1.
Scandinavian prehistory
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The Scandinavian Peninsula became ice-free around 11,000 BC, at the end of the last ice age. The Nordic Stone Age begins at time, with the Upper Paleolithic Ahrensburg culture. The Neolithic stage is marked by the Funnelbeaker culture, followed by the Pitted Ware culture, around 2800 BC, metal was introduced in Scandinavia in the Corded Ware culture. In much of Scandinavia, a Battle Axe culture became prominent, the period 2500 BC –500 BC also left many visible remains to modern times, most notably the many thousands rock carvings in western Sweden at Tanumshede and in Norway at Alta. A more advanced culture came with the Nordic Bronze Age and it was followed by the Iron Age by the 4th century BC. The pre-history of Sweden begins at the end of the Pleistocene epoch at the beginning of Holocene epoch, following the last ice age, at the end of the ice age, large parts of south and middle Sweden were covered by water. Parts of Denmark, Scania and the Norwegian coast line were free from ice around 13000 BC and it wasnt until 7000 BC that all of Svealand and the modern coastal regions of North-eastern Sweden were free of ice, although the land was by then deeply pressed underwater. By this time, Denmark and Sweden were joined and the Baltic Sea of the age was a fresh water lake called the Ancylus Lake, the Ancylus age is followed by formation of the Littorina Sea and the Litorina Stage at around 6200 BC. With the first human colonization of new land during the Ancylus. As the ice receded reindeer grazed on the plains of Denmark and this was the land of the Ahrensburg culture, whose members hunted over territories 100000 km² vast and lived in teepees on the tundra. On this land there was little forest but arctic white birch and rowan, in the 7th millennium BC, when the reindeer and their hunters had moved for northern Scandinavia, forests had been established in the land. Utilizing fire, boats and stone tools enabled these Stone Age inhabitants to survive life in northern Europe, the northern hunter/gatherers followed the herds and the salmon runs, moving south during the winters, moving north again during the summers. The Maglemosian people lived in forest and wetland environments using fishing and hunting tools made from wood, bone, a characteristic of the culture are the sharply edged microliths of flintstone which were used for spear heads and arrowheads. Microliths finds are sparse from c.6000 BC and the period is said to transit into the Kongemose culture. The finds from this period are characterised by long flintstone flakes which were used for making the characteristic rhombic arrowheads, scrapers, drills, awls, during the 6th millennium BC, southern Scandinavia was clad in lush forests of temperate broadleaf and mixed forests. In these forests roamed animals such as aurochs, wisent, moose, now, the Kongemose culture lived off these animals. Like their predecessors, they hunted seals and fished in the rich waters. North of the Kongemose people, lived other hunter-gatherers in most of southern Norway and Sweden, called the Nøstvet and Lihult cultures, descendants of the Fosna and Hensbacka cultures
2.
Nordic Stone Age
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The Nordic Stone Age refers to the Stone Age of Scandinavia. As the ice receded, reindeer grazed on the plains of Denmark and southernmost Sweden, while along the coast of western Sweden, marine resources were exploited. This was the land of the Ahrensburg culture and preceding Hamburg culture, tribes who hunted over territories 100,000 km² vast, on this land there was little forest but arctic white birch and rowan, but the taiga slowly appeared. In the 7th millennium BCE, the climate in Scandinavia was warming as it transitioned from the former Boreal age to the Atlantic period, reindeer and their hunters had already migrated and inhabited the lands of northern Scandinavia, and forests had established. A culture called the Maglemosian culture lived in the areas of Denmark, to the north, in Norway and along the coast of western Sweden, the Fosna-Hensbacka culture was living mostly in changing seasonal camps along the shores and close to the now thriving forests. Utilizing fire, boats and stone tools, these Stone Age tribal cultures managed to survive in northern Europe, the northern hunter-gatherers followed the herds and the salmon runs, moving south during the winters, moving north again during the summers. During the 6th millennium BCE, the climate of Scandinavia was generally warmer and more humid than today, large animals like aurochs, wisent, moose and red deer roamed freely in the forests and was hunting game for tribes of what we now call the Kongemose culture. Like their predecessors, the Kongemose tribes also hunted animals such as seals. North of the Kongemose people, lived other hunter-gatherers in most of southern Norway and Sweden, now dubbed the Nøstvet and Lihult cultures, descendants of the Fosna and Hensbacka cultures. During the 5th millennium BCE, the Ertebølle people learned pottery from neighbouring tribes in the south, soon, they too started to cultivate the land and, ca 4000 BCE, they became part of the megalithic Funnelbeaker culture. During the 4th millennium BCE, these Funnelbeaker tribes expanded into Sweden up to Uppland, the Nøstvet and Lihult tribes learned new technology from the advancing farmers, but not agriculture, and became the Pitted Ware cultures, towards the end of the 4th millennium BCE. At least one settlement appears to be mixed, the Alvastra pile-dwelling and this new people advanced up to Uppland and the Oslofjord, and they probably provided the language that was the ancestor of the modern Scandinavian languages. These new tribes were individualistic and clearly patriarchal with the axe as a status symbol. They were cattle herders and with them most of southern Scandinavia entered the Neolithic, however, soon a new invention would arrive, that would usher in a time of cultural advance in Scandinavia, the Bronze Age
3.
Iron Age Scandinavia
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Iron Age Scandinavia refers to the Iron Age, as it unfolded in Scandinavia. The 6th and 5th century BC was a point for exports and imports on the European continent. Now they had to be practically self-dependent and self-sustaining, archaeology attests a rapid and deep change in the Scandinavian culture and way of life. Agricultural production became more intensified, organized around larger settlements and with a much more labour-intensive production, slaves were introduced and deployed, something uncommon in the Nordic Bronze Age. Bronze could not be produced in Scandinavia, as tin was not a natural resource. Iron is a metal and was suitable for tools and weapons. The Bronze Age ard plough was still the plough of choice, previously, herds of livestock had pasture grazed freely in large wood pastures, but were now placed in stables, probably to utilize manure more efficiently and increase agricultural production. Even though the advent of the Iron Age in Scandinavia was a time of great crisis, the period might just reflect a change of culture and not necessarily a decline in standards of living. The Iron Age in Scandinavia and Northern Europe begins around 500 BC with the Jastorf culture, AD800 and the beginning Viking Age. It succeeds the Nordic Bronze Age with the introduction of metallurgy by contact with the Hallstatt D/La Tène cultures. Jørgen Jensen, I begyndelsen, Gyldendal og Politikens Danmarks Historie, ISBN 87-89068-26-2 Bente Magnus, G Franceschi, Asger Jorn, Men, Gods and Masks in Nordic Iron Age Art
4.
Migration Period
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The Migration Period was a time of widespread migrations within or into Europe in the middle of the first millennium AD. It has also been termed the Völkerwanderung and, from the Roman, many of the migrations were movements of Germanic, Slavic, and other peoples into the territory of the then Roman Empire, with or without accompanying invasions or war. Although immigration was common throughout the time of the Roman Empire, later invasions, also had significant effects, however, they are outside the scope of the Migration Period. Germanic peoples moved out of southern Scandinavia and Germany to the adjacent lands between the Elbe and Oder after 1000 BC. The first wave moved westward and southward, moving into southern Germany up to the Roman provinces of Gaul and Cisalpine Gaul by 100 BC and it is this western group which was described by the Roman historian Tacitus and Julius Caesar. A later wave of Germanic tribes migrated eastward and southward from Scandinavia between 600 and 300 BC to the opposite coast of the Baltic Sea, moving up the Vistula near the Carpathians, the Barbarian Invasions may be divided into two phases. The first phase, occurring between AD300 and 500, is documented by Greek and Latin historians but difficult to verify archaeologically. It puts Germanic peoples in control of most areas of what was then the Western Roman Empire, the Tervingi entered Roman territory in 376. Some time thereafter in Marcianopolis, the escort to Fritigern was killed while meeting with Lupicinus, fending off challenges from the Allemanni, Burgundians, and Visigoths, the Frankish kingdom became the nucleus of what would later become France and Germany. The initial Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain occurred during the fifth century, the Burgundians settled in North Western Italy, Switzerland and Eastern France in the fifth century. The second phase took place between 500 and 700 and saw Slavic tribes settling in central and eastern Europe, gradually making it predominantly Slavic, additionally, Turkic tribes such as the Avars became involved in this phase. In 567, the Avars and the Lombards destroyed much of the Gepid Kingdom, the Lombards, a Germanic people, settled in Italy with their Herulian, Suebian, Gepid, Thuringian, Bulgarian, Sarmatian and Saxon allies in the 6th century. They were later followed by the Bavarians and the Franks, who conquered and ruled most of Italy, during the Khazar–Arab Wars, the Khazars stopped the Arab expansion into Europe across the Caucasus. At the same time, the Moors invaded Europe via Gibraltar and these battles broadly demarcated the frontiers between Christendom and Islam for the next millennium. The following centuries saw the Muslims successful in conquering most of Sicily from the Christians by 902, the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin from around 895, and the Viking expansion from the late 8th century conventionally mark the last large movements of the period. Christianity gradually converted the non-Islamic newcomers and integrated them into the medieval Christian order, a number of contemporary historical references worldwide refer to an extended period of extreme weather during 535–536. Evidence of this period is also found in dendrochronology and ice cores. The consequences of this period are debated
5.
Petty kingdoms of Norway
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The petty kingdoms of Norway were the entities from which the later Kingdom of Norway was founded. Before the unification of Norway in 872 and during the period of fragmentation after King Harald Fairhairs death Norway was divided in small kingdoms. Some could have been as small as a cluster of villages, by the time of the first historical records of Scandinavia, about the 8th century, a number of small political entities existed in Norway. The exact number is unknown, and would probably also fluctuate with time and it has been estimated that there were 9 petty realms in Western Norway during the early Viking age. Archaeologist Bergljot Solberg on this basis estimates that there would have been at least 20 in the whole country, there are no written source from this time to tell us the title used by these rulers, or the exact borders between their realms. The main written sources we have on this period, the sagas, were not written until the 12th and 13th centuries. While they were in part based on poems, and possibly on oral tradition. The sagas, most notable of which is Heimskringla, often refer to the petty rulers as konungr, the rulers of all the areas might be called petty kings, herser, subkings, kings or jarls depending on the source. A number of communities were gradually organised into larger regions in the 9th century. Many of the kingdoms would later become jarldoms under the Norwegian high king. Below follows an incomplete list of petty kingdoms of Norway and their known rulers, most of the people mentioned in this list are legendary or semi-legendary. Some of the areas might have a status as petty kingdoms. Kjotve the Rich, late 9th century Harald Grenske, 976–987 Might also be called Firda or Firdafylke, Rulers, Alrek Eiriksson early 600s Hrolf or Bergi Svåsason Solvi Hrolfson Kaun Solvason Eirik King of Hordaland late 800s Rulers, Saeming Thrand Gudlog 480s. -ca. C.600 Jossur Ingjaldsson fl mid 600s Hjor Jossurasson fl, 700s Hjorleif Hjorsson the Fornicator fl. mid-late 700s Halfur Hjorleifsson Hjor Halfsson. -870 Geirmundur Hjorarsson Rulers, Raum the Old legendary Jötunbjörn the Old son of Raum Raum Hrossbjörn Orm Broken-shell Knatti Thórolf, Rulers, Halfdan Hvitbeinn The status of Telemark as a kingdom has been contested by some historians. Olaf Gudrødsson Ruled half the kingdom, archaeologists have made finds of richly endowed burials in the area around the estuary of the river Glomma, at Onsøy, Rolvsøy and Tune, where the remains of a ship, the Tune ship, was found. This indicates that there was a center of power in this area, there are indications that at least the southern part of this area was under Danish rule in the late 9th century
6.
