1.
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
2.
Northern Norway
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Northern Norway is the geographical region of Norway, consisting of the three northernmost counties Nordland, Troms and Finnmark, in total about 35% of the Norwegian mainland. Some of the largest towns in Northern Norway are Mo i Rana, Bodø, Narvik, Harstad, Tromsø, Northern Norway is often described as the land of the midnight sun and the land of the northern lights. Further north, halfway to the North Pole, is the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, the region is multi-cultural, housing not just Norwegians but also the indigenous Sami people, Norwegian Finns and Russian populations. Finnish is spoken in only a few communities in the east of Finnmark, Northern Norway covers about a third of Norway. The southernmost part, roughly the part south of the Arctic Circle, is called Helgeland, the inland is covered with dense spruce forests and mountains near the Swedish border, some of the biggest rivers in the region are the Vefsna and the Ranelva. The highest mountain in Northern Norway is found here in the Okstindan range south of Mo i Rana with Oksskolten reaching 1,915 metres above sea level, the Saltfjellet range, with its Svartisen glacier and intersecting Arctic Circle, divides Helgeland from the next region, called Salten. Notable peaks in Salten are the Børvasstindan south of Bodø, Suliskongen near Fauske, the Steigartindan, between Saltfjellet and eastern Finnmark, Norway spruce trees have originally been planted and are mostly privately owned. The older plantations are now producing lumber,80 years after planted, Lofoten is a chain of peaks that jut out of the ocean. From the mainland side it looks very barren, but behind the violet-black peaks there are also flatlands with good grazing for sheep, the Vesterålen islands consist of smaller and bigger islands with a huge variation in landscape. There are also glaciers, like Frostisen and Blåisen, big islands like Senja, Kvaløya and Ringvassøya have green, forested interiors and a barren, mountainous coastline, with smaller islands offshore. The Lyngen Alps are the highest mountains of the area, rising to 1,833 metres, the 269 metres Mollisfossen waterfall in Nordreisa is the highest waterfall in the north, while Målselvfossen is Norways national waterfall. Finnmark county has fjords and glaciers in the far southwest, the inland is covered by Finnmarksvidda, a relatively barren plateau about 300 to 400 metres high, with many lakes and rivers like Alta-Kautokeino and Tana/Deatnu. Even at this latitude, pine forests grow naturally in lowland areas inland, east of Honningsvåg, there are no islands protecting the barren coasts that rise directly up from the sea. The landscape towards the Russian border is comparatively flat, Finnmark is situated north of northernmost Finland, and to the east Norway has a 196 kilometres border with Russia. The oldest known historical culture in the region is called Komsa, the first people possibly arrived around 12–13,000 years ago, but it is uncertain whether they came from southern Norway or from the Kola Peninsula. Today the rock carvings at Hjemmeluft in Alta or at Leknes in Nordland are among the remainders of the Stone Age cultures, showing reindeer swimming across the fjords. A significant find area is between the river Tana and the fjord of Varanger, where the reindeer probably ran over the isthmus on the way between the winter and summer grazing, metals were introduced around 500 BC. The Sami culture can be traced back at least 2,000 years, there is also some archeological evidence of Bronze Age agricultural settlements about 2,500 years old, as in Steigen and Sømna
3.
