Two hegemonies – two technological regimes : American and Norwegian whaling in the 19th and 20th Century

Abstract

The 19th century whaling industry was dominated by the United States while the 20th century industry had its origins in Norway and was dominated for years by that nation. The focus of the paper, is to explore the relationship between the two so-called hegemonic whaling nations. Specifically, we are looking for encounters between the two industries that in one way or another may explain why the Norwegians did not enter into traditional pelagic whaling in the mid 19th century, and why the Americans did not enter “modern” whaling that emerged in the latter part of that century.