Union Between Sweden and

Norway 1814 - 1905

Introduction

Until 1809, Sweden consisted of four major regions, or “parts of the country” (all with names ending in "land"), from south to north: Götaland, Svealand, Norrland, and our eastern region, Finland. Sweden lost the region of Finland during the conflict with Russia in 1808-1809. Crown Prince Karl Johan of Sweden, a former French general, became Sweden's crown prince in 1810, and the hopes were now that Sweden, under his leadership, would reclaim Finland from Russia. But Karl Johan believed that the best thing for Sweden was to have a peaceful relationship with the neighbor to the east, Russia. Instead, he looked towards Danish Norway. Through the Kalmar Union, Norway belonged to Denmark, and Denmark sided with France during the Napoleonic Wars. Karl Johan led the Allied Northern Army in the war against Napoleon, and at the end of the war, he led an attack against Denmark, which was defeated. This led to Denmark ceding all of Norway to Sweden at the Treaty of Kiel in 1814.

Kalmar Union

The Kalmar Union was a Scandinavian personal union, agreed upon at a meeting at Kalmar Castle, Kalmar City, Sweden, between the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, joined under a single monarch, that was formed in 1397. The Union was founded at a meeting in Kalmar in 1397, where the nobility from the three countries gathered to crown Erik of Pomerania as king over the three countries (with Danish Queen Margareta as the initial co-regent). From the meeting, the so-called Union Letter has been preserved. The union was Europe's largest country by area. Besides Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (then including Finland), the union also included areas such as Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, the Orkney Islands, and the Shetland Islands. The image to the right shows the flag of the Kalmar Union. Image: Wikipedia. The union was a political and economic necessity to limit German expansion to the north during the 14th century, which was constituted by the Hanseatic League, the Teutonic Order, and North German principalities. The Kalmar Union was, in other words, a Scandinavian personal union that was governed from Copenhagen. For Sweden, the union lasted until June 6, 1523, when Gustav Eriksson Vasa was crowned King of Sweden. After Sweden left the union, Denmark and Norway remained in the union until 1814, but with significant changes to the forms of the union in 1536. In the aftermath of the Feud of the Counts in Denmark, Kristian III was elected King of Denmark in October 1536. In his coronation oath, Christian promised that Norway would no longer be an independent kingdom but a part of Denmark and that the Norwegian Council of the Realm would be abolished. The Norwegian provinces had previously been granted to Danish nobles. Norway was thus reduced from a sovereign country to crown land under the Danish king. The dissolution of the union for Sweden was preceded by the so-called Stockholm Bloodbath in November 1520, directly after the Danish king Kristian II's coronation as Swedish king. During the Stockholm Bloodbath, between November 7 and 9, approximately 50 to 60 leaders of the Swedish nobility were executed by the Danish King Kristian II. Everyone had first been invited to Stockholm Castle for a coronation and reconciliation feast by the Danish king, but instead, they were beheaded. The executions took place at Stortorget (the Grand Square) outside the Stockholm Palace. After the bloodbath, the Danish King Kristian was referred to as Kristian the Tyrant in Sweden. After the Stockholm Bloodbath, Gustav Eriksson Vasa (whose father, Erik Johansson, was executed during the bloodbath) organized a rebellion against Kristian II in 1521, which became the beginning of the War of Liberation. Gustav Vasa formed an alliance with Lübeck and successfully conquered most of Sweden. Gustav Eriksson Vasa was elected King of Sweden on 6 June 1523 in Strängnäs, effectively ending the Kalmar Union. Stockholm was then taken on June 17, and on Midsummer's Day, June 24, 1523, the newly elected King Gustav was able to make his entry into the capital. Below is a map showing the territorial extent of the Kalmar Union in 1397. Image: Wikipedia.

