Norway

The kingdom of Norway (of Norðrvegr , or “way of North”) is a country of Northern Europe located at the west of the Scandinavian peninsula. It has common borders with the Sweden, the Finland and the Russia.

With: 4600000 inhabitants for: 385199 km ², of which: 307860 km ² of ground, Norway is after the Iceland the country the least densément populated Europe. It is also one of the richest countries of the world, thanks to an important oil production in particular. It is also one of the States whose industrial relations policy is most generous.

Norway has for capital Oslo, official language the Norwegian and a currency the crown (NOK) norvégienne.

She exerts her sovereignty on the archipelago of Svalbard, the island of Jan Mayen, the Île Pierre Ier and the island Bouvet.

History

See also: History of Norway

The Norwegian nation affirmed for the first time its unit and its will of expansion at the time of the great raids Viking S, of the {{Romanian|IX}} {{E}} at the 11th century. Frightening navigators, the Vikings of Norwegian origin quickly extended their influence to the islands the Shetland, with the the Orkneys, the Hébrides and the island of Man. Since the the Shetland, they will establish then more durable colonies in the Faroe Islands, in Iceland and with the Greenland.

There does not exist however yet of central authority in Norway itself, besides where the communications are made more by sea route terrestrial. At the 8th century, Norway was still divided into twenty-nine small independent kingdoms.

The first known king who would have reigned on all Norway would be Harald I {{er}} with the Beautiful Hair (872 - 933) which carries it according to the sagas in 872 on the dukes ( jarl ). The elder one of its sons, Erik “Chops bloody” is détrôné in 935 by the chief Viking Haakon Ier the Good. His/her small son, Olaf Tryggveson (995 - 1000) succeeds to him but it is driven out by Danish king Sven “Bores fourchue”. Norway is then divided between Sven and the jarl of Trondheim. It is necessary to await the year 1016 to find a true founding father of the Norwegian kingdom, in the person of the king Olaf Haraldsson, who establishes his capital with Trondheim. Olaf, former Viking, brings back his many voyages the Christianisme, and converts the population by the force, which is worth to him to be canonized in holy Olaf.

At the 13th century, a young fore-mentioned adventurer Sverre Sigurdsson seized the capacity and founded a new dynasty, installed with Bergen. Nevertheless, because it capacity growing held by the Hanseatic League in this city, the capital of the country was fixed finally at Oslo at the beginning of the 14th century.

The year 1380 sees the extinction of the Norwegian royal dynasty, with the death of the king Haakon VI. His wife Margrethe, girl of the king of Denmark, obtains the succession and thus devotes the union of Denmark and Norway. The Sweden comes to be added to this field in 1397, forming the “Union of Kalmar”. Denmark, within this union, exerts a clear domination, and Norway is hardly any more whereas a Danish province, with the Danish for official language.

The emancipation of Sweden, with the revolt of Gustave Vasa, puts a term at the union of Kalmar in 1523. Norway, it, remains nevertheless under domination of the Danes. The latter, in 1536, impose on the country the Réforme Lutheran, which resulted in to dry up the flood of the travellers going in pilgrimage near the relics of Olaf Saint, with Trondheim (in the past Nidaros ) and to still more cut the country of the rest of the world.

Because of the alliance contracted by the kingdom dano-Norwegian with Napoleon, the victorious united powers yield Norway to Sweden in 1814. In reaction, a national Convention meets in Eidsvoll in the Akershus: she declares the independence of the kingdom of Norway and adopts a constitution (it is the constitution written oldest still into force in Europe), before appointing as king the Danish prince Christian-Frederic, the May 17th 1814. A compromise is finally found, and makes of Norway a distinct kingdom, but in personal union with the king of Sweden.

This mode, in spite of several concessions, involved a dissatisfaction growing with the Norwegians during the 19th century, and was dissolved without bloodshed the June 7th 1905. Following a referendum confirming the monarchical nature of the new mode, the government offered the crown to a Danish prince, who was elected by the Parliament under the name of Haakon VII.

