The History of Norway
On this page you can find an overview of the history of Norway plus all my articles about history.
The History of Norway, Summarised.
The Early Years (12,000BC – 0AD)
Norway begins around 12,000 BC, when the coastline rose from glaciation.
The first people began to come to Norway from Southern Europe – they followed the migration reindeer north as the ice retreated and lush vegetation grew. The Norwegian coast offered good conditions for sealing, fishing, and hunting.
The oldest skeleton ever found in Norway dates to 6,000 BC. It’s believed the first peoples settled around the coast of Southern Norway. Some say the oldest settlement in Norway is around present-day Kristiansund.
Farming came to Norway around 4,000BC and the oldest farms are believed to be around the Oslofjord. This is about 5,000 years after agriculture started in the Middle East. Around 2,500BC, oats, barley, pigs, cattle, sheep and goats became common and spread as far north as Alta. This period also saw an Indo-European dialect, from which the Norwegian language developed.
The Bronze Age involved innovations such as ploughing the fields, permanent farms with houses (especially around the Oslofjord, Trondheimsfjord, Mjøsa and Jaeren). The knowledge of bronze came here around 2,000BC. In Norway only 800 metal objects from the Bronze Age, which has led historians to think that Norway didn’t have much of a Bronze Age but rather continued to live in the Stone Age.
Around the Uralic languages arrived in the north and assimilated with the indigenous population, becoming the Sami people. The formation of 1,000BC, speakers of the Sami language was completed in its southernmost area of usage by 500AD.
Around 500BC, the climate begins to change. Goodbye, warm Mediterranean weather. The forests, which previously consisted of elm, lime, ash, and oak, are replaced with birch, pine, and spruce. The climate means that farmers begin to settle permanently and built proper structures.
The Iron Age and Merovingian Period (0AD – 790AD)
There was no Roman conquest in Norway, but the Norwegians did trade with the Romans. Rome provided Norway with fabric, iron implements and pottery. The tools brought from Rome allowed farmland to be cleared of trees, large boats were built and by the 5th century, Norwegians had learned to smelt their own iron and ore found in the southern Norwegian bogs. Some Scandinavians served as Roman mercenaries.
Thanks to the Romans, we got our Old Norse lettering. The Norwegians adapted the letters and created their own alphabet, called runes. Runes are the oldest characters that we know from Scandinavia. They are made to be cut into wood. Today, they are mostly preserved on stone, bone and metal. They are inspired by Roman characters. The oldest rune inscriptions date from around 200AD. They are adapted to language sounds. They also appear on weapons, indicating they may be the name of the owner or the weapon. They are often associated with the Vikings, but are from the Roman times. The oldest is Tunesteinen, which is from 300AD and is at the cultural history museum in Oslo.
The most common rune inscription found is ‘Alu’ which means beer.
The Jelling stone in Denmark tells of different generations of a royal family. One of them was erected by Harald Bluetooth to commemorate his parents. These are among the earliest historical documents of Denmark. They indicate that Denmark was the earliest major Viking Age kingdom, by telling that Harald controlled Southern Norway and that he converted to Christianity.
There are at least two inscriptions in Hagia Sophia. It basially says “Halfdan was here”. They may be engraved by members of the Varangian Guard in Constantinople in the Viking Age.
Celtic culture dominated Scandinavia. Norway has lots of jewellery inspired by Celtic handicraft traditions.
Bronze was used for status objects such as jewlery and weapons. Iron was used for personal items.
Celtic societies were characterised by a prestigious commodity economy. The status and position of the elite is maintained through control over and manipulation of rare and valuable prestige objects.
People lived in long houses and shared a roof with their livestock. They ploughed the land. Animal husbandry, fishing and gathering was more important than agriculture.
At one end lived the humans. At the other end were the domestic animals.
As the population increased, inequalities between people increased. Some houses were larger than others, and some had larger tombs than others. A new social structure evolved: when sons married, they remained in the same house – the extended family was a clan. They would offer protection from other clans. Marriage meant alliances. In Northern Europe, some of the richest women’s tombs indicate that the woman came from another place.
If conflicts arose, it would be sorted at a ting – a sacred place where all freemen from the surrounding area would assemble and determine punishments for crimes.
The chieftains power increased between 400 and 550 AD as other Germanic tribes migrated north. Leaders marked their position by wearing necklaces or gold.
Children were a financial resource and participated in the day-to-day activities of running the farm. Child mortality was high – 20-25% of children died of disease, injury and malnutrition before the age of one. There are very few pre-Christian graves in Norway for children. It is possible that Children were not considered people until the age of 2 or 3.
Near Harstad was a child’s grave from 300AD. It was likely the burial ground of her farm. She was in a coffin and placed in a stone-built chamber. On her clothing was a small bronze buckle with a small, stylised animal head, similar to one worn by women.
It’s not uncommon that burial mounds are 20m in length, and the largest could be over 40m in diameter and 5-7 metres high. It’s connected with symbols of power. They were normally adjacent to settlement areas. By building huge burial mounds, the inhabitants could express that here lived a large and influential family. When the ancestors were buried, it represented a long-standing presence.
Norse Mythology makes its appearance around this time. Historians are not 100% certain to what extend the Norse gods were followed. Edda poetry appeared around 500AD. Nerthus was the mother earth. She could travel among humans. She was a fertility goddess who promoted growth in plants, animals, and humans. The god Njord also stood for fertility but was also a god of the sea in Norse mythology.
In pre-Christian times, no distinction was made between animals and humans. It was considered natural that people could transform into animals. Animals were crucial for human survival, not because they could be eaten but because they possessed many abilities that the humans depended on and therefore wanted to acquire. The wolf, bear, wild boar, eagle, and snake were the favourites.
Animal ornament style is commonly found on stave churches.
This period is often called the silent time in Norway because not much is known about it. However, we see a lot of things during this time that leads us into Norway’s most famous historical period.
What did happen in this time is that the rune inscriptions developed from Old Norse to Norse.
Also important is that the seagoing sailing ship developed during this time. It became less common to bury rich people in boats. The older boats we find in graves tell us about the development of the famous Viking voyages. The Nydam boat is one of the oldest boats we have. It is in Denmark and dates to 310-320AD. It was sunk in 350AD.
In Norway, we have two boats that count as transitional from the Nydam boat to the Viking boat. The Storhaug find from Avaldsnes on Karmøy in Rogaland has been counted as the oldest ship burial in the Nordic countries. The ship was poorly preserved. A not written about it in 1886 shows that the keel was 22m. The vessel is considered the last link in the development of a rowing ship in the Iron Age.
The first city in Norway was founded at the end of the Merovingian period. There are important preconditions for the Viking Age. Among these are increases in sailing vessels from the period, knowledge of trade networks and trading places, the use of silver as payment, and access to handicrafts.
The first city is Kaupang by Skiringssal, near today’s Larvik in Vestfold. Around 800, someone with power guaranteed that craftsmen and merchants could safely do their work and that people and goods from cities always arrived.
The oldest city in Scandinavia is probably Ribe in Denmark, which was developed as a trading post in the first half of the 700s.
The Viking Age (790 – 1066)
Under pressure from shrinking agricultural land caused by a growing population, settlers from Norway began leaving to go west. They ended up on the coast of the British Isles. Instead of looking for land, they found rich monasteries that were unprotected. They began to raid.
When the boats returned to Norway with enticing trade goods and tales of poorly defended coastlines, the Vikings began to lay plans to conquer the world.
