1.
Norwegian language
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Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken mainly in Norway, where it is the official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants. These Scandinavian languages, together with Faroese and Icelandic as well as extinct languages. Faroese and Icelandic are hardly mutually intelligible with Norwegian in their spoken form because continental Scandinavian has diverged from them, as established by law and governmental policy, the two official forms of written Norwegian are Bokmål and Nynorsk. The official Norwegian Language Council is responsible for regulating the two forms, and recommends the terms Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk in English. Two other written forms without official status also exist, one and it is regulated by the unofficial Norwegian Academy, which translates the name as Standard Norwegian. Nynorsk and Bokmål provide standards for how to write Norwegian, no standard of spoken Norwegian is officially sanctioned, and most Norwegians speak their own dialects in all circumstances. Thus, unlike in other countries, the use of any Norwegian dialect. Outside Eastern Norway, this variation is not used. From the 16th to the 19th centuries, Danish was the written language of Norway. As a result, the development of modern written Norwegian has been subject to strong controversy related to nationalism, rural versus urban discourse, historically, Bokmål is a Norwegianised variety of Danish, while Nynorsk is a language form based on Norwegian dialects and puristic opposition to Danish. The unofficial form known as Riksmål is considered more conservative than Bokmål, Norwegians are educated in both Bokmål and Nynorsk. A2005 poll indicates that 86. 3% use primarily Bokmål as their written language,5. 5% use both Bokmål and Nynorsk, and 7. 5% use primarily Nynorsk. Thus, 13% are frequently writing Nynorsk, though the majority speak dialects that resemble Nynorsk more closely than Bokmål. Broadly speaking, Nynorsk writing is widespread in western Norway, though not in major urban areas, examples are Setesdal, the western part of Telemark county and several municipalities in Hallingdal, Valdres, and Gudbrandsdalen. It is little used elsewhere, but 30–40 years ago, it also had strongholds in rural parts of Trøndelag. Today, not only is Nynorsk the official language of four of the 19 Norwegian counties, NRK, the Norwegian broadcasting corporation, broadcasts in both Bokmål and Nynorsk, and all governmental agencies are required to support both written languages. Bokmål is used in 92% of all publications, and Nynorsk in 8%
2.
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
3.
Oslo
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Oslo is the capital and the most populous city in Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality, founded in the year 1040, and established as a kaupstad or trading place in 1048 by Harald Hardrada, the city was elevated to a bishopric in 1070 and a capital under Haakon V of Norway around 1300. Personal unions with Denmark from 1397 to 1523 and again from 1536 to 1814, after being destroyed by a fire in 1624, the city was moved closer to Akershus Fortress during the reign of Christian IV of Denmark and renamed Christiania in his honour. It was established as a municipality on 1 January 1838, following a spelling reform, it was known as Kristiania from 1877 to 1925, at which time its original Norwegian name was restored. Oslo is the economic and governmental centre of Norway, the city is also a hub of Norwegian trade, banking, industry and shipping. It is an important centre for industries and maritime trade in Europe. The city is home to companies within the maritime sector, some of which are among the worlds largest shipping companies, shipbrokers. Oslo is a city of the Council of Europe and the European Commission intercultural cities programme. Oslo is considered a city and ranked Beta World City in studies carried out by the Globalization and World Cities Study Group. It was ranked one in terms of quality of life among European large cities in the European Cities of the Future 2012 report by fDi magazine. A survey conducted by ECA International in 2011 placed Oslo as the second most expensive city in the world for living expenses after Tokyo. In 2013 Oslo tied with the Australian city of Melbourne as the fourth most expensive city in the world, as of January 1,2016, the municipality of Oslo has a population of 658,390, while the population of the citys urban area was 942,084. The metropolitan area had an population of 1.71 million. The population was during the early 2000 increasing at record rates and this growth stems for the most part from international immigration and related high birth rates, but also from intra-national migration. The immigrant population in the city is growing faster than the Norwegian population. As of January 1,2016, the municipality of Oslo has a population of 658,390, the urban area extends beyond the boundaries of the municipality into the surrounding county of Akershus, the total population of this agglomeration is 942,084. To the north and east, wide forested hills rise above the city giving the location the shape of a giant amphitheatre. The urban municipality of Oslo and county of Oslo are two parts of the entity, making Oslo the only city in Norway where two administrative levels are integrated
4.
Skagerrak
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The Skagerrak contains some of the busiest shipping routes in the world, with vessels from every corner of the globe. It also supports a fishing industry. The ecosystem is strained and negatively affected by human activities. Oslo is the large city in the Skagerrak region. The meaning of Skagerrak is most likely the Skagen Channel/Straight, Skagen is a town near the northern cape of Denmark. Rak means straight waterway, it is cognate with reach, the ultimate source of this syllable is the Proto-Indo-European root *reg-, straight. Rak means straight as in straight ahead in both modern Norwegian and Swedish, råk in modern Norwegian refers to a channel or opening of water in an otherwise ice covered body of water. There is no evidence to suggest a connection with the modern Danish word rak, the Skagerrak is 240 km long and between 80 and 140 km wide. It deepens toward the Norwegian coast, reaching over 700 metres at the Norwegian Trench, some ports along the Skagerrak are Oslo and Kristiansand in Norway and Uddevalla and Strömstad in Sweden. The Skagerrak has a salinity of 30 practical salinity units, which is very low, close to that of brackish water. The area available to biomass is about 3,600 km2 and includes a variety of habitats, from shallow sandy and stony reefs in Sweden. The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Skagerrak as follows, a line joining Hanstholm and the Naze. The Northern limit of the Kattegat, older names for the combined Skagerrak and Kattegat were the Norwegian Sea or Jutland Sea, the latter appears in the Knýtlinga saga. Until the construction of the Eider Canal in 1784, Skagerrak was the way in. For this reason the strait has had a heavy international seatraffic for centuries, after the industrialization, the traffic has only increased and today Skagerrak is among the busiest straits in the world. In 1862, the Thyborøn Channel at the Limfjord was constructed in Denmark, the Limfjord only supports minor transports though. In both the wars, the Skagerrak was strategically very important for Germany. The biggest sea battle of World War I, the Battle of Jutland, also known as the Battle of the Skagerrak, both of these naval engagements have contributed to the large number of shipwrecks in the Skagerrak
5.
