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The dissertation Deductionis coloniarum rationes & causae, submitted at Uppsala University in 1668 under the presidency of Johannes Schefferus, appears to be the first contribution to the Swedish discourse on the subject of colonisation and colonialism. In this paper, a translation of the text is presented with a commentary and a list of sources. In an introduction to the translation, which discusses the text against the background of academic, political, and cultural contexts, we suggest that the dissertation relates to Swedish seventeenth-century colonial experiences in general, and, more specifically, to the colonial endeavour in Sápmi (i.e. the land of the Sámi) in the northern parts of Fennoscandia. Johannes Schefferus was one of the leading intellectuals of seventeenth-century Sweden, known for important contributions to archaeology, history, and philology. The writing of Deductionis coloniarum rationes & causae is put in relation to Schefferus’ influential Lapponia (Frankfurt 1673), a work dealing with Sámi culture, economy, religion and history, which was published during a period of intensive Swedish colonial expansion in Sápmi.