Part ofa series on the |
|---|
| History ofSweden |
 |
Prehistoric
|
Early History
|
Great Power
|
Enlightenment
|
Liberalization
|
Modern History
|
| Timeline |
 Sweden portal |
 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "History of Sweden" 1945–1967 – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(June 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
This article covers thehistory of Sweden from the end ofWorld War II to 1967.
Sweden emerged unharmed byWorld War II. TheSwedish non-alignment policy officially remained – Sweden rejectedNATO membership but joined theUnited Nations and laterEFTA.Tage Erlander of theSocial Democratic party was Prime Minister from 1946 to 1969 – a period of exceptional economic and social prosperity, and generally lowunemployment, but the housing situation posed problems as more and more people moved to the cities. Responding to the housing shortage, the government introduced theMillion Programme – a national wave ofsuburban development with the aim of creating a million homes from 1965 to 1974. This period saw the beginning of large-scaleimmigration to a country that used to be one of the more ethnically homogeneous in the world. The first phase of immigration consisted of workers fromsouthern Europe, who were actively wooed over by campaigns of advertisement and recruitment in their home countries, for instanceItaly &Austria.
On 3 September 1967, Sweden was the last country incontinental Europe to introduceright-hand traffic. This was done onDagen H, in spite of the negative result of areferendum in 1955.
During theCold War, Sweden maintained a dual approach: publicly, the strictneutrality policy was forcefully maintained but, unofficially, strong ties were kept with the US and it was hoped that the US would use conventional andnuclear weapons to strike atSoviet staging areas in the occupiedBaltic states in case of a Soviet attack on Sweden. Over time and due to the official neutralitydogma, fewer and fewer Swedish military officials were aware of the military cooperation with the west, making such cooperation in the event of war increasingly difficult. At the same time, Swedish defensive planning was completely based on help from abroad in the event of war. The fact that it was not permissible to mention this aloud eventually led to the Swedish armed forces becoming highly unbalanced. For example, a strong ability to defend against an amphibious invasion was maintained while an ability to strike at inland staging areas was almost completely absent.[1] In the 1970s and 1980s, Sweden's military expenditure per capita was the highest in the world. Because of neutrality politics, most military equipment was produced and developed in Sweden by companies such asSAAB,Kockums,Bofors andHägglund & Söner.Prime ministerOlof Palme summarized Swedish neutrality in a speech in 1985:Vi står för Sveriges oberoende i fred och kommer med fasthet att värna vårt territorium mot varje inkräktare (en: We stand for Sweden's independence in peacetime and will, with firmness, defend our territory against every foreign intruder).
In the early 1960s,US nuclear submarines armed with mid-rangePolaris A-1 nuclear missiles were deployed outside the Swedish west coast. Range and safety considerations made this a good area from which to launch a retaliatory nuclear strike onMoscow. The submarines had to be very close to the Swedish coast to hit their intended targets; as a consequence of this, in 1960, the same year that the submarines were first deployed, the US provided Sweden with a military security guarantee. The US promised to provide military force in aid of Sweden in case of Soviet aggression. This guarantee was kept secret from the Swedish public until 1994, when a Swedish research commission exposed evidence of it.
As part of the military cooperation, the US provided much help in the development of theSaab 37 Viggen, as a strong Swedish air force was seen as necessary to keep Soviet anti-submarine aircraft from operating in the missile launch area. In return, Swedish scientists at theRoyal Institute of Technology made considerable contributions to enhancing the targeting performance of the Polaris missiles.[2]
Since 1930, emigration became minimal. About 15,000-30,000 people left Sweden annually after 1965. Sweden welcomed refugees and displaced persons at the end of World War II. Because of the low birth rate, immigration accounted for 45% of population growth between 1945 and 1980.[3]
Sweden became highly urbanized after World War II, reaching 83% urban in 1990. As recently as 1940 only 38% of the population lived in urban areas, and in 1860, before industrialization, the proportion was only 11%. Large-scale movement from the countryside to the United States ended about 1900. Since 1945 the movement to Swedish cities accelerated, causing a population decline in many areas, especially in the north.
Cultural influence from theUnited Kingdom and theUnited States became obvious following the war, having displaced German influences. Imported and indigenoussubcultures rose, with therockabilly-inspiredraggare and anarchistprogg cultures as notable examples.Swedish film andmusic achieved international fame with names likeIngmar Bergman,Sven Nykvist,Lasse Hallström andBirgit Nilsson.
Thesexual revolution, together with sexual content in mass media (notably films491 andI Am Curious (Yellow), together with the broad entry of women in many lanes of professional life (including the priesthood) in the 1960s and 1970s provoked amoralist counter-movement including theChristian Democratic party, but this trend has had scant political success.
Radio and television early became widespread in Sweden, but government struggled to keep the monopoly of licence-fundedSveriges television until the late 1980s, assatellite andcable TV became popular, and the commercial channelTV4 was permitted to broadcast terrestrially.
Sweden produced many world-famous athletes during this period, among them boxerIngemar Johansson and ice hockey playerBörje Salming. Sweden hosted several high-profile sports events, for instanceequestrian events of the1956 Summer Olympics and the1958 FIFA World Cup.