North Sea
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The North Sea is a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean located between Great Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. An epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the ocean through the English Channel in the south and it is more than 970 kilometres long and 580 kilometres wide, with an area of around 570,000 square kilometres. The North Sea has long been the site of important European shipping lanes as well as a major fishery, the North Sea was the centre of the Vikings rise. Subsequently, the Hanseatic League, the Netherlands, and the British each sought to dominate the North Sea and thus the access to the markets, as Germanys only outlet to the ocean, the North Sea continued to be strategically important through both World Wars. The coast of the North Sea presents a diversity of geological and geographical features, in the north, deep fjords and sheer cliffs mark the Norwegian and Scottish coastlines, whereas in the south it consists primarily of sandy beaches and wide mudflats. Due to the population, heavy industrialization, and intense use of the sea and area surrounding it. In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean, in the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively. In the north it is bordered by the Shetland Islands, and connects with the Norwegian Sea, the North Sea is more than 970 kilometres long and 580 kilometres wide, with an area of 570,000 square kilometres and a volume of 54,000 cubic kilometres. Around the edges of the North Sea are sizeable islands and archipelagos, including Shetland, Orkney, the North Sea receives freshwater from a number of European continental watersheds, as well as the British Isles. A large part of the European drainage basin empties into the North Sea including water from the Baltic Sea, the largest and most important rivers flowing into the North Sea are the Elbe and the Rhine – Meuse watershed. Around 185 million people live in the catchment area of the rivers discharging into the North Sea encompassing some highly industrialized areas, for the most part, the sea lies on the European continental shelf with a mean depth of 90 metres. The only exception is the Norwegian trench, which extends parallel to the Norwegian shoreline from Oslo to a north of Bergen. It is between 20 and 30 kilometres wide and has a depth of 725 metres. The Dogger Bank, a vast moraine, or accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris and this feature has produced the finest fishing location of the North Sea. The Long Forties and the Broad Fourteens are large areas with uniform depth in fathoms. These great banks and others make the North Sea particularly hazardous to navigate, the Devils Hole lies 200 miles east of Dundee, Scotland. The feature is a series of trenches between 20 and 30 kilometres long,1 and 2 kilometres wide and up to 230 metres deep. Other areas which are less deep are Cleaver Bank, Fisher Bank, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the North Sea as follows, On the Southwest
6.
Kattegat
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The Baltic Sea drains into the Kattegat through the Danish Straits. The sea area is a continuation of the Skagerrak and may be seen as a bay of the Baltic Sea or the North Sea or, as in traditional Scandinavian usage, neither of these. The Kattegat is a shallow sea and can be very difficult and dangerous to navigate, due to the many sandy and stony reefs. There are several cities and major ports in the Kattegat, including Gothenburg, Aarhus, Aalborg, Halmstad and Frederikshavn, mentioned by descending size. The main islands of the Kattegat are Samsø, Læsø and Anholt, since the 1950s, a bridge project usually referred to as Kattegatbroen connecting Jutland and Zealand across the Kattegat has been considered. Since the late 2000s, the project has seen a renewed interest from several politicians in Denmark. The bridge is usually envisioned as connecting Hov with Samsø and Kalundborg, on the South, The limits of the Baltic Sea in the Belts and Sound, In the Little Belt, A line joining Falshöft and Vejsnæs Nakke. In the Great Belt, A line joining Gulstav and Kappel Kirke on the island of Laaland, in the Sound, A line joining Stevns Lighthouse and Falsterbo Point. According to Den Store Danske Encyklopædi and Nudansk Ordbog, the name derives from the Dutch words kat and gat, at one point, the passable waters were a mere 3.84 km wide. The name of the Copenhagen street Kattesundet has a comparable etymological meaning, an archaic name for both the Skagerrak and Kattegat was the Norwegian Sea or Jutland Sea. Its ancient Latin name was Sinus Codanus, Control of the Kattegat, and access to it, have been important throughout the history of international seafaring. Until the completion of the Eider Canal in 1784, the Kattegat was the water route into. The dues were eventually lifted in 1857, in the Kattegat, the salinity has a pronounced two-layer structure. The upper layer has a salinity between 18‰ and 26‰ and the lower layer – separated by a strong halocline at around 15 m – has a salinity between 32‰ and 34‰. These two opposing flows transport a net surplus of 475 km3 seawater from the Baltic to the Skagerrak every year. During stronger winds, the layers in the Kattegat are completely mixed in some places, such as the Great Belt and this sets some unique conditions for the sealife here. The Kattegat was one of the first marine dead zones to be noted in the 1970s, in recent years studies and research, has provided much insight into processes like eutrophication, and how to deal with it. The action plans sums up a range of initiatives and includes the so-called Nitrate Directives
7.
Baltic Sea
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The Baltic Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, enclosed by Scandinavia, Finland, the Baltic countries, and the North European Plain. It includes the Gulf of Bothnia, the Bay of Bothnia, the Gulf of Finland, the Gulf of Riga, the sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 10°E to 30°E longitude. The Baltic Sea is connected by waterways to the White Sea via the White Sea Canal. Traffic history Historically, the Kingdom of Denmark collected Sound Dues from ships at the border between the ocean and the land-locked Baltic Sea and they were collected in the Øresund at Kronborg castle near Helsingør, in the Great Belt at Nyborg. In the Little Belt, the site of intake was moved to Fredericia, the narrowest part of Little Belt is the Middelfart Sund near Middelfart. Oceanography Geographers widely agree that the physical border of the Baltic is a line drawn through the southern Danish islands, Drogden-Sill. The Drogden Sill is situated north of Køge Bugt and connects Dragør in the south of Copenhagen to Malmö, it is used by the Øresund Bridge, including the Drogden Tunnel. By this definition, the Danish Straits are part of the entrance, but the Bay of Mecklenburg, another usual border is the line between Falsterbo, Sweden and Stevns Klint, Denmark, as this is the southern border of Øresund. Its also the border between the shallow southern Øresund and notably deeper water, hydrography and biology Drogden Sill sets a limit to Øresund and Darss Sill, and a limit to the Belt Sea. The shallow sills are obstacles to the flow of salt water from the Kattegat into the basins around Bornholm. The Kattegat and the southwestern Baltic Sea are well oxygenated and have a rich biology, the remainder of the Sea is brackish, poor in oxygen and in species. While Tacitus called it Mare Suebicum after the Germanic people called the Suebi, the origin of the latter name is speculative. Adam of Bremen himself compared the sea with a belt, stating that it is so named because it stretches through the land as a belt and he might also have been influenced by the name of a legendary island mentioned in the Natural History of Pliny the Elder. Pliny mentions an island named Baltia with reference to accounts of Pytheas and it is possible that Pliny refers to an island named Basilia in On the Ocean by Pytheas. Baltia also might be derived from belt and mean near belt of sea, meanwhile, others have suggested that the name of the island originates from the Proto-Indo-European root *bhel meaning white, fair. This root and its meaning were retained in both Lithuanian and Latvian. On this basis, a related hypothesis holds that the name originated from this Indo-European root via a Baltic language such as Lithuanian, yet another explanation is that the name originally meant enclosed sea, bay as opposed to open sea. Some Swedish historians believe the name derives from the god Balder of Nordic mythology, in the Middle Ages the sea was known by variety of names
8.
