Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
During the Napoleonic Wars (1807-14), Denmark and Norway were allied
with France, although it created much economic hardship. Famine was wide-
spread. In 1814 Frederik VI of Denmark surrendered to Napoleon's opponents
and handed Norway over to Sweden. That officially ended 434 years of Danish
rule over Norway.
SECESSION FROM SWEDEN
On May 17, 1814, an assembly adopted a
constitution and chose Christian Frederik as the Norwegian king. May 17 is cel-
ebrated as Norwegian National Day. The Swedes objected and launched a mili-
tary campaign, eventually subduing Norway. The Swedes accepted the
Norwegian constitution, but only within a union of the two kingdoms. Christ-
ian Frederik fled.
Soon thereafter, Norway suffered through one of its greatest economic depres-
sions. Norway's parliamentary assembly, the Storting (Stortinget), engaged in
repeated conflicts with the Swedish monarchs. Bernadotte ruled over both Nor-
way and Sweden as Charles XIV from 1818 to 1844.
By the 1830s the economy of Norway had improved. The first railway line
was laid in 1854. Its merchant fleet grew significantly between 1850 and 1880.
From the 1880s on, the Liberals in the Storting brought much-needed reform
to the country. But by the end of the century, the conflict with Sweden was
growing as more and more Norwegians demanded independence.
In August 1905 the Storting decided to dissolve the union with Sweden. Swe-
den agreed to let Norway rule itself. In October 1905 Norway held an election,
and the son of Denmark's king was proclaimed king of Norway. He chose the
name Haakon VII.
AN INDEPENDENT NORWAY
Free at last, Norway enjoyed peace and
prosperity until the beginning of World War II. Even though the economy was
satisfactory, thousands of Norwegians emigrated to the United States around the
turn of the 20th century. In 1914 Norway joined Sweden and Denmark in
declaring a policy of neutrality. Despite the declaration, around 2,000 Norwe-
gian seamen lost their lives in the war because of submarine attacks and under-
water mines.
In 1920 Norway joined the League of Nations, ending its policy of isolation.
At the outbreak of World War II, Norway again declared its neutrality. Nonethe-
less, Allied forces mined Norway's waters in 1940, and the Nazis attacked on
April 9, 1940. Great Britain and France provided some military assistance, but
Norway fell after a 2-month struggle. The government and the royal family fled
into exile in England, taking 1,000 ships of the Norwegian merchant fleet. In
spite of the resistance movement, Nazis occupied Norway until the end of the
war in 1945. Vidkun Quisling, the Norwegian minister of defense in the 1930s,
served the Nazis as leader of the puppet government.
Quisling was executed following the Nazi retreat from Norway. On June 7,
1945, the government-in-exile returned from Britain. The retreating Nazis had
followed a scorched-earth policy in Finnmark, destroying almost everything of
value. In the late 1940s, Norway began to rebuild its shattered economy.
Impressions
Norway is a hard country: hard to know, hard to shoot over, and hard—
very hard—to fall down on: but hard to forsake and harder to forget.
—J. A. Lees, in
Peaks and Pines,
1899
