the kingdom of norway(norwegian:kongeriket norge-bokmål;kongeriket noreg-nynorsk)** a nordic country on the western portion of the scandin**ian peninsula,located in europe,and bordering sweden,finland and russia.norway has a very elongated shape;the country's extensive coastline along the north atlantic ocean ** home to its famous fjords.the kingdom of norway also includes the arctic **land territories of svalbard and jan mayen.the norwegian sovereignty on svalbard ** based upon the svalbard treaty,but th** does not apply to jan mayen.bouvet **land in the south atlantic ocean and a claim for peter i **land in the south pacific ocean are also external dependencies,but these are not part of the kingdom.norway also claims queen maud land in antarctica where it has establ**hed the troll permanent research station.
h**tory
main article:h**tory of norway
archaeological finds indicate that there were people in norway as early as about 12,000 years ago.they probably came from southern regions,that ** northern germany,and tr**eled farther north along the norwegian coastline.
in the 9th century,norway cons**ted of a number of petty kingdoms.according to tradition,harald fairhair gathered the small kingdoms into one in 872 with the battle of hafrsfjord.he became the first king of a united norway.
the viking age(8th to 11th centuries)was one of unification and expansion.the norwegians establ**hed settlements on iceland,the faroe **lands,greenland and parts of britain and ireland,and attempted to settle at l'anse aux meadows in newfoundland,canada(it ** the vinland of the saga of eric the red).norwegians founded the modern-day ir**h cities of limerick and waterford and establ**hed trading communities near the celtic settlements of cork and dublin which later became ireland's two most important cities.the spread of chr**tianity in norway in th** period ** in large part attributed to the m**sionary kings ol** trygvason(995-1000)and saint ol**(1015-1028),although haakon the good was norway's first chr**tian king and the norse tradition was replaced slowly over two centuries(9th and 10th centuries).
in 1349,the black death wiped out between 40%and 50%of the norwegian population,[1]causing a decline in both society and economics.during th** decline,the fairhair dynasty died out in 1387.royal politics at the time resulted in several personal unions between the nordic countries,eventually bringing the thrones of norway,denmark,and sweden under the control of queen margrethe when the country entered into the kalmar union with denmark and sweden.sweden declared its independence in 1523,but norway remained under the oldenburg dynasty for 434 years until 1814.during the national romantic**m of the 19th century,th** period was by some referred to as the"400-year night",since all of the kingdom's royal,intellectual,and admin**trative power was centered in copenhagen,denmark.however,it must be said that the common people of norway had freedom and paid lower taxes than the dan**h people because it was difficult for royal bureaucracy to h**e strict control over its d**tant norwegian provinces.other factors also contributed to norway's decline in th** period.with the introduction of protestant**m in 1537,the archb**hopry in trondheim was d**solved,and and the church's incomes were d**tributed to the court in copenhagen in denmark instead.norway lost the steady stream of pilgrims to the relics of st.ol** at the nidaros shrine,and with them,much of the contact with cultural and economic life in the rest of europe.additionally,norway saw its land area decrease in the 17th century with the loss of the provinces bohuslän,jemtland,and herjedalen to sweden,as a result of the wars between denmark-norway and sweden.
after denmark-norway was attacked by britain,it entered into an alliance with napoleon,and in 1814 found itself on the losing side in the napoleonic wars and in dire conditions and mass starvation in 1812.the dano-norwegian oldenburg king was forced to cede norway to the king of sweden.norway took th** opportunity to declare independence,adopted a constitution based on american and french models,and elected the dan**h crown prince chr**tian fredrik as king on may 17,1814.however,sweden militarily forced norway into a personal union with sweden,establ**hing the bernadotte dynasty as rulers of norway.under th** arrangement,norway kept its liberal constitution and independent institutions,except for the foreign service.see also norway in 1814.
th** period also saw the r**e of the norwegian romantic national**m cultural movement,as norwegians sought to define and express a d**tinct national character.the movement covered all branches of culture,including literature(henrik wergeland,bjørnstjerne bjørnson,peter chr**ten a**jørnsen,jørgen moe,henrik ibsen),painting(hans gude,adolph tiedemand),music(edvard grieg),and even language policy,where attempts to define a native written language for norway led to today's two official written forms for norwegian;bokmål and nynorsk.
chr**tian michelsen,a norwegian shipping magnate and statesman,was prime min**ter of norway from 1905 to 1907.michelsen ** most known for h** central role in the peaceful separation of norway from sweden on june 7,1905.norway's growing d**sat**faction with the union with sweden during the late 19th century,combined with national**m contributed to the d**solution of the union.after a national referendum confirmed the people's preference for a monarchy over a republic,the norwegian ** offered the throne of norway to the dan**h prince carl.parliament stortinget unanimously elected him king.he took the name of haakon vii,after the medieval kings of independent norway.in 1898 all men were granted universal sufferage,and in 1913,norwegian women too suffrage.
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 april 9,1940(operation weserübung).the allies also had plans to invade norway,in order to take advantage of her strategically important atlantic coast,but were thwarted by the german operation.norway was unprepared of the german surpr**e attack,and military res**tance in norway went on for two months,longer than both poland and france.the battle of vinjesvingen eventually became the last stronghold of norwegian res**tance in southern norway in may,while the armed forces in the north launced an offensive againt the german forces in the battles of narvik,until they were forced to surrender june 8th after the fall of france.king haakon and the norwegian ** continued the fight from exile in rotherhithe,london.on the day of the invasion,the collaborative leader of the small national-social**t party nasjonal samling—vidkun qu**ling—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,reichskomm**sar josef terboven.qu**ling,as min**ter president,later formed a ** under german control.during the five years of nazi occupation,norwegians built a strong res**tance movement which fought the german occupation forces with both armed res**tance and civil d**obedience.but important to the allied war effort was the role of the norwegian merchant n**y.at the time of the invasion norway had the third largest,fastest and the most effective merchant n**y in the world.it was led by the norwegian shipping company nortraship under the allied force throughout the war and took part in every war operation from the evacuation of dunkirk to the normandy landings.
following the war,the social democrats came to power and ruled the country for much of the cold war.norway joined nato in 1949,and became a close ally of the united states.two pleb**cites to join the european union failed by narrow margins.large reserves of oil and gas were d**covered in the 1960s,which lead to a continuing boom in the economy.