Fjord
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Geologically, a fjord or fiord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by glacial erosion. Norways coastline is estimated at 29,000 kilometres with 1,190 fjords, a fjord is formed when a glacier cuts a U-shaped valley by ice segregation and abrasion of the surrounding bedrock. Glacial melting is accompanied by the rebounding of Earths crust as the ice load, in some cases this rebound is faster than sea level rise. Most fjords are deeper than the adjacent sea, Sognefjord, Norway, fjords generally have a sill or shoal at their mouth caused by the previous glaciers reduced erosion rate and terminal moraine. In many cases this causes extreme currents and large saltwater rapids. Saltstraumen in Norway is often described as the worlds strongest tidal current and these characteristics distinguish fjords from rias, which are drowned valleys flooded by the rising sea. Drammensfjorden is cut almost in two by the Svelvik ridge, a moraine that during the ice cover was under sea level. During the winter there is usually little inflow of freshwater. Surface water and deeper water are mixed during winter because of the cooling of the surface. In the deep there is still fresh water from the summer with less density than the saltier water along the coast. Offshore wind, common in the areas during winter, sets up a current on the surface from the inner to the outer parts. This current on the surface in turn pulls dense salt water from the coast across the fjord threshold, during the summer season there is usually a large inflow of river water in the inner areas. This freshwater gets mixed with saltwater creating a layer of water with a slightly higher surface than the ocean which in turn sets up a current from the river mouths towards the ocean. This current is more salty towards the coast and right under the surface current there is a reverse current of saltier water from the coast. In the deeper parts of the fjord the cold water remaining from winter is still, fjords with a shallow threshold this deep water is not replaced every year and low oxygen concentration makes the deep water unsuitable for fish and animals. In the most extreme cases there is a constant barrier of freshwater on the surface, gaupnefjorden branch of Sognefjorden is strongly affected by freshwater as glacial river flow in. Velfjorden has little inflow of freshwater, as late as 2000, some coral reefs were discovered along the bottoms of the Norwegian fjords. These reefs were found in fjords from the north of Norway to the south, the marine life on the reefs is believed to be one of the most important reasons why the Norwegian coastline is such a generous fishing ground
9.
Vestfold
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Vestfold is a county in Norway, bordering Buskerud and Telemark. The county administration is in Tønsberg, and the largest city is Sandefjord, with the exception of Oslo county, Vestfold is the smallest county in Norway by area. Vestfold is located west of the Oslofjord, as the name indicates, the river Numedalslågen runs through the county. Many islands are located at the coast, Vestfold is mostly dominated by lowland and is among the best agricultural areas of Norway. Winters last about three months, while pleasant summer temperatures last from May to September, with a July average high of 17 °C, Vestfold is traditionally known for shipping and sailing. Sandefjord was formerly a headquarters for the Norwegian whaling fleet, the coastal towns of Vestfold now engage in fishing and shipbuilding. Some lumbering is carried on in the interior, the area also includes some of the best farmland in Norway. Vestfold is the county in which all municipalities have declared Bokmål to be their sole official written form of the Norwegian language. Vestfold is the old name of the region which was revived in modern times, Fold was the old name of the Oslofjord, and the meaning of the name Vestfold is the region west of the Fold. Before 1919, the county was called Jarlsberg og Larvik Amt, the amt was created in 1821, consisting of the two old counties of Jarlsberg and Larvik. In the Viking age, Vestfold also referred to Eiker, Drammen, Kongsberg, Lier, Vestfold is mentioned for the first time in a written source in 813, when Danish kings were in Vestfold to quell an uprising amongst the Fürsts. There may have been as many as six political centers in Vestfold, at that time Kaupang, which was located in Tjølling near Larvik, had been functioning for decades and had a chieftain. Kaupang, which dates from the Viking Era, is believed to be the first town in Norway, at Borre, there was a site for another chieftain. That site held chieftains for more than one hundred years prior to 813, the stone mounds at Mølen have been dated to the Viking Age. The mounds at Haugar in present-day Tønsbergs town centre have been dated to the Viking period, at Farmannshaugen in Sem there seems to have been activity at the time, while activity at Oseberghaugen and Gokstadhaugen dates from a few decades later. Kaupang is mentioned under the name of Skiringssal in Ottars tales, by the 10th century, the local kings had established themselves. The king or his ombudsman resided in the old Royal Court at Sæheim i Sem, the farm Haugar became the seat for Haugating, the Thing for Vestfold and one of Norways most important place for the proclamation of kings. The family of Harald Fairhair, who was most likely the first king of Norway, is said to have come from this area, the Danish kings seem to have tried to control the region until the 13th century
10.
Follo
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Follo is one of three traditional and judicional districts in the fylke of Akershus, Norway, the other two being Romerike and Asker og Bærum. Follo borders Oslo to the North-West, fellow Akershus district Romerike to the North-East and East, the municipalities of Frogn and Vestby have coastlines along the Oslofjord. Ås and Oppegård have coastlines along the Bunnefjord, and Nesodden has coastlines along both fjords, in the displayed map of Akershus, the municipalities are numbered. Follo consists of, Nesodden, Frogn, Vestby, Oppegård, Ås, Ski, Follo covers around 819 km², and had a population of 121368 on October 1,2007. It does, however, have judicional significance, as a local police and it also has practical significance, as the municipalities within the district tend to cooperate for practical and economical purposes. The largest town, and de facto capital, is Ski. This is where judicial functions such as Follo Tingrett and Follo Politikammer are located, all municipalities in Follo are within an hours drive from Oslo, and large parts of the workforce actually work in Oslo. Apart from the coastline, Follo has extensive woods and farmland. Most parts of Follo are well suited for outdoor activities, and many athletes have come from this district – such as Trine Hattestad, Jon Rønningen, the Norse form of the name was Folló. The first element is the old name of Oslofjord, the last element is ló f meadow, after the local elections in 2015 five of the municipalities have a mayor from the Labour Party, while two have a mayor from the Conservative Party Visit Follo
11.
