Norway Establishes Independence

This series has five easy 5 minute installments. This first installment: Norway’s Distinctive Identity and History.

Introduction
Not often does our sophisticated world see a new nation established in its centers of civilization. Especially in Western Europe, the various countries have long seemed permanently settled unities. Yet the date of June 6, 1905, gave birth to a new kingdom. Norway, which had not been an independent state since the ancient days of the Vikings, now declared her independence of her sister realm of Sweden and started on an individual career as a separate monarchy. The Swedish king and Swedish nobles fumed and even threatened warfare, but ultimately decided to let Norway go her own way in peace.

The new state is unique among monarchies in that she has no aristocracy whatever. Norway is really a nation of peasants, perhaps the most advanced democracy in Europe. In establishing their independence, her people discussed carefully whether they should set up a republican form of government or invite a king to rule them. Finally deciding by a narrow margin that monarchy was the more practical form of self-government, they invited a Danish prince to become their king. He accepted, though his new subjects have allowed him only a mere shadow of authority.

The dispute which led to Norway’s thus breaking away from Sweden had been of long standing. Sweden, being the more powerful state of the two and the land which supplied the sovereign for their united kingdom, has always been inclined to treat Norway as a dependent province. The Norwegians resented this bitterly. The story of their increasing quarrels is here told, first from an outside viewpoint, and then by the most noted of Norwegians, their great novelist Bjornson. It was Bjornson who led the Norwegians in their revolt and thus became their foremost man in politics as well as in literature.

The selections are from:

• Norway by Henry Seton-Karr.
• Letter to the Independent by Bjornstjerne Bjornson.

For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

There’s 4 installments by Henry Seton-Karr and 1 installment by Bjornstjerne Bjornson.

We begin with Henry Seton-Karr (1853-1914). He was an English explorer, hunter and author and a Conservative politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1885 to 1906.

Time: 1905

There is one striking difference between Norway and Sweden, united until yesterday under one crown. While Sweden possesses a nobility and a limited franchise, and its government in consequence smacks something of autocracy and class, Norway is to all intents and purposes a farming and peasant democracy. There are no Norwegian nobles, and 80 per cent. of its male population have a voice in the government of their country as against 30 per cent. of the Swedes.

This essential difference between the two countries, a difference at once national and political, is a factor always to be borne in mind in considering the causes that have led to the present Scandinavian rupture. Norwegians and Swedes, though near neighbors, and speaking to all intents and purposes one language, are neither politically nor socially homogeneous, and their close national intercourse may be said to be barred by a certain wide-spread and inherent incompatibility of temper.

Norway, as a kingdom, has existed for over a thousand years, and even in the remoter ages of her history possessed a standard of culture that few northern nations could equal, as is witnessed by the old Norse laws and institutions, and by her ancient literature (the Sagas).

For nearly 400 years before 1814 Norway and Denmark were united under one crown, Christian the First, King of Denmark, being elected King of Norway and crowned at Trondhjem in 1449. But the foundation of the present trouble may be said to have been laid in 1814, at the time of the general upheaval caused by the Napoleonic wars, and the consequent rearranging of the map of Europe. Denmark took the wrong side, as it turned out, and allied herself with Napoleon when his power was broken. Sweden, on the other hand, joined Russia, and so, when the allies emerged victorious from the historic struggle, Denmark was punished by being deprived of the crown of Norway, which, by the Treaty of Kiel in January, 1814, was proposed to be handed over to Sweden as a reward for Marshal Bernadotte’s assistance against his former chief. Prior to this, Bernadotte, by a strange romance of history, had been adopted as Crown Prince of Sweden in 18 10 by the childless King Charles the Thirteenth.

But the Norwegian people had to be reckoned with; and when tidings came of the Treaty of Kiel these hardy Norsemen promptly declined to be handed over to a new monarch in this cavalier fashion. A gathering at Eidsvold was held in February, 1814, and Prince Christian Frederick, then a Norwegian Statholder, and afterward King of Denmark, was appointed Regent. This was followed by a further meeting of a representative body of Norwegians, also held at Eidsvold, on the 20th of April, when the present constitution was drawn up, and on the 17th of May it was agreed to by all present amid a scene of great enthusiasm. On the same day Christian Frederick was chosen King.

After this events followed one another with some rapidity. Sweden proceeded to assert her claims by force, and Karl Johan Bernadotte led a Swedish army across the frontier; but the campaign only lasted fourteen days. After some unimportant skirmishing an armistice was agreed to, and the Convention of Moss was held on the 14th of August, at which the allies, England, Prussia, Russia, and Austria, were rep resented. This convention abrogated the Treaty of Kiel. Karl Johan agreed to maintain the Norwegian constitution, provided he was chosen King, and the Storthing was again summoned to consider the question. Christian Frederick’s courage, however, failed him, and he resigned and left Norway on the day the Storthing met. There was now no further difficulty, and the Swedish King, Karl the Thirteenth, was elected King of Norway by the Storthing on the 4th of November, 1814. The Crown Prince came to Christiania and swore to observe the Norwegian Constitution, and the next year the Rigsakt, or Act of Union, was passed by the Storthing. This Constitution has been sworn to by every succeeding King of Norway and Sweden up to the present day. It thus appears that the Constitution (Grundlov) approved at Eidsvold on the 17th of May, 1814, is the Magna Charta of Nor way, the guardian of her political freedom, the basis of her union with Sweden, and the document to whose terms all differences between the two countries require to be referred.

Before touching more particularly on these terms, one interesting point of military history requires to be cleared up. Why did the military campaign last only fourteen days? And, it may be further asked, is not something due to the magnanimity of Karl Johan and the Swedish people in granting such favorable terms to an apparently conquered foe who made so poor a fight? But here again this scant summary of events does serious injustice to Norway. Karl Johan was an astute politician as well as an experienced soldier, and there can be no reasonable doubt that the Convention of Moss was a mutual compromise, and that Norway was very far from entering into it as a conquered province. The result was partly owing to the pressure of the Allied Powers, partly to Bernadotte’s anxiety to settle the matter without delay on the eve of the Congress of Vienna, and largely also to the fact that Sweden was not then fully prepared to carry on the war and compel the Norwegians to submission by force of arms. Karl Johan must have known full well the difficulty of a fight to a finish in the wild and thickly wooded mountains of Norway against so hardy and determined a foe. So he took what he could get at the time, probably less than he wanted, much to the dis appointment of the Swedish governing classes. These had hoped for a union by which Norway would have become a mere province of Sweden.

Bjornstjerne Bjornson begins here.

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