The first official Viking raid is on the island of Lindisfarne in 793.
The coastal regions of Britain Ireland, France (Normandy), Russia, Moorish Spain, the Middle east (they reached Baghdad) all came under Viking sway. The Vikings transformed Scandinavia from an obscure backwater of Europe to an all-powerful empire.
The Vikings were well equipped, well trained, and had a psychological advantage over their Christian counterparts since they believed that being killed in combat would result in them going to Valhalla.
In addition to gold and silver, slaves were brought back to Scandinavia to work on the Norwegian farms. When the men were at sea, the management of the farm was under control of the women.
The Vikings ability to move quick was one main reason for their success. The Viking ship was fast, easy to manoeuvre, and above all it could sail in shallow waters. They could therefore attack with little warning, and they could travel down rivers.
Animals are found in the wood carvings and metal work. It had been in use for over 600 years when the Viking Age began.
The Norwegians crossed the Atlantic to settle in the Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland during the 9th and 10th centuries. The lack of suitable farming land (4% of Norway can be cultivated) caused Norwegians to travel to the sparsely populated areas of Shetland, Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and the Hebrides to colonise. Norwegian Vikings settled on the east coast of Ireland around 800 and founded the islands first cities, including Dublin. Iceland, then uninhabited, was discovered by Norwegians during the late 9th century. By 930 the island had been divided among 400 Norse chieftains.
Led by Erik the Red, a group of Icelanders settled on Greenland in the 980s. Erik’s son, Leif Ericson, came across Newfoundland in 1000, naming it Vinland. Unlike Greenland, there was no permanent settlement there.
The Viking Age was a period of expansion through trade, colonisation, and raids. Through their travels, they met other people and societies. They brought material goods, knowledge, and culture to their home areas. The cultural meetings made the Scandinavian people more like the rest of Europe.
Many Vikings settled in England towards the end of the 9th century. Many placenames from the Norse settlement are still preserved. In 866, the Vikings conquered York and renamed it Jorvik.
Links
The Vikings very much belonged to the shores from which they set out or sheltered on. Viking raids increased the standards of living at home. Emigration freed up farmland and fostered the emergence of a new merchant class.
The Viking Age led to increased power struggled among chieftains of petty kingdoms. Harald Fairhair started the process of unifying Norway when he was able to unify the country after the decisive Battle of Hafrsfjord. He became the first King of Norway around the year 900. He controlled a small area in the south and the west.
Most of what we know about the Vikings can be found in Snorre Sturlason’s Heimskringla and the royal sagas form the basis for the discussion about the national collection.
The Oslofjord and the surrounding area belonged to the Danish king for much of the Viking Age, and the city of Kaupang was established as one of the first Scandinavian cities. It was in Danish-controlled territory, though. The city has since disappeared. Archaeological excavations were carried out from 1999 to 2002, and they found more than 100,000 individual objects including Arabian silver coins, game pieces, pearls, axes, spinning wheels, crucibles, ceramics, drinking cups and kitchen utensils. House foundations and wells were also found.
There is no definitive end to the Viking Age, but many claim the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066 is the end of the Viking Age. But it had begun dying out decades before then. Nobles could no longer get rich by going out and looting, so they turned to their country’s own resources. The transition from the Viking Age to the Middle Ages was not a linear, homogenous process. The process of Christianisation marked an important stage of development in the country’s political structure.
Towards the end of the Viking Age, many of Norway’s oldest cities are established: Trondheim in 997, Bergen in 1070. The cities were mostly founded by Kings: Olav Trygvasson founded Oslo, Olav Haraldsson founded Sarpsborg, Harald Hardråde Oslo, and Olav Kyrre Bergen. The cities grew around a royal court.
Bergen was by far the biggest city, and it remained as such until the 17th century. 19 church spires towered over the city in 1300.
Articles about the Vikings
Christianity Comes to Norway
The Vikings Bring Christianity
Christianity is probably the biggest thing the Vikings brought back from their travels. Originally, the Vikings were pagan. However, as more Vikings settled in England and Europe, they became influenced by the new Christian (Catholic) faith and decided to come back and convert the locals.
The Christianisation of Norway is thanks to two Olav’s. The first was Olav Tryggvason, who founded Trondheim in 997. Sadly, Olav didn’t make it very far – he was killed in the Battle of Svolder in 1000.
Olav Haraldsson, starting in 1015, made the tings pass church laws, he destroyed the pagan worshipping sites, built churches, and created an institution of priests. He was a lot more brutal in his methods than Olav Tryggvason – Olav would baptise people, and those who refused risked being tortured, killed, or losing their property. Many of the old pagan chieftains were worried that Christianity would rob them of power. Olav and the Christians and the pagans fought at the Battle of Stiklestad, and Olav was killed. A year later, he was canonised as the patron saint of Norway. He is buried at Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim.
The Christianisation of Norway was a lengthy process, with the elite becoming Christian first. Over 1500 stave churches went up around Norway during the 12th and 13th centuries, mostly on rich properties as a sign of wealth. Many stave churches were built during Olav Haraldsson’s Christianisation process and were built by force. They contain pagan elements so the church could still be used if Olav’s Christianisation didn’t work out. The stave churches either stood high on hills to be seen or on farms. The wealthy who built their own church also got to hire their own priest, so they could control the church.
Many of the stave churches were eventually replaced by stone churches, and some still stand today. Beginning in the 13th century, European architecture (Romanesque and Gothic) begins to make its appearance.
Same method as ship building.
Norway’s oldest church is believed to be on Veøya in Romsdal. Traces of a 10th century Christian cemetery have been found there.
On Kuløy in Nordmøre is a runestone that describes the Christianisation process.
Articles about Christianity & Stave Churches
Click here for my page about stave churches
The Civil War
From the early 12th until the early 13th century, Norway was in civil war over the succession to the throne. At times there were periods of peace before a lesser son allied himself with a different chieftain and started a new conflict.
The union of Norway was achieved by King Harald Fairhair, but the process of unification took a long time.
In the mid-11th century, King Sigurd the Crusader shared the kingdom with his brothers, King Øystein and King Olav, but when they both died without issue, Sigurd became the sole ruler, and his son was the heir. However, in the late 1120s a man called Harald Gille arrived in Norway from Ireland, claiming to be a son of King Sigurd. King Magnus had spent some time in Ireland, and Harald was King Sigurd’s half-brother. Harald proved his case through ordeal of fire. King Sigurd recognised him as his brother. Harald swore an oath that he would not claim the title of king if Sigurd or his son Magnus were alive.
However, when Sigurd died in 1130, Harald broke his oath. Magnus was proclaimed King, but Harald also claimed the title. A settlement was reached that they would be co-king. This lasted for 5 years before a war broke out and Harald succeeded. He captured Magnus in Bergen and blinded, castrated, mutilated, and imprisoned him. At the same time, another man came from Iceland came to Norway declaring to be the correct heir to the throne.
This pretty much happened for 100 years. Someone would be declared king, and they would manage it for a couple years before a rival came along.
Sverre Sigurdsson and the Birkebeiner
In 1174 the rebel group birkebeiner emerged. This means ‘birch legs’ because they were so poor that some of them had birch bark on their legs. Their leader was Sverre Sigurdsson. He had come from the Faroe Islands and believed he was the correct heir to the throne. His claim was widely disbelieved, but his passion and leadership of the Birkebeiner helped them in their fight against the other party, the Bagler. The civil war was something of a class struggle: the poor birkebeiner and the elite Bagler.
