Kingdom of Norway
Government: parliamentary constitutional monarchy
Ruler: Gunnar Knudsen
Area: 150,000 SQM
Population: 2.4 million
Military: 35,000 men 4 battleships, 2 light cruisers, 21 torpedo ships,
2 submarines, three dozen smaller craft
According to tradition, Harald Fairhair was the first king of a unified Norway. Before this,
the region was split into many petty kingdoms or duchies that dotted all along the southern
end of the nation. Harald's realm was mainly a South Norwegian coastal state even when unified,
but they had claims to the more central and northern sections of the land, albeit this land
was lowly populated and very rugged. Fairhair ruled with a strong hand and according to the
Norse sagas, many Norwegians left the country to live in Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland,
and parts of Britain and Ireland, the lands that these Norwegians settled still pledged some form
of loyalty to the homeland but had near total autonomy. The start of the 14th century saw the
crowns of Norway and Sweden under one ruler, Magnus Erikson. He ruled Norway until 1350,
where just a few years previous the nation was hit hard by the black death. While the
death rate was comparable to the rest of Europe, Norway only had a population of half a million,
and the population was rather heavily scattered. This left the Norwegian state as rather poor,
with much of the nobility class wiped out. Denmark, Norway and Sweden were united under
the Kalmar Union from 1380 to 1520. I plan to do a full episode dedicated to talking about
the Kalmar Union in the future so I won't go into much detail about it in this series.
When Sweden broke away in 1521 from the union. It left the Danish, who had asserted their authority
over the Norwegian land for over a century, in near complete control. When Protestantism
was introduced into the country in 1536, the archbishopric in Trondheim was dissolved and
Norway lost its independence, being little more then a Danish colony. When the Napoleonic wars
came around, Denmark-Norway was on the losing side, and as such, the union between the two
separated, with Sweden gaining Norway while the colonial possessions of Iceland, Greenland and the
Faroe Islands stayed with Denmark. The Norwegians used this opportunity to declare independence but
neither them or the Swedes were able to gain a substantial advantage over the other. This led
to Norway and Sweden entering a personal union, which Norway managed to leave in 1905.
The peaceful dissolution of the union with Sweden in 1905 had an obvious consequence: Norway had to
establish a foreign service, as the foreign policy of the united kingdoms of Norway and Sweden had
been run from Stockholm. Norway did not have to start completely from scratch many Norwegian
diplomats and bureaucrats stepped down from the old service and joined the new . But it was still
necessary to establish a Norwegian foreign policy and to decide what role the Foreign
Service and the diplomats were to play. Foreign Minister Gunnar Knudsen outlined a
foreign policy developed on Norway's position away from the European conflict. The policy
focused on active international trade relations. Neutrality became the cornerstone of this policy,
with an emphasis on no political alliances that might drag the country into other peoples wars.
However, it is also important to stress that at heart the Norwegians believed that Britain would
protect the country and its economic assets in the case of a European war between the great
powers. Thus, in 1914, Norwegian foreign policy was understood to be essentially trade policy,
and the Norwegians were well aware that they were within the British sphere of influence.
When Germany declared war on Russia on 1 August, Norway, along with Sweden and Denmark,
issued a declaration of neutrality. On 4 August the Norwegian government issued an additional,
separate statement, again emphasizing its neutrality. Two days earlier,
the Norwegian navy had been mobilized and soldiers were sent to man the coastal fortresses;
the neutrality guard was thus established. Norway was ready to defend its neutrality,
despite being both politically and militarily unprepared for war.
The first priority of the government was to keep Norway out of the war;
the second was to provide supplies in order to feed the population and maintain economic
stability. The catastrophic effect of the British blockade during the Napoleonic Wars was still a
part of the collective memory. More than half of Norway s population depended on farming or
fishing for their livelihoods. The balance between keeping the country out of war and
providing the country with necessary supplies was a fine balancing act between two objectives.
The awareness that war was coming created a short-lived panic. There was a huge increase
in the demand for certain foodstuffs which caused a large price increase, especially in flour,
during the last days of July. Already in August 1914 the first Norwegian declarations concerning
export prohibitions and price regulations had been published. Further declarations were to follow.
These declarations made it possible for the state to control much of the economy. The government
issued an export ban making it impossible to sell Norwegian ships to other countries. Economically,
Norway s position as a neutral country was favorable, but politically it was rather
vulnerable. Unable to feed itself and heavily dependent upon overseas imports,
Norway was in an exposed position. While Germany was interested in keeping Norway
neutral and continuing to receive supplies from it, Britain wanted Norway to become a part of the
economic blockade of Germany and deny Germany the supplies it needed from foreign markets. The war
drained the Norwegian government financially. Financing the neutrality guard was costly,
as thousands of men were mobilized for more than four years. However, the real cost of government
regulations was not felt until two years after the war with Norway having accumulated a massive
debt. In the 1920s, the shifting government was left with a troublesome economic situation.
This became even more difficult because of the decision to re-establish the gold standard.
In addition to the economic consequences, the big legacy of the First World War was that it
confirmed Norway s perception of its security. It was possible to stay neutral in a war between the
great powers. Situated at the European periphery, with both Germany and Russia reduced from their
former glory, there was no threat to Norway s independence. This became the foundation for
Norwegian defense policy in the interwar period, a perception that was to be proven wrong in 1940.
I hope you enjoyed this brief look into Norway during the first world war. If you'd like to
learn more about the other Scandinavian nations during the first world war click
here for the episode about Denmark and here for the episode about Sweden.