11-10-2009, 10:26 PM
Selector Wrote:I haven't read either your post or the supplied linked info carefully, Stein, but you can be certain that I will. However, and my ignorance is flapping out of the window for everyone to see, :o , I did not know that Norway was set free only 104 years ago. It may all be explained in the link, but could you give us a brief precis? What was it prior to '05, and how did it all come about? Any major strife politically, did it polarize the public? Was there a big street party when it was a done deal?
Quick recap: Most of what is now Norway was united into a single country under a single king around 1030 AD. Had some pretty hefty civil wars in the 1100s, and then settled down until the black plague killed off almost half the population and most of the nobility in mid 1300s.
From the end of the 1300s (1396) until 1536, Norway was part of a common scandinavian union (the Kalmar union) with Sweden and Denmark. Then it effectively became a province of Denmark (or "Denmark-Norway" as some historians call it) from 1536 until 1814.
Denmark-Norway fought a number of wars with Sweden over the years, and various parts of what once had been Norway (and Denmark) over time became Swedish, as the Swedes were better organized, both as soldiers and diplomats.
Final nail in the coffin for Denmark-Norway was backing the wrong horse during the Napoleonic wars.
Denmark had no effective defense against Napoleon, and with the British fleet under Nelson launching a preemptive strike against the Danish-Norwegian fleet in Copenhagen, to prevent Nappy from getting the Danish-Norwegian fleet, Denmark-Norway ended up throwing in their lot with France in the Napoleonic wars.
That caused the Norwegian part of the kingdom to be isolated from Denmark by the British fleet from 1807 until 1814, having to fend for themselves, fighting Swedish invasions, Sweden having thrown their lot in with Britain and Russia.
Also, Russia got Finland (which had long been part of Sweden) from Sweden in 1807. In compensation, Britain and Russia promised Sweden that they could get Norway from Denmark-Norway.
In 1814, the Norwegians declared independence rather than becoming part of Sweden (which they had fought on and off for the previous 300 years of so). We adopted (on May 17th 1814) a new constitution based on the same basic ideas as the ones from the French revolution and the American constitution.
Swedes were not about to accept that, and after a scrappy little war, the Norwegians had to surrender in the fall of 1814.
But they had fought hard enough for the Swedes to accept that Norway would be a separate country with its own parliament, constitution and government, but under a joint king, and with the Swedes handling foreign policy and defense policy for the united kingdom of Sweden and Norway.
Norway and Sweden were united for 93 years - from 1814 until 1905. In the second half of the 1800s the Norwegian started campaigning for more home rule and a bigger say in government, and eventually independence.
A major milepost on the road to full independence was the impeachment trials in parliament in 1884, where it was established that the prime minister and his council ruled at the sufferance of the Norwegian parliament, not at the pleasure of the Swedish king.
At the end of the 1800s the Norwegians built up a modern navy, fortifications and modernized the Norwegian army, and a lot of Norwegians joined up in the militia, which organized shooting ranges in most communities.
So when Norway unilaterally declared independence from Sweden in the summer of 1905, the Swedes had the choice between an amicable divorce, or a pretty bloody war to try to hold onto a group of people which did not want to be part of Sweden.
Fortunately, after a rather tense summer and autumn, a peaceful divorce was arranged, and Norway became independent, electing (after a pleibicite) a Danish prince as the new king of Norway.
Yes, they celebrated independence in 1905. But what we are celebrating as our national day is not the date of independence from Sweden in 1905, but the date our constitution was adopted (in 1814).
Probably a lot more than most non-Norwegians would ever want to know about Norwegian history ;-)
Smile,
Stein