Norway

From the late eighth century the peoples of the Norwegian coast joined the broader Viking expansion that carried Scandinavian raiders, traders and settlers across the seas, west to the British Isles, Iceland and the North Atlantic, and along the great rivers of the east. Norway itself was a patchwork of small kingdoms and chieftaincies strung along the fjords and valleys, their power resting on control of land, ships and the coastal trade routes that ran from the far north down to markets such as Kaupang and, beyond, to Hedeby in Denmark.

Out of this fragmented landscape emerged Harald Fairhair, whose power base lay in the south-west around Avaldsnes on Karmøy. Norwegian tradition holds that around the year 872 he won a decisive victory over a coalition of rival kings at the Battle of Hafrsfjord, near present-day Stavanger, and so became the first king to rule over all of Norway. Although later historians stress that the gathering of the kingdom was a process spread over generations rather than a single battle, Harald's triumph at Hafrsfjord became the foundational story of the Norwegian monarchy.

Harald's realm did not hold together easily; after his death, between about 930 and 933, it fragmented among his many sons, and the tenth century saw repeated contests for the throne among his descendants and rival jarls. Yet the idea of a single kingship over Norway survived, and the long Viking Age, which is conventionally closed in 1066, left behind not only a tradition of monarchy but also the maritime, legal and cultural foundations on which the medieval Norwegian kingdom would be built.

Turning points

1. c. 872Formation

   Battle of Hafrsfjord

   Harald Fairhair defeated a coalition of petty kings from the south-west at Hafrsfjord, the decisive victory by which tradition holds he became the first king over all of Norway.

   [1]

2. c. 900Economy & Trade

   Control of the coastal trade routes

   From his base at Avaldsnes on Karmøy, Harald Fairhair dominated the coastal sailing route that linked northern Norway with the markets of Kaupang and Hedeby, anchoring royal power in trade.

   ↗See the data

   [1]

3. c. 930–933Politics & Power

   Death of Harald Fairhair and fragmentation

   On Harald's death his realm broke apart among his sons, beginning decades of dynastic conflict, though the idea of a single Norwegian kingship endured.

   [1]

4. 1066Peoples & Migration

   Conventional close of the Viking Age

   The era of large-scale Scandinavian raiding is conventionally closed in 1066, by which time Norway was a Christianising kingdom rather than a society of independent sea-kings.

   ↗See the data

   [8]

Figures of the era

Christianity was carried into Norway over generations, but its decisive champion was Olaf II Haraldsson, king from about 1015 to 1028 and the most significant of the Norwegian kings of the Viking Age and Middle Ages. At the Moster assembly in 1024 he established a nationwide church organisation and Christian law, and forbade all non-Christian religious practice, making Christianity the kingdom's only permitted religion. Driven into exile by his enemies and by King Cnut of Denmark and England, Olaf returned to reclaim his throne and was killed at the Battle of Stiklestad on 29 July 1030.

Within a year of his death Olaf's body was declared holy and enshrined at Nidaros (Trondheim), and he became Rex Perpetuus Norvegiae, the eternal king of Norway, and one of the most important saints in northern Europe, with churches dedicated to him from Novgorod to London and York. His cult bound the still-young Christian kingdom together and gave it a sacred centre at Nidaros. Over the following centuries the monarchy was consolidated, civil wars were eventually overcome, and the kingdom reached a medieval height under kings such as Haakon IV and Magnus the Lawmender, whose national law code of the 1270s was among the most advanced in Europe.

The medieval economy turned increasingly on long-distance trade, above all the export of dried fish (stockfish) from the northern fisheries through Bergen. From around 1350 German merchants of the Hanseatic League operated a powerful trading office, the Kontor, at Bryggen in Bergen, which became the most important town of the old Norwegian kingdom and a hub of Hanseatic commerce in the north. The Hanseatic presence at Bryggen endured for some four centuries, until 1754, and the surviving wharf is today a UNESCO World Heritage site testifying to that trading world.

