The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1905-07-26
FACTS ABOUT NORWAY.
CAUSES WHICH LED UP TO ITS
SEPARATION FROM SWEDEN.
History Of the Union Now Broken
Norway to Be an independent Ma
tion for the First Time In More
Than Five Centuries.


If the Norwegians hold to their ac-
tion, Norway will be an independent
nation for the first time in more than
five centuries. In 1876, when the crown
of the little Morse kingdom fell to a
Danish ruler, she passed under the
sway of that country and was only a
Danish province, although an unruly
and Independent one, until 1914, when
she was passed over to Sweden.
The differences between the two little
nations have vital basis. The Nor
wegians, living in a rough, mountain
Gus country, with long seacoast and
deep bays, are by nature sailors and
mountaineers the Swedes, inhabiting
the fertile part of the peninsula, are
farmers and city dwellers. They differ
in language, and to a certain degree in
blood. The Norwegians are democratic
by instinct; they were governed by a
national assembly from viking times,
and maintained it through the five CEN
turies of their subjugation. The Swedes
are more conservative. The national
feeling of Norway, encouraged by an
active liberal party, has been growing
for century.
The causes of the crisis go far back
into the past. Late in the fourteenth
century, Margaret of Norway, re-
markable figure in Scandinavian his
tory, made her son Olaf king of both
Norway and Denmark. Albert, weak
king, was on the throne of Sweden
Margaret sent an army against him,
besieged him in Stockholm and seized
his throne. She had her granddaughter
Eric crowned king of the three king
doms in 1897. Through stormy CEN
tury Sweden, although often in rebel
lion, was vassal Of Denmark and
Norway. The power of this dual king
dom was gradually vested in Denmark
When, in 1923, the Swedish patriot
Gustavus Vara organized successful
rebellion, Norway remained under
Danish control.
Under the dynasty founded by Gus
tavus Vara Sweden became the great
power of northern Europe. Gustayus
Adolphus was the champion of Protes-
tantism in Europe. Charles XII, who
died in 1718, defeated coalition OF
Denmark, Poland and Russia. He
reached too far, however, and before
his death had lost nearly all the Swe-
dish territory on the mainland. In
the beginning of the nineteenth CEN
tury Finland, long a Swedish depen-
dency went with the rest, and Sweden
was a thirdclass power.
1t was in the reign of Charles XIII,
who yielded up Finland to Russia, that
the Swedish Diet passed one OF the
most curious acts of succession in his
tory. 1t was the age of the Napoleonic
wars.
Napoleon's most serious rival in
France was Jean Bernadotte, mar
shall of the empire. The son of coun-
try lawyer, Bernadotte had risen from
the ranks to be the second soldier of
the Grand Army. He was made Minis
ter of War during Napoleon's absence
in Egypt, and in that capacity he re-
organized the army. Napoleon feared
him more than any other man in
France.
Swedish noblemen taking part in the
Napoleonic wars had encountered this
Bernadotte. His ability, personality
and ambition made a great impression
upon them. His rivalry with Napoleon
was matter of common knowledge.
Charles Kill was childless. The sue
cession became matter of concern to
the Diet. The collateral branches of
the royal line had no strong candidate.
A coalition of mobiles startled Europe
by proposing Bernadotte, Frenchman,
who had never even seen Sweden, as
Crown Prince and successor to the
throne. They won their point. Ber-
nadotte accepted and heCn'Ne ~ o@"N
virtual ruler of Sweden. He silenced
those Swedes who feared that ~ "ou.u
hand them over to Napoleon by join
ing a coalition against France.
With the help of England, Berna-
dotte forced Denmark, in 1914, to hand
over Norway to Sweden. In return,
Sweden ceded parts of Pomerania, her
last possessions on the mainland, to
Denmark. Norway's Diet formally re-
fused to submit to the change of rule.
Bernadotte led an invasion at once,
and conquered Norway with very little
trouble.
When, in 1918, Bernadotte came to
the throne as Charles XIV, he estab-
lished the union of the two countries.
Each kept it's old code of laws, with
few slight notifications to make the
joints fit. Each kept its national as
sembly, with power to legislate for its
own territory, subject to royal veto,
Both were represented in the Cabinet.
From the very first Norway was in
dependent and sullen. A strong liberal
party arose, in which there grew up an
undercurrent of sentiment for indepen-
dence. AS the Nationalists in Ireland
have tried to create national feeling by
encouraging the study of Celtic, so GER
tain liberals tried to make literary
language of the Morse dialect by the
peasants, modified Danish being the
official and literary tongue of Norway.
Norwegian legislation has always been
more liberal than that of Sweden. Nor