Finnmark
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Finnmark is a county in the extreme northeastern part of Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland to the south, and Russia to the east, and by water, the Norwegian Sea to the northwest, the county was formerly known as Finmarkens amt or Vardøhus amt. Since 2002, it has had two names, Finnmark and Finnmárku. It is part of the Sápmi region, which spans four countries, as well as the Barents Region, Vardø, the easternmost municipality in Norway, is located farther east than the cities of St. Petersburg and Istanbul. The Old Norse form of the name was Finnmǫrk, the first element is finn, the Norse name for the Sámi people. The last element is mǫrk which means woodland or borderland, in Norse times the name referred to any places where Sámi people were living. The coat of arms are black with a castle tower, technically described as Sable. The design is from 1967 and shows the old Vardøhus Fortress on the border with Russia. Finnmark is the northernmost and easternmost county in Norway, by area, Finnmark is Norways largest county, even larger than the neighboring country of Denmark. However, with a population of about 75,000, it is also the least populated of all Norwegian counties, Finnmark has a total coastline of 6,844 kilometres, including 3,155 kilometres of coastline on the islands. Nearly 12,300 people or 16.6 percent of the population in 2000 was living in the 100-meter belt along the coastline. Honningsvåg in Finnmark claims to be the northernmost city of the world, the coast is indented by large fjords, many of which are false fjords, as they are not carved out by glaciers. The highest point is located on the top of the glacier Øksfjordjøkelen, which has an area of 45 square kilometres, both Øksfjordjøkelen and Seilandsjøkelen are located in the western part of Finnmark. The Øksfjord plateau glacier calved directly into the sea until 1900, the central and eastern part of Finnmark is generally less mountainous, and has no glaciers. The land east of Nordkapp is mostly below 300 m, the nature varies from barren coastal areas facing the Barents Sea, to more sheltered fjord areas and river valleys with gullies and tree vegetation. About half of the county is above the line. This valley has the highest density of Brown bears in Norway, lynx and moose are common in large parts of Finnmark, but rare on the coast. The interior parts of the county are part of the great Finnmarksvidda plateau, with an elevation of 300 to 400 m, with numerous lakes, the plateau is famous for its tens of thousands of reindeer owned by the Sami, and swarms of mosquitos in mid-summer
4.
Headland
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A headland is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends out into a body of water. It is a type of promontory, a headland of considerable size often is called a cape. Headlands are characterised by high, breaking waves, rocky shores, intense erosion, headlands and bays are often found on the same coastline. A bay is surrounded by land on three sides, whereas a headland is surrounded by water on three sides, headlands and bays form on discordant coastlines, where bands of rock of alternating resistance run perpendicular to the coast. Bays form where weak rocks are eroded, leaving bands of rocks forming a headland. Through the deposition of sediment within the bay and the erosion of the headlands, coastlines eventually straighten out then start the same process all over again
5.
Village
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A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town, with a population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Though often located in areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods. Villages are normally permanent, with fixed dwellings, however, transient villages can occur, further, the dwellings of a village are fairly close to one another, not scattered broadly over the landscape, as a dispersed settlement. In the past, villages were a form of community for societies that practise subsistence agriculture. In Great Britain, a hamlet earned the right to be called a village when it built a church, in many cultures, towns and cities were few, with only a small proportion of the population living in them. The Industrial Revolution attracted people in numbers to work in mills and factories. This also enabled specialization of labor and crafts, and development of many trades, the trend of urbanization continues, though not always in connection with industrialization. Although many patterns of life have existed, the typical village was small. Homes were situated together for sociability and defence, and land surrounding the living quarters was farmed, Traditional fishing villages were based on artisan fishing and located adjacent to fishing grounds. The soul of India lives in its villages, declared M. K. Gandhi at the beginning of 20th century, according to the 2011 census of India,68. 84% of Indians live in 640,867 different villages. The size of these villages varies considerably,236,004 Indian villages have a population of fewer than 500, while 3,976 villages have a population of 10, 000+. Most of the villages have their own temple, mosque, or church, auyl is a Kazakh word meaning village in Kazakhstan. According to the 2009 census of Kazakhstan,42. 7% of Kazakhs live in 8172 different villages, to refer to this concept along with the word auyl often used the slavic word selo in Northern Kazakhstan. Peoples Republic of China In mainland China, villages 村 are divisions under township Zh, 乡 or town Zh, Republic of China In the Republic of China, villages are divisions under townships or county-controlled cities. The village is called a tsuen or cūn under a rural township, japan South Korea In Indonesia, depending on the principles they are administered, villages are called Kampung or Desa. A Desa is administered according to traditions and customary law, while a kelurahan is administered along more modern principles, Desa are generally located in rural areas while kelurahan are generally urban subdivisions. A village head is respectively called kepala desa or lurah, both are elected by the local community. A desa or kelurahan is the subdivision of a kecamatan, in turn the subdivision of a kabupaten or kota, the same general concept applies all over Indonesia
6.