Turning points

1. 1024Religion

   Moster assembly and Christian law

   Olaf II established a nationwide church organisation and Christian law at Moster, banning non-Christian worship and making Christianity the kingdom's only permitted religion.

   [2]

2. 29 Jul 1030Religion

   Battle of Stiklestad and the death of St Olaf

   King Olaf II was killed at Stiklestad. Declared holy within a year and enshrined at Nidaros, he became Norway's patron saint and eternal king, accelerating the Christianisation of the realm.

   [2]

3. c. 1274Politics & Power

   The national law of Magnus the Lawmender

   King Magnus VI codified a national law for the whole kingdom, one of the most advanced legal codes in medieval Europe and a mark of the consolidated Christian monarchy.

   [8]

4. c. 1350Economy & Trade

   The Hanseatic Kontor at Bryggen

   German merchants of the Hanseatic League established their trading office at Bryggen in Bergen, which became Norway's foremost town and a hub of northern commerce for some four centuries, until 1754.

   ↗See the data

   [7] [22]

Figures of the era

In 1349 the Black Death reached Norway, arriving by ship at Bergen and spreading rapidly along the coast and inland. The plague killed an enormous share of the population, by common estimate around half, and struck the aristocracy and clergy as heavily as the peasantry. The catastrophe is treated in Norwegian historiography as a turning point that shattered the cohesion and power of the native nobility, weakened the crown's resources, and left the kingdom far less able to act as an independent power against its Scandinavian neighbours.

Weakened, Norway was drawn into union. In 1397, under the guiding hand of Queen Margaret I of Denmark, the three Scandinavian kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden were joined in the Kalmar Union, with Erik of Pomerania crowned as their common king at Kalmar. Sweden eventually broke away in the early sixteenth century, but Norway remained bound to Denmark. From 1380, and decisively after 1537, Norway was increasingly governed from Copenhagen and reduced from a kingdom to, in effect, a Danish province, retaining its own laws and church but losing political and economic independence.

For more than four centuries the realm of Denmark-Norway endured as one of the powers of the Baltic and North Sea, with Norway supplying timber, fish and seamen and sharing in Denmark's wars. That long association ended abruptly in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars. Having sided with Napoleon, Denmark-Norway found itself among the defeated, and by the Treaty of Kiel, signed on 14 January 1814, the Danish king Frederik VI renounced all his rights and claims to the Kingdom of Norway in favour of the king of Sweden, ending more than four hundred years of Danish rule.

Turning points

1. 1349Catastrophe

   The Black Death reaches Norway

   Plague arrived by ship at Bergen and spread through the country, killing about half the population and devastating the native aristocracy and clergy, a turning point in Norwegian history.

   ↗See the data

   [3] [8]

2. 1397Politics & Power

   The Kalmar Union

   Under Queen Margaret I of Denmark, Denmark, Norway and Sweden were united in the Kalmar Union, with Erik of Pomerania crowned common king; Norway became the weakest of the three partners.

   [3]

3. 1537Politics & Power

   Norway reduced to a Danish province

   After Sweden left the union, Norway remained tied to Denmark and was governed from Copenhagen, becoming in effect a Danish province while keeping its own laws and church.

   [3] [8]

4. 14 Jan 1814Politics & Power

   The Treaty of Kiel

   Defeated in the Napoleonic Wars, Denmark-Norway was forced to cede Norway: by the Treaty of Kiel the Danish king renounced all claims to Norway in favour of the king of Sweden.

   [4] [9] [8]

Figures of the era

Norwegians refused to accept the Treaty of Kiel as a simple transfer of their country. The Danish heir and viceroy Christian Frederik placed himself at the head of the movement, and a constituent assembly of 112 representatives met at Eidsvoll from 10 April 1814. The constitution they drafted, signed on 17 May 1814, declared Norway a free and independent kingdom, divided power between king, an elected parliament (the Storting) and the courts, and was among the most liberal in the Europe of its day. The seventeenth of May remains Norway's national day.