Sverre came to Bergen and built a castle for himself. He declared himself king and lasted for some time. However, the church was against him. Several pretenders arose to challenge Sverre, but he was victorious. He died in 1202 – the first king since 1130 to die from natural causes. He had gotten sick.
Sverre’s son, Håkon Sverresson, was declared the birkebeiner king. He manages to get the church on his side but dies suddenly in 1204. The birkebeiner knew of no other direct descendants of King Sverre and by then the Bagler had found who they wanted to be King. The Bagler, who were in hiding in Denmark, came to Norway ready to take the throne. The Birkebiner chose 13-year-old Håkon Håkonsson, as their king. Håkon was a posthumously born son of Håkon Sverreson.
When the Bagler heard that there was a baby heir to the throne, they started to make their way to Trondheim to kill the baby. The birkebeiner fled with the baby to Lillehammer. They kept him safe and Håkon Håkonsson was elected king in 1217. The civil war officially ended in 1240 when the last rival of Håkon died. Håkon was the king for 48 years.
The city arms of Lillehammer show a Birkebeiner skiing in honour of the historic rescue.The mascots Håkon and Kristin of the 1994 Olympics are Birkebeiner children – they have the names of the son and daughter of King Sverre.
An annual race takes place in Norway called the Birkebeinerløpet, a mountain bike race. There is also Birkebeinerittet, a cross country ski race. Common for the events is having to carry a backpack weighing 3.5kg to mimic the weight of baby Håkon. There are also birkebeiner cross country races held in Hayward Wisconsin, Edmonton Canada and Falls Creek Australia.
The Golden Age
When Håkon became King, Norway was Europe’s largest empire in terms of area. Greenland was incorporated into Norway in 1261. There were also the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Orkney, Shetland, the Hebrides, and the Isle of Man. Norway was also a power factor in the British Isles.
Håkon formalised relationships with the European monarches, the pope, he exchanged gifts with the Sultan of Tunis and he married off a daughter to the Spanish royal family. He also brought European literature into Norway and had it translated. He also had one of the most original books in Norwegian history written: the Kongespeilet, or the King’s Reflection. It’s the story of a father explaining what is polite in society.
The population increased from 150,000 in 1000 to 400,000 in 1300. There was peace, increase in trade, and Norway was established as a sovereign state with a central administration and local representatives.
In 1276, Håkon’s son Magnus had Norway’s first national law written. The law has sections on buying and selling and violent crimes. The largest section is about how land is inherited and rented out. When the law passed, it was one of the first collections of laws in Europe that applied to an entire kingdom. It was not until 1604 that Norway got a new law, though it was just a translation of Magnus’s law. In 1687 Norway got a completely new piece of legislation, issued by King Christian V.
The Plague & Kalmar Union
The Black Death Reaches Norway
In 1349, the Black Death spread to Norway. Within a year, a third of the population had died. Later plagues had reduced Norway’s population by 70%. Many communities were entirely wiped out. There was an abundance of land, allowing farmers to switch more to animal husbandry. The plague, in a way, improved peoples lived. Farming families that survived were now able to take the best land. It was not until the 16th century that many of the deserted farms were claimed, though.
The reduction in taxes weakened the king’s position. Many aristocrats lost the basis for their surplus, reducing some to mere farmers.
High tithes to the church made it increasingly powerful and the archbishop became a member of the council of state.
The King was desperate. So, he gave Bryggen and control of trade of stockfish to the Hanseatic League. The Hanseatic League would dominate Bryggen for the next 400 years.
The loss of revenue weakened the King. In rural communities, farmers took over their own functions. Many aristocractic families descended into the ranks of the farming community.
Håkon V, who moved the capital to Oslo, had no son, but his daughter Ingebjørg had married the Swedish Duke Erik of Sodermanland. They had a son, Magnus. When Håkon V died in 1319, the country’s leading men swore no foreigner shovuld have the crown in Norway. Problems were coming.
Three-year-old Magnus inherited the throne of Norway. The same year, he was elected the king of Sweden. Norway decided that the Norwegian Council of State was to rule with Ingebjørg until Magnus was old enough. Ingebjørg and Magnus came into conflict with the Council. When Ingebjørg attempted to get control of Skåne in Denmark, the Council excluded her from power. Magnus was removed from the throne in 1343.
The Swedish and Norwegian councils forced Magnus to accept that his two sons would inherit one realm each when they were grown up. They were trying to remain sovereign.
In 1343 the council adopted Magnus Eriksson’s second son, Håkon, as king. The person union with Sweden ended. In 1363, Håkon VI married Margrete, the daughter of the Danish King Valdemar Atterdag. The marriage created a clash of interests with Sweden. The Swedish council of state deposed Magnus Eriksson and and elected Albrect of Mecklenburg as king in his place.
Håkon VI and Margrete had a son, Olav, and after Valdemar died, Olav was chosen as Danish king. On his father’s death in 1380, Olav also got the Norwegian throne. Thus began a long period of union between Denmark and Norway that would last until 1814.
When Olav died, his mother Margrete was able to install her kinsman, Eric of Pomerania – a minor – as King of Norway and Denmark. She attacked Sweden and deposed King Albrect, and in 1397 the union of the three Scandinavian realms was sealed in the town of Kalmar. Eric of Pomerania was declared King, but Margrete ruled the three kingdoms.
Margaret, Leader of the Kalmar Union
- Margaret pursued a centralising policy which favoured Denmark because it had a greater population than Norway and Sweden combined.
- Margaret gave trade privileges to the Hanseatic merchants in return for the recognition of her right to rule. This hurt the Norwegian economy, which made them more reliant on Denmark.
- She hated the Germans, and trade blockades affected the Norwegian and Swedish economy badly.
- The Norwegian Council of state was weakened to the point that it could no longer support Norway to revive a separate kingdom
The Kalmar Union lasted until the 1520s, when a war between Sweden and Denmark allowed Sweden to break out. Norway was simply unable to break away from Denmark, and the union was formalised in the 1520s.
In 1513 Christian II became King of Denmark and Norway. The King disregarded the Norwegian council and he wanted to revive the Kalmar Union. He conquered Sweden, but after his coronation in Stockholm in 1520, he murdered 82 nobles and clergymen as a warning to others. He got the nickname ‘Christian the tyrant’ in Sweden and Sweden was able to break away from the Kalmar Union.
The Kalmar Union wasn’t a steady period. Occasionally, Sweden would break away only to be roped back in.
Norway remained outside the conflict. The Norwegian archbishop, Olav Englebrektsson, was also a powerful politician and was worried that Martin Luther’s doctrine would soon come to Norway as it was well known in Denmark. He did everything he could to keep Lutheran “poison’ out of the country, but did not succeed.
In 1537 Christian III’s forces reached Norway. The newly chosen King was a Lutheran and brought the new religion to Norway. Now he was also demanding the throne.
Danish Union 1537 – 1814
Norwegian resistance was led by Olav Engelbrektsson. When Christian III became King of Denmark, he demoted Norway from an independent kingdom to a puppet state. The Norwegian church was too weak to try and fight off the Danish Reformation.
The Reformation was imposed in 1537, strengthening the kings power.