Aker Brygge
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Aker Brygge is a neighbourhood in Oslo, Norway, a popular area for shopping, dining, and entertainment, as well as a high-end residential area. Aker Brygge is located just west of downtown on the westside of Pipervika, an arm of the Oslo Fjord, on the ship yard of Akers Mekaniske Verksted. Prior to the establishment of the shipyard in 1854, the area was known as Holmen and it was then an old yard where some minor industrial activity, and a suburban establishment grew in the early 19th century. Aker Brygge is served by the Aker Brygge tram station, the area contained shipyards and engineering industry - Aker Mekaniske Verksted AS - until 1982. The construction of Aker Brygge was carried out in four steps by the realtors Aker Eiendom AS, a few old industrial buildings were demolished, while several of the major workshop halls were rebuilt as shopping areas. The first step of the construction was finished in 1986, with Telje, Torp, the fourth and final construction, the Storebrand insurance building facing Munkedamsveien, was completed in 1998. The area consists of a center with shops and restaurants, a cinema, office space. Additionally, there is a boat harbour, and a terminal for the ferries to Nesodden. Today, about 6,000 people work in Aker Brygge, on a different note, Aker Brygge was the scene of an infamous gang-related shoutout 19 August 2006. The shooting happened in bright daylight, with several hundred bystanders, including children, fortunately, only two people were wounded and nobody was killed in the incident. A masterplan led by Space Group Company and Ghilardi + Hellsten reorganized the area between 2010 and 2014, Space Group worked on activating the parallel streets, and created an inside street, going through the main buildings. Aker Brygge is a leader in Norway for waterfront development and it is one of the most visited place in Oslo with 12 million visitors each year, Aker Brygge area today consists of 13 separate units and 9 of them are divided into a total of 823 owner units. The properties are bound together through a working agreement thereby creating a new district of Oslo which is unique in both a national and international perspective. A number of well situated public areas and arrangements have been developed through cooperation between apartment owners, and business and cultural interests, the administration of the working agreement and the carrying out of such tasks is done by the commonly owned company Bryggedrift AS. The Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, designed by Renzo Piano, is near Aker Brygge
12.
Viken, Norway
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Viken is also the name chosen for a future administrative region consisting of a merger of the counties of Akershus, Buskerud, and Østfold. The cultural hub is centred in Oslo, but the capital of the region was formerly at Borre and this area included the important cities of Tønsberg, Oslo, Sarpsborg and Konghelle. There is disagreement among historians as to where the boundaries of the geographical area called Viken were during the Viking era. It is commonly believed to have comprised the provinces of Vestfold, Ranrike, Vingulmark, Grenland. Historically the Danish kings had established dominion over the area, Norwegian royal power began to assert itself in Viken with King Olav Haraldsson, mostly due to a sharp weakening of the Danish royal power. Olaf first declared himself king of Norway in 1015 and established control of the nation in battle, King Olav subsequently founded the city of Sarpsborg in Viken during 1016. During the Civil war era in Norway, the Bagler faction frequently established themselves in the Viken area, the wealthier classes, particularly in Viken, were the basis of the Bagler party. The Norwegian kings achieved full authority with developments which reached its peak when the capital was established at Oslo during the reign of King Haakon V of Norway in 1314. Viken is the form of the Old Norse word vík meaning an inlet or creek. Various theories have been offered that the word viking may be derived from place name
13.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
14.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
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Wehrmacht
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The Wehrmacht was the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1946. It consisted of the Heer, the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe, after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, one of Adolf Hitler’s most overt and audacious moves was to establish the Wehrmacht, a modern armed forces fully capable of offensive use. In December 1941, Hitler designated himself as commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht, the Wehrmacht formed the heart of Germany’s politico-military power. In the early part of World War II, Hitlers generals employed the Wehrmacht through innovative combined arms tactics to devastating effect in what was called a Blitzkrieg, the Wehrmachts new military structure, unique combat techniques, newly developed weapons, and unprecedented speed and brutality crushed their opponents. Closely cooperating with the SS, the German armed forces committed war crimes and atrocities. By the time the war ended in Europe in May 1945, only a few of the Wehrmacht’s upper leadership were tried for war crimes, despite evidence suggesting that more were involved in illegal actions. The German term Wehrmacht generically describes any nations armed forces, for example, the Frankfurt Constitution of 1848 designated all German military forces as the German Wehrmacht, consisting of the Seemacht and the Landmacht. In 1919, the term Wehrmacht also appears in Article 47 of the Weimar Constitution, establishing that, from 1919, Germanys national defense force was known as the Reichswehr, a name that was dropped in favor of Wehrmacht on 21 May 1935. In January 1919, after World War I ended with the signing of the armistice of 11 November 1918, in March 1919, the national assembly passed a law founding a 420, 000-strong preliminary army, the Vorläufige Reichswehr. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles were announced in May, the army was limited to one hundred thousand men with an additional fifteen thousand in the navy. The fleet was to consist of at most six battleships, six cruisers, submarines, tanks and heavy artillery were forbidden and the air-force was dissolved. A new post-war military, the Reichswehr, was established on 23 March 1921, General conscription was abolished under another mandate of the Versailles treaty. The Reichswehr was limited to 115,000 men, and thus the armed forces, under the leadership of Hans von Seeckt, though Seeckt retired in 1926, the army that went to war in 1939 was largely his creation. Germany was forbidden to have an air-force by the Versailles treaty, nonetheless and these officers saw the role of an air-force as winning air-superiority, tactical and strategic bombing and providing ground support. That the Luftwaffe did not develop a strategic bombing force in the 1930s was not due to a lack of interest, but because of economic limitations. The leadership of the Navy led by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, officers who believed in submarine warfare led by Admiral Karl Dönitz were in a minority before 1939. By 1922, Germany had begun covertly circumventing the conditions of the Versailles Treaty, a secret collaboration with the Soviet Union began after the treaty of Rapallo. Major-General Otto Hasse traveled to Moscow in 1923 to further negotiate the terms, Germany helped the Soviet Union with industrialization and Soviet officers were to be trained in Germany
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Collaborationism
