Yrjö Kaukiainen

Yrjö Kaukiainen (born April 4, 1940 in Längelmäki ) is a Finnish historian. He taught at the University of Helsinki from 1976 to 2003 and is one of the most important maritime historians.

Life

Kaukiainen studied history at the University of Helsinki and earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1964 . Four years later he received the lisensiaatti , a research-oriented degree between Masters and PhD degrees that is common in Finland. This degree is awarded as part of the so-called researcher training after around half of a doctoral program. Finally, he did his PhD in Finnish history in 1970. His dissertation examined the construction and function of previous buildings of the Finnish folk boats in the early 1800s. Before Kaukiainen completed his habilitation in 1976 , he was already working as an assistant professor at the University of Helsinki. First he was Associate Professor at the Institute of History from 1976-1992. From 1992 to 1998 he taught as professor of economic history and from February 1, 1998 as professor of European history. He taught in this area until his retirement in 2003. In his free time, Yrjö Kaukiainen sails and writes. In research, Kaukiainen places particular emphasis on global maritime history , the history of Finland and, more recently, on global information transmission. The time focus was mostly between 1700 and 1800. During his activity as a professor of economic history, his most outstanding works on Finnish seafaring appeared as part of world history: History of Finnish Shipping and Sailing into Twighlight. In addition, in 2008 he published the overview work “Ulos maailmaan! Suomalaisen merenkulun historia “(in German: Top in the world! Finnish maritime history). Its international orientation is not least noticeable in the fact that a large number of its publications are in English. Kaukiainen had been a member of the International Maritime Economic History since the 1990s and its President from 1996-2001. He also worked on the margins of the Association of the History of the Northern Seas and the International Commission for Maritime History . Together with Riitta Hjerppe (also University of Helsinki) he was editor of the Scandinavian Economic History Review from 1998-2002.

Awards

• State Public Information Prize, 1999 (awarded by the Finnish Ministry of Education, Tiedonjulkistamisen valtionpalkinto ).

Publications (selection)

Kaukiainen's main areas of work are maritime history, demographic history and the history of Finland. He has published ten monographs and 45 articles so far.

• Taxation of Vyborg Province in Old Finland. The historical Aikakauskirja 1: 1970.
• Population and demographic trends, Y. Kaukiainen, R. and J. Nurmiainen Marjomaa, Old time Finland (Vyborg County History IV, Keuruu 2013), pp. 198–222.
• The transition from sailing to Finnish steamship. 1980.
• The old Finnish era. Karjala 4. Hämeenlinna 1983, pp. 85-121.
• The colonization of Finland. Jutikkala, Kaukiainen and Åström (Eds.), Finnish Economic History 1. Agrarian Finland. Helsinki, 1980, pp. 11-145.
• The modernization of Finnish coastal shipping and the railroad, 1830–1913, in J. Armstrong and A. Kunz (eds.), Coastal shipping and the European economy from 1750 to 1980, Mainz, Verlag Philipp von Zabern 2002, pp. 75–85.
• The role of shipping in the second stage of globalization, International Journal of Maritime History, Vol. 26, February 2014, pp. 64–81.
• A history of Finnish shipping. London: Routledge, 1993, ISBN 0-415-00158-7 .
• Crop fluctuations and mortality in agrarian Finland, 1810–1870. Bengtsson, Fridlizius and Ohlsson (Eds.), Preindustrial Population Change. Lund, 1984, pp. 235-254.
• Finland 1860-1913. Fischer (Ed.), Handbook of European Economic and Social History, Volume 5. Stuttgart 1985, pp. 261–285.
• Finland's Allmogebåtssegling in the early 1800s. PhD thesis. Finnish Historical Society, 1970.
• Lohja Medical History II. Lohja: Lohja Homeland Studies Friends, 1980. ISBN 951-95092-1-6 .
• Mercantile contacts and information flows between Spain and Finland before 1850. (Eds.), Enrique Martinez, Roggen and Magdalena de Pazzis Pi Corrales III, Spain and Sweden: Encounters throughout history. Trade and navigation between Spain and Sweden in the course of history, Puertollano, Fundacion Berndt Wistedt 2000, pp. 353–363.
• Sailing in the twilight. Finnish shipping in the age of the transport revolution 1860–1914. Helsinki: Finnish Historical Society, 1991. ISBN 951-8915-41-5 .
• Shrinking the World: Improvements in the Speed ​​of Information Transfer, 1820–1870, European Review of Economic History 1/2001, pp. 1–28.
• Social structure and demographic development in a southern Finnish parish 1810–1850. Helsinki: Finnish Academy of Sciences, 1979 ISBN 951-41-0356-4 .
• Top in the world! Finnish maritime history. Helsinki: Finnish Literary Society, 2008. ISBN 978-951-746-972-2 .
• Vyborg Province of the Swedish population in the early Middle Ages. Historic Aikakauskirja 2: 1974.
• Growth, Diversification and Globalization: Most Important Trends in International Shipping Since 1850, LR Fischer and E. Lange, (Eds.) International Merchant Shipping in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: The Comparative Dimension (Research in Maritime History, No. 37, St. John s = 2008), pp. 1-56.