All church valuables were sent to Copenhagen. Prior to the Reformation. The Catholic Church owned 40% of the land. Now everyone was owned by the King. The churches gold and silver were taken to Copenhagen to be melted down into coins, including St. Olav’s casket. 40% of the land owned by the church in Norway was given to the King.
Danish was introduced as a written language, although Norwegian remained with distinct dialects. People felt themselves to be Norwegian, and the kings called themselves kings of Denmark and Norway.
Now the church’s leader was the King in Copenhagen and not the pope. Norwegians just had to accept the new doctrine. All the relics, monasteries and worship of saints disappeared, and all the sermons in the church were in Danish.
Norway was divided into five provinces and handed out to Danish nobles. They had responsibility for administrative functions.
Saint Olav’s shrine may have been lost during the Reformation. One source says that it was lost in a shipwreck on its way out of Trondheim towards Copenhagen.
When Archbishop Olav Engelbrektsson left Trondheim in 1537, his intention was to return with forces to defend the country against King Christian III. At his castle in Steinvilkholm he left a military force. He had also left behind relics from Nidaros Cathedral, including St. Olav’s shrine. Olav fled to Lier. Back at Steinviksholm, his military had capitulated and the valuables and been taken into Danish hands. All valubles were smashed and taken to Copenhagen for melting. There are receipts from this documenting how much gold, silver and crystals they got. During excabations at Steinvikholm in the 1880s several objects were found, including a crystal. Archaeologists believe this is from St. Olav’s Shrine.
What about his remains? It’s believed it was left at Steinvikholm. When Denmark-Norway and Sweden started fighting, the Swedes temporarily occupied Steinvikholm and Trondheim. They moved the wooden coffin of Olav to Fløan Chapel and then to Nidaros Cathedral, where it was buried somewhere. Its location is not known.
Possibly the most forceful Christianisation process took place in the north. The Christianisation of the Sami began in the early 18th century and gradually their old nature worship was removed. Many of their items, such as their religious drums, were burnt.
He was the king who discovered Norway. He had faith in Norwegian mountains and forests, and he visited the country no less than thirty times.
Denmark-Norway had the upper hand over its arch-enemy Sweden at the beginning of the 17th century. Several wars took place over the next 150 years that changed the borders. More than 3,000 Norwegians were drafted into the service.
The wars were expensive, and eventually the Danes sold off Norwegian territory, Norwegian land, and Norwegian goods.
Everyday Life under the Danish Union
In the period between 1500 and 1800 the population of Norway increased from 150,000 to 900,000. 90% of people worked the land somehow. Most people continued to live in wooden houses and the diet was simple – consisting of a daily ration of porridge, gruel, and various types of flatbreads. There were constant issues with famine and starvation.
To pay off debts caused by the wars against Sweden, the Danes sold off farming land to Norwegian farmers. The proprietorship of land allowed farmers to also work in the timber industry.
It was common on large farms to be divided into smallholders (husmenn). A smallholder’s family would be allowed to clear a small part of a large farm. They had to pay rent to the landowner. There were often many smallholdings on each farm as they could help with the timber industry. The smallholder lived at the mercy of the farmer, and many were evicted when they became old or ill.
Authorities would always attempt to collect taxes from the Norwegians, but they would often fail.
Trade & Industry During the Danish Union
In the 17th and 18th centuries most countries in Europe persued a mercantile trade policy. The authorities wanted to encourage economic life with import regulations, protective tariffs, and monopolies.
The timber trade became a major industry in the 17th century. Norwegian timber was in high demand in Europe, especially England and the Netherlands.
The mining industry was also lucrative. In the 17th there was a huge expansion when Christian IV encouraged the establishment of mines. The most famous are Kongsberg and Røros.
In the 17th and 18th century, two out of every five people lived in areas where fishing was an important industry. Most fishing families also had a farm. Most important was the fishing season in Lofoten. From ancient times the cod had been dried on racks – this was a cheap method of preservation. From about 1700 it became common to add salt to the process, and klippfisk became important.
The growth of Norwegian shipping is also important. Though Norway had a significant volume of exports dating back hundreds of years, it had been transported in foreign vessels dominated by the Hanse, the Dutch, the British and the Danes. Towards the end of the 17th century the first Golden Age of Norwegian shipping began.
City growth and increase in trade go hand in hand. Towns had to get market rights to be considered a town, which meant they had permission from the king to trade. In 1660 only eight towns had market rights. By 1800 there were 23. The medieval towns were still the most important: Bergen had 14,000 people in 800, twice as large as Kristiania and Trondheim put together.
Throughout the union with Denmark, Norway had its own legal code. They did take advice from the Danes.
The bourgeoise and official classes criticised centralisation and Copenhagen was compared to a blood-sucking leech. Demands for a Norwegian bank and university were raised several times, but the king refused, worried that the United Monarchy would be destroyed.
National identity also found expression at the Norwegian Society in Copenhagen, which was a meeting place for authors and students from Norway. Johan Nordahl Brun’s battle song ‘To Norway, birthplace of giants’ shows that in such circles Norwegian sentiment was well nurtured.
By the beginning of the 19th century, Norway was in a different position than it had been when it was forced into the Danish realm in 1536. The growth in population and economic strength had given the country power, and there was relatively little social injustice. The absolute monarchy had fostered a cultural and economic elite of officials and burghers.
The Swedish Union 1814 – 1905
Denmark-Norway chose the side of France during the Napoleonic wars. They were forced onto the French side because the British didn’t want neutral ships taking goods to France, so they bombarded the merchant fleet. The British also attacked Copenhagen in 1801. The British attacked again in 1807 and 37 large Norwegian vessels were shrunk. The Danish king chose to ally himself with Napoleon, but this proved to be a fateful decision for Norway.
Meanwhile, in Sweden, the Swedes were discontented with their king. The loss of Finland and the unsuccessful Norwegian campaign had forced Gustav IV to abdicate. His old, childless uncle was chosen as the king under the title Carl XIII, but it was obvious that Sweden needed a better heir to the throne. The choice fell on one of Napoleons generals, Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. He arrived in Sweden as Crown Prince in 1810 and took the name Carl Johan. From then on, he was the leader of Sweden and wanted to conquer Norway.
Napoleons defeat in Russia was the beginning of the end. Sweden joined Napoleons enemies, and the great powers told Carl Johan that Norway would be his if he helped defeat France. After the victory of the Battle of Leipzig in 1813, Carl Johan broke away and marched against Denmark. After a short war, Frederik VI was forced to surrender and on 14 January 1814 he signed the Peace of Kiel. By its terms he ceded Norway to the King of Sweden. The 434-year-old union was over.
When the news reached Norway, the Danish-Norwegian heir apparent, Prince Christian Frederik decided he’d come to Norway. He was 26 years old and wanted to keep Norway as part of Denmark. He refused to accept the Peace of Kiel and he set to work strengthening his position in Norway. The Danish king secretly supported Christian Frederick.
On 16 February 1814 Christian Frederick assembled 21 of the country’s leading citizens and officials for a meeting at Eidsvoll. Christian wanted to claim the Norwegian throne, but the men he brought in had other ideas. They wanted a constitution and a new king had to be chosen by the people. It was obvious that Christian Frederick was the obvious choice, but he had to accept that he took his regal power from people.
Christian Frederick and the men decided that people should elect representatives who would meet in Eidsvoll to write the Constitution. Those elected were to also take an oath to work for Norwegian independence.