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Collaborationism is cooperation with the enemy against ones country in wartime. Stanley Hoffmann subdivided collaboration onto involuntary and voluntary, in contrast, Bertram Gordon used the terms collaborator and collaborationist for non-ideological and ideological collaborations, respectively. The meaning of traitorous cooperation with the dates from 1940, originally in reference to the Vichy Government of Frenchmen who cooperated with the Germans. During World War II, collaborators existed in several German-occupied zones, in France, a distinction emerged between the collaborateur and the collaborationniste. The latter expression is used to describe individuals enrolled in pseudo-Nazi parties, often based in Paris. Arch-collaborators like Pierre Laval or René Bousquet are thus distinct from collaborationists, recent research by the British historian Simon Kitson has shown that French authorities did not wait until the Liberation to begin pursuing collaborationists. The Vichy government, itself engaged in collaboration, arrested around 2000 individuals on charges of passing information to the Germans. It was among the many compromises that the government engaged along the way, in Belgium, collaborators were organized into the VNV party and the DeVlag movement in Flanders, and into the Rexist movement in Wallonia. There was an active movement in the Netherlands. Vidkun Quisling, a officer in the Norwegian Army and former minister of defence. He gave his name to the high-profile government collaborator, now known as a Quisling, after the German invasion of Greece, a Nazi-held government was put in place. All three quisling prime ministers, cooperated with the Axis authorities, main collaborationist regime in Yugoslavia was the Independent State of Croatia, a puppet-state semi-independent of Nazi Germany. The main collaborationist in East Yugoslavia was the axis-puppet Serbian government of Nedić, German citizen Franz Oppenhoff accepted appointment as Mayor of the German city of Aachen in 1944, under authority of the Allied military command. He was assassinated on orders from Heinrich Himmler in 1945, high-profile German collaborators included Dutch actor Johannes Heesters or English-language radio-personality William Joyce. In Palestinian society, collaboration with Israel is viewed as a serious offence, in addition, during the period of 2007–2009, around 30 Palestinians have been sentenced to death in court on collaboration-related charges, although the sentences have not been carried out. In June 2009, Raed Sualha, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy, was tortured and hanged by his family because they suspected him of collaborating with Israel. Authorities of the Palestinian territories launched an investigation into the case, police said it was unlikely that such a young boy would have been recruited as an informer. Kitson, Simon, The Hunt for Nazi Spies, Fighting espionage in Vichy France, Chicago, littlejohn, David, The Patriotic Traitors, A History of Collaboration in German-Occupied Europe, 1940-45, London, William Heinemann Ltd
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Edvard Munch
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One of his best known works is The Scream of 1893. Edvard Munch was born in a farmhouse in the village of Ådalsbruk in Løten, United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, to Laura Catherine Bjølstad and Christian Munch, Christian was a doctor and medical officer who married Laura, a woman half his age, in 1861. Edvard had a sister, Johanne Sophie, and three younger siblings, Peter Andreas, Laura Catherine, and Inger Marie. Both Sophie and Edvard appear to have inherited their artistic talent from their mother, Edvard Munch was related to painter Jacob Munch and historian Peter Andreas Munch. The family moved to Christiania in 1864 when Christian Munch was appointed medical officer at Akershus Fortress, Edvards mother died of tuberculosis in 1868, as did Munchs favorite sister Johanne Sophie in 1877. After their mothers death, the Munch siblings were raised by their father, often ill for much of the winters and kept out of school, Edvard would draw to keep himself occupied. He was tutored by his mates and his aunt. Christian Munch also instructed his son in history and literature, and entertained the children with vivid ghost-stories, as Edvard remembered it, Christians positive behavior toward his children was overshadowed by his morbid pietism. Munch wrote, My father was temperamentally nervous and obsessively religious—to the point of psychoneurosis, from him I inherited the seeds of madness. The angels of fear, sorrow, and death stood by my side since the day I was born, Christian reprimanded his children by telling them that their mother was looking down from heaven and grieving over their misbehavior. The oppressive religious milieu, plus Edvards poor health and the vivid ghost stories, helped inspire his macabre visions and nightmares, one of Munchs younger sisters, Laura, was diagnosed with mental illness at an early age. Of the five siblings, only Andreas married, but he died a few months after the wedding, Munch would later write, I inherited two of mankinds most frightful enemies—the heritage of consumption and insanity. Christian Munchs military pay was low, and his attempts to develop a private side practice failed, keeping his family in genteel. They moved frequently from one flat to another. Munchs early drawings and watercolors depicted these interiors, and the objects, such as medicine bottles and drawing implements. By his teens, art dominated Munchs interests, at thirteen, Munch had his first exposure to other artists at the newly formed Art Association, where he admired the work of the Norwegian landscape school. He returned to copy the paintings, and soon he began to paint in oils, in 1879, Munch enrolled in a technical college to study engineering, where he excelled in physics, chemistry and math. He learned scaled and perspective drawing, but frequent illnesses interrupted his studies, the following year, much to his fathers disappointment, Munch left the college determined to become a painter
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The Scream
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The Scream is the popular name given to each of four versions of a composition, created as both paintings and pastels, by Norwegian Expressionist artist Edvard Munch between 1893 and 1910. The German title Munch gave these works is Der Schrei der Natur, the works show a figure with an agonized expression against a landscape with a tumultuous orange sky. Arthur Lubow has described The Scream as an icon of modern art, Edvard Munch created the four versions in various media. The National Gallery in Oslo, Norway, holds one of two painted versions, the Munch Museum holds the other painted version and a pastel version from 1893. These three versions have not traveled for years, the fourth version was sold for $119,922,600 at Sothebys Impressionist and Modern Art auction on 2 May 2012 to financier Leon Black, the fourth highest nominal price paid for a painting at auction. The painting was on display in the Museum of Modern Art in New York from October 2012 to April 2013, also in 1895, Munch created a lithograph stone of the image. Of the lithograph prints produced by Munch, several examples survive, only approximately four dozen prints were made before the original stone was resurfaced by the printer in Munchs absence. The Scream has been the target of several high-profile art thefts, in 1994, the version in the National Gallery was stolen. It was recovered months later. In 2004, both The Scream and Madonna were stolen from the Munch Museum, and were recovered two years later. The original German title given by Munch to his work was Der Schrei der Natur, the Norwegian word skrik usually is translated as scream, but is cognate with the English shriek. Occasionally, the painting also has been called The Cry and he later described his inspiration for the image, One evening I was walking along a path, the city was on one side and the fjord below. I stopped and looked out over the sun was setting. I sensed a scream passing through nature, it seemed to me that I heard the scream, I painted this picture, painted the clouds as actual blood. This explanation has been disputed by scholars, who note that Munch was a painter and was not primarily interested in literal renderings of what he had seen. Alternatively, it has suggested that the proximity of both a slaughterhouse and a lunatic asylum to the site depicted in the painting may have offered some inspiration. The scene was identified as being the view from a road overlooking Oslo, at the time of painting the work, Munchs manic depressive sister Laura Catherine was a patient at the asylum at the foot of Ekeberg. In 2004, an Italian anthropologist speculated that Munch might have seen a mummy in Florences Museum of Natural History, nonetheless, later studies have confirmed Rosenblums suggestion, disproving the Italian theory, for Munch had not been to Florence until after painting The Scream
19.
