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NORWAY 490 NORWAY one of the leading shipping nations and during the war it became one of the chief tarrying countries. A number of ves- jels belonging to Norwegian citizens were destroyed during the war by sub- marines. In 1919 the merchant marine consisted of 1,759 steamers with a ton- nage of 1,504,432. There were also nearly 600 sailing vessels and nearly 1,200 motor vessels, a total of 3,500 ves- sels of all kinds. Finance. — The revenue for 1918-1919 was 624,891,900 kroner, and the expend- itures 624,891,900 kroner. The national debt in 1917 was 455,504,598 kroner. Histoi-y. — In the earliest times Nor- way was divided among petty kings or chiefs (jarls), and its people were no- torious for their piratical habits (see Northmen). Harold Fair Hair (who ruled from 863 to 933) succeeded in bringing the whole country under his sway, and was succeeded by his son Erick. He was ultimately driven from the throne, which was seized in 938 by his brother, Hako I., who had embraced Christianity in England. Magnus the Good, the son of St. Olaf and Alfhild, an English lady of noble birth, was called to the throne in 1036; and having in 1042 succeeded also to the throne of Den- mark, united both under one monarchy (see Denmark). After his death the crowns of Norway and Denmark again passed to different individuals. In 1319 the crowns of Norway and Sweden be- came for a short time united in the per- son of Magnus II. Erick of Pomerania succeeded, by separate titles, to Norway, Sweden, and Denmark; and in 1397 was crowned king of the three kingdoms. Sweden then for a time became a sep- arate kingdom; but the union between Denmark and Norway was drawn closer and closer, and very much to the disad- vantage of the latter, which was ulti- mately degraded into a mere dependency of the former. The subsequent history of Norway becomes for a long period merely a part of that of Denmark. Af- ter the defeat of Napoleon by the allies in 1813 it was arranged by the treaty of Vienna in 1814 that Denmark must cede Norway to Sweden, and the result was the union of the two countries under the Swedish crown. A grave constitutional struggle at length arose between the two countries, from the demand for greater independence for Norway in her foreign policy, which was energetically backed by the Liberals. On the plea that King Oscar refused to permit the establish- ment of a separate Norwegian consulate system, which was a fact, the Storthing on June 7, 1905, passed a resolution dis- solving the union with Sweden. The Swedish political party in power then required that this resolution be referred to the Norwegian people as a plebiscite matter or a referendum, seeing it had been before only determined by the Storthing or parliament. This was done and on Aug. 13, 1905, the vote proved to be 368,200 in favor of disso- lution, and 184 against that movement, being one of the most remarkable pop- ular expressions ever formulated. Prince Charles of Denmark was proffered the now vacant Norwegian throne and was crowned Nov. 18, 1905, as Haakon VII., the first exclusively Norwegian king since 1380. King Haakon VII. is second son of the king of Denmark, and grand- son of Christian IX., who died in 1906. He was born in 1872 and married the British princess Maud. Members of the Storthing are elected every three years by voters who have themselves been elected by the citizens. It has two chambers, the Odelsthing, containing three-fourths of the members, and the Lagthing, one-fourth. The great body of the people are Protestants of the Lu- theran confession, which is the state re- ligion. Other sects are tolerated, though government offices are open only to mem- bers of the Established Church. Ele- mentary education is free and compul- sory. Besides primary schools there are numerous secondary schools. There is but one university, that of Christi- ania. The people are almost entirely of Scandinavian origin. A small number of Lapps (called in Norway Finns) and Qvaens, reckoned at 20,000 in all, live in the N. The chief ports are Bergen, Christiania, and Trondhjeni; the capital is Christiania. Norway suffered prob- ably as little as any of the neutral na- tions during the World War. The senti- ment from the beginning was strongly against Germany and this continued to the end. The heavy losses suffered as a result of the submarine war were probably greatly offset by the increased commercial activity. The United States during the war chartered or requisitioned a large num- ber of Norwegian ships. There was some friction in regard to delay in pay- ment for these, but in 1919 an agree- ment was reached by which the United States was to pay $11,000,000, repre- senting the actual value of the ships, with additional compensation later. For six years following 1913, the government of Norway was in the hands of the so-called Knudsen Cabinet, which was somewhat radical in its policies. This Cabinet finally resigned on Feb. 5, 1919, and another Cabinet was formed by the prime minister Knudsen.