TITLE:
The Spanish Flu along the Swedish-Norwegian Border
AUTHORS:
Anders Gustavsson
KEYWORDS:
Spanish Flu, Nation Border, Border Restrictions, Contagious Disease
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.13 No.4,
April
29,
2025
ABSTRACT: I have studied the importance of border passages along the Norwegian-Swedish border. During the COVID-19 pandemic, this border was mostly closed for passage for almost two years. In the present study, I investigate how the circumstances were during the Spanish flu at the end of the first world war. What kind of border restrictions occurred? Or did such restrictions not exist and if so why? That no governmental prohibitions against crossing the nation border were imposed during the Spanish flu, can be interpreted in the light of different factors. First, the passage of individuals across this border was very limited compared with the 2020s. No commuting for work from Sweden to Norway existed in the 1910s as in the 2020s. Nor were trading from Sweden across the border to Norway present in the 1910s as was the situation in the 2000s. Tourism from Norway to Strömstad hardly existed before the 1930s. There was no bridge across Idefjorden keeping Sweden and Norway apart, just a small ferry at Svinesund. Thus, passages by people were very few. On both sides of the nation border, the spreading of the Spanish flu happened within the own country and not across the border. The Norwegian and Swedish government authorities did not have to be particularly worried about the import of infection from the neighboring country.