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
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Norwegian Campaign
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The Norwegian Campaign was fought in Norway between Norway, the Allies and Germany in World War II after the latters invasion of the country. In April, the United Kingdom and France came to Norways aid with an expeditionary force, despite moderate success in the northern parts of Norway, Germanys invasion of France in May eventually compelled the Allies to withdraw and the Norwegian government to seek exile in London. The campaign ended with the occupation of Norway by Germany, the 62 days of fighting made Norway the nation that withstood a German invasion for the second longest period of time, after the Soviet Union. Britain and France had signed military assistance treaties with Poland and two days after the German invasion, both declared war on Nazi Germany. However, neither country mounted significant offensive operations and for several months no major engagements occurred in what known as the Phoney War or Twilight War. Winston Churchill in particular wished to move the war into an active phase. During this time both sides wished to open secondary fronts, for the Allies, in particular the French, this was based on a desire to avoid repeating the trench warfare of the First World War, which had occurred along the Franco-German border. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, the Norwegian government had mobilized parts of the Norwegian Army and all, the Norwegian Army Air Service and the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service were also called up to protect Norwegian neutrality from violations by the warring countries. The first such violations were the sinkings in Norwegian territorial waters of several British ships by German U-boats, in the following months aircraft from all the belligerents violated Norwegian neutrality. Following protracted negotiations between 25 September and 20 November 1939, the Norwegians agreed to charter 150 tankers, as well as other ships with a tonnage of 450,000 gross tons. The Norwegian governments concern for the supply lines played an important role in persuading them to accept the agreement. Norway, although neutral, was considered important for both sides of the war for two main reasons. Narvik became of greater significance to the British when it became apparent that Operation Catherine, the Norwegian ports could have also served as holes in the blockade of Germany, allowing the latter access to the Atlantic Ocean. The principal reason for Germanys invasion of Norway was its dependence on Swedish iron ore, by securing access to Norwegian ports, the Germans could more easily obtain the supply of iron ore they needed for their war effort. Control of Norway was considered to be important to Germanys ability to use its sea power effectively against the Allies. While Norway was strictly neutral, and unoccupied by either of the fighting powers, but the weakness of the Norwegian coastal defences, and the inability of her field army to resist effectively a determined invasion by a stronger power were clear. A successful invasion of Norway by either side had the potential to strike a blow against the other without getting bogged down in the trench warfare of the previous conflict. Norway had particular importance to the Germans during the Battle of the Atlantic
21.
Birger Eriksen
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Birger Kristian Eriksen was a Norwegian officer who was instrumental in stopping the first wave of Gruppe 5 of the German invasion force outside Oslo. Eriksen was the commander of Oscarsborg Fortress when Nazi Germany attacked Norway in the hours of 9 April 1940. He gained lasting recognition for ordering the fortress under his command to fire on the vanguard forces of Operation Weserübung and sinking the 14,000 ton heavy cruiser Blücher. Nonetheless, he would return home to Moskenes every summer to visit his mother until she died in 1936, on 21 November 1903 in Vang, Eriksen married Christiane Sæhlie. The married couple had one son and two daughters by 1930, after Eriksen graduated from high school in 1893, he attended a technical college in Charlottenburg in Berlin, Germany for three months before returning home. In 1896 he started his career by graduating from the Norwegian Military Academy. By 1901 he had reached the rank of Kaptein in the Norwegian coastal artillery, in 1915, Eriksen was also made commander of Agdenes Fortress off Trondheim. By the time of the battle, Eriksen was six months from retirement, before his Oscarsborg command Eriksen had commanded the fortresses of Tønsberg, Agdenes and Bergen. Eriksen was present when Oscarsborg Fortress was returned to the Norwegian military on 12 May 1945, Eriksen held a speech about the flag as symbol of the fatherland as the flag that had flown over the fortress until April 1940 was again raised over Oscarsborg. Although Eriksen was honoured for his efforts after the war, he came under criticism by governmental investigators who felt he had surrendered his fortress sooner than had been necessary. Birger Eriksen died as a war hero on 16 July 1958. The funeral service took place at Oslo New Crematorium and the urn with Eriksens ashes was buried at Drøbak Church. Following a private initiative and the formation of a committee to honour him, Eriksens ashes were exhumed on 4 October 1977 and it is a great honour for a Norwegian to be buried in the Æreslunden there. Either I will be decorated, or I will be court-martialed and its not really hard to fire guns, but its immensely hard to make the decision to fire. Damn straight were firing live ammunition, war Cross with sword –16 November 1945 Légion dhonneur – May 1946 Croix de guerre – May 1946
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Oscarsborg Fortress
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Oscarsborg Fortress is a coastal fortress in the Oslofjord, close to the small town of Drøbak. The best known part is situated on two small islets, the fortress is best known for sinking the German heavy cruiser Blücher on 9 April 1940. In 2014, Oscarsborg Fortress was given protected status, effective from 9 April that year, the narrows at Drøbak, called Drøbaksundet, is a natural point for the naval defence of Oslo, the capital of Norway. The first defences were constructed during the reign of Christian IV of Denmark, the fortifications were however not involved in battle during the Hannibal War. After the war the fortifications were dismantled, and only resurrected for a period during the 1814 war with Sweden. Around 1830 the discussion started for a fortification of the Drøbak Narrows and the first stage was ready in 1848. The name of the fortress was given by royal resolution on 23 August 1855 after a visit by the Swedish-Norwegian King Oscar I, by the end of the 19th century the art of war developed rapidly and the new fortress was soon obsolete. The tension was growing between the two countries in the union and so the Norwegians decided to upgrade the fortress. From 1890 new improved German guns were installed, a barrier was built in 1874–79. The main armament was three 28 cm calibre guns manufactured by Krupp, there were also a number of guns with smaller calibres on the mainland. An underwater barrier went from the islet of Kaholmen and south-west to Hurum on the western side of the fjord. At Oscarsborg the torpedo battery is a concrete construction inside a cave mined into the rock of the North Kaholmen island, two torpedoes are loaded side by side, in two open steel frames. Then one of the two frames is lowered like an elevator down into the water to the tunnels below, after one shot, it took some time to swap frames and be ready for the next. When fired, the torpedos own compressed air engine was started, the battery has three torpedo tunnels which could fire six torpedoes without reloading and a total of nine torpedoes was stored and ready for use. Each weapon carried a 100 kg TNT warhead and targets were spotted from three observation bunkers just above the battery, the torpedoes were delivered in 1900 from the Whitehead torpedo factory in Fiume, then part of Austria-Hungary. A back-up observation bunker is situated just outside the entrance to the battery, when Norway was invaded on 9 April 1940, all of the fortress armament was over 40 years old, and of German origin. During the occupation of Norway German forces were stationed at Oscarsborg, the flag in question was the same that had flown over the fortress until it was captured by the Germans in April 1940. Colonel Birger Eriksen was present on the occasion and made a speech, during the Cold War Oscarsborg formed a last line of defence for Oslo, with the underground torpedo battery remaining secretly active up until 1 January 1993, having been modernized in the 1980s
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Heavy cruiser