Viking Age
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The Viking Age is the period from the late 8th century to the mid-11th century in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, following the Germanic Iron Age. It is the period of history when Scandinavian Norsemen explored Europe by its seas and rivers for trade, raids, colonisation and conquest. Three Viking ships had beached in Weymouth Bay four years earlier, the Viking devastation of Northumbrias Holy Island was reported by the Northumbrian scholar Alcuin of York, who wrote, Never before in Britain has such a terror appeared. Vikings were portrayed as violent and bloodthirsty by their enemies. The chronicles of medieval England portrayed them as rapacious wolves among sheep, the first challenges to the many anti-Viking images in Britain emerged in the 17th century. Pioneering scholarly works on the Viking Age reached a readership in Britain. Archaeologists began to dig up Britains Viking past, linguistics traced the Viking-Age origins of rural idioms and proverbs. New dictionaries of the Old Norse language enabled more Victorians to read the Icelandic Sagas, the Vikings who invaded western and eastern Europe were chiefly pagans from Denmark, Norway and Sweden. They also settled in the Faroe Islands, Ireland, Iceland, peripheral Scotland, Greenland and their North Germanic language, Old Norse, became the mother-tongue of present-day Scandinavian languages. By 801, a central authority appears to have been established in Jutland. In Norway, mountainous terrain and fjords formed strong natural boundaries, communities there remained independent of each other, unlike the situation in Denmark which is lowland. By 800, some 30 small kingdoms existed in Norway, the sea was the easiest way of communication between the Norwegian kingdoms and the outside world. It was in the 8th century that Scandinavians began to build ships of war, the North Sea rovers were traders, colonisers and explorers as well as plunderers. There are various theories concerning the causes of the Viking invasions, for people living along the coast, it would seem natural to seek new land by the sea. Another reason was that during this period England, Wales and Ireland, the Franks, however, had well-defended coasts and heavily fortified ports and harbours. Pure thirst for adventure may also have been a factor, a reason for the raids is believed by some to be over-population caused by technological advances, such as the use of iron, or a shortage of women due to selective female infanticide. Although another cause could well have been caused by the Frankish expansion to the south of Scandinavia. Consequently, these Vikings became raiders, in search of subsistence, There is ongoing debate among scholars as to why the Scandinavians began to expand during the 8th through 11th centuries
7.
Battle of Hafrsfjord
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The Battle of Hafrsfjord has traditionally been regarded as the battle in which western Norway was for the first time unified under a single monarch. It was the conclusion of King Harald I of Norways declaration to become the ruler of Norway. This battle may well have been the largest in Norway up to that time and it was formerly believed that this battle was the decisive event in the unification of Norway. According to Snorris saga, King Harald controlled large parts of Norways southeast portion before the battle, the Battle of Hafrsfjord marks the final crushing of opposition from Norways southwestern portion. This made it possible for King Harald to subdue the country, later historiography regarded him as the first legitimate King of Norway. Many of the defeated who would not submit to Haralds rule emigrated to Iceland, the exact year of the battle is unknown, but is generally considered to have taken place between 870 and 900. This uncertainty is due to lack of sources, and partly because the Christian calendar was not introduced at the time, the sagas follow the convention of counting the number of winters passed since an event. A traditional date of the event, the year 872, is a 19th-century estimate, in the 1830s, the historian Rudolf Keyser counted the number of years backwards from the Battle of Svolder as recorded in Snorri Sturlusons Heimskringla, dating the battle to 872. In the 1920s, using similar methods as Keyser but highly critical to the reliability of the sagas, for the next fifty years, this chronology was regarded by most scholars as being most likely. In the 1970s, the Icelandic historian Ólafia Einarsdóttir concluded that the battle took place somewhere between 870 and 875, however still disputed, most scholars will agree that the battle took place during the 880s. The national monument of Haraldshaugen was raised in 1872 to commemorate the Battle of Hafrsfjord, in 1983, the monument and landmark The Swords in the Rock was designed by Fritz Røed and raised at Hafrsfjord in memory of the battle. The only contemporary source to this event is from Haraldskvæthi or Hrafnsmól, a written by Þorbjörn Hornklofi. The ballad is very simple, dramatic and illustrative, the most well-known source of the battle is Harald Fairhairs saga in Heimskringla written by Snorri Sturluson more than 300 years after the battle took place. King Eirik heard of this when he came south of Stad, the whole met together north of Jadar, and went into Hafersfjord, where King Harald was waiting with his forces. A great battle began, which was hard and long, but at last King Harald gained the day. There King Eirik fell, and King Sulke, with his brother Earl Sote. Thor Haklang, who was a great berserk, had laid his ship against King Haralds, and there was above all measure a desperate attack, until Thor Haklang fell, then King Kjotve fled to a little isle outside, on which there was a good place of strength. Thereafter all his men fled, some to their ships, some up to the land, and the latter ran southwards over the country of Jadar
8.
Hereditary Kingdom of Norway
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The Kingdom of Norway as a unified realm was initiated by King Harald I Fairhair in the 9th century. His efforts in unifying the petty kingdoms of Norway, resulted in the first known Norwegian central government, the country however fragmented soon, and was collected into one entity in the first half of the 11th century. Norway has been a monarchy since then, passing through several eras, thus was born the medieval kingdom of Norway, the realm of the Fairhair dynasty. According to the view, Norway was the hereditary kingdom of this dynasty. The throne was inherited by all of Haralds male descendants after year 872, in the 13th century, the kingdom was officially declared hereditary by law, contrary to the other Scandinavian monarchies which were elective kingdoms in the Middle Ages. Harald Fairhair was the first king of Norway, as opposed to in Norway, the boundaries of Fairhairs kingdom were not identical to those of present-day Norway and upon his death the kingship was shared among his sons. Harald Fairhair unified Norway, at least the coastal areas north to Trøndelag, after his death, the fragmentation back into petty kingdoms happened almost instantly. However, most of them were now in the hands of Haralds putative sons, although there were districts in the hands of other dynasties, the concept of a central power on an hereditary basis had come into existence. It remains uncertain whether Norway can be defined as an hereditary kingdom even after the successions of Eric I of Norway and Haakon I of Norway, sons of Fairhair himself. Some historians put emphasis on the actual control over the country and assert that St. Olav. Olav is traditionally held to be the force behind Norways final conversion to Christianity. He was later revered as Rex Perpetuum Norvegiæ. The Fairhair dynasty can, however, be seen as an artificial construct, adherents of this proposal consider Harald Hardråde to be the actual dynastic founder. This claim has won wide, but not universal, acceptance among historians and it is a disputed question whether Harald Hardråde himself actually claimed inheritance from Harald Fairhair, or whether this claim was constructed later by his descendants. From our sources, it seems reasonable to assume that Olav II and Harald Hardråde were half-brothers, with a common mother, descent from the same mother was not in Germanic understanding a proper dynastic tie, and Harald Hardrådes supporters did not base his rights and claims on that. Instead, Harald Hardrådes father was supposedly a descendent, in male line. The same has been claimed regarding Olav IIs line, to researchers, one or perhaps both of these somewhat obscure male-line descents may be legendary. Research has generally shown a tendency to create a prestigious past to the country
9.
Norwegian Armed Forces
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The Norwegian Armed Forces is the military organisation responsible for the defence of Norway. It consists of four branches, the Norwegian Army, the Royal Norwegian Navy, which includes the Coast Guard, the Royal Norwegian Air Force, the armed forces number 23,000 personnel, including civilian employees, and have a full-mobilisation combat strength of 83,000. The armed forces are subordinate to the Ministry of Defence, led by Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide, the formal commander-in-chief is King Harald V, however, the de facto commander-in-chief is Chief of Defence Haakon Bruun-Hanssen. His staff is located at Akershus Fortress in Oslo, while the Norwegian Joint Headquarters, the main naval base is Haakonsvern in Bergen, the main army camps are in Bardu, Målselv and Rena, and the main air station is Ørland. An organised military was first assembled in Norway in the 9th century and was focused around naval warfare. The army was created in 1628 as part of Denmark–Norway, followed by two centuries of regular wars, a Norwegian military was established in 1814, but the military did not see combat until the German occupation of Norway in 1940. Norway abandoned its position as a country in 1949 to become a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. The Cold War saw a large build-up of air stations and military bases, since the 2000s, the military has transformed from a focus on defence from an invasion to a mobile force for international missions. Among European NATO members, the expenditure of US$7.2 billion is the highest per capita. The Chief of Defence heads the armed forces, and is the military adviser to the Minister of Defence. It is headed by a general or admiral. DEFSTNOR assigns priorities, manages resources, provides force generation and support activities, each of the four branches of defence is headed by a two-star general/admiral who are subordinate to DEFSTNOR. National Joint Headquarters located at Reitan, close to Bodø has operational control of Norwegian armed forces worldwide 24/7 and it is headed by the Supreme Commander Norwegian Forces - a three-star general or admiral. Norwegian Defence Logistics Organisation at Kolsås outside Oslo is responsible for engineering, procurement, investment, supply, information and it is also responsible for maintenance, repair and storage of material. Norway employs a form of mandatory military service for men and women. While 63,841 men and women were called in for the examination of persons liable for service in 2012,9265 were conscripted. In 2015 conscription was extended to women making Norway the first NATO member, there is a right of conscientious objection. The press statements read, that serves as a means to “fight climate change”
10.
Viking expansion
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The Vikings extended their journeys all the way to the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea, and on the way they raided Galicia. In contemporary texts, the Vikings are often referred to as normandos or lordimani and our knowledge of Vikings in Spain is mainly based on written accounts. There are archeological findings of anchors of Viking ships, and some shapes of mounds by riversides look similar to the Norse longphorts in Ireland and these were ports or docks for Viking longships. After plundering a number of villages they were ultimately repulsed in the vicinity of Farum Brecantium i. e. the Tower of Hercules. Ramiro I of Asturias who was king of Asturias at the time, after the Asturian victory, the Vikings continued their voyage in direction of Lisbon. A major storm was unleashed, sinking most of the fleet, Vikings returned to Galicia in 859, during the reign of Ordoño I of Asturias. It was a contingent of a hundred ships from looting expeditions by the French coast that was now directed toward the Arousa estuary, after looting Iria Flavia they continued to Santiago de Compostela, where they laid siege. Their neighbours had paid tribute to avoid looting, but in spite of this and they were faced with an army led by Don Pedro who dispersed them and destroyed thirty eight of their ships, after which the surviving Vikings went south. As a result of this expedition the episcopal see of Iria relocated to Santiago de Compostela, in 951, the Vikings reappeared and attacked the Galician coast. Galician cities would then strengthen their defenses over the following years, in 964, the Vikings arrived again in Galicia, because the own bishop of Mondonedo, Rosendo of Celanova, they had to face. The expedition of 1015 was led by Olaf Haraldsson, who became king Olaf II of Norway. He destroyed four settlements, Castropol, Betanzos, Rivas de Sil and Tui
11.