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of conflicts fought between Napoleon's French Empire and various European coalitions that lasted from 1803 to 1815. Napoleon's armies conquered large parts of Europe, but his power collapsed after France's catastrophic invasion of Russia in 1812 and the Battle of Leipzig in 1813. In 1805, Denmark had the fifth largest naval fleet in Europe. If France had succeeded in gaining access to the Danish fleet, the French naval strength relative to the British would have increased from 32% to 59% of the British tonnage. For the British government, it was of great strategic importance to maintain its maritime superiority in a manner analogous to Napoleon's dominance on the European mainland. To prevent the Danish fleet from falling into French hands, Britain sent a larger naval force towards Copenhagen on July 26, 1807, to persuade the Danes to ally with Britain or to hand over their fleet as collateral to the British until the war was over. At this point, however, most of the ships in the Danish fleet were not in a state of readiness for war and were lying unusable at the naval base. The Danish Crown Prince Frederik rejected all possibilities for negotiations with the British by leaving Copenhagen. On August 16, 1807, the British landed at Vedbæk, north of Copenhagen. At the same time, another British force landed at Køge Bay south of the city. Copenhagen was now threatened in a semicircle from north to south as well as by the British fleet in the Öresund. The British began an artillery bombardment against Copenhagen on the evening of September 2nd. One-fifth of Copenhagen's buildings burned down or were severely damaged. On September 6, 1807, the Danish capitulation was signed. At the end of October, the British sailed north through the Öresund (the Sound) with the seized Danish fleet as war booty and property. As Denmark thereby lost its fleet, the conditions for protecting its maritime trade and asserting its territory at sea disappeared. Another consequence of the British attack was that Denmark was forced to abandon its neutrality, and by declaring war on Britain, the Danes thus chose to side with France. However, following Napoleon's capitulation, Denmark was compelled to relinquish Norway to Sweden at the Treaty of Kiel in 1814. Sweden's Crown Prince Karl Johan, originally the French general Jean Baptiste Bernadotte, became Crown Prince of Sweden in 1810 and King of Sweden as Karl XIV Johan in 1818. The image to the right shows Sweden’s Crown Prince Karl Johan in 1811 in a Swedish general's uniform. Painting by François Gérard (1770–1837). Image: Wikipedia. During the Napoleonic Wars, the allied Northern Army was composed of Sweden, Russia, and Prussia and was led by Crown Prince Karl Johan of Sweden. The Northern Army consisted of 130,000 soldiers, of which approximately 30,000 were Swedish soldiers. In December 1813, Denmark, which was on France's side in the war, was defeated by Swedish troops from the Northern Army, which then led to Denmark ceding all of Norway to Sweden. The Battle of Bornhöft took place on December 7, 1813, outside the small village of Bornhöft in present- day Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany. It was a battle between Swedish cavalry and Danish troops. The Swedish troops were reinforced with smaller units of Polish cavalry and German infantry. Crown Prince Karl Johan detached part of the Northern Army, including the Mörner Hussar Regiment under the command of the Chief of the Swedish Cavalry, Anders Fredrik Skjöldebrand, to pursue the retreating Danish army. The Swedish cavalry did not want to know of any outmaneuvering and decided to break the given orders and ride straight at the Danish force. The Swedish attack succeeded in breaking through the Danish defense line. The Danish losses in the battle amounted to 11 dead and 45 wounded, while the Swedish losses were 10 dead and 30 wounded cavalrymen. The Swedish troops reached Kiel on December 9, 1813. The Danish king then announced that he was ready to begin peace negotiations, and the Treaty of Kiel was concluded on January 15, 1814. The Danish-Norwegian realm was dismantled, and Norway was ceded to Sweden. The most important part of the peace treaty meant that Denmark would hand over Norway to Sweden. As compensation, Denmark instead received two Swedish provinces in Northern Germany: Swedish Pomerania and the island of Rügen. Sweden had lost its eastern part, Finland, to Russia in 1809 but received Norway from Denmark in 1814 instead. However, Denmark did not get to keep Swedish Pomerania and Rügen as compensation, as these areas were assigned to Prussia at the Congress of Vienna, which was held after the Napoleonic Wars between September 1814 and June 1815.

Union Between Sweden and

Norway

Denmark was forced to cede Norway to Sweden through the Treaty of Kiel on January 15, 1814. Norway was not invited to the peace negotiations in Kiel, and the Norwegian reaction to the Treaty of Kiel was deeply negative. The Norwegian resistance to the Treaty of Kiel led to a Norwegian declaration of independence and the adoption of a Norwegian constitution, the Constitution of Eidsvoll, on May 17, 1814. From a Swedish perspective, this meant that Sweden had to subdue Norway by force unless the Swedes wanted to renounce the gains of the Treaty of Kiel. But giving up Norway was not an option for Crown Prince Karl Johan, which is why an invasion of Norway was planned. Karl Johan ensured that they had the active support of Russia, Great Britain, and Prussia for this, as well as Austria's passive acceptance and France's forced approval.