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The heavy cruiser was a type of cruiser, a naval warship designed for long range and high speed, armed generally with naval guns of roughly 203mm calibre and displacing approximately 10,000 tons. The heavy cruiser can be seen as a lineage of ship design from 1915 until 1945, the heavy cruisers immediate precursors were the light cruiser designs of the 1900s and 1910s, rather than the armoured cruisers of before 1905. With their intended targets being other cruisers and smaller vessels, the role of the heavy cruiser differed fundamentally from that of the armored cruiser, also, the heavy cruiser was designed to take advantage of advances in naval technology and design. They often had a number of main guns than did armoured cruisers. This arrangement saved tonnage and enabled the ship to all guns on one broadside. They also benefited from the introduction of control in the 1920s and 1930s. These developments meant that the cruiser was an overall more powerful ship type than the armoured cruiser had been. At the end of the 19th century, cruisers were classified as first and their essential role had not changed since the age of sail—to serve on long-range missions, patrol for enemy warships and raid and defend commerce. Armoured cruisers had proved less versatile than needed to do this adequately, in a race to outsize and outgun one another, they had grown to around 15,000 tons and up to 9. While Japanese armored cruisers had distinguished themselves at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905, tactics and technology were gearing towards naval encounters held over increasingly longer ranges, which demanded an armament of primarily large caliber guns. The demand for speed with which to outflank a potential enemy, thirty percent was the ratio by which frigates had been faster than ships of the line in the days of sail. If a battleship sailed at 20 knots, this would mean that an armored cruiser would have to steam at least 26 or 27 knots, armoured cruisers could not fulfill these criteria without being built much larger and taking on a different form than they had in the past. HMS Invincible and her two sister ships were designed specifically to fulfill these requirements, however, they were much larger, faster and better-armed than armored cruisers, able to outpace them, stay out of range of their weapons and destroy them with relative impunity. All these factors made battlecruisers attractive fighting units, although Britain, Germany and they also meant that the armored cruiser as it had been known was now outmoded. No more were built after 1910 and by the end of World War I, although Lord Fisher, the man behind the building of Invincible, had hoped to replace practically all forms of cruisers with battlecruisers, they proved to be too costly to build in large numbers. At the same time, the third class cruiser started to carry thin steel armour on the outside of its hull, the first such design was the British Atlantic cruiser proposal of 1912, which proposed a long-range cruiser of about 8,000 tons displacement with 190 mm guns. This was a response to a rumour that Germany was building cruisers to attack merchant shipping in the Atlantic with 170mm guns, the German raiders proved to be fictional and the Atlantic cruisers were never built. However, in 1915 the requirement for long-range trade-protection cruisers resurfaced and resulted in the Hawkins class, essentially enlarged light cruisers, the Hawkins-class each carried seven 190 mm guns, and had a displacement just under 10,000 tons
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Vidkun Quisling
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Quisling first came to international prominence as a close collaborator of Fridtjof Nansen, organizing humanitarian relief during the Russian famine of 1921 in Povolzhye. He was posted as a Norwegian diplomat to the Soviet Union and he returned to Norway in 1929, and served as Minister of Defence in the governments of Peder Kolstad and Jens Hundseid, representing the Farmers Party. Although Quisling achieved some popularity after his attacks on the political left, from 1942 to 1945 he served as Minister-President, heading the Norwegian state administration jointly with the German civilian administrator Josef Terboven. His pro-Nazi puppet government, known as the Quisling regime, was dominated by ministers from Nasjonal Samling, the collaborationist government participated in Germanys genocidal Final Solution. He was executed by firing squad at Akershus Fortress, Oslo, the word quisling has since become a synonym for collaborator or traitor, reflecting the very poor light in which Quislings actions were seen, both at the time and since his death. Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling was born on 18 July 1887 in Fyresdal, the elder Quisling had lectured in Grimstad in the 1870s, one of his pupils was Bang, whom he married on 28 May 1886, following a long engagement. The newly-wed couple promptly moved to Fyresdal, where Vidkun and his siblings were born. The family name derives from Quislinus, a Latinised name invented by Quislings ancestor Lauritz Ibsen Quislin, based on the village of Kvislemark in Jutland, Denmark, whence he had emigrated. Having two brothers and a sister, the young Quisling was shy and quiet but also loyal and helpful, private letters later found by historians also indicate a warm and affectionate relationship between the family members. From 1893 to 1900, his father was a chaplain for the Strømsø borough in Drammen, here, Vidkun went to school for the first time. He was bullied by students at the school for his Telemark dialect. In 1900, the moved to Skien when his father was appointed provost of the city. Academically Quisling proved talented in humanities, particularly history, and natural sciences, at this point, however, his life had no clear direction. In 1905, Quisling enrolled at the Norwegian Military Academy, having received the highest entrance examination score of the 250 applicants that year. Transferring in 1906 to the Norwegian Military College, he graduated with the highest score since the inception in 1817. On 1 November 1911, he joined the army General Staff, Norway was neutral in the First World War, Quisling detested the peace movement, though the high human cost of the war did temper his views. In March 1918, he was sent to Russia as an attaché at the Norwegian legation in Petrograd, when the legation was recalled in December 1918, Quisling became the Norwegian militarys expert on Russian affairs. In September 1919, Quisling departed Norway to become an officer with the Norwegian delegation in Helsinki
25.
Allies of World War II
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The Allies of World War II, called the United Nations from the 1 January 1942 declaration, were the countries that together opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War. The Allies promoted the alliance as seeking to stop German, Japanese, at the start of the war on 1 September 1939, the Allies consisted of France, Poland and the United Kingdom, and dependent states, such as the British India. Within days they were joined by the independent Dominions of the British Commonwealth, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Poland was a minor factor after its defeat in 1939, France was a minor factor after its defeat in 1940. China had already been into a war with Japan since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937. The alliance was formalised by the Declaration by United Nations, from 1 January 1942, however, the name United Nations was rarely used to describe the Allies during the war. The leaders of the Big Three – the UK, the Soviet Union, in 1945, the Allied nations became the basis of the United Nations. The origins of the Allied powers stem from the Allies of World War I, Germany resented signing Treaty of Versailles. The new Weimar republics legitimacy became shaken, by the early 1930s, the Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler became the dominant revanchist movement in Germany and Hitler and the Nazis gained power in 1933. The Nazi regime demanded the cancellation of the Treaty of Versailles and made claims to German-populated Austria. The likelihood of war was high, and the question was whether it could be avoided through strategies such as appeasement, in Asia, when Japan seized Manchuria in 1931, the League of Nations condemned it for aggression against China. Japan responded by leaving the League of Nations in March 1933, after four quiet years, the Sino-Japanese War erupted in 1937 with Japanese forces invading China. The League of Nations condemned Japans actions and initiated sanctions on Japan, the United States, in particular, was angered at Japan and sought to support China. In March 1939, Germany took over Czechoslovakia, violating the Munich Agreement signed six months before, Britain and France decided that Hitler had no intention to uphold diplomatic agreements and responded by preparing for war. On 31 March 1939, Britain formed the Anglo-Polish military alliance in an effort to avert a German attack on the country, also, the French had a long-standing alliance with Poland since 1921. The Soviet Union sought an alliance with the powers. The agreement secretly divided the independent nations of eastern Europe between the two powers and assured adequate oil supplies for the German war machine, on 1 September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, two days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. Then, on 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, a Polish government-in-exile was set up and it continued to be one of the Allies, a model followed by other occupied countries. After a quiet winter, Germany in April 1940 invaded and quickly defeated Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Britain and its Empire stood alone against Hitler and Mussolini
26.