Christianization of Scandinavia
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The Christianization of Scandinavia took place between the 8th and the 12th centuries. The realms of Scandinavia proper, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, established their own Archdioceses, responsible directly to the Pope, in 1104,1154 and 1164, respectively. The conversion to Christianity of the Scandinavian people required more time, the Sami remained unconverted until the 18th century. Although the Scandinavians became nominally Christian, it took longer for actual Christian beliefs to establish themselves among the people. The old indigenous traditions that had provided security and structure were challenged by ideas that were unfamiliar, such as sin, the Incarnation. Thirteenth-century runic inscriptions from the merchant town of Bergen in Norway show little Christian influence, during the early Middle Ages the papacy had not yet manifested itself as the central Roman Catholic authority, so that regional variants of Christianity could develop. Recorded missionary efforts in Denmark started with Willibrord, Apostle to the Frisians, who preached in Schleswig and he went north from Frisia sometime between 710 and 718 during the reign of King Ongendus. Willibrord and his companions had little success, the king was respectful but had no interest in changing his beliefs, agantyr did permit 30 young men to return to Frisia with Willibrord. Perhaps Willibrords intent was to them and recruit some of them to join his efforts to bring Christianity to the Danes. A century later Ebbo, Archbishop of Reims and Willerich, later Bishop of Bremen and he returned to Denmark twice to proselytize but without any recorded success. In 826, the King of Jutland Harald Klak was forced to flee from Denmark by Horik I, Harald went to Emperor Louis I of Germany to seek help getting his lands in Jutland back. Louis I offered to make Harald Duke of Frisia if he would give up the old gods, Harald agreed, and his family and the 400 Danes with him were baptized in Ingelheim am Rhein. When Harald returned to Jutland, Emperor Louis and Ebbo of Rheims assigned the monk Ansgar to accompany Harald, when Harald Klak was forced from Denmark by King Horik I again, Ansgar left Denmark and focused his efforts on the Swedes. Ansgar traveled to Birka in 829 and established a small Christian community there and his most important convert was Herigar, described as a prefect of the town and a counselor to the king. In 831 the Archdiocese of Hamburg was founded and assigned responsibility for proselytizing Scandinavia, Horik I sacked Hamburg in 845 where Ansgar had become the archbishop. The seat of the archdiocese was transferred to Bremen, in the same year there was a pagan uprising in Birka that resulted in the martyrdom of Nithard and forced the resident missionary Bishop Gautbert to flee. Ansgar returned to Birka in 854 and Denmark in 860 to reestablish some of the gains of his first visits, in Denmark he won over the trust of then-King Horik II who gave him land in Hedeby for the first Christian chapel. A second church was founded a few years later in Ribe on Denmarks west coast, a significant step in this direction was the foundation of an archbishopric for the whole of Scandinavia at Lund in 1103-04
12.
High Middle Ages
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The High Middle Ages or High Medieval Period was the period of European history around the 11th, 12th, and 13th centuries. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, by 1250 the robust population increase greatly benefited the European economy, reaching levels that would not be seen again in some areas until the 19th century. This trend was checked in the Late Middle Ages by a series of calamities, notably the Black Death but also including numerous wars, from about the year 780 onwards, Europe saw the last of the barbarian invasions and became more socially and politically organized. The Carolingian Renaissance led to scientific and philosophical revival of Europe, the first universities were established in Bologna, Paris, Oxford and Modena. The Vikings had settled in the British Isles, France and elsewhere, the Magyars had ceased their expansion in the 10th century, and by the year 1000, a Christian Kingdom of Hungary was recognized in Central Europe, forming alliances with regional powers. With the brief exception of the Mongol invasions in the 13th century, in the 11th century, populations north of the Alps began to settle new lands, some of which had reverted to wilderness after the end of the Roman Empire. In what is known as the clearances, vast forests. At the same time settlements moved beyond the boundaries of the Frankish Empire to new frontiers in Europe, beyond the Elbe River. The High Middle Ages produced many different forms of intellectual, spiritual, the rediscovery of the works of Aristotle led Thomas Aquinas and other thinkers of the period to develop Scholasticism, a combination of Catholicism and ancient philosophy. For much of the time period Constantinople remained Europes most populous city, in architecture, many of the most notable Gothic cathedrals were built or completed during this era. The Crisis of the Late Middle Ages, beginning at the start of the 14th century, in England, the Norman Conquest of 1066 resulted in a kingdom ruled by a Francophone nobility. The Normans invaded Ireland by force in 1169 and soon established throughout most of the country. Likewise, Scotland and Wales were subdued to vassalage at about the same time, the Exchequer was founded in the 12th century under King Henry I, and the first parliaments were convened. In 1215, after the loss of Normandy, King John signed the Magna Carta into law, from the mid-tenth to the mid-11th centuries, the Scandinavian kingdoms were unified and Christianized, resulting in an end of Viking raids, and greater involvement in European politics. King Cnut of Denmark ruled over both England and Norway, after Cnuts death in 1035, England and Norway were lost, and with the defeat of Valdemar II in 1227, Danish predominance in the region came to an end. Meanwhile, Norway extended its Atlantic possessions, ranging from Greenland to the Isle of Man, while Sweden, under Birger Jarl, however, the Norwegian influence started to decline already in the same period, marked by the Treaty of Perth of 1266. Also, civil wars raged in Norway between 1130 and 1240, by the time of the High Middle Ages, the Carolingian Empire had been divided and replaced by separate successor kingdoms called France and Germany, although not with their modern boundaries. Germany was under the banner of the Holy Roman Empire, which reached its mark of unity
13.
History of Norway
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The history of Norway has been influenced to an extraordinary degree by the terrain and the climate of the region. About 10,000 BC, following the retreat of the inland ice sheets. They traveled steadily northwards along the areas, warmed by the Gulf Stream. In order to survive they fished and hunted reindeer, between 5,000 BC and 4,000 BC the earliest agricultural settlements appeared around the Oslofjord. Gradually, between 1500 BC and 500 BC, these agricultural settlements spread into the areas of Norway - whilst the inhabitants of the northern regions continued to hunt. The Neolithic period started 4000 BC, the Migration Period caused the first chieftains to take control and the first defenses to be made. From the last decades of the 8th century Norwegians started expanding across the seas to the British Isles, the Viking Age also saw the unification of the country. Christianization took place during the 11th century and Nidaros became an archdiocese, the population expanded quickly until 1349 when it was halved by the Black Death and successive plagues. Bergen became the trading port, controlled by the Hanseatic League. Norway entered the Kalmar Union with Denmark and Sweden in 1397, after Sweden left the union in 1523, Norway became the junior partner in Denmark–Norway. The Reformation was introduced in 1537 and absolute monarchy imposed in 1661, in 1814 Norway was ceded to the king of Sweden by the Treaty of Kiel. Norway declared its independence and adopted a a constitution, however, no foreign powers recognized the Norwegian independence but supported the Swedish demand for Norway to comply with the treaty of Kiel. The union was established after the extraordinary Storting adopted the necessary amendments to the Constitution. Industrialization started in the 1840s and from the 1860s large-scale emigration to North America took place, in 1884 the king appointed Johan Sverdrup as prime minister, thus establishing parliamentarism. The union with Sweden was dissolved in 1905, from the 1880s to the 1920s, Norwegians such as Roald Amundsen and Fridtjof Nansen carried out a series of important polar expeditions. Shipping and hydroelectricity were important sources of income for the country, the following decades saw a fluctuating economy and the rise of the labor movement. Germany occupied Norway between 1940 and 1945 during the Second World War, after which Norway joined NATO and underwent a period of reconstruction under public planning, Oil was discovered in 1969 and by 1995 Norway was the worlds second-largest exporter. This resulted in an increase of wealth
14.
Civil war era in Norway
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The Norwegian Civil War Era is a term used for the period in the history of Norway between 1130-1240. During this time a series of wars were fought between rival kings and pretenders to the throne. The reasons for the wars is one of the most debated topics in Norwegian medieval history, the goal of the warring parties was always to put their man on the throne, starting with the death of King Sigurd the Crusader in 1130, a supposedly adored monarch. After these two parties were reconciled in 1217, an ordered system of government centered on the king was gradually able to bring an end to the frequent risings. The failed rising of duke Skule Bårdsson in 1240 was the event of the civil war era. By the mid-11th century the process seems to have been completed, however, it was still not uncommon for several rulers to share the kingship. This seems to have been the way of solving disputes in cases where two or more worthy candidates for the throne existed. The relationship between such co-rulers was often tense, but open conflict was generally averted, clear succession laws did not exist. The main criterion for being considered a candidate for the throne was to be a descendant of Harald Fairhair through the male line—legitimate or illegitimate birth was not an issue. King Sigurd the Crusader had also shared the kingdom with his brothers, King Øystein and King Olav, however, in the late 1120s a man called Harald Gillekrist arrived in Norway from Ireland, claiming to be a son of King Sigurds father, King Magnus Barefoot. King Magnus had spent some time campaigning in Ireland, and Harald would thus be King Sigurds half-brother, Harald proved his case through an ordeal of fire, the common way of settling such claims at the time, and King Sigurd recognized him as his brother. However, Harald had to swear an oath that he would not claim the title of king as long as Sigurd or his son was alive, when Sigurd died in 1130, Harald broke his oath. Sigurds son Magnus was proclaimed king, but Harald also claimed the royal title, a settlement was reached whereby Magnus and Harald would both be kings and co-rulers. Peace between them lasted until 1134, when war broke out. In 1135 Harald succeeded in defeating and capturing Magnus in Bergen, Magnus was blinded, castrated, mutilated and imprisoned in a monastery. He was thereafter known as Magnus the Blind, at about the same time Sigurd Slembe, another man from Ireland, arrived claiming to be a son of Magnus Barefoot. He claimed to have gone through an ordeal by fire in Denmark to prove his claim, Harald did not recognize him as his half-brother. In 1136 Sigurd murdered Harald in his sleep in Bergen, and had himself proclaimed king, Haralds supporters would not accept him and had Haralds two infant sons, Sigurd Munn and Inge Crouchback, named king
15.
Late Middle Ages
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The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history generally comprising the 14th and 15th centuries. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the modern era. Around 1300, centuries of prosperity and growth in Europe came to a halt, a series of famines and plagues, including the Great Famine of 1315–1317 and the Black Death, reduced the population to around half of what it was before the calamities. Along with depopulation came social unrest and endemic warfare, France and England experienced serious peasant uprisings, such as the Jacquerie and the Peasants Revolt, as well as over a century of intermittent conflict in the Hundred Years War. To add to the problems of the period, the unity of the Catholic Church was shattered by the Western Schism. Collectively these events are called the Crisis of the Late Middle Ages. Despite these crises, the 14th century was also a time of progress in the arts. Following a renewed interest in ancient Greek and Roman texts that took root in the High Middle Ages, combined with this influx of classical ideas was the invention of printing, which facilitated dissemination of the printed word and democratized learning. These two things would lead to the Protestant Reformation. Toward the end of the period, the Age of Discovery began, the rise of the Ottoman Empire, culminating in the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, eroded the last remnants of the Byzantine Empire and cut off trading possibilities with the east. Europeans were forced to seek new trading routes, leading to the expedition of Columbus to the Americas in 1492 and their discoveries strengthened the economy and power of European nations. The changes brought about by these developments have led scholars to view this period as the end of the Middle Ages and beginning of modern history. However, the division is artificial, since ancient learning was never entirely absent from European society. As a result there was continuity between the ancient age and the modern age. Some historians, particularly in Italy, prefer not to speak of the Late Middle Ages at all, but rather see the period of the Middle Ages transitioning to the Renaissance. The term Late Middle Ages refers to one of the three periods of the Middle Ages, along with the Early Middle Ages and the High Middle Ages, leonardo Bruni was the first historian to use tripartite periodization in his History of the Florentine People. Flavio Biondo used a framework in Decades of History from the Deterioration of the Roman Empire. Tripartite periodization became standard after the German historian Christoph Cellarius published Universal History Divided into an Ancient, Medieval, for 18th-century historians studying the 14th and 15th centuries, the central theme was the Renaissance, with its rediscovery of ancient learning and the emergence of an individual spirit
16.
