Fernandes and E. Rigolot. 2010. Towards Integrated Fire Management – Outcomes of the European Project Fire Paradox. Research Report 23, European Forest Institute.
  33. Scherjon, F., C. Bakels, K. MacDonald and W. Roebroeks. 2015. ‘Burning the land: An ethnographic study of off-site fire use by current and historically documented foragers and implications for the interpretation of past fire practices in the landscape’. Current Anthropology 56 (3): 299–326. https://doi.org/10.1086/681561
  34. Söderlund, K. 2001. ‘Nya infallsvinklar på Stockholms slotts byggnadshistoria [Elektronisk resurs]’. Fornvännen 96: 153–67.
  35. Spierenburg, P. 2004. ‘Social control and history: an introduction’. In Herman Roodenburg and Peter Spierenburg (eds). Social Control in Europe Vol. 1 1500–1800. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.
  36. Starlander, J. 2023. Tar and Timber: Governing Forest Commons in Seventeenth Century Northern Finland. Diss. Uppsala: Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet. https://doi.org/10.54612/a.4mhhsa2115
  37. Sundin, J. 1992. För Gud, staten och folket: Brott och rättskipning i Sverige 1600–1840. Stockholm: Institutet för rättshistorisk forskning.
  38. Tedim, F., G. Xanthopoulos and V. Leone 2015. ‘Forest fires in Europe: Facts and challenges’. In John F. Shroder and Douglas Paton (eds). Wildfire Hazards, Risks and Disasters. Elsevier. pp. 77–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-410434-1.00005-1
  39. Teeuwen, D. 2012. ‘Collections for the poor: monetary charitable donations in Dutch towns, c. 1600–1800’. Continuity and Change 27 (2): 271–99. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0268416012000136
  40. Thisner, F. 2014. Indelta inkomster: en studie av det militära löneindelningsverket 1721–1833. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis.
  41. Tomson, P., R.G.H. Bunce and K. Sepp. 2015. ‘The role of slash and burn cultivation in the formation of southern Estonian landscapes and implications for nature conservation’. Landscape and Urban Planning 137: 54–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2014.12.015
  42. van Bavel, B., D.R Curtis and T. Soens. 2018. ‘Economic inequality and institutional adaptation in response to flood hazards: a historical analysis’. Ecology and Society 23 (4). https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-10491-230430
  43. Vanhaute, E. and T. Lambrecht. 2011. ‘Famine, exchange networks and the village community. A comparative analysis of the subsistence crises of the 1740s and the 1840s in Flanders’. Continuity and Change 26 (2): 155–86. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0268416011000142
  44. Van Onacker, E. 2019. ‘Social vulnerability, social structures and household grain shortages in sixteenth-century inland Flanders’. Continuity and Change 34 (1): 91–115. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0268416019000109
  45. Villstrand, N.E. 1992. ‘Med stor möda i en hop gropar i marken: tjärbränning kring Bottniska viken under svensk stormaktstid’. Historisk tidskrift för Finland 77: 31–72.
  46. Warren, R., N.E. Bartlome, N. Wellinger, J. Franke, R. Hand, S. Brönnimann and H. Huhtamaa. 2024. ‘ClimeApp: Opening doors to the past global climate. New data processing tool for the ModE-RA climate reanalysis’. EGUsphere [preprint]. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-743
  47. Warde, P. 2018. The Invention of Sustainability: Nature and Destiny, c. 1500–1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316584767
  48. Werth, A.P., B.E. Potter, C.B. Clements, M.A. Finney, S.L. Goodrick, M.E. Alexander, M.G. Cruz, J.A. Forthofer and S.S. McAllister. 2011. Synthesis of Knowledge of Extreme Fire Behavior: Volume I for Fire Managers. Gen. Tech. Rep, PNW-GTR-854, Portland, OR: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. https://doi.org/10.2737/PNW-GTR-854
  49. Zavala L.M., R. de Celis and A. Jordán. 2014. ‘How wildfires affect soil properties. A brief review’. Cuadernos de Investigación Geográfica (Geographical Research Letters) 40 (2): 311–32. https://doi.org/10.18172/cig.2522
  50. Zwierlein, C. 2021. Prometheus Tamed: Fire, Security, and Modernities, 1400 to 1900. Leiden and Boston: Brill.
  51. NAF (National Archives of Finland), Court Records, I KO a:6, 1644–1649
  52. NAF, Court Records, I KO a:3, 1658–1659
  53. NAF, Court Records, II KO a:6, 1691–1691
  54. NAF, Court Records, I KO a:7, 1650–1652,
  55. NAF, Court Records, II KO a:6, 1691–1691
  56. NAF, Court Records, II KO a:6, 1691–1691,
  57. NAF, Court Records, II KO a:7, 1692–1692
  58. NAF, Court Records, II KO a:6, 1691–1691,
  59. NAF, Court Records, KO a:13, 1693–1693,
  60. NAF, Court Records, II KO a:1, 1693–1693.
  61. NAF, Court Records, II KO a:6, 1691–1691,
  62. NAF, Court Records, II KO a:7, 1692–1692,
  63. NAF, Court Records, KO a:6, 1691,
  64. NAF, Court Records, II KO a:7, 1692–1692,
  65. NAF, Court Records, KO a:13, 1693–1693,
  66. NAF, Court Records, I KO a:5, 1679–1680,
  67. NAF, Court Records, I KO a:5, 1679–1680,
  68. NAF, Court Records, II KO a:3, 1694–1694,
  69. NAF, Court Records, II KO a:6, 1691–1691,
  70. NAF, Court Records, II KO a:6, 1691–1691,
  71. NAF, Court Records, II KO a:5, 1690–1690,
  72. NAF, Court Records, II KO a:1, 1682–1686,
  73. NAF, Court Records, II KO a:1, 1682–1686,
  74. NAF, Court Records, I KO a:4, 1674–1678,
  75. Asiakirjat, 7355 Maakirja, 1682–1682, act 908.
  76. Turun ja Porin läänin tilejä, Asiakirjat, 7358 Tositekirja, 1682–1682,
  77. Turun ja Porin läänin tilejä, Asiakirjat, 7384 Maakirja, 1690–1690
  78. Kongl. May.tz Förordning, Angående Skogz-Eldar, sampt deras förekommande och släckiande. Gifwen Stockholm den 10 Novembr. Åhr 1690 (1690). Stockholm, Printed Kongl. Booktryckerijet, Sal. Wankijfs Effterlefwerska.
  79. Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. ‘wildfire (n.), sense 1’, December 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/7031123310
  80. Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. ‘“like wildfire” in wildfire (n.), sense 5.c’, December 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1913611847