Independence found no support among the great powers, and after a brief war the Swedish crown prince Carl Johan accepted the Eidsvoll constitution rather than impose the Treaty of Kiel by force. By the Convention of Moss and the Storting's vote of 4 November 1814, Norway entered a personal union with Sweden, keeping its own constitution, parliament and laws under a shared king. It was a union of unequal partners but, crucially, one in which Norway retained its own institutions and a strong sense of separate nationhood.

Through the nineteenth century that nationhood was deepened by a flowering of culture and the slow growth of self-confidence. The playwright Henrik Ibsen, the composer Edvard Grieg and the painter Edvard Munch gave Norway a place in world culture and helped forge a modern national identity, while the romantic nationalism of the age drew on medieval history, landscape and folk tradition. Disputes with Sweden over the conduct of foreign affairs, and above all over Norway's right to its own consular service, sharpened steadily, setting the stage for the rupture of the union early in the next century.

Turning points

1. 17 May 1814Politics & Power

   The Constitution of Eidsvoll

   A constituent assembly at Eidsvoll signed Norway's constitution on 17 May 1814, declaring the country a free kingdom with an elected Storting; the date became the national day.

   [13] [10]

2. 4 Nov 1814Politics & Power

   Union with Sweden

   After a short war, Sweden accepted the Eidsvoll constitution and the Storting voted to enter a personal union with Sweden under a shared king, with Norway keeping its parliament and laws.

   [13] [10]

3. 1840s–1890sCulture & Ideas

   Romantic nationalism and a national culture

   A movement of romantic nationalism drew on Norwegian history, landscape and folk tradition; Ibsen, Grieg and Munch gave the nation a place in world culture and reinforced a separate identity.

   [6]

4. 1884Politics & Power

   Parliamentarism and the consular dispute

   The introduction of parliamentary government strengthened the Storting, while the conflict with Sweden over Norway's right to its own consular service drove the two countries apart.

   [10]

Figures of the era

The union crisis came to a head in 1905. On 7 June the Storting declared the union with Sweden dissolved, after King Oscar II had refused to sanction a separate Norwegian consular service. A referendum confirmed the decision overwhelmingly, and after negotiations at Karlstad the Swedish king and parliament accepted the dissolution, achieving the separation peacefully. In a second plebiscite Norwegians voted to keep a monarchy, and the throne was offered to Prince Carl of Denmark, who was elected by the Storting on 18 November 1905 and took the name Haakon VII, the first king of a fully independent Norway in centuries.

The young independent state moved to secure its position in the far north and south. By the Svalbard Treaty, signed in Paris on 9 February 1920, the powers recognised Norwegian sovereignty over the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard; Norway took over its administration when the treaty entered into force in 1925. The treaty was unusual in its terms: citizens and companies of all signatory states were granted equal rights to economic activity such as fishing, hunting and mining, and the archipelago could not be used for warlike purposes. Norway also annexed Bouvet Island in the South Atlantic and, in 1939, claimed the vast Antarctic sector of Queen Maud Land, while its rival claim in the Arctic suffered a setback when the Permanent Court of International Justice ruled against it in the Eastern Greenland case in 1933, upholding Danish sovereignty over all of Greenland.

Norway declared itself neutral, but on 9 April 1940 it was invaded by Nazi Germany. King Haakon VII and the legitimate government rejected German demands and went into exile in London, while the fascist Vidkun Quisling proclaimed a government the same day, an act so notorious that his name became a synonym for a traitor; the Germans soon set him aside and ruled through a commissioner before installing Quisling as a puppet minister-president in 1942. Five years of occupation followed, marked by resistance, the destruction of Norway's small Jewish community, and a scorched-earth German retreat in the far north, until liberation in May 1945.

Turning points

1. 7 Jun 1905Independence

   Dissolution of the union with Sweden

   The Storting declared the union with Sweden dissolved; confirmed by referendum and settled peacefully at Karlstad, it made Norway a fully sovereign state for the first time in centuries.

