Kingdom of Norway. Information.
NORWAY, The Kingdom of Norway - state on the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. Area - 385,1991 sq. km. Population - 4,593,041 . Сapital - Oslo. On south and east Norway bordering Sweden, Finland and Russia. In the 9th century Norway consisted of a number of petty kingdoms. According to tradition, Harald Fairhair gathered the small kingdoms into one and in 872 with the battle of Hafrsfjord, he had established a feudal state. The Viking age (8th to 11th centuries) was one of national unification and expansion. The Norwegians colonized Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and parts of the British Islands and attempted to settle at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada. Norwegians founded the English city called Jorvik, today known as York, and the Irish modern day cities of Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Waterford. The Norwegian Rollo invaded and was ceded Normandy in modern France. The Norwegian royal line died out in 1387, partly because of the grand recession after the black plague in 1349, and partly because the queen Margrethe's son, heir to the throne died at barely 17 years of age. The country entered a long period as the weaker part of a union with Denmark. Margrethe was also queen of Denmark and Sweden. In light of national romanticism during the 19th century, this period was by some called the "400-year night". After Denmark-Norway sided with Napoleon in the Napoleonic Wars, Norway was ceded to the king of Sweden in 1814. However, Norway declared her independence, adopted a constitution based on American and French models and elected the Danish prince Christian Fredrik as king on 17 May 1814. Norway was forced into a personal union with Sweden, but kept its liberal constitution and independent institutions, except for the foreign service. Growing Norwegian dissatisfaction with the union during the late 19th century, national romanticism, growing national culture, literature and painting (Ibsen, Bjoernson, Gude, Tiedemand), spawned its dissolution 7 June 1905. The Norwegian government offered the throne of Norway to Danish Prince Carl. After a referendum (only men had votes) confirming the monarchy, the Parliament unanimously elected him king. He took the name of Haakon VII, after the medieval kings of independent Norway. Norway was a neutral country during World War I. Norway also attempted to claim neutrality during World War II, but was invaded by German forces on the 9th of April 1940 (Operation Weserubung). The Allies also had plans to operate from Norway, in order to take advantage of her strategically important Atlantic coast. Armed resistance in Norway went on for two months, but the King and government continued the fight from exile in Britain. On the day of the invasion, the collaborative leader of the small National-Socialist party Nasjonal Samling – Vidkun Quisling – tried to seize power, but was forced by the German occupiers to step aside. Real power was wielded by the leader of the German occupation authority, Reichskommissar Josef Terboven. Quisling, as minister president, later formed a government under German control. In 1944, the Germans evacuated the provinces of Finnmark and northern Troms, using a scorched earth tactic. The Red Army moved in shortly after, and peacefully returned the area to Norwegian control after the war, despite President Roosevelt having offered them parts of northern Norway. The Germans in Norway surrendered on 8 May 1945. The occupation during World War II made Norwegians generally more sceptical of the concept of neutrality. They turned instead to collective security. Norway was one of the signatories of the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949 and was a founding member of the United Nations, providing its first secretary general – Trygve Lie. Norway has twice voted against joining the European Union (in 1972 and 1994), but is associated with the EU via the European Economic Area. Currency : 1 Norwagian krone (NOK) = 100 ere.