At the beginning of April, the representatives arrived in Eidsvoll. There were 112 people here – 18 businessmen, 37 farmers and 57 civil and military officials. The prince did not take part in the meetings, but he lived at Eidsvoll and influenced the decision. The men took six weeks to draft a constitution for Norway. The sovereignty of the people was the backbone of the Constitution that was drafted. Power would be shared between the Storting (national assembly), the courts, and the King. On 17 May 1814 the Constitution was concluded, and the assembly voted that Christian Frederick would be king of a free, self-governing, and independent Norway.
But remember, Carl Johan.
The great powers suspected that Christian Frederick was playing a double game. Christian Frederick tried to get the great powers to recognise an independent Norway, but he was unsuccessful. At the end of July, Carl Johan attacked Norway with a force of 50,000 hardened war troops. Christian Frederick led an army of 30,000 badly trained soldiers. The war was soon over.
On the 14 of August, they made a truce. Christian Frederick was forced to abdicate, and he left the country. It would be 25 years before he could call himself the King of Denmark.
The Storting agreed that Norway should enter a union with Sweden. However, this union was going to be different than the one with Sweden. The King had to accept Norway’s Constitution and he was not allowed to declare war without permission from the Storting, nor was he allowed to appoint Swedes to official posts in Norway. Norway had its own flag and own bank, and the revised first paragraph said: “The Kingdom of Norway is a free, self-governing, indivisible and inalienable realm unified with Sweden under one King”. Much had been won in the space of 10 dramatic months.
The constitutional revisions were finished on 4 November, and the Storting elected Carl XIII as King of Norway.
Establishing the Necessary Institutions
In 1816, the Stortinget set up the Bank of Norway and introduced a monetary unit called the spesidaler. The national bank had the monopoly on printing notes, and the value of the spesidaler was secured by a capital stock of precious metal in the bank worth 2-3 million spesidaler.
The Royal Palace in Oslo was constructed between 1825 and 1848 in the classical style.
The 17th of May as a Day of Protest
17 of May was Norway’s constitution day. Ever since 1814 several people observed the day, but as the 1820s progressed the celebrations became more widespread. This did not please Carl Johan. He viewed 17 May as a day of revolt and thought it would be better to celebrate 4 November.
On 17 May 1829 there were serious clashes in Kristiania. The steamship Constitutionen arrived in the city that day, and people came to cheer. A large crowd assembled at the Storting, and the city authorities sent in soldiers to disperse the peaceful throng. Even though no one was killed, the ‘Battle of the Market Place’ had lasting consequences. The Swedish governor general in Kristiania, Balthazar von Platen (1766-1829), felt the wrath of people after this scandalous display of force. He said that he himself was spat on and reviled from all sides. After this, it was impossible for the King to appoint a Swede as governor general in Norway. In the years that followed it became normal to celebrate 17 May. By the time he died in 1844, Carl Johan was popular in Norway.
Everyday Life in the Early 19th Century
In 1800 there were 900,000 people in Norway. In 1865 the number was 1.7 million and in 1900 2.2 million. Of particular importance was the drop in infant mortality.
Nutrition improved because herring and potatoes had replaced barley porridge as the daily meal for people. Hygiene also got better. More houses started to get fireplaces for warmth.
Starting in the 1850s, farmers were able to afford better implements, and iron ploughs and harrows gave increased yields.
The cities also began to expand. The capital Kristiania increased its population from 9000 in 1800 to 40,000 in 1855.
The textile industry came to Norway in the 1840s. they appeared along the Aker River in Kristiania and in the surrounded area around Bergen. The factory owners bought equipment from the UK. The textile factories supplied the home market in this first phase of industrialisation in Norway.
Emigration to the United States
In 1825 the sloop Rastaurationen sailed from Stavanger to New York with 52 passengers. Quaker families who were leaving Norway for religious reasons. The ‘sloop people;’ settled in the fertile Fox River Valley in northern Illinois. Gradually Norwegian pioneer settlements were founded in the mid-west. Mass emigration began in the 1860s and until the 1930s over 800,000 Norwegians emigrated to America.
Why?
Beginning in the 1840s, it became difficult to find work in Norway. The competition for jobs was tough due to better mortality rates and more people. It became difficult to get a smallholding.
During the 1840s, the Stortinget set up some laws that eased domestic trade. Now anyone who wanted to be a craftsman could be, whether in a town or village. Sawmill privileges were abolished so anyone could run a sawmill.
Road construction increased, and over 50 years the length of the road network doubled. Steamships began to operate regular services up and down the coast and on the largest lakes, and in 1854 the first railway opened from Kristiania to Eidsvoll.
Norway got its first telephone line in 1880, and the inventor Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) was in attendance.
Between 1850 and 1880 Norwegian shipping enjoyed its third golden age. The merchant fleet increased its net tonnage from 300,000 to 1.5 million. Ships got larger and in 1880 Norwegian ships employed 60,000 seamen. The country had the third largest mercantile marine in the world after the UK and US.
Sailing was an obvious method for goods transport. The UK was Norway’s most important trade partner, and the British were dependent on shipped supplies.
In the 1860s Norway got its first export-oriented industry. Steam engines took over as motive power in the sawmills, planning mills were set up, and in 1863 the country got its first wood pulping factory for paper. The canning industry also developed and became important.
Around 1850 most farms were self-sufficient. Most farmers had many jobs – forestry, river driving, charcoal burning or fishing. Farmers made their own tools in the farm smithies and found materials for wooden implements and kitchen utensils in the forests. The women made cheese and butter and distilled spirits.
Fifty years later, new tools had made farms more efficient and the need for smallholders and farm workers was less; thousands of people had therefore moved to the cities or the US.
Emigration had robbed the countryside of labour, so farmers began to employ labour-saving machines. Some began to start rotating crops and manuring with artificial fertilisers.
The philologist and writer Ivar Aasen (1813-1896) created Landsmål, a new written language based on Norwegian dialects. In 1885 the Storting terrified a lot of people by deciding to give it equal status with the official written language Riksmål.
The writer Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson wrote the Norwegian national anthem, Ja, vi elsker. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1903.
Social development created new opportunities, especially for middle class women. Women gained the right to attend middle and secondary schools, and primary schools, the post office and the telegraph services all required qualified staff. In 1884 women were permitted to sit all degree exams at the University. A number of leading male figures took up womens issues in social debate and plays by Ibsen and Bjørnson aroused controversy. The Norwegian Women Rights League had male and female members. Many people still maintained that women should work at home. In 1913 women got the right to vote, and in 1924 the first permanent female Storting representative took her seat.
In the late 1800s Norway began to use skiing more as a sport. Sondre Norheim is credited with the invention of Telemark skiing. He made significant contributions to the innovation of the Telemark bindings and was instrumental in experimenting with different ski shapes. In 1868, Sondre demonstrated for the first time outside of Telemark, what has now become known as the Telemark turn, during a ski competition in Oslo.
In 1901, the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony first took place in Oslo. The other prizes take place in Stockholm. That’s due to the wishes of Alfred Nobel. No one is quite sure why he chose Norway for the Peace Prize. The Nobel Peace Centre opened in Oslo in 2005.
At the turn of the 20th century the biologist, polar explorer, and politician Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930) was one of Norway’s best known and respected men. He had crossed Greenland on skis in 1889, nearly reached the North Pole in 1895 and was the governments only envoy during the dissolution with Sweden in 1905.