Norway managed to preserve its Neutralité during the First World War, because of its particularly dissuasive naval power. It did not go from there in the same way during the Second world war, during which the country was invaded by the German troops within the framework of the Opération Weserübung. Armed resistance lasted up to three months in certain areas, but the king and the government chose to exile and continue the fight since London.

Occupied Norway was directed by the chief of the occupying forces, the Reichskommissar Josef Terboven. The chief of the party local Nazi, Vidkun Quisling, was authorized to form a government collaborationnist, under German supervision. After the intervention of the Allied in the south and Red Army in north, the last occupants capitulated with the remainder of the German forces, the May 8th 1945.

The episode of the German occupation returned to the Norwegians more skeptics with respect to the concept of neutrality, and the country adopted a new strategy based on the collective security. After the failure of the introduction of a Scandinavian Union of defense, Norway was one of the founding members of NATO, in 1949, and of the UNO, to which it provides its first general secretary (Trygve Lie).

Norway refused twice by referendum to join the European Union, in 1972 and 1994. The European debate continues nevertheless to unchain passions, with approximately 50 % of the population in each camp the country in addition forms part, like the Iceland, of the European Economic space (EEE), as well as Espace Schengen since 2001.

Policy

See also: Political of Norway, Norwegian Political parties

Norway is a Constitutional monarchy with parliamentary tendency.

The royal family, originating in the the Schleswig-Holstein, goes down from the princely family of Glücksbourg. The king plays essentially only one honorary part, but it constitutes a strong symbol of national unit. Although the constitution of 1814 grants to him important prerogatives in the field of the executive, these last are almost always exerted on its behalf by the government.

The government is composed of the Prime Minister and the ministerial team, all named by the king. But since 1884, the parliamentary evolution of the mode makes that the government must obtain a vote of confidence of the Parliament: the designation of the government by the king is thus only one formality.

The Norwegian Parliament (the Storting ) is monocaméral and includes/understands 169 members (either four members moreover following the elections of 2005). The deputies are elected every four years in each of the 19 counties of the country, with the representation proportional. After the elections, the Parliament is divided into two rooms, the Odelsting and the Lagting , which will be able then to meet separately or jointly according to the importance of about a day. The Parliament and the government are in permanent dialog with the others Scandinavian countries within the framework of the Scandinavian Conseil.

With the head of the legal system the Supreme court, or Høyesterett is, made up of 17 judges and a president. One finds then the courses of call, the courts ordinary and the Justice of the Peace. The judges are named by the king and the government, on a proposal from the Minister for justice. The “high court of the Kingdom” is a special jurisdiction intended, if necessary, to decide dismissal of the sovereign.

See also: International relations of Norway/List of the kings de Norvège/List of the Prime Ministers of Norway

Geography

Administration

The great areas ( Landsdeler )

Norway is traditionally divided into five Landsdeler , or great areas, whose delimitations are founded on geographical and linguistic criteria:

The counties (departments)

The country counts moreover 19 fylker , or counties, which ensure of important administrative offices:

Østfold
Akershus
Oslo
Hedmark
Oppland
Buskerud
Vestfold
Telemark
Aust-Agder
Vest-Agder
Rogaland
Hordaland
Sogn og Fjordane
Møre og Romsdal
Sør-Trøndelag
North-Trøndelag
Nordland
Troms
Finnmark

(Number 13 disappeared in 1972 when Bergen was integrated into the county of Hordaland)

The communes ( Kommuner )

At the local level, Norway counts 433 communes ( kommuner ).

Company

Language

Religion

Demography

Economy

See also: Economy of Norway, List of Norwegian companies

The Norwegian economy is a prosperous bastion of the social Capitalisme, offering a combination successful between the freedom of the markets and the intervention of the State. The government, by the means of public large companies, controls some particularly strategic fields, like part of the oil sector . But a wave of Privatization S.A. begun in 2000, when the State sold a third of the company Statoil, that it controlled hitherto in its totality.