Kalmar Union
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The Union was not quite continuous, there were several short interruptions. Legally the countries remained separate sovereign states, but with their domestic, one main impetus for its formation was to block German expansion northward into the Baltic region. The main reason for its failure to survive was the struggle between the monarch, who wanted a strong unified state, and the Swedish and Danish nobility which did not. Diverging interests gave rise to a conflict that would hamper the union in several intervals from the 1430s until its breakup in 1523 when Gustav Vasa became king of Sweden. Norway continued to remain a part of the realm of Denmark–Norway under the Oldenburg dynasty for nearly three centuries until its dissolution in 1814. Then Union between Sweden and Norway lasted until 1905, when a grandson of the incumbent king of Denmark was elected its king, the union was the work of Scandinavian aristocracy wishing to counter the influence of the Hanseatic League. Margaret, a daughter of King Valdemar IV of Denmark, married King Haakon VI of Norway and Sweden, Margaret succeeded in having her son Olav recognized as heir to the throne of Denmark. In 1376 Olav inherited the crown of Denmark from his grandfather as King Oluf III, with his mother as guardian. The two kingdoms were united in a union under a child king, with the kings mother as his guardian, later. On 2 February the next year, she was recognized as regent of Norway. Their common enemy was the Hanseatic League and the growing German influence over the Scandinavian economy. The Nordic union was established on 17 June 1397 by the Treaty of Kalmar, signed in the Swedish castle of Kalmar on Swedens south-east coast, at each junction, installation of a new monarch tended to mean a break-up of the union for a while. Eric of Pomerania, however, became the monarch of all three kingdoms, at Kalmar, the 15-year-old Eric of Pomerania was crowned king of all three kingdoms by the archbishops of Denmark and Sweden, but Margaret managed to remain in control until her death in 1412. It is said that contemporaries of the Union would not recognize the term, Union of Kalmar—that they just understood that much of the time. While the term meaning Treaty of Kalmar was known already at the time, the Swedes were not happy with the Danes frequent wars on Schleswig, Holstein, Mecklenburg, and Pomerania, which were a disturbance to Swedish exports to the European continent. Furthermore, the centralization of government in Denmark raised suspicions, the Swedish Privy Council wanted to retain a fair degree of self-government. The unity of the union eroded after the Danish defeat against the German Hanseatic League in the 1430s, even to the point of armed rebellion, erik was deposed as the union king and was succeeded by his nephew, the childless Christopher of Bavaria. In the power vacuum that arose following Christophers death, Sweden elected Charles VIII king with the intent to reestablish the union under a Swedish king, during the next seven decades struggle for power and the wars between Sweden and Denmark would dominate the union
17.
Regions of Denmark
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Denmark, officially the Kingdom of Denmark, is a Scandinavian country in Europe and a sovereign state. The southernmost and smallest of the Nordic countries, it is south-west of Sweden and south of Norway, Denmark also comprises two autonomous constituent countries in the North Atlantic Ocean, the Faroe Islands and Greenland. Denmark has an area of 42,924 square kilometres. The country consists of a peninsula, Jutland, and an archipelago of 443 named islands, with the largest being Zealand, the islands are characterised by flat, arable land and sandy coasts, low elevation and a temperate climate. The unified kingdom of Denmark emerged in the 10th century as a proficient seafaring nation in the struggle for control of the Baltic Sea, Denmark, Sweden and Norway were ruled together under the Kalmar Union, established in 1397 and ending with Swedish secession in 1523. Denmark and Norway remained under the monarch until outside forces dissolved the union in 1814. The union with Norway made it possible for Denmark to inherit the Faroe Islands, Iceland, beginning in the 17th century, there were several cessions of territory to Sweden. In the 19th century there was a surge of nationalist movements, Denmark remained neutral during World War I. In April 1940, a German invasion saw brief military skirmishes while the Danish resistance movement was active from 1943 until the German surrender in May 1945, the Constitution of Denmark was signed on 5 June 1849, ending the absolute monarchy which had begun in 1660. It establishes a constitutional monarchy organised as a parliamentary democracy, the government and national parliament are seated in Copenhagen, the nations capital, largest city and main commercial centre. Denmark exercises hegemonic influence in the Danish Realm, devolving powers to handle internal affairs, Home rule was established in the Faroe Islands in 1948, in Greenland home rule was established in 1979 and further autonomy in 2009. Denmark became a member of the European Economic Community in 1973, maintaining certain opt-outs, it retains its own currency, the krone. It is among the members of NATO, the Nordic Council, the OECD, OSCE. The etymology of the word Denmark, and especially the relationship between Danes and Denmark and the unifying of Denmark as a kingdom, is a subject which attracts debate. This is centred primarily on the prefix Dan and whether it refers to the Dani or a historical person Dan and the exact meaning of the -mark ending. Most handbooks derive the first part of the word, and the name of the people, from a word meaning land, related to German Tenne threshing floor. The -mark is believed to mean woodland or borderland, with references to the border forests in south Schleswig. The first recorded use of the word Danmark within Denmark itself is found on the two Jelling stones, which are believed to have been erected by Gorm the Old and Harald Bluetooth
18.
Absolute monarchy
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Absolute monarchy, or despotic monarchy, is a form of monarchy in which one ruler has supreme authority that is not restricted by any written laws, legislature, or customs. These are often, but not always, hereditary monarchies, in contrast, in constitutional monarchies, the head of states authority derives from and is legally bounded or restricted by a constitution or legislature. Some monarchies have weak or symbolic legislatures and other bodies that the monarch can alter or dissolve at will. Countries where a monarch still maintains absolute power are Brunei, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, the individual emirates composing the United Arab Emirates, Swaziland, in Ancient Egypt, the Pharaoh wielded absolute power over the country and was considered a living god by his people. In ancient Mesopotamia, many rulers of Assyria, Babylonia and Sumer were absolute monarchs as well, in ancient and medieval India, rulers of the Maurya, Satahavana, Gupta and Chalukya Empires, as well as other major and minor empires, were considered absolute monarchs. In the Khmer Empire, the kings were called Devaraja and Chakravartin, in Kingdom of Siam, the kings were esestablished Somburanaya-sittiraj. Throughout Chinese history, many emperors and one empress wielded absolute power through the Mandate of Heaven, in pre-Columbian America, the Inca Empire was ruled by a Sapa Inca, who was considered the son of Inti, the sun god and absolute ruler over the people and nation. Throughout much of European history, the right of kings was the theological justification for absolute monarchy. Many European monarchs, such as those of Russia, claimed supreme autocratic power by right. James VI of Scotland and his son Charles I of Scotland and England tried to import this principle, there is a considerable variety of opinion by historians on the extent of absolutism among European monarchs. Some, such as Perry Anderson, argue that quite a few monarchs achieved levels of absolutist control over their states, a widely held story about Louis XIV of France is that he proclaimed Létat, cest moi. What Louis did say was, The interests of the state come first, when one gives these priority, one labors for ones own good. These advantages to the state redounds to ones glory, although often criticized for his extravagances, such as the Palace of Versailles, he reigned over France for a long period, and some historians consider him a successful absolute monarch. More recently, revisionist historians have questioned whether Louis reign should be considered absolute, the King of France concentrated in his person legislative, executive, and judicial powers. He was the judicial authority. He could condemn men to death without the right of appeal and it was both his duty to punish offenses and stop them from being committed. From his judicial authority followed his power both to make laws and to annul them and this law consequently authorized the king to abolish all other centers of power. Most important was the abolition of the Council of the Realm and his actions largely originated the militaristic streak of the Hohenzollern
19.
Kingdom of Norway (1814)
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1814 was a pivotal year in the history of the Kingdom of Norway. It started with Norway in a union with Denmark, subject to a blockade by The British Empire. In May a constitutional convention declared Norway independent, by the end of the year the Norwegian parliament had agreed to join with Sweden in a personal union under the monarch of Sweden. Although nationalist aspirations were not to be realized until the events of 1905,1814 was the crisis. The year contains the story of one king and two future kings in Scandinavia who may have hoped to unite Sweden, Denmark. The Norwegian people and their leaders were caught in the middle of this rivalry, denmark–Norway had become entangled on the French side in the Napoleonic War through its participation in the Gunboat War. Having lost its fleet, it was virtually defenceless as the tides turned against France, the British Royal Navy had blocked all Norwegian ports effectively from 1808, thus breaking many bonds to Denmark, and leaving Norway to itself. Under those conditions, tension grew in Norway, and an independence movement was formed in 1809. The Swedish campaign against Norway in 1808-09 had been repulsed by the Norwegian army, the years of 1812 and 1813 were known for severe famine due to the blockade, and the hardships were long remembered in Norway. In addition, he was to join the allied powers in their fight against Napoleon, secret correspondence from the British government in the preceding days had put pressure on the negotiating parties to reach an agreement to avoid a full-scale invasion of Denmark. The letter instructed him to deliver the Norwegian fortresses to Swedish forces, the public were informed of the peace treaty on 26 January through a censored article in the newspaper Tiden, under the headline. It did not clearly convey the fact that the king had ceded his kingdom to the king of Sweden, historically the enemy of Norway. As there was the annual February market in Christiania at the time, a local priest observed that the entire marketplace swirled with rumours of the treaty. As news spread, it was apparent to many Norwegian intellectuals that the people were offended by the treaty, the King had been informed of these plans in a secret letter of December 1813. The Prince had also instructed to keep the union with Denmark intact. In Norway, the sentiment was that Norway had been out to Sweden. These so-called Prince notes were necessary to keep the wheels of government turning, but they contributed to the already chaotic monetary situation, the cause of the financial crisis was the refusal of King Frederick VI to establish a Bank of Norway. Christian Frederick decided to claim the throne of Norway as rightful heir, the week prior to January 30, the prince toured parts of Norway and found the same real or false willingness to fight everywhere he came
20.
Constitution of Norway
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The Constitution of Norway was first adopted on 16 May and subsequently signed and dated on 17 May 1814 by the Norwegian Constituent Assembly at Eidsvoll. 17 May is the National Day of Norway, during May 2014 the Storting passed the most substantial changes since 1814, particularly by including paragraphs on human rights. The most likely goal of the young Crown Prince was reunification with Denmark and his initiative was successful, and a national assembly at Eidsvoll was called. The assembled representatives were elected by the congregations of the church throughout Norway. They convened at the Eidsvoll manor on 10 April, during five weeks of the spring of 1814, the constitution was written. The constitution was ratified by the assembly on 16 May, and signed the following day, the Norwegian constitution was inspired by the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the French revolution in 1789 and the subsequent U. S. and French constitutions. The authors Christian Magnus Falsen and Johan Gunder Adler were also influenced by the Spanish Constitution of 1812, a deviation from the republican constitutions of France and the USA was the retention of monarchy. Importing republicanism was seen as an attempt to emulate the French and Americans directly, the choice of monarchy as state form would also facilitate reunification of Denmark-Norway, something the Crown Prince was not alone in seeking. The kings power was severely curtailed. His absolute veto over laws was removed, the council of Eidsvoll chose, not surprisingly, Crown Prince Christian Frederik as king. He was thus chosen, and as such a king by the will of the rather than by the grace of God. In a Europe where almost all countries were ruled by absolute monarchy, diriks is credited with formulating §100, concerning freedom of speech, and §102, guarding against unreasonable searches and seizures. The constitution shows a mix of radical and traditional values. The principle of separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches was directly inspired by ideas from the US. Suffrage was extended, but was restricted to certain groups of men. All men who were either farmers possessing their own land, civil servants, with this, about half of all Norwegian men were granted the right to vote. The young king and Norwegian officials tried to find backing for their bid for Norway as a sovereign state throughout spring. After failing to secure the support of the United Kingdom, war with Sweden became unavoidable, the Swedish Campaign against Norway was short and decisive
21.
Union between Sweden and Norway
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The Norwegian government was presided over by viceroys, Swedes until 1829, Norwegians until 1856. That office was vacant and then abolished in 1873. Foreign policy was conducted through the Swedish foreign ministry until the dissolution of the union in 1905, by the 1814 Treaty of Kiel, the King of Denmark-Norway was forced to cede Norway to the King of Sweden. But Norway refused to submit to the treaty provisions, declared independence, after the adoption of the new Constitution of Norway on 17 May 1814, Prince Christian Frederick was elected king. On 4 November the Storting elected Charles XIII as the King of Norway, Sweden accepted the unions dissolution on 26 October. After a plebiscite confirming the election of Danish Prince Carl as the new king of Norway, he accepted the Stortings offer of the throne on 18 November and took the regnal name of Haakon VII. After the establishment of absolutism in 1660, a centralised form of government was established. The united kingdoms are referred to as Denmark-Norway by later historians, the ambitious wars waged by king Charles XII, however, led to the loss of that status after the Great Northern War, 1700–1721. Sweden also invaded Norway in 1567,1644,1658 and 1716, to wrest the country away from the union with Denmark, the repeated wars and invasions led to popular resentment against Sweden among Norwegians. During the 18th century, Norway enjoyed a period of great prosperity, the biggest growth industry was the export of planks, with Great Britain as the chief market. Some members of the aristocracy saw Sweden as a more natural partner. Around 1800, many prominent Norwegians secretly favoured a break with Denmark and their undeclared leader was Count Herman Wedel-Jarlsberg. The Swedish policy during the period was to cultivate contacts in Norway. King Gustav III actively approached circles in Norway that might favour a union with Sweden instead of Denmark, such endeavours on both sides of the border toward a rapprochement were far from realistic before the Napoleonic Wars created conditions that caused political upheavals in Scandinavia. Sweden and Denmark-Norway tried to remain neutral during the Napoleonic wars, both countries joined Russia and Prussia in a League of Armed Neutrality in 1800. Denmark-Norway was forced to withdraw from the League after the British raid on the navy during the first Battle of Copenhagen in April 1801, the league collapsed after the assassination of Tsar Paul I of Russia in 1801. Denmark-Norway was compelled into an alliance with France after the British preemptive second attack on the Danish navy, the defenceless capital had to surrender the navy after heavy bombardment, because the army was at the southern border to defend it against a possible French attack. As Sweden in the meantime had sided with the British, Denmark-Norway was forced by Napoleon to declare war on Sweden on 29 February 1808
22.
