28 november 2011 - Imaka-lezing - Groningen

British mining on Spitsbergen

Lezing: Frigga Kruse PhD student Arctic Centre.

Arctisch Centrum / A-weg 30 - ingang H. Colleniusstraat
9718 CW Groningen /T.: 050 3636834 / Entree: € 2,-.

Kruse studies the development of British mining companies on the Svalbard archipelago in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Her research question enquires into the driving forces behind this British involvement, related sub-questions being why were British mining companies started, how did they choose to operate, and what were the economic outcomes and geopolitical consequences. She hypothesizes that not only economic reasons, but also clear geopolitical motivations lay at the heart of this infant industry, which nonetheless failed against a backdrop of Norwegian sovereignty over the islands after 1920 as well as global depression.