Class 1 World Powerboat Championship
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The UIM Class 1 World Powerboat Championship is an international motorboat racing competition for powerboats organised by the Union Internationale Motonautique. It is the highest class of powerboat racing in the world. Class 1 is considered one of the most spectacular motorsports in the world, all boats are limited by a minimum weight of 4950 kg. The sport of racing has undergone unprecedented change since early records of a race in 1887 in Nice, France. The French also claimed the two recorded races in 1903, a 62-mile race in Meulan on the River Seine organized by the Poissy Sailing Club. But the first officially recognized international offshore powerboat race was a 22-mile event from Calais, France to Dover, from 1964 to 1976 the winner of the World Championship was decided by points gained from multiple races held at venues around the world. From 1977 to 1991 the winner was decided by series of races at an event at the end of the year. The World Championship reverted to a multi-event format in 1992 and these races also provided the sport with its first hero – Sam L. Griffith. The first Miami-Nassau race, run on 6 May 1956 was the brainchild of American race car promoter Capt. Sherman ‘Red’ Crise and yacht designer, of the eleven intrepid pioneers who entered this now famous 184-mile race, eight went the distance to complete the race. The first boat home after nine hours 20 minutes, at an speed of 19.7 mph, was the Griffith-Bertram entry, Doodles II. Griffith was a larger than life character who made the sport his own in early years. During the 1950s the Americans had the sport to themselves laying claim to the three major races in existence, the Miami-Nassau, the Around Long Island Marathon and the Miami-Key West. But in the early 60s Europe entered the fray to challenge the Americans, over the next thirty years an enduring struggle ensued between the three founding nations for racing supremacy. Jim Wynne, Dick Bertram and Don Aronow led the way with the Daytona, Mercruiser, during this period the Americans posted thirteen champions and the Italians six. Count Vincenzo Balestrieri Cosimelli, from Rome, Italy, was the first non-American to win the trophy in 1968. Balestrieri repeated in 1970, winning his second title, wally Franz, a Brazilian, won the title in 1975 with an American boat, engine, transmission and throttleman. In the 1970s the pendulum swung to witness a period of European design dominance, Don Shead’s aluminum monohulls from Enfield, Italian manufacturers Picchiotti and CUV and the James Beard – Clive Curtis Cougar catamarans set the pace. Gjelsten and Curtis are the only partnership to win the five times – including the hat-trick 2002/2003/2004 –
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Holmenkollen
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Holmenkollen is a neighborhood in the Vestre Aker borough of Oslo, Norway. In addition to being an area, the area has been a ski recreation area since the late 19th century, with its famous ski jumping hill. To the north, the borders to the woodlands area Marka. The Holmenkoll Line of the Oslo Metro runs through the neighborhood, serving the stations Besserud, the Holmenkollen Chapel was destroyed by arson in 1992 by black metal artists Varg Vikernes, Bård “Faust” Eithun and Øystein “Euronymous” Aarseth, but later rebuilt. The chapel is a neighbour to the Norwegian Royal Lodge, the residence of the Norwegian Royal Family during events like Christmas, the name is a compound of the farm name Holmen and the finsdadsasdasdaite form of kolle m hill, rounded mountain top. The farm name Holmen is a compound of holmr m bedrock, large parts of the plot of the mystery novel The Snowman - particularly the books final climatic scenes - are set in Holmenkollen, both the residential area and the ski jump. FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2011 in Holmenkollen Holmenkollbakken Holmenkollen medal Holmenkollen ski festival
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Ekeberg
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Ekeberg is a neighborhood in the city of Oslo, Norway. The Norway Cup soccer tournament takes place at Ekebergsletta every summer, the painting The Scream by Edvard Munch is painted from Utsikten, a part of Ekeberg. In the area are a number of old Iron Age grave mounds and this establish the area of Ekeberg as one of the oldest inhabited places around Oslo. During the Middle Ages, the farm of Ekeberg belonged to Hovedøya Abbey, the area was later taken by the crown. From 1760, the farm of Ekeberg was run by an appointed owner, in the area, a number of small homesteads under the main farm was erected the following century. The first suburban settlement came around 1900, and the suburb was raised in the years prior to 1935. Many of the houses are still present in the area. Ekeberg belonged to Oslo from 1947, the farm land cultivated crops until 1950, and the farm still had goats and small cattle up to 1965. The neighborhood of Ekeberg is situated on a bluff overlooking the city, during the 19th century, the air was considered excellent for tuberculosis patients. Shortly after World War II, there were discussions on how to use the area, ekeberg-Bekkelaget was a borough of Oslo up to January 1,2004, when it became part of the Gamle Oslo and Nordstrand boroughs. Ekeberg as an area was mentioned by Snorri Sturluson in his Saga of the Kings. In the northern part of the area the farm Ekeberg Hovedgård is located, the fields of the farm are now a part of Ekebergsletta and the camp ground where the main building still stands. The name, Old Norse Eikaberg - the first element is the genitive case of eik f oak. Sculpture Park A sculpture park, Ekebergparken Sculpture Park opened in 2013 on the initiative of the Norwegian businessman, the park contains numerous works of art from Norwegian and international artists, among others, Salvador Dalí, Lynn Chadwick, Richard Hudson and Per Ung. The sculpture park is located in an area that has open space. In literature Many Norwegian authors and poets have written poems and appraisals of the area, among them Henrik Wergeland, Hans E. Kinck, and Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, who also wrote down the local folklore from the area, concerning the Ekeberg Troll, living inside the hill. Hans Christian Andersen and Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson apparently established their friendship while admiring the view of the city, later, Ingeborg Refling Hagen lived in the area, establishing a cultural work which was known as the Ekeberg Colony. A curious mentioning of the area occurs in the cult novel The Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft, here it is stated that the surviving sailor Gustaf Johansen lived in an old house at Egeberg where he died after ramming Cthulhu head on with a fishing vessel
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Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