The Campaign Against Norway in 1814

On July 26, 1814, the Swedish navy, both the naval fleet and the archipelago fleet, set sail for Norway, and war was thus a fact. The battle-hardened Swedish main army of approximately 45,000 soldiers entered Norway at dawn on July 30, with Fredriksten Fortress as their first target. In Värmland and Jämtland provinces, an additional 5,000 Swedish soldiers stood ready. The 25,000-30,000 soldiers that Norway could muster generally lacked military training and were poorly equipped due to a lack of war funding. The Norwegian command in general lacked the experience of modern warfare that the Swedish officer corps had acquired over the past decade through the many wars Sweden had been involved in. The main Swedish force attacked from the sea and occupied the islands of Hvaler. Thereafter, they took the city of Fredrikstad and besieged Fredriksten Fortress outside Halden. At the same time, a smaller force entered Norway from Värmland. The Swedes then advanced towards the Norwegian capital, Kristiania. At Langnes redoubts, the Norwegians had established a defensive line. The Swedes tried to go around the Norwegians' defensive line, and the final battle took place at Kjølberg Bridge on August 14, 1814, where the Swedes emerged victorious. On August 4, 1814, the Norwegian defenders of Fredrikstad raised a white flag on the fortress ramparts. The Swedish flagship Galathé hosted a ceremony on the morning of August 5. While the negotiations were ongoing, the war continued but with low intensity. At around eight o'clock in the evening on August 14, 1814, the Norwegian negotiators signed the Convention of Moss. Crown Prince Karl Johan, representing the Swedish king, secured an agreement with the Norwegian Parliament. In the weeks following the armistice, negotiations continued on how the Eidsvoll constitution should be adapted to the union solution, i.e., a revision of the Norwegian constitution to enable a personal union with Sweden. Karl Johan retained large forces in Norway as long as the negotiations were ongoing. Thus, the war turned into a Swedish occupation of Östfold (south-eastern Norway).

The Convention of Moss, Norway

The Convention of Moss of August 14, 1814, meant that Danish King Kristian Fredrik abdicated the Norwegian throne and that Norway entered into a personal union with Sweden. Sweden's King Karl XIII became the joint king of both Sweden and Norway, in Norway under the name Karl II. A personal union is a union between two or more states with a common head of state, in this case, the King of Sweden. The union was formally known as the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway. Sweden accepted the adapted Eidsvoll Constitution, and Norway was permitted to establish its own parliament, government, and military. Crown Prince Karl Johan did not want to rule Norway with military force. Instead, he wanted to win the support of the Norwegians for a union, and he succeeded. Oslo's main street still bears his name, Karl Johans gate, an acknowledgment that few conquerors have experienced. During the 91 years that the Swedish-Norwegian union lasted, Swedish and Norwegian troops only trained together on a few occasions, but there was no joint defense policy or war planning. Norway obtained the right to decide on Norwegian domestic political matters while all foreign policy was handled by the Swedish Foreign Ministry in Stockholm. Norway's head of government represented the Swedish king in his absence and held the title of Governor General. This title was abolished in 1873, and the Norwegian head of government could thereafter be titled Prime Minister. The Swedish king had veto power over all Norwegian constitutional matters until 1884. The map on the right shows the extent of the Swedish-Norwegian union. Image: Wikipedia.

The Union Flag

The Union Flag from 1815 consisted of the Swedish flag with a white saltire (St. Andrew's Cross) on a red field in the upper canton of the flag, which was intended to represent Norway. It was not until 1821 that Norway's flag was adopted. In 1844, a distinctive union mark was introduced, made up of evenly divided flag elements from both countries. It was positioned in the upper canton of each country's flag. The two countries thus received two parallel but similar flag regulations. The Union Mark was a symbol of the Swedish- Norwegian union that was used from 1844 to demonstrate the unity between the two countries and the personal union they were part of. Both countries thus received their own merchant and naval flags, but with a common union mark in the canton. The mark was a combination of the colors from both countries' flags. In Sweden, the union mark was viewed as a desecration of the flag from the start, and detractors dubbed it "sillsalad." The Union Flag served as a merchant flag until 1899, when it was abolished. The Union Mark, however, remained in the naval ensigns of both countries because it was under the jurisdiction of the Union King. The Union's naval jack, i.e., a flag flown from a short jackstaff at the bow of a ship, both on warships and merchant ships, consisted solely of the union mark in both Norway and Sweden until 1905 and was the flag used by the joint diplomatic representation abroad. Flags of the union:

