The Danes did not intend for this agreement to end the union with Norway. Officially loyal to the Treaty of Kiel, the Danish government worked for the eventual return of Norway. This probably is why the crown prince Christian Frederick (later Christian VIII of Denmark), governor of Norway, colluded with the Danish king in organizing a rising against the Treaty of Kiel. In doing so he needed support in Norway, and he thus came to rely on two political forces, each with regionalist aims. The larger faction consisted of civil servants and peasants who were loyal to Copenhagen but traditionally in opposition to its centralizing policy. The other was the small but important group of timber merchants in eastern Norway who wanted independence from Copenhagen for their trade with western Europe. Since 1809 they had conspired for a union between Sweden and Norway.
Christian VIII, detail of an oil painting by L.-A.-F. Aumont, 1834; in Frederiksborg Castle, DenmarkCourtesy of the Nationalhistoriske Museum paa Frederiksborg, Denmark
This was the main background of a constituent assembly called by Christian Frederick to meet at Eidsvoll, 30 miles north of Christiania. It drew up the constitution of May 17, 1814 (which still exists), and elected Christian to the throne of Norway. Union with Sweden
Norwegian independence got no support from the Great Powers, and Sweden attacked Norway in late July 1814. After a brief war of 14 days, Christian resigned. Jean Bernadotte (later known as Charles XIV John; called Karl Johan in Sweden and Norway), the Swedish crown prince, accepted the Norwegian constitution and thus could no longer argue on the basis of the Treaty of Kiel. This was of the greatest political importance to the Norwegians. As a constitutional monarchy, Norway entered the union with Sweden in November 1814. Only minor modifications were made in its constitution—the king and foreign policy would be common; the king would be commander in chief of Norway’s armed forces, which could not be used outside Norway without Norwegian consent; and a government in Christiania (with a section in Stockholm) and the Storting (Norwegian parliament) would take care of national affairs. Gudmund Sandvik
For Norway the Treaty of Kiel meant secession from Denmark, the forming of its own separate state with complete internal self-government, and a political centre in Christiania. The history of Norway during the 19th century is marked by the struggle to assert its independence from Sweden within the union and its attempts to develop a modern Norwegian culture. It was a time when an unmistakably national cultural identity emerged, which continued to take shape in the 20th century, based on the foundations of the independent Norwegian state of the Middle Ages. Individuals associated with the rise of a distinct Norwegian culture include the mathematicians Niels Henrik Abel and Sophus Lie, the physical scientists Christopher Hansteen and Vilhelm Bjerknes, the composer Edvard Grieg, the creator of modern realistic drama Henrik Ibsen, the poets Henrik Arnold Wergeland and Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson, the historians Peter Andreas Munch and Johan Ernst Sars, the explorer and statesman Fridtjof Nansen, and the expressionist painter Edvard Munch.
Edvard Grieg.IGDA—M.Borchi/DeA Picture Library
Population, trade, and industry
Population
Norway’s population grew more rapidly during the 19th century than in any other period of its history. The population rose from 883,000 in 1801 to 2,240,000 in 1900. Whereas the urban population was only 8.8 percent in 1800, it had reached 28 percent by 1900. Economic growth, although considerable during the century, could not keep pace with the burgeoning population, and this was one of the principal causes of a massive emigration of Norwegians. After Ireland, Norway had the highest relative emigration of all European countries in the 19th century. From 1840 to 1914 about 750,000 people left Norway; most were from rural areas and were drawn to the farming opportunities of the American Midwest. Economic conditions
Norway was also severely hit by the economic crisis that followed the Napoleonic Wars. Norway’s exports consisted mainly of wooden goods to Great Britain and, to a certain extent, of glass and iron products. After the war, when the British introduced preferential tariffs on articles of wood from Canada, Norwegian forest owners, sawmills, and export firms were badly hit. Iron and glass exports also met with marketing difficulties. Fish—which, after timber, was the country’s most important export commodity—was only lightly hit by the slump, and by the 1820s the herring fisheries on the west coast were undergoing a period of vigorous expansion. From the 1850s agriculture developed rapidly. Modern methods were adopted, with an emphasis on cattle breeding. Simultaneously, the building of railroads began ending the isolation of the small communities and opening the way for the sale of agricultural products.
It was, however, the great expansion of merchant shipping (especially between 1850 and 1880) that gave the most powerful boost to the country’s economy. Norway’s percentage of world tonnage rose from 3.6 percent to 6.1 percent, and at the end of the century Norway possessed, after the United Kingdom and the United States, the largest merchant navy in the world. The economic resources that merchant shipping brought to the country laid the basis for industrialization. From 1860 Norway’s industry expanded rapidly, especially in the timber and wood-pulp trade and engineering. Socially and economically this expansion was a springboard for shipowners, manufacturers, and businessmen, all of whom began to play a much greater role in politics toward the end of the 19th century. The age of bureaucracy (1814–84)
The economic development in the decades immediately after the Napoleonic Wars meant a reduction in the power of the big business concerns and great estates. The decision to abolish the nobility in 1821 was indicative of the greatly reduced social and economic circumstances of the upper classes. At the same time, the position of the civil servants was strengthened, and from then until the latter part of the 19th century they controlled the political power of the country. Apart from the civil servants, there were only two other political factors of any importance in Norway at this time: the farmers and the monarch. Parliamentary authority
The Eidsvoll constitution of 1814 gave the Storting greater authority than parliamentary bodies had in any other country except the United States. The king retained executive power and chose his own ministers, but legislation, the imposition of taxes, and the budget were within the authority of the Storting. The Storting had the power to initiate legislation, and the king had only a suspension veto. When Charles XIV John (ruled 1818–44) demanded the right of absolute veto, the Storting categorically refused, despite the king’s attempt to intimidate them with shows of military strength. Faced with this unanimous resistance, the king was forced to abandon his struggle, and the Storting’s dominant position became the firm defense against Swedish attempts to further unite the two countries. As a national demonstration, Norway began in the 1820s to celebrate May 17, the date of the Eidsvoll constitution, as a national day. The king’s attempt to outlaw the celebration resulted in violent demonstrations, and during the 1830s he conceded this point also.
Charles XIV John, detail of an oil painting by Fredrik Westin, 1824; in Gripsholm Castle, Sweden.Courtesy of the Svenska Portrattarkivet, Stockholm
Monetary problems
Norway had at the same time many major problems to resolve on the domestic front. The war, which had been financed to a great extent by an increased issue of bank notes, had brought about a reduction of the local currency to one-fifteenth of its prewar value. To ward off inflation, a severe sterling tax was imposed, and in 1816 a new bank of Norway was established that held the monopoly on issuing bank notes. In spite of strong precautionary measures, however, it was not until the currency reform of 1842 that finances were stabilized. From an economic point of view, the civil service was decidedly liberal, and the guild system and old trade regulations were abolished during the 1840s and ’50s. By 1842 it was decided to reduce tariffs, a decision that gradually made Norway a free-trade country. Political change