Town
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A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size definition for what constitutes a town varies considerably in different parts of the world, the word town shares an origin with the German word Zaun, the Dutch word tuin, and the Old Norse tun. The German word Zaun comes closest to the meaning of the word. An early borrowing from Celtic *dunom, in English and Dutch, the meaning of the word took on the sense of the space which these fences enclosed. In England, a town was a community that could not afford or was not allowed to build walls or other larger fortifications. In the Netherlands, this space was a garden, more specifically those of the wealthy, in Old Norse tun means a place between farmhouses, and is still used in a similar meaning in modern Norwegian. If there was any distinction between toun and burgh as claimed by some, it did not last in practice as burghs, for example, Edina Burgh or Edinburgh was built around a fort and eventually came to have a defensive wall. In some cases, town is a name for city or village. Sometimes, the town is short for township. A places population size is not a determinant of urban character. In many areas of the world, as in India at least until recent times, in the United Kingdom, there are historical cities that are far smaller than the larger towns. Some forms of settlement, such as temporary mining locations, may be clearly non-rural. Towns often exist as governmental units, with legally defined borders. In the United States these are referred to as incorporated towns, in other cases the town lacks its own governance and is said to be unincorporated. Note that the existence of a town may be legally set forth through other means. In the case of planned communities, the town exists legally in the form of covenants on the properties within the town. Australian geographer Thomas Griffith Taylor proposed a classification of towns based on their age, although there is no official use of the term for any settlement. In Albanian qytezë means small city or new city, while in ancient times small residential center within the walls of a castle
7.
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
8.
Kriegsmarine
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The Kriegsmarine was the navy of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire and the inter-war Reichsmarine, the Kriegsmarine was one of three official branches—along with the Heer and the Luftwaffe —of the Wehrmacht, the armed forces of Nazi Germany. The Kriegsmarine grew rapidly during German naval rearmament in the 1930s, Kriegsmarine ships were deployed to the waters around Spain during the Spanish Civil War, under the guise of enforcing non-intervention, but in reality supporting the Franco side of the war. In January 1939 Plan Z was ordered, calling for naval parity with the Royal Navy by 1944, however, when World War II broke out in September 1939, Plan Z was shelved in favour of building submarines and prioritizing land and air forces. The Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine was Adolf Hitler, who exercised his authority through the Oberkommando der Marine, the Kriegsmarines most famous ships were the U-boats, most of which were constructed after Plan Z was abandoned at the beginning of World War II. However, the adoption of convoy escorts, especially in the Atlantic, after the Second World War, the Kriegsmarines remaining ships were divided up amongst the Allied powers and were used for various purposes including minesweeping. Adolf Hitler was the Commander-in-Chief of all German armed forces, including the Kriegsmarine and his authority was exercised through the Oberkommando der Marine, or OKM, with a Commander-in-Chief, a Chief of Naval General Staff and a Chief of Naval Operations. The first Commander-in-Chief of the OKM was Erich Raeder who was the Commander-in-Chief of the Reichsmarine when it was renamed and reorganized in 1935, Raeder held the post until falling out with Hitler after the German failure in the Battle of the Barents Sea. He was replaced by Karl Dönitz on 30 January 1943 who held the command until he was appointed President of Germany upon Hitlers suicide in April 1945, hans-Georg von Friedeburg was then Commander-in-Chief of the OKM for the short period of time until Germany surrendered in May 1945. Subordinate to these were regional, squadron and temporary flotilla commands, regional commands covered significant naval regions and were themselves sub-divided, as necessary. They were commanded by a Generaladmiral or an Admiral, there was a Marineoberkommando for the Baltic Fleet, Nord, Nordsee, Norwegen, Ost/Ostsee, Süd and West. The Kriegsmarine used a form of encoding called Gradnetzmeldeverfahren to denote regions on a map, each squadron also had a command structure with its own Flag Officer. The commands were Battleships, Cruisers, Destroyers, Submarines, Torpedo Boats, Minesweepers, Reconnaissance Forces, Naval Security Forces, Big Guns and Hand Guns, major naval operations were commanded by a Flottenchef. The Flottenchef controlled a flotilla and organized its actions during the operation, the commands were, by their nature, temporary. As a result the German surface fleet was plagued by design flaws throughout the war, military aircraft were also banned, so Germany could have no naval aviation. Under the treaty Germany could only build new ships to replace old ones, All the ships allowed and personnel were taken over from the Kaiserliche Marine, renamed Reichsmarine. From the outset, Germany worked to circumvent the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles. The launching of the first pocket battleship, Deutschland in 1931 was a step in the formation of a modern German fleet, modern destroyers and light cruisers were also built
9.
