WEBVTT 1 00:00:08.920 --> 00:00:12.920 No ice sheet, no IKEA. 2 00:00:16.920 --> 00:00:22.120 To understand the home region of Ingvar Kamprad and IKEA, 3 00:00:22.280 --> 00:00:25.400 you have to go way back in time. 4 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:34.160 As a result of the continental glacier, the soil in Småland is full of stones. 5 00:00:34.880 --> 00:00:39.640 Every year the farmers had to struggle to make the land workable. 6 00:00:39.800 --> 00:00:44.320 And no matter how many stones had been removed the previous year, 7 00:00:44.480 --> 00:00:49.000 the frozen ground of winter brought new ones to the surface. 8 00:00:51.160 --> 00:00:55.920 This hardship gave birth to a sense of entrepreneurship. 9 00:00:56.080 --> 00:00:58.760 A lot had to be made from a little. 10 00:00:58.920 --> 00:01:04.520 The forest around the houses was used to make carts, buildings and furniture. 11 00:01:06.960 --> 00:01:11.720 Iron ore was extracted from the lakes and sold to ironworks 12 00:01:11.880 --> 00:01:17.880 where skilled smiths and artisans refined the raw material into products. 13 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:25.120 The land reform of the early 19th century 14 00:01:25.280 --> 00:01:30.240 gathered each farm's scattered strips of land into proper fields. 15 00:01:32.360 --> 00:01:37.600 And in true Småland style, the farmers made the best of what they had. 16 00:01:37.760 --> 00:01:43.200 The stones in the field were now used to build walls dividing properties. 17 00:01:43.360 --> 00:01:46.400 A problem turned into a solution. 18 00:01:49.160 --> 00:01:51.520 No farm without a cow. 19 00:01:51.680 --> 00:01:56.480 Nowhere else in Sweden was animal husbandry as much in focus. 20 00:01:57.400 --> 00:02:00.520 And no part of the cow went to waste. 21 00:02:05.920 --> 00:02:09.400 The more milk, the more butter could be sold. 22 00:02:09.560 --> 00:02:13.760 The more fertiliser there was, the better the harvest. 23 00:02:13.920 --> 00:02:17.920 Everything could be used, sold, or traded. 24 00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:21.480 And the living cow pulled the cart. 25 00:02:27.400 --> 00:02:32.480 In the mid-1800s, a mass emigration to the USA begins. 26 00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:37.240 More than a million Swedes eventually leave the country. 27 00:02:37.400 --> 00:02:40.320 One-fifth of them are from Småland, 28 00:02:40.480 --> 00:02:45.280 where crop failure and poverty made life unbearable for many. 29 00:02:49.040 --> 00:02:52.680 Some also move into the cities, and industrialisation 30 00:02:52.840 --> 00:02:56.120 changes Sweden from the ground up. 31 00:03:00.520 --> 00:03:04.360 One family that remain in Småland are the Keys 32 00:03:04.520 --> 00:03:07.920 on Sundsholm farm outside Västervik. 33 00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:14.120 The daughter, Ellen, is strongly influenced by her Småland home environment. 34 00:03:14.280 --> 00:03:19.160 In her later life, by then an author and feminist ideologue, 35 00:03:19.320 --> 00:03:24.280 she presents her thoughts on beauty and simplicity to the Swedish people. 36 00:03:26.160 --> 00:03:30.600 In her book Beauty for All , she praises functionalism, 37 00:03:30.760 --> 00:03:34.440 simple shapes and natural materials. 38 00:03:34.600 --> 00:03:38.200 This is the birth of Scandinavian design. 39 00:03:41.160 --> 00:03:45.040 Ellen Key took a lot of the inspiration for these thoughts 40 00:03:45.200 --> 00:03:48.720 from the couple Karin and Carl Larsson. 41 00:03:49.480 --> 00:03:54.320 Karin furnished their large home in Dalarna and worked with textiles, 42 00:03:55.280 --> 00:03:59.800 while Carl painted the home and their family life. 43 00:03:59.960 --> 00:04:05.000 His paintings became very popular and depicted a new kind of home. 44 00:04:05.160 --> 00:04:07.920 Light, airy, functional. 45 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:13.000 A home that allowed space for children. A home to live in. 46 00:04:18.560 --> 00:04:23.640 The dark years of the First World War pass with hunger and poverty. 47 00:04:25.240 --> 00:04:31.200 But in 1928 the Social Democratic prime minister, Per Albin Hansson, 48 00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:35.880 introduces a term that will shape the 20th century in Sweden, 49 00:04:36.080 --> 00:04:39.440 and also the image of Sweden abroad. 50 00:04:44.600 --> 00:04:48.680 That term is 'folkhemmet', the welfare state. 51 00:04:48.840 --> 00:04:55.120 And the vision is to build a society characterised by consensus and equality. 52 00:04:56.120 --> 00:05:00.600 Women now have the right to vote and are joining the workforce. 53 00:05:01.320 --> 00:05:04.720 A series of social reforms are introduced, 54 00:05:04.880 --> 00:05:09.720 living standards are modernised and small, functional homes 55 00:05:09.880 --> 00:05:13.360 are built in Sweden's towns and cities. 56 00:05:16.160 --> 00:05:22.680 Every farm and village in Småland produces something they can sell and make money from. 57 00:05:24.240 --> 00:05:29.400 Local rural shops serve as wholesalers and resell their goods. 58 00:05:31.280 --> 00:05:34.360 Agriculture and industry become mechanised, 59 00:05:34.520 --> 00:05:38.280 and a furniture kingdom begins to take shape. 60 00:05:42.880 --> 00:05:48.120 I have to tell you now, this country is at war with Germany. 61 00:05:49.320 --> 00:05:53.480 In 1939, the next world war breaks out. 62 00:05:54.720 --> 00:05:58.880 Sweden remains neutral, but is of course affected anyway. 63 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:05.400 Many Swedish men are put on combat alert, 64 00:06:05.560 --> 00:06:09.120 and women play a larger role in the labour market. 65 00:06:11.960 --> 00:06:19.040 At this point, a young man from Elmtaryd in Småland puts his plans into action. 66 00:06:21.360 --> 00:06:26.240 The Småland ideology of entrepreneurialism, innovation, 67 00:06:26.400 --> 00:06:31.240 thrift and hard work will characterise everything he does. 68 00:06:34.920 --> 00:06:41.280 Stone after stone, obstacle after obstacle, is confronted and removed. 69 00:06:45.120 --> 00:06:49.720 He is the third of three elements required for the birth of IKEA: 70 00:06:50.960 --> 00:06:56.360 Småland, Sweden and Ingvar Kamprad.