Norwegian diaspora
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The Norwegian diaspora consists of Norwegian emigrants and their descendants, especially those that became Norwegian Americans. Emigrants also became Norwegian Canadians, Norwegian Australians, Norwegian New Zealanders, Norwegian Brazilians, Kola Norwegians, norsemen left the area that is now the modern state of Norway during the Viking Era expansion, with results including the settlement of Iceland and the conquest of Normandy. In the 1500s and 1600s there was a small scattering out of Norwegian people, the 19th century wave of Norwegian emigration began in 1825. The Midwestern United States, especially the states of Wisconsin and Minnesota, was the destination of most people who left Norway, the first modern Norwegian-American settlement in Minnesota was at Norwegian Ridge, in what is now Spring Grove, Minnesota. Early emigrant communities in the United States were a market for books written in Norwegian principally from the 1890s to 1930s. Torbjørg Lie, a writer for the Decorah-Posten, imagined her readers not so much adopting a new country as living in a diaspora. Meanwhile, newspapers in Norway were also eager to publish letters that recent emigrants had written home, according to scholar Daniel Judah Elazar, It was the Norwegian diaspora in the United States which initiated the separation of Norway from Sweden, which led to Norwegian independence in 1905. The Norwegian-American community overwhelmingly favored independence of Norway from Sweden, one petition from Chicagos Norwegian-American community bore 20,000 signatures. President Theodore Roosevelt did not change his stance, however, as of 2006 there are over 5,000,000 Norwegian Americans. In Canada in a 2006 survey,432,515 people reported Norwegian ancestry,55,475 Americans spoke Norwegian at home as of 2000, and the American Community Survey in 2005 showed that 39,524 people use the language at home. The Sons of Norway, originally a small fraternal benefit organization, now has more than 60,000 members in America and it is dedicated to promoting Norwegian culture and traditions. The Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa, is the oldest and most comprehensive museum in the United States devoted to a single immigrant ethnic group. It was founded in 1877 in association with nearby Luther College, King Harald V of Norway was present in October 2012 for the celebration of Luther Colleges sequicentennial. Self-identified Norwegians, whether in Norway or elsewhere, celebrate Syttende Mai on May 17 as Norwegian Constitution Day and they may hold a childrens parade, wear traditional clothing, or display ribbons of red, white, and blue. Norwegians in Sweden maintain their own Norwegian band Det Norske Korps for these celebrations, members of the Norwegian emigrant community in the United States took a special pride in Norway hosting the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. Sons of Norway List of US Communities where Norwegian is spoken Norse colonization of the Americas Scandinavian migration to the United Kingdom Scandinavian diaspora
23.
Norwegian language conflict
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The Norwegian language conflict is an ongoing controversy within Norwegian culture and politics related to the written versions of the Norwegian language. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Danish was the written language of Norway due to Danish rule. In the United Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway, the language was Danish. After the two separated in 1814, Dano-Norwegian remained the sole official language until 1885. In the early 1840s, the young linguist Ivar Aasen traveled rural areas collecting examples of the words and he assembled a Norwegian language based on dialects little affected by Danish and published his first grammar and dictionary of the Norwegian peoples language, in 1848 and 1850 respectively. Both he and other authors wrote texts in their own dialects from around this time, the Norwegian language is a North Germanic language. Dano-Norwegian evolved gradually to incorporate Norwegian forms, Parliament decided in 1885 that the two forms of written Norwegian were to be equally official. In the early 20th century, a more activist approach to written Norwegian was adopted in public policy, government attempts through several decades to bring the two language forms closer to each other with the goal of merging the two failed due to widespread resistance from both sides. The now-abandoned official policy to merge Bokmål and Nynorsk into one common language called Samnorsk through a series of reforms has created a spectrum of varieties of both Bokmål and Nynorsk. The unofficial form known as Riksmål is considered more conservative than Bokmål, similarly, the unofficial Høgnorsk is much closer to Ivar Aasens mid-1800s language than to todays Nynorsk. Norwegians are educated in both their own form and their secondary language form, with the primary focus being on their own language form. There is no officially sanctioned spoken standard of Norwegian, but according to some, Danish text I1877 forlod Brandes København og bosatte sig i Berlin. Det vigtigste af hans senere arbejder har været hans værk om William Shakespeare, Norwegian I1877 forlot Brandes København og bosatte seg i Berlin. Det viktigste av hans senere arbeider er hans verk om William Shakespeare, som ble oversatt til engelsk av William Archer, Norwegian I1877 forlét Brandes København og busette seg i Berlin. Då dei politiske synspunkta hans gjorde det utriveleg for han å opphalda seg i Preussen, der vart han møtt av ei heilt ny gruppe forfattarar og tenkjarar som var ivrige etter å ha han som leiar. Det viktigaste av dei seinare arbeida hans er verket om William Shakespeare, English translation In 1877 Brandes left Copenhagen and took up residence in Berlin. However, his views made Prussia an uncomfortable place in which to live. There he was met by a new group of writers and thinkers who were eager to accept him as their leader
24.
Arctic exploration
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Arctic exploration is the physical exploration of the Arctic region of the Earth. It refers to the period during which mankind has explored the region north of the Arctic Circle. Dangerous oceans and poor weather conditions often fetter explorers attempting to reach polar regions and journeying through these perils by sight, boat, sailing past the Pillars of Hercules, he reached Brittany and even Cornwall, eventually circumnavigating the British Isles. From the local population, he heard news of the land of Thule. After six days of sailing, he reached land at the edge of a sea, and described what is believed to be the aurora. While no one knows exactly how far Pytheas sailed, he may have crossed the Arctic Circle, nevertheless, his tales were regarded as fantasy by later Greek and Roman authorities, such as the geographer Strabo. It was impossible, according to their perception of the world, the first Viking to sight Iceland was Gardar Svavarsson, who went off course due to harsh conditions when sailing from Norway to the Faroe Islands. This quickly led to a wave of colonization, not all the settlers were successful however in the attempts to reach the island. In the 10th century, Gunnbjörn Ulfsson got lost in a storm and his report spurred Erik the Red, an outlawed chieftain, to establish a settlement there in 985. While they flourished initially, these settlements eventually foundered due to changing climatic conditions and they are believed to have survived until around 1450. Greenlands early settlers sailed westward, in search of better pasturage, modern scholars debate the precise location of the new lands of Vinland, Markland, and Helluland that they discovered. The Scandinavian peoples also pushed north into their own peninsula by land. As early as 880, the Viking Ohthere of Hålogaland rounded the Scandinavian Peninsula and sailed to the Kola Peninsula and they also explored north by boat, discovering the Northern Sea Route, as well as penetrating to the trans-Ural areas of northern Siberia. They then founded the settlement of Mangazeya east of the Yamal Peninsula in the early 16th century, in 1648 the Cossack Semyon Dezhnyov opened the now famous Bering Strait between America and Asia. Russian settlers and traders on the coasts of the White Sea, by the 17th century they established a continuous sea route from Arkhangelsk as far east as the mouth of Yenisey. This route, known as Mangazeya seaway, after its eastern terminus, Exploration above the Arctic Circle in the Renaissance was driven by the rediscovery of Classical learning and the national quests for commercial expansion. This exploration was hampered by limits in maritime technology of the age, lack of food supplies. A seminal event in Arctic exploration occurred in 1409, when Ptolemys Geographia was translated into Latin, navigators were better able to chart their positions, and the European race to China, sparked by interest in the writings of Marco Polo, commenced
25.
Dissolution of the union between Norway and Sweden
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The dissolution of the union between the kingdoms of Norway and Sweden under the House of Bernadotte, was set in motion by a resolution of the Norwegian Parliament on 7 June 1905. Norwegian nationalistic aspirations in 1814 were frustrated by Swedens victory in a brief, the Norwegian constitution was largely kept intact, allowing for an independent Norwegian state with its own parliament, judiciary, and executive powers. Foreign relations were, however, conducted by the King through the Swedish ministry of foreign affairs, there were largely feelings of goodwill between the two peoples, and the common King generally tried to act in the interest of both Kingdoms. However over the years, a divergence of Norwegian and Swedish interests became apparent, in particular, Norwegians felt that their foreign policy interests were inadequately served by Swedens ministry of foreign affairs. Norway had trading and other links with the United Kingdom, whereas Sweden had closer links with Germany, Norway had greater interests outside Europe than Sweden. When free trade between the two countries was restricted in 1895 through the abolition of the Interstate laws, the reasons for the continued union were also diminished. Although both parties made efforts to resolve the issue through negotiations, Norwegian public opinion became more entrenched. In early 1905, Christian Michelsen formed a government consisting of liberals and conservatives. The law was passed by the Norwegian parliament, as expected and probably as planned, King Oscar II refused to accept the laws, and the Michelsen government resigned. When the king declared himself unable to form a cabinet under the present circumstances, initially reacting to this declaration as a rebellious act, the Swedish government indicated an openness to a negotiated end to the union, insisting among other things on a Norwegian plebiscite. However, the Norwegian government had anticipated this, and had scheduled a plebiscite for 13 August—thus avoiding the appearance that it had been called in response to demands from Sweden. Besides internal changes within Norway, a key factor that allowed Norway to break from Sweden was the emerging Swedish social democratic movement. In the early years of the 20th century, Hjalmar Branting led the Social Democrats in opposing a war to keep Norway united with Sweden, when the crisis came in 1905, he coined the slogan Hands off Norway, King. The Social Democrats organized resistance to a call-up of reserves and a strike against a war. The majority of Sweden supported a state of Norway as much as the people of Norway did. The plebiscite was held on 13 August and resulted in an overwhelming 368,208 votes in favour of confirming the dissolution of the union against only 184 opposed and it is one of the most lopsided referenda in history. The government thereby had confirmation of the dissolution,85 percent of Norwegian men had cast their votes, but no women as universal suffrage was not extended to women until 1913. Norwegian feminists however collected 279,878 signatures in favour of dissolution, polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen weighed in heavily for dissolving the union and travelled to the United Kingdom, where he successfully lobbied for British support for Norways independence movement
26.