   ↗See the data

   [10] [11]

2. 18 Nov 1905Politics & Power

   Election of King Haakon VII

   After a plebiscite to retain a monarchy, the Storting elected Prince Carl of Denmark as king; he took the name Haakon VII, founding the modern Norwegian royal house.

   [11]

3. 9 Feb 1920Politics & Power

   The Svalbard (Spitsbergen) Treaty

   Signed in Paris, the treaty recognised Norwegian sovereignty over Svalbard while granting all signatories equal rights to economic activity and barring warlike use; Norway took over administration in 1925.

   [14] [5]

4. 5 Apr 1933Politics & Power

   Eastern Greenland case

   The Permanent Court of International Justice ruled against Norway's claim to part of eastern Greenland, upholding Danish sovereignty over the whole island; Norway abandoned its claim.

   [15]

5. 9 Apr 1940War & Rupture

   German invasion and the Quisling regime

   Germany invaded on 9 April 1940; the king and government went into exile while Vidkun Quisling proclaimed a government, beginning five years of occupation and collaboration.

   ↗See the data

   [16] [12]

Figures of the era

Postwar Norway built a prosperous social-democratic welfare state and joined the Western alliance as a founding member of NATO in 1949. The decisive change in its fortunes came in 1969, when the Phillips Petroleum company struck oil at the Ekofisk field in the North Sea, a discovery confirmed by the Norwegian authorities on Christmas Eve and later recognised as the find that changed Norway. Over the following decades the state managed its petroleum wealth carefully, building a sovereign wealth fund that grew into one of the largest in the world and turning a once-modest country into one of the richest.

Twice Norwegians declined to join the process of European integration. In a referendum on 25 September 1972 a majority of 53.5 per cent voted against joining the European Community, and in a second referendum on 28 November 1994 a majority of 52.2 per cent again rejected membership, this time of the European Union. Norway instead remained outside the Union while participating in its single market through the European Economic Area, a settled choice that reflected the strength of national feeling rooted in the long struggle for independence.

In the far north, Norway's most enduring frontier dispute was at last resolved. For some four decades Norway and the Soviet Union, and then Russia, had disagreed over how to divide an area of about 175,000 square kilometres of the Barents Sea and Arctic Ocean, managing the disputed waters through a provisional fisheries arrangement known as the Grey Zone Agreement. After renewed negotiations, the two states signed a treaty on the maritime delimitation and cooperation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean on 15 September 2010; on its entry into force in 2011 it drew a single boundary line, set the Grey Zone arrangement aside and opened the way to cooperation on fisheries and cross-border petroleum resources.

Turning points

1. 1949Politics & Power

   Norway joins NATO

   Abandoning prewar neutrality, Norway became a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, anchoring its security in the Western alliance.

   [12]

2. 1969Economy & Trade

   Oil discovered at Ekofisk

   Phillips Petroleum struck oil at the Ekofisk field in the North Sea, confirmed on Christmas Eve 1969; the discovery transformed Norway into a wealthy petroleum state with a vast sovereign wealth fund.

   ↗See the data

   [17]

3. 25 Sep 1972Politics & Power

   First referendum rejects the European Community

   A majority of 53.5 per cent of Norwegians voted against joining the European Community, keeping the country outside the integration process.

   [18]

4. 28 Nov 1994Politics & Power

   Second referendum rejects the European Union

   A majority of 52.2 per cent again rejected membership, this time of the European Union; Norway remained outside the EU while joining its single market through the EEA.

   [18]

5. 15 Sep 2010Politics & Power

   Barents Sea delimitation treaty with Russia

   Norway and Russia signed a treaty dividing the disputed 175,000 sq km of the Barents Sea and Arctic Ocean, ending a roughly forty-year dispute; in force from 2011, it replaced the Grey Zone arrangement.

   [19] [20] [21]

Figures of the era