Related Links

• The Many Swedish Wars - 1800s • History of the Swedish Military Intelligence

Source References

• Wikipedia • The article “Slaget vid Bornhöft 1813” by Thomas Roth on 5 March 2012 in the magazine Populär Historia. • The article “Sverige stal Norge från Danmark” by Andreas Marklund on 20 February 2021 in the magazine Världens Historia. • The article “Kriget 1814 tvingade Norge till union” by Lars Ericson Wolke on 9 December 2017 in the magazine Populär Historia. • The book “Svenska krig 1521 – 1814” by Ulf Sundberg, 1998 • The book “Svenska freder och stillestånd 1249 - 1814” by Ulf Sundberg, 1997 Top of page

The Union Crisis

In the 1890s, it was not impossible for the disagreements to escalate into war. In the early years of the 20th century, tensions escalated, and among other things, it was the consulate issue that primarily fueled the conflict, with Sweden rattling its weapons. The Swedish military intensified the hunt for military intelligence on Norway's border fortifications, military exercises, and potential mobilization. The Union Crisis of 1905 was preceded by decades of tensions between Norway and Sweden. Norway demanded increased self-determination, which Sweden opposed. Furthermore, Norway wanted its own consular service. Oscar II, the king of Sweden and Norway, and the Swedish government were opposed to this; all foreign policy decisions were to be handled from Stockholm. The consulate issue formally concerned the growing Norwegian demands to establish their own Norwegian consular service, but in reality, it was just as much about Norway's claim to be completely equal to Sweden.

The dissolution of the union in 1905

The Swedish-Norwegian union lasted until 1905, when Norway became independent from Sweden. In 1905, the Norwegian parliament unanimously decided to establish a Norwegian consular service abroad, which the king refused to sanction. The Norwegian government then responded by submitting its resignation, which the king also refused to accept. On June 7, 1905, Norway passed a law that effectively dissolved the union. Norway's unilateral dissolution of the union led to tensions and military mobilization on both sides of the border. Now both sides began military preparations. Sweden recruited espionage agents among military personnel, border residents, forest rangers, border riders (customs officers), telegraph, postal, and railway workers. The entire situation escalated and led to Sweden conducting a partial mobilization on July 17, 1905. The Chief of the General Staff, Axel Rappe, devised an attack plan against Norway. On August 31, 1905, the Karlstad negotiations between Sweden and Norway began, but the negotiations soon became bogged down. The image shows the participants at the Karlstad Conference regarding the dissolution of the Swedish- Norwegian union in 1905. Standing from left: Johannes Hellner, Hjalmar Hammarskjöld, Karl Staaff, Berg, Benjamin Vogt, Andreas Urbye. Seated from left: Fredrik Wachtmeister, Christian Lundeberg, Christian Michelsen, Carl Berner, Jørgen Løvland. Image: Wikipedia. In mid-September, Swedish military readiness was upped further, with 50,000 men mobilized. A Swedish naval squadron of 42 warships was dispatched along the west coast to Gothenburg, which is near the Norwegian border. On September 13 and 14, Norway conducted a partial mobilization, and a significant portion of the Norwegian armed forces, 22,000 men, were now under arms in Norway. However, during the negotiations in Karlstad, an agreement was made to create a demilitarized zone on both sides of the border. All new fortifications were demolished except for Kongsvinger, which was not allowed to be expanded. After tough negotiations in Karlstad, Sweden, during August and October 1905, the union achieved a peaceful dissolution. The Karlstad Convention, signed on September 23, 1905, ended the threat of war. They agreed on the terms for the dissolution of the union, and Sweden recognized Norway's independence. In October 1905, the Karlstad negotiation results were approved by both countries, and on October 26, the agreement was signed by Sweden's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Fredrik Wachtmeister, and Norway's representative Thor von Ditten. Sweden's military intelligence operations against Norway, however, continued. The Swedish-Norwegian union was dissolved not because of any genuine animosity between the two countries, but because the foundation upon which the union was established had become obsolete by the latter half of the nineteenth century. Statesmen from both Norway and Sweden recognized that a new age had begun, and therefore the union was dissolved. Instead, the two nations developed significant political and infrastructure links.