Interwar period
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There were numerous new nations in Eastern Europe, most of them small in size. The United States gained dominance in world finance, by the middle of the decade, prosperity was widespread, with the second half of the decade known, especially in Germany, as the Golden Twenties. The Roaring Twenties highlighted novel and highly social and cultural trends. These trends, made possible by sustained economic prosperity, were most visible in major cities like New York, Chicago, Paris, Berlin, the Jazz Age began and Art Deco peaked. For women, knee-length skirts and dresses became socially acceptable, as did bobbed hair with a marcel wave, the women who pioneered these trends were frequently referred to as flappers. Not all was new, “normalcy” returned to politics in the wake of hyper-emotional wartime passions in the United States, France, and Germany. The leftist revolutions in Finland, Poland, Germany, Austria, Hungary and Spain were defeated by conservatives, but succeeded in Russia, in Italy the fascists came to power under Mussolini after threatening a march on Rome. Most independent countries enacted womens suffrage in the era, including Canada in 1917, Britain in 1918. There were a few countries that held out until after the Second World War. If women could work in factories, it seemed both ungrateful and illogical to deny them a place in the polling booth. But the vote was more than simply a reward for war work. The Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Greece did especially well, in advanced economies the prosperity reached middle class households and many in the working class. With radio, automobiles, telephones, and electric lighting and appliances, there was unprecedented industrial growth, accelerated consumer demand and aspirations, and significant changes in lifestyle and culture. The media began to focus on celebrities, especially sports heroes, major cities built large sports stadiums for the fans, in addition to palatial cinemas. The Great Depression was a worldwide economic depression that took place during the 1930s. The timing varied across nations, in most countries it started in 1929 and it was the longest, deepest, and most widespread depression of the 20th century. The depression originated in the United States, after a decline in lofty stock prices. Between 1929 and 1932, worldwide GDP fell by an estimated 15%, by comparison, worldwide GDP fell by less than 1% from 2008 to 2009 during the Great Recession
27.
German occupation of Norway
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The German occupation of Norway began on 9 April 1940 after German forces invaded the neutral Scandinavian country of Norway. Conventional armed resistance to the German invasion ended on 10 June 1940, throughout this period, Norway was continuously occupied by the Wehrmacht. This period of occupation is in Norway referred to as the war years or occupation period. By the late 1930s, the Norwegian parliament had accepted the need for a military and expanded the budget accordingly. As it turned out, most of the plans enabled by the expansion were not completed in time. Although neutrality remained the highest priority until the invasion was a fait accompli, it was throughout the government that Norway, above all. By the autumn of 1939, there was a sense of urgency that Norway had to prepare, not only to protect its neutrality. Efforts to improve military readiness and capability, and to sustain an extended blockade, were intensified between September 1939 and April 1940, several incidents in Norwegian maritime waters, notably the Altmark incident in Jøssingfjord, put great strains on Norways ability to assert its neutrality. In March and April 1940, British plans for an invasion of Norway were prepared, mainly in order to reach and it was hoped that this would divert German forces away from France, and open a war front in south Sweden. It was also agreed that mines would be laid in Norwegian waters, because of Anglo-French arguments, the date of the mining was postponed from 5 April to 8 April. A major storm on 7 April resulted in the British Navy failing to make contact with the German shipping. Consistent with Blitzkrieg warfare, German forces attacked Norway by sea, the first wave of German attackers counted only about 10,000 men. In the other cities that were attacked, the Germans faced only weak or no resistance, the surprise, and the lack of preparedness of Norway for a large-scale invasion of this kind, gave the German forces their initial success. The major Norwegian ports from Oslo northward to Narvik were occupied by advance detachments of German troops, at the same time, a single parachute battalion took the Oslo and Stavanger airfields, and 800 operational aircraft overwhelmed the Norwegian population. The first troops to occupy Oslo entered the city brazenly, marching behind a German military brass band, on establishing footholds in Oslo and Trondheim, the Germans launched a ground offensive against scattered resistance inland in Norway. Allied forces attempted several counterattacks, but all failed, while resistance in Norway had little military success, it had the significant political effect of allowing the Norwegian government, including the royal family, to escape. The Blücher, which carried the main forces to occupy the capital, was sunk in the Oslofjord on the first day of the invasion, an improvised defence at Midtskogen also prevented a German raid from capturing the king and government. The Norwegian Army rallied after the confusion and on several occasions managed to put up a stiff fight
28.
Reichskommissariat Norwegen
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The Reichskommissariat Norwegen was the civilian occupation regime set up by Nazi Germany in German-occupied Norway during World War II. Its full title in German was the Reichskommissariat für die besetzten norwegischen Gebiete and it was governed by Reichskommissar Josef Terboven until his suicide on 7 May 1945. The German military forces in Norway, then under the command of general Franz Böhme, surrendered to the Allied forces on 8 May, the need by Nazi Germany to occupy and incorporate Norway into a German empire came about for two principal reasons. The first was that in 1940, Germany was dependent on resources, mainly iron ore. If Norway allowed Allied vessels to pass through its waters, they could potentially blockade the trade routes, the second reason was that Germany feared an allied attack, either using Norway as a staging area, or moving through Sweden. Neutrality remained the policy of the Norwegian government until the invasion was a fait accompli, but its highest priority was to avoid a war with the United Kingdom. By the autumn of 1939, there was a sense of urgency that Norway had to prepare, not only to protect its neutrality. Efforts to improve military readiness and capability, and to sustain an extended blockade, were intensified between September 1939 and April 1940, several incidents in Norwegian maritime waters, notably the Altmark incident in Jøssingfjord, put great strains on Norways ability to assert its neutrality. Convinced of the threat posed by the Allies to the iron ore supply, the preliminary plan was named Studie Nord and only called for one army division. In March and April 1940, British plans for an invasion of Norway were prepared, mainly in order to reach and it was hoped that this would divert German forces away from France, and open a war front in south Sweden. It was also agreed that mines would be laid in Norwegian waters, because of Anglo-French arguments, the date of the mining was postponed from 5 to 8 April. With the government now fugitive, Vidkun Quisling used the opportunity to control of a radio broadcasting station and announce a coup. His first official act, at 19,30 that day, was to cancel the mobilization order, collaborationist support came from the pro-Nazi Nasjonal Samling party led by Vidkun Quisling, who was allowed by Adolf Hitler to form a Norwegian government under German supervision. Quisling became Minister President of Norway in 1942 but lacked any real power, Reichskommissar Terboven held control over Norway as a governor, and all the military forces stationed in Norway were under German command. Occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany Josef Terboven Nordstern
29.
Quisling regime
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The Quisling regime or Quisling government are common names used to refer to the collaborationist government led by Vidkun Quisling in occupied Norway during the Second World War. The official name of the regime from 1 February 1942 until its dissolution in May 1945 was Nasjonale regjering, actual executive power was detained by the Reichskommissariat Norwegen, headed by Josef Terboven. Vidkun Quisling, Fører of the Nasjonal Samling party, had first tried to out a coup against the Norwegian government on 9 April 1940. At 7,32 p. m. Quisling visited the studios of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation and made a radio broadcast proclaiming himself Prime Minister and he announced that he and Nasjonal Samling were taking power due to Nygaardsvolds Cabinet having raised armed resistance and promptly fled. He further declared that in the present situation it was the duty, Quisling claimed that the Nygaardsvold Cabinet had given up power despite that it had only moved to Elverum, some 50 km from Oslo, and was carrying out negotiations with the Germans. The next day, German ambassador Curt Bräuer traveled to Elverum and demanded King Haakon VII, however, Haakon told the Cabinet that he could not in good conscience appoint Quisling as prime minister, and would abdicate rather than appoint a government headed by him. By this time, news of Quislings attempted coup had reached Elverum, negotiations promptly collapsed, and the government unanimously advised Haakon not to appoint Quisling as prime minister. Quisling tried to have the Nygaardsvold Cabinet arrested, but the officer he instructed to carry out the arrest ignored the warrant, attempts at gaining control over the police force in Oslo by issuing orders to the chief of police Kristian Welhaven also failed. The coup failed after six days, despite German support for the first three days, and Quisling had to step aside in the parts of Norway in favour of the Administrative Council. Terboven then appointed a group of 11 kommissariske statsråder from Nasjonal Samling to help him in governing Norway. Although the provisional councillors of state did not form a government, Vidkun Quisling was made the political head of the councillors and all members of Nasjonal Samling had to swear a personal oath of allegiance to him. Most of the councillors worked diligently at introducing Nasjonal Samling ideals, the provisional councillors of state were intended as a temporary system while Nasjonal Samling built up its organization in preparation to assume full governmental powers. On 25 September 1941, the anniversary of the councillors. With the establishment of Quislings national government, Quisling, as minister-president, in 1942, after two years of direct civilian administration by the Germans, he was finally put in charge of a collaborationist government, which was officially proclaimed on 1 February 1942. The official name of the government was Den nasjonale regjering, the Quisling government was instead given the role of an occupying authority with wide-ranging authorisations. Quisling himself viewed the creation of his government as a step on the road towards the complete independence of Norway. Although having only temporarily assumed the Kings authority, Quisling still made efforts to distance his regime from the exiled monarchy. After Quisling moved into the Royal Palace he took back into use the seal of Norway
30.
Aristocracy of Norway
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Aristocracy of Norway refers to modern and medieval aristocracy in Norway. Additionally, there have been economical, political, and military élites that—relating to the lines of Norways history—are generally accepted as nominal predecessors of the aforementioned. Since the 16th century, modern aristocracy is known as nobility, the very first aristocracy in todays Norway appeared during the Bronze Age. This bronze aristocracy consisted of several regional élites, whose earliest known existence dates to c.1500 BC, via similar structures in the Iron Age, these entities would reappear as petty kingdoms before and during the Age of Vikings. Beside a chieftain or a petty king, each kingdom had its own aristocracy, between 872 and 1050, during the so-called unification process, the first national aristocracy began to develop. Regional monarchs and aristocrats who recognised King Harald Halfdanson as their high king and those who refused, were defeated or chose to migrate to Iceland, establishing an aristocratic, clan-ruled state there. The subsequent lendman aristocracy in Norway—powerful feudal lords and their families—ruled their respective regions with great independence and their status was by no means equal to that of modern nobles, they were nearly half royal. For example, Ingebjørg Finnsdottir of the Arnmødling dynasty was married to King Malcolm III of Scotland, during the civil war era the old lendmen were severely weakened, and many disappeared. This aristocracy was ultimately defeated by King Sverre Sigurdsson and the Birchlegs, Kingdoms, city states, and other types of entities, for example the Kingdom of Dublin, were established or possessed either by Norwegians or by native vassals. Other territories, for example Shetland and the Orkney Islands, were absorbed into the Kingdom of Norway. For example, the Earl of Orkney was a Norwegian nobleman, the nobility—known as hird and then as knights and squires—was institutionalised during the formation of the Norwegian state in the 13th century. Originally granted an advisory function as servants of the King, the nobility grew into becoming a political factor. Their land and their forces, and also their legal power as members of the Council of the Realm. At its height, the Council had the power to recognise or choose inheritors of or pretenders to the Throne, in 1440, they dethroned King Eric III. The Council even chose its own leaders as regents, among others Sigurd Jonsson of Sudreim and this aristocratic power, which also involved the Church, lasted until the Reformation, when the King illegally abolished the Council in 1536. This removed nearly all of the political foundation, leaving them with mainly administrative. Subsequent immigration of Danish nobles would further marginalise the position of natives, in the 17th century, the old nobility consisted almost entirely of Danes. After 1661, when monarchy was introduced, the old nobility was gradually replaced by a new
31.
Norway
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The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the Kingdom. Norway also lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land, until 1814, the kingdom included the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland. It also included Isle of Man until 1266, Shetland and Orkney until 1468, Norway has a total area of 385,252 square kilometres and a population of 5,258,317. The country shares a long border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the North Atlantic Ocean and the Barents Sea. King Harald V of the Dano-German House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway, erna Solberg became Prime Minister in 2013, replacing Jens Stoltenberg. A constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the Parliament, the Cabinet and the Supreme Court, as determined by the 1814 Constitution, the kingdom is established as a merger of several petty kingdoms. By the traditional count from the year 872, the kingdom has existed continuously for 1,144 years, Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels, counties and municipalities. The Sámi people have an amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament. Norway maintains close ties with the European Union and the United States, the country maintains a combination of market economy and a Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system. Norway has extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, minerals, lumber, seafood, the petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the countrys gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the worlds largest producer of oil, the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World Bank and IMF lists. On the CIAs GDP per capita list which includes territories and some regions, from 2001 to 2006, and then again from 2009 to 2017, Norway had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world. It also has the highest inequality-adjusted ranking, Norway ranks first on the World Happiness Report, the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity and the Democracy Index. Norway has two names, Noreg in Nynorsk and Norge in Bokmål. The name Norway comes from the Old English word Norðrveg mentioned in 880, meaning way or way leading to the north. In contrasting with suðrvegar southern way for Germany, and austrvegr eastern way for the Baltic, the Anglo-Saxon of Britain also referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. This was the area of Harald Fairhair, the first king of Norway, and because of him
32.
