Congratulations to all Norwegians and friends of Norway out there! Yes, today is the 100th Norwegian Independance day!
100 years since the Norwegian revolution, where we threw off the Swedish shackles!
Mind you, it was a very peaceful revolution. One of the participants wrote in his diary the following day: "Was that a revolution?" It was carried out by the Speaker of Parliament and the Prime Minister reading out declerations in Parliament to the effect that the Norwegian people no longer recognised the Swedish King Oscar II as our king.
The Swedes and the King objected ofcause, and demanded a referendum. 85% of the Norwegian male population voted. The women, under Swedish law, didn't have the vote. When Norway was free, we changed the law, making Norway one of the first countries where women had the same rights as men. Of the men that voted, 368 208 voted for dissolving the union, 184 voted against. This led to negotiations with the Swedes. The Swedes were thretening with military action, so we musteres a secret army of 23 000, and posted them 1 km from the border. The Swedes, who knew nothing of this, luckily gave in, and we gained our freedom. After this we elected Prince Carl of Danmark as our King. He chose the name Haakon VII, and his son, Prince Alexander, was renamed Olav (later King Olav V).
So after 500 yrs Norway was again free, and never again will we enter a union. Not if we can help it.
The Germans tried to controll us during WWII. To control us they needed 300 000 soldiers. Soldiers that, if used on the eastern front during Operation Barbarossa, or defending Berlin in 1945, may have changed the outcome of the war. We also sabotaged Hitlers Nuclear Bomb. You're welcome.
Norway is now one of the largest colonial powers. Our colonies are 7 times the size of mainland Norway. What does our subjects think of that? Nobody knows. Most of them are penguins. Norways colonies are a big chunk of the Antartic (Queen Mauds Land - Named after Haakon VIIs whife), some uninhabited islands in the Atlantic and Pacific, and a few islands near the North Pole.
100 years since the Norwegian revolution, where we threw off the Swedish shackles!
Mind you, it was a very peaceful revolution. One of the participants wrote in his diary the following day: "Was that a revolution?" It was carried out by the Speaker of Parliament and the Prime Minister reading out declerations in Parliament to the effect that the Norwegian people no longer recognised the Swedish King Oscar II as our king.
The Swedes and the King objected ofcause, and demanded a referendum. 85% of the Norwegian male population voted. The women, under Swedish law, didn't have the vote. When Norway was free, we changed the law, making Norway one of the first countries where women had the same rights as men. Of the men that voted, 368 208 voted for dissolving the union, 184 voted against. This led to negotiations with the Swedes. The Swedes were thretening with military action, so we musteres a secret army of 23 000, and posted them 1 km from the border. The Swedes, who knew nothing of this, luckily gave in, and we gained our freedom. After this we elected Prince Carl of Danmark as our King. He chose the name Haakon VII, and his son, Prince Alexander, was renamed Olav (later King Olav V).
So after 500 yrs Norway was again free, and never again will we enter a union. Not if we can help it.
The Germans tried to controll us during WWII. To control us they needed 300 000 soldiers. Soldiers that, if used on the eastern front during Operation Barbarossa, or defending Berlin in 1945, may have changed the outcome of the war. We also sabotaged Hitlers Nuclear Bomb. You're welcome.
Norway is now one of the largest colonial powers. Our colonies are 7 times the size of mainland Norway. What does our subjects think of that? Nobody knows. Most of them are penguins. Norways colonies are a big chunk of the Antartic (Queen Mauds Land - Named after Haakon VIIs whife), some uninhabited islands in the Atlantic and Pacific, and a few islands near the North Pole.