Luftwaffe
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The Luftwaffe was the aerial warfare branch of the combined German Wehrmacht military forces during World War II. During the interwar period, German pilots were trained secretly in violation of the treaty at Lipetsk Air Base, with the rise of the Nazi Party and the repudiation of the Versailles Treaty, the Luftwaffe was officially established on 26 February 1935. The Condor Legion, a Luftwaffe detachment sent to aid Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, provided the force with a testing ground for new doctrines. By the summer of 1939, the Luftwaffe had twenty-eight Geschwaders, during World War II, German pilots claimed roughly 70,000 aerial victories, while over 75,000 Luftwaffe aircraft were destroyed or significantly damaged. Of these, nearly 40,000 were lost entirely, the Luftwaffe proved instrumental in the German victories across Poland and Western Europe in 1939 and 1940. From 1942, Allied bombing campaigns gradually destroyed the Luftwaffes fighter arm, in addition to its service in the West, the Luftwaffe operated over the Soviet Union, North Africa and Southern Europe. In January 1945, during the stages of the Battle of the Bulge, the Luftwaffe made a last-ditch effort to win air superiority. After the defeat of Germany, the Luftwaffe was disbanded in 1946, the Luftwaffe had only two commanders-in-chief throughout its history, Hermann Göring and later Generalfeldmarschall Robert Ritter von Greim. Throughout the war, the force was responsible for war crimes, one of the forerunners of the Luftwaffe, the Imperial German Army Air Service, was founded in 1910 with the name Die Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches, most often shortened to Fliegertruppe. It was renamed Luftstreitkräfte on 8 October 1916, after the defeat of Germany, the service was dissolved on 8 May 1920 under the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, which also mandated the destruction of all German military aircraft. Since the Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany to have an air force, to train its pilots on the latest combat aircraft, Germany solicited the help of its future enemy, the Soviet Union, which was also isolated in Europe. This base was known as 4th squadron of the 40th wing of the Red Army. Hundreds of Luftwaffe pilots and technical personnel visited, studied and were trained at Soviet air force schools in locations in Central Russia. The first steps towards the Luftwaffes formation were undertaken just months after Adolf Hitler came to power, in April 1933 the Reichsluftfahrtministerium was established. Görings control over all aspects of aviation became absolute, on 25 March 1933 the Deutschen Luftsportverband absorbed all private and national organizations, while retaining its sports title. On 15 May 1933, all military organizations in the RLM were merged, forming the Luftwaffe. The |Nationalsozialistisches Fliegerkorps was formed in 1937 to give pre-military flying training to male youths, military-age members of the NSFK were drafted to the Luftwaffe. As all such prior NSFK members were also Nazi Party members, the absence of Göring in planning and production matters was fortunate
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Kirkenes (help·info) (Northern Sami: Girkonjárga, Finnish and Kven: Kirkkoniemi, Russian: Киркенес) is a town in Sør-Varanger Municipality in Finnmark county, in the far northeastern part of Norway. The town lies on a peninsula along the Bøkfjorden, an arm of the large Varangerfjorden. The main church for Kirkenes is Kirkenes Church, located in the Haganes area of the town.