Towards the end of the 19th century the union conflict flared up. Many people felt the union was of less and less economic importance to Norway. Swedish foreign policy didn’t work with Norwegians, who felt a close infinity with the UK. In the 1880s King Oscar II stated that “German is, and should be, our closest and most natural ally”. Norwegians were particularly unhappy about a Swedish foreign minister, and that both countries shared consulates abroad.
In 1905 the Storting passed an act establishing a separate Norwegian consulate service. When the King refused to accept this, the government resigned. On 7 June the Storting unanimously voted that the union with Sweden under one king is suspended because the King has ceased to function as the Norwegian King”. The most important argument Is that he had failed to procure a new government for the country.
The 7 June vote caused consternation in Sweden, and conservative forces called for a war. Norwegian soldiers were ordered to defend its borders, but fortunately moderate forces prevailed in Sweden. In August there was a plebiscite.
Norway was independent. Christian Michelsen was PM.
Should Norway be a monarchy? Many Norwegian politicians were republicans, but for tactical reasons they moderated their opinions to soothe the great European monarchies. As a result, the Norwegian government elected the Danish prince, Carl, to become the Norwegian King. He was married to Princess Maud, daughter of the British King, and they had a two-year-old son. The Prince insisted that the people should be asked, and 80% voted for monarchy.
One snowy November day in 1905 the new royal family came ashore in Christiania. The king took the name Haakon VII and called his son Olav. After centuries of union, Norway was now an independent country.
Links
Early Independence (1905-1940)
With independence the cities continued to grow and market prices got better. Communications expanded and waterpower made it possible to provide more houses with electricity. In the big cities trams began running. The first motor ships presaged a revolution in fishing, and the first cars began to travel on Norwegian roads.
Norwegian capitalists were buying up waterfalls at an enormous rate. Farmers who owned waterfalls were willing to sell because they needed the money to runs the farms or emigrate to the US. In 1906 foreigners owned 75% of all developed waterfalls.
Industrialisation did not provide affluence for everyone. Many people in the cities felt insecure because of the old interdependence of the rural community was lacking, and unemployment, alcoholism, prostitution and the housing shortage was apparent in the working-class districts.
The Storting passed a series of reforms in the period leading up to WWII, including sick pay, factory inspection, worker protection laws and the 10-hour working day.
When WWI broke out, Norway declared itself neutral. Still, many people sympathised with Britain and the Norwegian economy depended on a good relationship with the British. The UK provided important goods like oil and coal, and the merchant fleet had to avoid a British blockade at all costs. The British knew how to exploit the situation. For example, in 1915 they forced Norway to halt most of her fish exports to Germany, while her mercantile marine gave the UK and her Allies valuable support. For this reason, Norway was called the ‘neutral ally’.
The German u-boats severely harried the Norwegian merchant fleet. Half the fleet was sunk, and more than 2,000 seamen lost their lives.
Links
Much like the rest of the world, there was an instability during the interwar period. It became more difficult to get loans and it was more expensive to have debt. Competition between the farmers grew tougher, and prices fell.
Fishermen were particularly hard hit. They had borrowed money for new equipment in the boom years after 1905. When export prices fell, many fishing families ended up in dire straits.
The economic crisis that began in the USA in 1929 hit Norway the following year. Recent research has put the unemployment rate for 1931 to 1933 at about 10%. When we look at the 1930s, a tenth of the population was dependent on poor relief. But compared with other countries there was not an especially large number of unemployed in Norway during the interwar years.
The interwar period was not just crisis. Statistics show that the GDP doubled, and industrial production rose by 80%. This didn’t create more jobs; more machinery was introduced.
Norwegian sovereignty over Spitsbergen was regulated by the Spitsbergen Treaty of 1925. The islands were demilitarised and opened for commercial enterprise to all signatory states. In 1926, Ny-Ålesund was used as a base for expedition to the North Pole using the airship Norge.
Despite increased international tension during the 1930s, defence was not built according to plan. The belief that Norway should manage to keep itself out of new wars was strong; the country had been at peace since 1814 and successfully depended on negotiations when war threatened. The possibility that other countries might want to gain a foothold in Norway was small.
Norway had nine governments between 1918 and 1935, nearly all minority and lasting an average 18 months.
Norway’s first civil airport, Stavanger, opened in 1937.
World War II (1939 – 1945)
In September 1939, Germany launched a lightning attack on Poland. Norway announced that they would be neutral.
After the outbreak of war, the French government expressed a desire to begin military operations in Scandinavia. It wanted to engage Hitler in remote areas so the pressure on France would be relieved. They also wanted to stop the Swedish export of iron ore to German war industries. Most of the ore was shipped via Narvik in northern Norway.
Except for Winston Churchill, the British government were initially lukewarm to the idea. But they did become keener towards the winter. They saw with rising anxiety that German ships were evading the British naval blockade in the North Sea by sailing through the neutral channel along the Norwegian coast.
After the Soviet Union attacked Finland in November 1939, the British and French began planning a military campaign in the north. They decided to land troops at Narvik, move them east, and have them take iron ore at Kiruna and help the Finns with the Winter War. The operations were cancelled in the middle of March 1940 when the Soviet Union and Finland signed a peace agreement.
They decided to lay some mines close to the Norwegian coast on 8 April. The idea was that the minefields would force the German shipping out of international waters.
During the first months of the war, German naval command tried to convince Hitler that they needed to take bases on the Norwegian coast. The navy feared it would become trapped in the Baltic. It was only after the leader of the National Unity Party, Vidkun Quisling, had visited Berlin in December 1939 that Hitler gave orders to his military leaders to find out how Germany could occupy Norway. During a conversation with Hitler, Quisling proposed that Norwegians and Germans unite to fight the Jews and Communists.
Hitler became convinced that Norway was unable to maintain its neutrality. His invasion preparations went into a much higher gear, and at the beginning of March 1940 the operations against Denmark and Norway were given much higher priority. On 3 April 1940 the first ships set sail from German ports heading north. The date of the attack was for 9 April.
Invasion of Norway 9 April 1940
The Germans occupied the big Norwegian cities on 9 April. Originally, they were going to negotiate a settlement with the Norwegians, but once Vidkun Quisling proclaimed himself prime minister in a coup and Hitler supported him, they realised it wasn’t going to work. Norway put its faith in the allies.
British forces landed at Åndalsnes and Namsos. The fiasco led to a crisis in the British government which ended with Winston Churchill taking over the premiership from Neville Chamberlain.
After 3 weeks Germany had gained control of Southern Norway, but the battle continued around Narvik. The British, French, Polish and Norwegian troops managed to drive the Germans out of the city and isolate them in a mountainous area near the Swedish border. This was the first successful land-based military operation conducted by the Allies during the war. Even though the Germans were being beaten, the Allies had to abandon Norway at the beginning of June as Hitler was attacking France and Benelux.
On 7 June 1940 the royal family and government left for Britain. It was to be five years before they could return.
The Germans wanted an administrative organ in collaboration with the government as they had done in Denmark. This plan was abandoned as they failed to capture the government and royal family. Quislings’ government and coup increased resentment. A new council was appointed, and Hitler set up a ‘Reichskommissariat’ led by Josef Terboven.
Hitler was always worried the Allies would try to invade Norway, so he set up defensive constructions along the coast. At their most numerous the forces of occupation stood at around 430,000 men.
German war industries made use of Norwegian metals. The aircraft industry secured supplies of magnesium and aluminium, while ammunition factories had good access to pyrites. In addition, the Germans took control of large amounts of fresh fish and the canning of fish products.