The country abounds in natural resources (Pétrole, hydroelectricity, fish, forests, minerals…) and its prosperity is very dependant on the incomes generated by the exploitation of oil: this last represented in 1999, with gas, 35 % of exports of the country. Only the Saudi Arabia and the Russia, export more than Norway, which does not form part of OPEC.

The economic growth is strong and reached 4,1% in 2005

In spite of a standard of living cash among highest in the world, the Norwegians worry in connection with the two next decades, when their gas reserves and of oil start to become exhausted. This is why the country has garnered, for already several years, part of the incomes generated by oil in the funds tanker of Norway . The capital thus obtained is invested abroad: with the end 2006, it is estimated at 215 billion Euro S.

In November 2006, the rate of Chômage is descended to 2,1 % of the active population is: 50200 applicants for work.

Culture

Music

Ole Bull (1810-1880) was certainly the first Norwegian violonist to reach an international repute. He occurred in Europe and in the United States and left also a varied work.

But it is Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) which illustrates best the Norwegian music. He was inspired in his works by the Norwegian traditional music and ensured in particular the setting in music of parts of Henrik Ibsen.

Norway is known inter alia to have lodged many groups of Black metal, in particular in the years 1990. Here is a nonexhaustive list: Mayhem, Darkthrone, Burzum, Immortal, Emperor, Satyricon, or discussed the Dimmu Borgir. More recently of other groups such as 1349 or Taake appeared. Several of these groups were besides at the origin of crimes or vandalisations (for example of many churches out of wooden upright were burned, like the church of Fantoft in 1993 by Varg Vikernes of Burzum) in the years 1990.

However several of them moved away from the black traditional metal to go towards a form of music single and picking for example in the electro one, the progressive one or the undue money. One can quote for example Arcturus and Dodheimsgard. Some even will change style radically as Ulver which passed by ambient méditatif and the electro one/jazz before arriving at a new mixture on Blood inside.

Norway off comprises other groups of metal like Theater Tragedy or Tristania which practices Gothic metal.

Lastly, since the Years 1980 and in spite of an image of servant boys-band, the group Have-ha remains the representative of pop Norwegian throughout the world. Their last album in Similar date, , left in 2005, was sold with more: 550000 specimens.

But the Norwegian music is not only metal. Several musicians and Norwegian groups of jazz are known everywhere in Europe (and some also in the United States), such as for example Jan Garbarek, the Nile Petter Molvær, Bugge Wesseltoft, Arild Andersen, Erlend Skomsvoll/Like Shine, Jon Christensen, Jaga Jazzist and Wibutee.

Within the framework of the pop, one can off find groups universally known like Kings Convenience, Röyksopp, Sondre Lerche, etc

Statistics

Index of human development (IDH): 1st on 173 in 2000, 1st on 177 in 2003

Indicating of human poverty (IPH-2): 1st on 17 developed Countries (IPH-2 of 7,1%)

See too

Alsten

External bonds

official Gate of Norway
Infos Gudbrandsdalen
a bibliography with accompanying notes on Norway
Wikipédia in Norwegian

Bibliographical references

ORBAN Franck, Norway and the European Union: between Scandinavian Europeanization and marginalisation, n°2, the Scandinavian Countries and the Europe per hour of widening, May-August 2003, p. 77-95
RIEKER Pernille, the European Union, Norway and the Far North, Scandinavian n°9, the stakes of the Far North, Winter 2005-2006, p. 53-66
SKIRBEKK Gunnar, the Philosophie gains ground in Norway. Sails or instrument to overcome the crisis of the modern societies? , Scandinavian Scandinavian n°3, philosophies, Winter 2003-2004, p. 65-75
CHILLAUD Matthieu, Norway and safety in the area of the Sea of Barents, Scandinavian n°7, Questions strategic, Spring-Be 2005, p. 65-82
GAHR Jonas BLIND, Norway, the France and the Scandinavian Far North, n°9, stakes of the Far North, Winter 2005-2006, p. 41-52

Sources

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