In the years up to 1935 the various governments—formed alternately by the Conservatives, Venstre (the Liberals), and the Agrarian (Farmers’) Party—pursued, by and large, a liberal economic policy. After the inflation caused by World War I and the postwar years, the main aim during the 1920s was to guide the currency (the krone) back to its former value. Norway received only an insignificant share in improved world market conditions, and by 1927 the unemployment figures were as high as one-fifth of the workforce. The Great Depression in the early 1930s increased unemployment still further, and by 1933 at least one-third of the workforce, including many civil servants, was unemployed.
The government, led by the Agrarian Party (1931–33) and Venstre (1933–35), tried to combat the crisis with extensive reductions in governmental expenditure but refused to consider an expansionist financial policy or the emergency relief measures that the DNA demanded. The DNA thus enjoyed great success in the elections of 1933, although it failed to gain a majority in the Storting. When the DNA formed the government in 1935, with Johan Nygaardsvold as prime minister, it needed the support of at least one other party. By a compromise with the Agrarian Party, the DNA received support for a social program that included old-age pension reform, revision of the factory act, statutory holidays, and unemployment insurance financed by increased taxation. State investments were also greatly increased. Although the situation improved, unemployment in Norway was still as high as one-fifth of the organized labour force in 1938.
Despite economic difficulties, the high rate of unemployment, and the many labour conflicts, the interwar years were a period of vigorous expansion, and the country’s industrial production was increased by 75 percent during the years 1913–38. Foreign policy
During the 1920s Norway acquired the islands of Svalbard and Jan Mayen, and Norwegian hunters and fishermen occupied an area on the east coast of Greenland. Denmark’s demand for sovereignty of the area led to a conflict that was settled in the Permanent Court of International Justice in The Hague in 1933 in Denmark’s favour. In 1939 the government proclaimed that Queen Maud Land in Antarctica was under Norwegian sovereignty. Because the League of Nations in 1936 had proved ineffective at keeping the peace, Norway’s foreign minister, Halvdan Koht, attempted to coordinate the policy of the smaller states within the framework of the league in an effort to preserve peace. Norway continued to pursue a strictly neutral policy and declined Germany’s invitation to join in a nonaggression pact in 1939. World War II
With the outbreak of hostilities in 1939, Norway again declared itself neutral. On April 9, 1940, German troops invaded the country and quickly occupied Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, and Narvik. The Norwegian government rejected the German ultimatum regarding immediate capitulation. The Norwegian Army, which received help from an Allied expeditionary force, was unable to resist the superior German troops, however. After three weeks the war was abandoned in southern Norway. The Norwegian and Allied forces succeeded in recapturing Narvik but withdrew again on June 7, when the Allied troops were needed in France. The same day, King Haakon VII, Crown Prince Olaf, and the government left for London, and on June 10 the Norwegian troops in northern Norway capitulated. The government, through the Norwegian Shipping and Trade Mission (Nortraship), directed the merchant fleet, which made an important contribution to the Allied cause. Half of the fleet, however, was lost during the war.
In Norway, Vidkun Quisling, leader of the small Norwegian National Socialist party (Nasjonal Samling, or National Union)—which had never obtained a seat in the Storting—proclaimed a “national government” on April 9. This aroused such strong resistance, however, that the Germans thrust him aside on April 15, and an administrative council, consisting of high civil servants, was organized for the occupied territories. Political power was wielded by the German commissioner Josef Terboven. In September 1940 the administrative council was replaced by a number of “commissarial counselors,” who in 1942 formed a Nazi government under the leadership of Quisling. The Nazification attempt aroused strong resistance, however. Initially, this took the form of passive resistance and general strikes, which the Germans countered with martial law and death sentences. Once the resistance movement became more firmly organized, its members undertook large-scale industrial sabotage, of which the most important was that against the production of heavy water in Rjukan in southern Norway.
Quisling, VidkunVidkun Quisling.Courtesy of the Norwegian News Agency, Oslo
At the end of the war the German troops in Norway capitulated without offering resistance. On their retreat from Finland in late 1944 and early 1945, however, the Germans burned and ravaged Finnmark and northern Troms. The Soviet troops who liberated eastern Finnmark in November 1944 withdrew during the summer of 1945. The postwar period
The liberation was followed by trials of collaborators; 25 Norwegians, including Quisling (whose name has become a byword for a collaborating traitor), were sentenced to death and executed, and some 19,000 received prison sentences. By a strict policy that gave priority to the reconstruction of productive capacity in preference to consumer goods, Norway quickly succeeded in repairing the ravages left by the war. By 1949 the merchant fleet had attained its prewar size, and the figures for both industrial production and housing were greater than in the 1930s. Until the 1980s Norway had full or nearly full employment and a swiftly rising standard of living. Political and social change
After the liberation in 1945 a coalition government was formed under the leadership of Einar Gerhardsen. The general election in the autumn of 1945 gave the DNA a decisive majority, and a purely Labour government was formed with Gerhardsen as prime minister. The DNA governed almost continuously from 1945 to 1965. Haakon VII died in 1957 and was succeeded by his son, Olaf V. The Labour governments continued the social policies initiated in the 1930s. From 1957 old-age pensions were made universal, and in 1967 a compulsory earnings-related national supplementary pension plan came into effect. The old “poor law” was replaced by a law on national welfare assistance in 1964. The election of 1965 resulted in a clear majority for the four centre and right-wing parties, which formed a coalition government under the leadership of Per Borten. In 1971 the coalition government split, and the DNA again came to power, headed by Trygve Bratteli.
Olaf V, 1973Knudsens Fotosenter
As a consequence of the referendum on the European Economic Community (EEC), the Labour government resigned and was followed by a non-Socialist coalition government under the leadership of Lars Korvald. The DNA returned to power in 1973 with Bratteli again as prime minister. When he resigned as leader of the party and prime minister in 1976, he was succeeded by Odvar Nordli. Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norway’s first woman prime minister, took over the government and party leadership from Nordli in February 1981. Her government was defeated at the polls in September of that year, and a Conservative, Kåre Willoch, became prime minister. Brundtland returned as prime minister in May 1986 but was again defeated three years later. The Conservatives formed a three-party coalition government under Jan Peder Syse but resigned after one year over the issue of Norway’s future relationship with the EEC. Brundtland again formed a minority Labour government and continued to head it until her resignation in October 1996.