The Germans didn’t treat the Norwegians with the same degree of brutality as the inhabitants in other areas, the war years were marked with political oppression and violence unparalleled in Norwegian history. 2,000 members of the resistance lost their lives after the invasion in 1940. More than 30,000 people were imprisoned and around 8,000 were sent to prison camps.
Quisling tried to establish a Pan-Germanic Europe and a Nazification of Norway. It didn’t work – civil resistance grew once people realised basic human rights were at stake. Bishops quit, sports associations refused to be associated, and the teachers refused to join the Nazi league of teachers.
Some Norwegians did collaborate. Support for the National Unity Party in the 1930s was primarily due to the crisis in the economy, a fear of communism, and dissatisfaction with parliamentary democracy. When the party got its historic chance during the war, 55,000 people joined. Many of them were convinced it was right to join the fight against communism and that Germany would be the ultimate victor. 7,000 Norwegians served under the Germans on the eastern front and 1,000 of them were killed. Many firms took contracts for the Germans, and thousands of workers had jobs in German plants. More than 9000 Norwegian women had children by German soldiers.
Coming soon
Gradually organised resistance grew. It was only in the final phase of the war that the military aspect came to the fore. It took time to build up a secret army (Milorg) that could achieve anything. Arms and equipment were smuggled in from abroad, and the men needed training.
In 1944 and 1945 the Home Front forces carried out several sabotage attacks on railways and fuel depots. Still, London was the hub of Norwegian resistance abroad. The government took control of Norway’s merchant fleet and turned it into a shipping line. The vessels were put to work transporting supplies for the Allies and became one of Britain’s lifelines.
During the early years of war, the relationship between Sweden and Norway was very tense. The Swedish government had permitted the transit of German troops and materials and did not even recognise the government-in-exile until 1943. Refugees were sent back to Norway in their hundreds, and the Swedish authorities censored any support of the Norwegian resistance campaign. Only when the fortunes of war turned against Germany did the Swedes change their policy towards Norway.
The population of Northern Norway was hardest hit by the ravages of war. Bodø and Narvik were severely damaged in 1940. In 1944, Finnmark was subjected to terrible Soviet bombing campaigns. The Germans were forced to evacuate Finnmark. On their way out, they burnt more than 10,000 houses and destroyed boats, roads, bridges, and harbours.
When peace came, a major prosecution of collaborators began. 53,000 people were sentenced for treason, and 23,000 of them were sent to prison. Quisling and 24 other Norwegians were executed.
The war left scars in Norway that were visible for decades. Many seamen suffered psychological problems for the rest of their lives, and it was a long time before they got a decent war protection.
Growth & Development in the Second Half of the 20th Century
The battle against Nazism had brought people closer together. 1945 saw the take-off of an extraordinary economic growth which was to give Norway a place amongst the wealthy, industrialised nations of the world.
Reconstruction went faster than expected. Until 1950, Norwegian economic growth was the highest in Europe. The government used rationing to limit private consumption and put emphasis on investing in production. American Marshall aid arrived in 1947 and from 1948 Norway received 400 million dollars in support. The money was not only for materials and machines – the Americans arranged study trips so that Norwegian companies could gain insight into the modern industrial technology and rationalisation.
By 1968 Norwegian ships made up 10% of the world fleet.
Child allowance began in 1946, providing everyone who had children under 15 with permanent monthly financial assistance. During the 1950s health insurance was made compulsory for all, and means testing for the old age pension ceased. In 1964 the Social Care Act came into force.
The University of Bergen was created in 1946.
Norway was one of the founding members of the UN.
Norway retained its neutral policy until 1947, focusing on its membership with the UN, where Trygve Lie had become the first secretary-general. Anti-communism grew with a Soviet proposal for joint control over Svalbard.
Most Norwegians had sympathy for the Soviet Union after the liberation of Finnmark. But even as early as the autumn of 1946 this began to change. The government rejected some demands of the Soviet Union and allied itself more with the Western powers.
When differences between east and west increased in 1948, Norway, Sweden and Denmark discussed a Nordic defence pact. This collapsed because Sweden wanted an independent alliance, whereas Norway wanted links with the west.
After this didn’t work, Norway decided that only NATO membership could provide them with security. After joining NATO, the government made it clear that it would not allow for foreign troops or atomic weapons on Norwegian soil to prevent the Soviet Union from attacking Norway. NATO did take part in short term operations in Norwegian territory. From the late 1950s American spy planes operated in Norway.
In the 1950s Norway put collaboration with the UK and US over that of Scandinavia and Western Europe. Economic policy was coordinated with the Organisation for European Economic Cooperation, which promoted free trade.
In 1952 the Nordic countries voted to establish a new cooperative body, the Nordic Council. It consists of parliamentarians and members of the government who meet once a year to discuss matters of common interest. In the 1950s the use of passports between the Nordic countries was discontinued. The Nordic countries worked closely with the UN.
The period from 1960 to 1973 was something of a golden age for industry. By the end of the 1960s Norway was the largest European exporter of aluminium and the world’s largest exporter of ferro-alloys.
During the 1960s more and more married women went out to work. Many wanted to increase the family income to buy new consumer items, and women were having less and less children. After October 1960 it was no longer needed to apply for permission to buy a car.
1960 was the official opening of Norwegian television. Throughout the 1960s over 900,000 Norwegians got television sets. Most of them could only get one channel, the Norwegian Broadcasting Cooperation. Cable programming came in the 1980s.
There was also a huge shift to the cities. At the end of the war, about half the population lived in towns with more than 200 inhabitants. 25 years later, this figure had risen to about two thirds.
1968 saw the opening of universities in Trondheim and Tromsø, and the following year the building of regional colleges began.
In common with young people in other western countries, sections of the Norwegian teenage population turned a critical eye on their parents. The Anglo-American pop industry got a firm foothold and provided young people with new fashion and ideals. Television gave teenagers a new view of the world – they were the first to watch coverage of famines and battlefields.
The American war in Vietnam aroused sympathy for developing countries. Many young people saw war as a sign that rich countries had the main responsibility for want and lack of freedom of the third world.
The completion of the Nordland Line to Bodø in 1962 concluded with the construction of new railway routes, while the first part of the Oslo Metro opened in 1966. A network of regional airports was built in western and Northern Norway in the late 1960s.
A social security net was gradually introduced after the war, with child allowances in 1946 and Social Care Act introduced in 1964. The 1960s saw good times for heavy industry and Norway became Europe’s largest exporter of aluminium and the world’s largest exporter of ferroalloys.
With all the industry, young people were beginning to see that it was affecting the environment. Air pollution rose dramatically. Acid rain from the UK and Europe ruined thousands of fishing lakes in southern Norway. The last remaining wilderness areas of Europe were in danger of disappearing.
In 1962 the first national park, Rondane, was established. New environment protection legislation was written in 970. Norway was the first country in the world to establish a Ministry of the Environment in 1972.
The 1960s saw an increased focus on environmentalism, especially through activism, based on the evermore conversion of waterfalls to hydro stations.
In the 1970s discussions about the EU rose. Opponents of the EU didn’t want to hand over Norwegian sovereignty to supranational organisations in Brussels. Many had a great antipathy to the ECs philosophy of growth. The yes vote was dominated by the country’s governing elite. It stressed that the EC would strengthen peace and give Norway a greater say in the development of Europe.
