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History
Norway was one of the lands from which the Vikings came out
in the 9th century to attack Britain, Ireland, Iceland and other
parts of Europe. It is one of the three Scandinavian countries.
Until modern times it was a poor fringe where the people lived
on agriculture from difficult land, and sea trades including
fishing and ship owning.
It was under Danish rule from 1439 until 1814, when it became
joined to Sweden (as part of a compensation for Sweden's loss
of Finland and other Baltic provinces during the Napoleonic wars).
However the two states retained their own governments and Norway's
parliament gradually tried to acquire more power from the Swedish
king. By the 20th century they were demanding complete separation
from Sweden. This was achieved in 1905. They appointed as king
a prince from Denmark.
Norway was occupied by the Germans during the second world
war, mainly as a source of iron ore (from Sweden) via the port
of Narvik and harbors for submarines to attack British and American
ships in the Atlantic.
After the war Norway joined Nato (it has a common frontier
with Russia and shares coal mining rights on Spitzbergen or Svalbard).
Norway was due to join the European Economic Community in
1973, with Britain and Denmark. However, the existing members
agreed a Common Fisheries Policy, which would have removed control
of Norway's fishing waters and given it to the European Commission.
It was probably this policy that caused the Norwegian people
to refuse to vote for accession.
In the 1970s Norway gained a share of the North Sea oil and
gas fields and has become rich with a higher GNP per head than
Sweden.
A new application was approved in March 1994. However, there
is a large intensity of popular opposition, stronger even than
in Britain, and membership was again not approved by referendum
despite Swedish agreement.
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