Gulf Stream
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The process of western intensification causes the Gulf Stream to be a northward accelerating current off the east coast of North America. At about 40°0′N 30°0′W, it splits in two, with the stream, the North Atlantic Drift, crossing to Northern Europe and the southern stream. The Gulf Stream influences the climate of the east coast of North America from Florida to Newfoundland, and it is part of the North Atlantic Gyre. Its presence has led to the development of strong cyclones of all types, the Gulf Stream is also a significant potential source of renewable power generation. The Gulf Stream may be slowing down as a result of climate change, the Gulf Stream is typically 100 kilometres wide and 800 metres to 1,200 metres deep. The current velocity is fastest near the surface, with the maximum speed typically about 2.5 metres per second. European discovery of the Gulf Stream dates to the 1512 expedition of Juan Ponce de León and its existence was also known to Peter Martyr dAnghiera. Benjamin Franklin became interested in the North Atlantic Ocean circulation patterns, Franklin asked Timothy Folger, his cousin twice removed, a Nantucket Island whaling captain, for an answer. Franklin worked with Folger and other experienced ship captains, learning enough to chart the Gulf Stream and he offered this information to Anthony Todd, secretary of the British Post Office, but it was ignored by British sea captains. Franklins Gulf Stream chart was published in 1770 in England, where it was mostly ignored, subsequent versions were printed in France in 1778 and the U. S. in 1786. The Gulf Stream proper is a current, driven largely by wind stress. The North Atlantic Drift, in contrast, is largely thermohaline circulation–driven, in 1958 the oceanographer Henry Stommel noted that very little water from the Gulf of Mexico is actually in the Stream. By carrying warm water northeast across the Atlantic, it makes Western, a river of sea water, called the Atlantic North Equatorial Current, flows westward off the coast of Central Africa. When this current interacts with the northeastern coast of South America, one passes into the Caribbean Sea, while a second, the Antilles Current, flows north and east of the West Indies. These two branches north of the Straits of Florida. The trade winds blow westward in the tropics, and the westerlies blow eastward at mid-latitudes and this wind pattern applies a stress to the subtropical ocean surface with negative curl across the north Atlantic Ocean. The resulting Sverdrup transport is equatorward, the conservation of potential vorticity also causes bends along the Gulf Stream, which occasionally break off due to a shift in the Gulf Streams position, forming separate warm and cold eddies. This overall process, known as western intensification, causes currents on the boundary of an ocean basin, such as the Gulf Stream
33.
Neolithic
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It ended when metal tools became widespread. The Neolithic is a progression of behavioral and cultural characteristics and changes, including the use of wild and domestic crops, the beginning of the Neolithic culture is considered to be in the Levant about 10, 200–8800 BC. It developed directly from the Epipaleolithic Natufian culture in the region, whose people pioneered the use of wild cereals, which then evolved into true farming. The Natufian period was between 12,000 and 10,200 BC, and the so-called proto-Neolithic is now included in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic between 10,200 and 8800 BC. By 10, 200–8800 BC, farming communities arose in the Levant and spread to Asia Minor, North Africa, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. Early Neolithic farming was limited to a range of plants, both wild and domesticated, which included einkorn wheat, millet and spelt, and the keeping of dogs, sheep. By about 6900–6400 BC, it included domesticated cattle and pigs, the establishment of permanently or seasonally inhabited settlements, not all of these cultural elements characteristic of the Neolithic appeared everywhere in the same order, the earliest farming societies in the Near East did not use pottery. Early Japanese societies and other East Asian cultures used pottery before developing agriculture, unlike the Paleolithic, when more than one human species existed, only one human species reached the Neolithic. The term Neolithic derives from the Greek νέος néos, new and λίθος líthos, stone, the term was invented by Sir John Lubbock in 1865 as a refinement of the three-age system. In the Middle East, cultures identified as Neolithic began appearing in the 10th millennium BC, early development occurred in the Levant and from there spread eastwards and westwards. Neolithic cultures are attested in southeastern Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia by around 8000 BC. The total excavated area is more than 1,200 square yards, the Neolithic 1 period began roughly 10,000 years ago in the Levant. A temple area in southeastern Turkey at Göbekli Tepe dated around 9500 BC may be regarded as the beginning of the period. This site was developed by nomadic tribes, evidenced by the lack of permanent housing in the vicinity. At least seven stone circles, covering 25 acres, contain limestone pillars carved with animals, insects, Stone tools were used by perhaps as many as hundreds of people to create the pillars, which might have supported roofs. Other early PPNA sites dating to around 9500–9000 BC have been found in Jericho, Israel, Gilgal in the Jordan Valley, the start of Neolithic 1 overlaps the Tahunian and Heavy Neolithic periods to some degree. The major advance of Neolithic 1 was true farming, in the proto-Neolithic Natufian cultures, wild cereals were harvested, and perhaps early seed selection and re-seeding occurred. The grain was ground into flour, emmer wheat was domesticated, and animals were herded and domesticated
34.
Tribal chief
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A tribal chief is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. In the case of tribal societies existing within larger colonial and post-colonial states. The most common types are the chairman of a council and/or a broader popular assembly in parliamentary cultures, the war chief, the hereditary chief and this term has largely fallen out of use, however, and such personages are now often called kings. Historically, tribal societies represent a stage between the band society of the Paleolithic stage and civilization with centralized, super-regional government based in cities. Stratified tribal societies led by tribal kings thus flourished from the Neolithic stage into the Iron Age, albeit in competition with civilisations, after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, tribal kingdoms were again established over much of Europe in the wake of the Migration period. By the High Middle Ages, these had coalesced into super-regional monarchies. Tribal societies also remained prevalent in much of the New World, excepting Paleolithic or Mesolithic band societies in Oceania, europeans forced centralized governments onto these societies during colonialism, but in some instances they have retained or regained partial self-government. Tribal chiefs are known as Sheikhs, though this term is sometimes applied as an honorific title to spiritual leaders of Sufism. In Botswana, the chiefs of the various tribes are constitutionally empowered to serve as advisers to the government as members of the Ntlo ya Dikgosi. In addition to this, they serve as the ex officio chairs of the tribal kgotlas, meetings of all of the members of the tribes. The band is the unit of governance among the First Nations in Canada. As well, there may be hereditary or charismatic chiefs. There were 614 bands in Canada in 2012, there is also a national organization, the Assembly of First Nations, which elects a national chief to act as spokesperson of all First Nations bands in Canada. The offices and traditional realms of the chiefs of Ghana are constitutionally protected by the constitution of the country. The chiefs serve as custodian of all lands and the culture of the traditional area. The Solomon Islands have a Local Court Act which empowers chiefs to deal with crimes in their communities, apo Rodolfo Aguilar serves as the chieftain of the Tagbanwa tribes people living in Banuang Daan and Cabugao settlements in Coron Island, Palawan, Philippines. His position is recognized by the Filipino government, the pre-colonial states that existed in what is today Uganda were summarily abolished following independence from Great Britain. However, following constitutional reforms in 1993, a number of them were restored as politically neutral constituencies of the state by the government of Yoweri Museveni, generally, a tribe or nation is considered to be part of an ethnic group, usually sharing cultural values
35.
British Isles
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The British Isles are a group of islands off the north-western coast of continental Europe that consist of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. Situated in the North Atlantic, the islands have an area of approximately 315,159 km2. Two sovereign states are located on the islands, Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain, the oldest rocks in the group are in the north west of Scotland, Ireland and North Wales and are 2,700 million years old. During the Silurian period the north-western regions collided with the south-east, the topography of the islands is modest in scale by global standards. Ben Nevis rises to an elevation of only 1,344 metres, and Lough Neagh, the climate is temperate marine, with mild winters and warm summers. The North Atlantic Drift brings significant moisture and raises temperatures 11 °C above the average for the latitude. This led to a landscape which was dominated by temperate rainforest. The region was re-inhabited after the last glacial period of Quaternary glaciation, Ireland, which became an island by 12,000 BC, was not inhabited until after 8000 BC. Great Britain became an island by 5600 BC, Hiberni, Pictish and Britons tribes, all speaking Insular Celtic, inhabited the islands at the beginning of the 1st millennium AD. Much of Brittonic-controlled Britain was conquered by the Roman Empire from AD43, the first Anglo-Saxons arrived as Roman power waned in the 5th century and eventually dominated the bulk of what is now England. Viking invasions began in the 9th century, followed by permanent settlements. Most of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom after the Irish War of Independence, the term British Isles is controversial in Ireland, where there are objections to its usage due to the association of the word British with Ireland. The Government of Ireland does not recognise or use the term, as a result, Britain and Ireland is used as an alternative description, and Atlantic Archipelago has had limited use among a minority in academia, while British Isles is still commonly employed. Within them, they are sometimes referred to as these islands. The earliest known references to the islands as a group appeared in the writings of sea-farers from the ancient Greek colony of Massalia. The original records have been lost, however, later writings, e. g. Avienuss Ora maritima, in the 1st century BC, Diodorus Siculus has Prettanikē nēsos, the British Island, and Prettanoi, the Britons. Strabo used Βρεττανική, and Marcian of Heraclea, in his Periplus maris exteri, historians today, though not in absolute agreement, largely agree that these Greek and Latin names were probably drawn from native Celtic-language names for the archipelago. Along these lines, the inhabitants of the islands were called the Πρεττανοί, the shift from the P of Pretannia to the B of Britannia by the Romans occurred during the time of Julius Caesar
36.
Iceland
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Iceland is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean. It has a population of 332,529 and an area of 103,000 km2, the capital and largest city is Reykjavík. Reykjavík and the areas in the southwest of the country are home to over two-thirds of the population. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active, the interior consists of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains and glaciers, while many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a climate, despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle. Its high latitude and marine influence still keeps summers chilly, with most of the archipelago having a tundra climate. According to the ancient manuscript Landnámabók, the settlement of Iceland began in the year 874 AD when the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfr Arnarson became the first permanent settler on the island. In the following centuries, Norwegians, and to a lesser extent other Scandinavians, emigrated to Iceland, the island was governed as an independent commonwealth under the Althing, one of the worlds oldest functioning legislative assemblies. Following a period of strife, Iceland acceded to Norwegian rule in the 13th century. The establishment of the Kalmar Union in 1397 united the kingdoms of Norway, Denmark, Iceland thus followed Norways integration to that Union and came under Danish rule after Swedens secession from that union in 1523. In the wake of the French revolution and the Napoleonic wars, Icelands struggle for independence took form and culminated in independence in 1918, until the 20th century, Iceland relied largely on subsistence fishing and agriculture, and was among the poorest in Europe. Industrialisation of the fisheries and Marshall Plan aid following World War II brought prosperity, in 1994, it became a part of the European Economic Area, which further diversified the economy into sectors such as finance, biotechnology, and manufacturing. Iceland has an economy with relatively low taxes compared to other OECD countries. It maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. Iceland ranks high in economic, political and social stability and equality, in 2013, it was ranked as the 13th most-developed country in the world by the United Nations Human Development Index. Iceland runs almost completely on renewable energy, some bankers were jailed, and the economy has made a significant recovery, in large part due to a surge in tourism. Icelandic culture is founded upon the nations Scandinavian heritage, most Icelanders are descendants of Germanic and Gaelic settlers. Icelandic, a North Germanic language, is descended from Old Norse and is related to Faroese
37.