In the end, 53% voted no.
Rolf Groven’s painting ‘Norwegian neo-romanticism’ from 1972 brought out the main arguments in the Norwegian anti-EC campaign: membership would threaten the right to national autonomy, destroy the country’s ecology and open it up for business from abroad.
In 1994 Norway voted once again against joining the EU. Instead, Norway joined the European Economic Area and later also the Schengen area.
In 1966 oil prospecting began in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. By the autumn of 1929 Phillips Petroleum was alone in not having lost hope. In the last hole they decided to bore, the drill system struck an oil field. In 1970 they realised that it was among the 10 largest oil fields in the world.
The Storting put together a legal framework that gave the state strict control and a large income from oil operations. To prevent Norway simply becoming an exporter of crude oil and gas, the authorities aimed to build a national oil industry. It would take part in prospecting, extracting, and refining the resources in collaboration with foreign companies. The politicians gave the national oil company, Statoil, an advantageous potion with a considerable stake in future finds, and the state dominated company Norsk Hydro was also to share in the adventure.
In 1977 there was an uncontrolled blowout in the Ekofisk Field that caused an oil leak and a pollution alert on the Norwegian coast. Three years later the accommodation rig, Alexander Kielland, was completely wrecked in a storm and 123 oil workers were killed.
The value of oil and gas increased rapidly. In 1990 Norway overtook Britain as Europe’s largest oil producer, and by the mid-1990s Norway had become the second largest oil exporter in the world after Saudi Arabia. In the summer of 1995, the world’s largest oil rig was towed out to the Troll Field, which at the time was Europe’s largest maritime gas field. At the start of the 1990s about 20,000 people were employed in the oil industry, about 1% of the total work force. Most of them lived in Stavanger, which became the country’s oil capital.
Statoil became a money-making machine for the Norwegian economy. The company took over operational responsibility for large oil fields like Statfjord and Fullfaks and set up subsidiaries in other parts of the world.
In 1976, the government passed a plan for farmers which guaranteed them higher incomes.
Feminist groups appeared in the 1970s. During this new women’s movement it sped up women’s rights. Alodial law changed in 1974, and from then on, both men and women could inherit the farm. It was made illegal to discriminate between the sexes and give a single rate for a particular job. In 1978 the Storing passed legislation to allow for abortions.
The battle for equality led to more women holding political office and getting better. The number of women in democratically elected bodies increased. A milestone was reached in 1981 when Gro Harlem Brundtland became the country’s first woman prime minister.
After a visit to Japan in 1974, the initial seeds for Project Japan were planted. The project took a turn for the unexpected as the Norwegians spotted an opportunity in introducing Norwegian wild salmon into Japans culinary speciality: sushi.
The high economic growth of the 1960s led to a shortage of labour. Most immigrants came from western Europe and the US, and many were oil industry experts. During the 1970s the number of people from southeaster Europe, Asia and Africa increased. During the 80s the country accepted several thousand Vietnamese refugees, most of whom had been picked up by Norwegian merchant ships in the South China Sea.
Immigration put Norwegian tolerance to the test. Those who had little education and scant contact with foreign workers were especially sceptical with immigrants. The most militant amongst them did not balk at destroying immigrants’ shops or spreading racist propaganda.
After the war the Norwegians gave up the tough policy of Norwegianization and announced they wanted to protect the Sami culture, language, and way of life. However, the Norwegian authorities did little to implement Sami polices while the Sami lacked proper organisation and political leaderships. For centuries they had been discriminated against and persecuted, and therefore many of them had forsaken their roots and left the Sami heartlands. Furthermore, they were few and thinly spread. The first ones to unite were the reindeer Sami who found their own association in 1948. The Nordic Sami association began in the mid 1950s, and in 1964 the government set up the Norwegian Sami Council with an advisory status in Sami matters.
In the 1950s state grants for Sami education were improved and in the decades that followed, more educated and self-confident leaders appeared in Sami organisations and made them more effective.
The rapid industrialisation after 1945 put pressure on the Sami. More and more people viewed with apprehension the way the Scandinavian majorities pushed into areas that had been under Sami control for thousands of years. When the State Power systems wanted to develop the Alta-Kautokeino watercourse in the early 1970s, patience snapped. Under the slogan ‘let the river live!’ the Sami and environmental activities unified to stop the construction machines. The Alta Affair forced the authorities to be more receptive to Sami demands. The Sami were allowed to establish their own parliament in 1989, and in the same year the Stortinget passed a new paragraph in the constitution that said the Norwegian state had a duty to protect Sami language, culture, and social life.
When Norway became an oil producing nation, its national economy was affected in a big way. High wages forced prices and wages up in the mainstream economy, making it hard for sections of industry to compete internationally. Labour intensive concerns that were not very knowledge-based and produced little added value, such as shoe factories and clothing manufacturers. Oil gave Norway freedom in a number of matters. Norway was one of the nations that used the greatest percentage of GNP on public expenditure, and which had the highest proportion of its workforce employed in the public sector.
The Conservative Party won the 1981 elections and carried out a large deregulation reform: taxes were cut, local private radio stations permitted, cable television, etc. The high wages in the oil industry made low-skill manufacturing industries uncompetitive and the Labour Party closed several public industrial companies which were receiving large subsidies. The 1980s saw many people on disability, largely among the oldest in the workforce. Crime rates rose.
The subsea Vardø tunnel opened in 1982. From the 1980s, the largest cities introduced toll rings to finance new road projects.
In 1994 Norway voted once again against joining the EU. Instead, Norway joined the European Economic Area and later also the Schengen area.
The relaxed border tensions at the end of the Cold War in the 1990s meant that Norway had a more marginal place within the NATO alliance in the 1990s. In the new strategic picture Russia had lost important naval bases in the Baltic and had become more dependent on the Kola Peninsula. It was becoming apparent that the northern region had economic potential, with vast oil and gas fields waiting to be exported. The Barents Sea Cooperation came into being in January 1993 with Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, and the EU as participants. The end of the Cold War resulted in cooperation with Russia and reduced military activity.
Large investments in the 1990s were a new National Hospital and Oslo Airport – connected to the capital with Norway’s first high-speed railway, the Gardermoen Line.
Lillehammer hosted the 1994 Winter Olympics.
1991 – King Olav V died, Harald V takes over.
1993 – Norway resumes commercial whaling despite international dislike.
The 21st Century, So Far
The Norwegian armed forces shifted their focus from defending an invasion to being mobile for use in NATO operations abroad and participated in the war in Afghanistan in 2001, the Iraq War in 2003, and the Libyan civil war in 2011. They were also involved in the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.
On 26 December 2004 during a Christmas holiday and boxing day celebration, several hundred of Norwegian people in Thailand were amongst the thousands of people killed by the magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami off Sumatra.
The 2011 attacks saw an attack on the government headquarters in Oslo and the workers youth league camp at the island of Utøya by the Norwegian gunman Anders Behring Breivik, killing 77 people.
In 2013, after eight years of Labour rule, a coalition of the Conservative Party and the Progress Party were elected. A new Prime Minister and a Labour government came back in October 2021.
In 2016, the Lutheran Church, to which 75% of Norwegians belong – adopts a new liturgy allowing gay couples to marry in church weddings.
This was excellent! It has been difficult to find good historical information in english. Just the right amount of information. And i am looking forward to exploring The rest.
Tusen Takk,
Robert van Vranken
Peacham, Vermont, USA