Independence: International Angles
Norway at the dawn of sovereign statehood
Professor Øyvind Østerud, Department of Political Science, University of Oslo
“The
union with
Sweden,
which lasted
until 1905,
was quite
loose.”
Norway became a sovereign state in
1814, after more than 400 years as
a province governed by Denmark.
In the Kiel treaty of January
1814, after Napoleon’s defeat at
Leipzig, sovereignty over Norway
was transferred from the Danish to
the Swedish king. The Danish king
had been allied to Napoleon, while
Sweden supported the victorious
powers.
There were no state institutions on
Norwegian soil during Danish reign.
How could Norway emerge from
the Napoleonic wars with sovereign
statehood?
The diplomatic and war flag
of the Swedish-Norwegian
Union.
A postcard from the time of
the Norwegian referendum
1905. Published by John
Grieg, in Bergen.
First, Norwegian statehood from
1814 had two distinct sources. It
was a gift from the great powers
who forced Denmark to surrender
Norway, as punishment for
Denmark’s support of Napoleon.
Then there was a political selfawareness among the Norwegian
elites and parts of the broader
public, together with the ambitions
of the Danish viceroy in Norway,
who volunteered to be crowned
as head of the new Norwegian
state. The viceroy was prince of
Denmark. He gave direction to
Norwegian patriotism, even if his
long-term vision might have been a
reunification with Denmark. He was
forced by Sweden to resign from the
Norwegian crown (but he made his
come-back as king of Denmark in
1839).
Second, the Swedish royal
authorities accepted the Norwegian
constitution of 17th May with few
modifications. The decision-making
competence of the Norwegian
Parliament, the Storting, was
preserved within a personal union
headed by the joint king, even if
Sweden was the major royal power
base. Sweden did not enforce
supremacy in Norway in the
immediate aftermath of the Kiel
treaty, since their military forces
were preoccupied with the allied
march against France. When they
turned to Norway in the summer
of 1814, after the rebellion of
the constitutional assembly, the
newly elected king capitulated
quickly and promised to leave the
country. Sweden, on the other hand,
compromised and accepted the
strong position of the Storting.
The union with Sweden, which
lasted until 1905, was quite loose.
Under this union, foreign policy was
a royal prerogative, but otherwise
Norwegian institutions reigned
supreme. In legal affairs, the royal
veto could postpone decisions made
by the Storting, but not block them
with finite force. The two countries
had quite separate economies
with a different economic base.
The populations had not been
extensively mixed and they retained,
or even cultivated, their separate
cultural identities.
Even without state institutions,
Norway as a separate political entity
had a flying start with the university
in Christiania (now Oslo) from
1811. Many notables in the new
state saw the national university
as a cornerstone of emerging
administrative institutions. The
major Norwegian elites had their
background as prominent figures
in the dual kingdom of DenmarkNorway. Many of them had nurtured
Norwegian patriotism as students
in Copenhagen during the last
decades of the 18th century.
This experience, as public figures
and officials, made it easier to
construct state institutions in
Norway. Major
ministries were
organized already
in the autumn
of 1814. The
Supreme Court
was established
the year after.
The militar B