Greenland
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Greenland is an autonomous constituent country within the Danish Realm between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for more than a millennium. The majority of its residents are Inuit, whose ancestors began migrating from the Canadian mainland in the 13th century, Greenland is the worlds largest island. Three-quarters of Greenland is covered by the permanent ice sheet outside Antarctica. With a population of about 56,480, it is the least densely populated country in the world, the Arctic Umiaq Line ferry acts as a lifeline for western Greenland, connecting the various cities and settlements. Greenland has been inhabited off and on for at least the last 4,500 years by Arctic peoples whose forebears migrated there from what is now Canada, Norsemen settled the uninhabited southern part of Greenland beginning in the 10th century, and Inuit peoples arrived in the 13th century. The Norse colonies disappeared in the late 15th century, soon after their demise, beginning in 1499, the Portuguese briefly explored and claimed the island, naming it Terra do Lavrador. In the early 18th century, Scandinavian explorers reached Greenland again, to strengthen trading and power, Denmark-Norway affirmed sovereignty over the island. Greenland was settled by Vikings more than a thousand years ago, Vikings set sail from Greenland and Iceland, discovering North America nearly 500 years before Columbus reached Caribbean islands. Though under continuous influence of Norway and Norwegians, Greenland was not formally under the Norwegian crown until 1262, the Kingdom of Norway was extensive and a military power until the mid-14th century. Thus, the two kingdoms resources were directed at creating Copenhagen, Norway became the weaker part and lost sovereignty over Greenland in 1814 when the union was dissolved. Greenland became a Danish colony in 1814, and was made a part of the Danish Realm in 1953 under the Constitution of Denmark, in 1973, Greenland joined the European Economic Community with Denmark. However, in a referendum in 1982, a majority of the population voted for Greenland to withdraw from the EEC which was effected in 1985, Greenland contains the worlds largest and most northernly national park, Northeast Greenland National Park. Greenland is divided into four municipalities - Sermersooq, Kujalleq, Qaasuitsup and it also retains control of monetary policy, providing an initial annual subsidy of DKK3.4 billion, which is planned to diminish gradually over time. Greenland expects to grow its economy based on increased income from the extraction of natural resources, the capital, Nuuk, held the 2016 Arctic Winter Games. At 70%, Greenland has one of the highest shares of renewable energy in the world, the early Viking settlers named the island as Greenland. In the Icelandic sagas, the Norwegian-born Icelander Erik the Red was said to be exiled from Iceland for manslaughter, along with his extended family and his thralls, he set out in ships to explore an icy land known to lie to the northwest. After finding an area and settling there, he named it Grœnland
38.
Nidaros
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Nidaros, Niðarós or Niðaróss was the medieval name of Trondheim in Norway, when it was the capital of the countrys first Christian kings. It was named for its position at the mouth of the River Nid, although the capital was later moved to Oslo, Nidaros remained the centre of Norways spiritual life until the Protestant Reformation. Archbishop Olav Engelbrektsson served as a leader of Norway in attempting to resist the Danish Reformation but was forced into exile by King Christian III in 1537, the archdiocese was abolished and replaced with a Lutheran superintendenture. Olaf Trygvesson founded Nidaros in 997 and constructed a palace and church there, from this base, he worked to spread Christianity in Norway, Orkney, Shetland, the Faroes, Iceland, and Greenland. Olaf Haraldsson established Nidaros as a see and installed the monk Grimkill as its first bishop, as Norway lacked universities at the time, many English and German priests were brought in for its parishes and bishoprics. The Norwegian bishops were at first dependent on Hamburg and then on Lund in Sweden, Pope Eugene III resolved to create a metropolitan see at Nidaros and sent Nicholas Breakspeare as his legate in 1151. Nicholas installed Jon Birgerson, then bishop of Stavanger, as the first archbishop of Nidaros, the bishops of Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger, Hamar, Orkney, Skálholt and Hólar on Iceland, and Garđar on Greenland were made its suffragans. Jon Birgerson was succeeded as archbishop by Eystein, previously royal secretary and treasurer, such a man was then needed to defend the liberty of the Catholic Church against the encroachments of King Sverre, who wished to make the Church a mere tool of the temporal power. The archbishop was compelled to flee from Norway to England until he was able to return, but on Eysteins death Sverre renewed his attacks, and Archbishop Eric had to leave the country and take refuge with Archbishop Absalon of Lund. At last, when Sverre attacked the legate, Pope Innocent III laid the king. King Håkon III Sverresson, son and successor of Sverre, hastened to make peace with the Church, whose liberty had been preserved by the attitude of the pope. What would have happened, asks the Protestant ecclesiastical historian of Norway, Dr. Anton Christian Bang, if the Church, and what would have happened when a century later royalty left the country. After that time the Church was in reality the sole centre about which was grouped the whole life of our country. To regulate ecclesiastical affairs, which had suffered during the struggles with Sverre and he intervened against certain encroachments on the part of the bishops, reformed various abuses, and abolished the ordeal by hot iron. Owing in great measure to the legates, Norway became more closely linked with the supreme head of Christendom at Rome. Secular priests, as well as Benedictines, Cistercians, Augustinians, Dominicans and Franciscans worked together for the prosperity of the Church, archbishops Eilif Kortin, Paul Baardson and Arne Vade showed especially remarkable zeal. Pilgrims flocked from all quarters to the tomb, the feast of St. Olaf rested near the altar. Built in the Romanesque style by King Olaf Kyrre, the cathedral had been enlarged by Archbishop Eystein in Ogival style and it was finished only in 1248 by Archbishop Sigurd Sim
39.
Diocese
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The word diocese is derived from the Greek term διοίκησις meaning administration. When now used in a sense, it refers to a territorial unit of administration. This structure of governance is known as episcopal polity. The word diocesan means relating or pertaining to a diocese and it can also be used as a noun meaning the bishop who has the principal supervision of a diocese. An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese, an archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or have had importance due to size or historical significance. The archbishop may have authority over any other suffragan bishops. In the Latter Day Saint movement, the bishopric is used to describe the bishop himself. Especially in the Middle Ages, some bishops held political as well as religious authority within their dioceses, in the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated in a larger unit, the diocese. With the adoption of Christianity as the Empires official religion in the 4th century, a formal church hierarchy was set up, parallel to the civil administration, whose areas of responsibility often coincided. With the collapse of the Western Empire in the 5th century, a similar, though less pronounced, development occurred in the East, where the Roman administrative apparatus was largely retained by the Byzantine Empire. In modern times, many dioceses, though later subdivided, have preserved the boundaries of a long-vanished Roman administrative division, modern usage of diocese tends to refer to the sphere of a bishops jurisdiction. As of January 2015, in the Catholic Church there are 2,851 regular dioceses,1 papal see,641 archdioceses and 2,209 dioceses in the world, in the Eastern rites in communion with the Pope, the equivalent unit is called an eparchy. Eastern Orthodoxy calls dioceses metropoleis in the Greek tradition or eparchies in the Slavic tradition, after the Reformation, the Church of England retained the existing diocesan structure which remains throughout the Anglican Communion. The one change is that the areas administered under the Archbishop of Canterbury and Archbishop of York are properly referred to as provinces and this usage is relatively common in the Anglican Communion. Certain Lutheran denominations such as the Church of Sweden do have individual dioceses similar to Roman Catholics and these dioceses and archdioceses are under the government of a bishop. Other Lutheran bodies and synods that have dioceses and bishops include the Church of Denmark, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, the Evangelical Church in Germany, rather, it is divided into a middle judicatory. The Lutheran Church-International, based in Springfield, Illinois, presently uses a traditional diocesan structure and its current president is Archbishop Robert W. Hotes. The Church of God in Christ has dioceses throughout the United States, in the COGIC, each state is divided up into at least three dioceses that are all led by a bishop, but some states as many as seven dioceses
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Bergen
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Bergen, historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Hordaland on the west coast of Norway. At the end of the first quarter of 2016, the population was 278,121. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway, the municipality covers 465 square kilometres and is on the peninsula of Bergenshalvøyen. The city centre and northern neighbourhoods are on Byfjorden, the city fjord, many of the extra-municipal suburbs are on islands. Bergen is the centre of Hordaland and consists of eight boroughs—Arna, Bergenhus, Fana, Fyllingsdalen, Laksevåg, Ytrebygda, Årstad. Trading in Bergen may have started as early as the 1020s, according to tradition, the city was founded in 1070 by king Olav Kyrre, its name was Bjørgvin, the green meadow among the mountains. It served as Norways capital in the 13th century, and from the end of the 13th century became a city of the Hanseatic League. Until 1789, Bergen enjoyed exclusive rights to trade between Northern Norway and abroad and it was the largest city in Norway until the 1830s when it was surpassed by the capital. What remains of the quays, Bryggen, is a World Heritage Site, the city was hit by numerous fires over the years. The Bergen School of Meteorology was developed at the Geophysical Institute beginning in 1917, the Norwegian School of Economics was founded in 1936, from 1831 to 1972, Bergen was its own county. In 1972 the municipality absorbed four surrounding municipalities and became a part of Hordaland county, the city is an international centre for aquaculture, shipping, offshore petroleum industry and subsea technology, and a national centre for higher education, media, tourism and finance. Bergen Port is Norways busiest in both freight and passengers with over 300 cruise ship calls a year bringing nearly a half a million passengers to Bergen, almost half of the passengers are German or British. The citys main team is SK Brann and the citys unique tradition is the buekorps. Natives speak the distinct Bergensk dialect, the city features Bergen Airport, Flesland, Bergen Light Rail, and is the terminus of the Bergen Line. Four large bridges connect Bergen to its suburban municipalities, Bergen is well known for having a mild winter climate, though with a lot of precipitation. In December - March, the difference between Bergen and Oslo can be up to 30 degrees Celsius, despite the fact that both cities are at approximately 60 degrees North. The Gulf Stream keeps the sea relatively warm, considering the latitude, the city of Bergen was traditionally thought to have been founded by king Olav Kyrre, son of Harald Hardråde in 1070 AD, four years after the Viking Age ended with the Battle of Hastings. Modern research has, however, discovered that a settlement was established already during the 1020s or 1030s
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Hanseatic League
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The Hanseatic League was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and their market towns. Growing from a few North German towns in the late 1100s and it stretched from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland during the Late Middle Ages and early modern period. Hanse, later spelled as Hansa, was the Middle Low German word for a convoy, the League was created to protect the guilds economic interests and diplomatic privileges in their affiliated cities and countries, as well as along the trade routes the merchants visited. The Hanseatic cities had their own system and furnished their own armies for mutual protection. The hegemony of Lübeck peaked during the 15th century, Lübeck became a base for merchants from Saxony and Westphalia trading eastward and northward. This area was a source of timber, wax, amber, resins, the towns raised their own armies, with each guild required to provide levies when needed. The Hanseatic cities came to the aid of one another, and commercial ships often had to be used to carry soldiers, Visby functioned as the leading centre in the Baltic before the Hansa. Sailing east, Visby merchants established a trading post at Novgorod called Gutagard in 1080, Merchants from northern Germany also stayed in the early period of the Gotlander settlement. Later they established their own trading station in Novgorod, known as Peterhof, in 1229, German merchants at Novgorod were granted certain privileges that made their position more secure. Hansa societies worked to remove restrictions to trade for their members, before the official foundation of the League in 1356, the word Hanse did not occur in the Baltic language. The earliest remaining documentary mention, although without a name, of a specific German commercial federation is from London 1157. That year, the merchants of the Hansa in Cologne convinced Henry II, King of England, to them from all tolls in London. The allied cities gained control over most of the trade, especially the Scania Market. In 1266, Henry III of England granted the Lübeck and Hamburg Hansa a charter for operations in England, much of the drive for this co-operation came from the fragmented nature of existing territorial government, which failed to provide security for trade. Over the next 50 years the Hansa itself emerged with formal agreements for confederation and co-operation covering the west and east trade routes. The principal city and linchpin remained Lübeck, with the first general Diet of the Hansa held there in 1356, other such alliances formed throughout the Holy Roman Empire. Yet the League never became a closely managed formal organisation, over the period, a network of alliances grew to include a flexible roster of 70 to 170 cities. The league succeeded in establishing additional Kontors in Bruges, Bergen and these trading posts became significant enclaves
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