Europe · The modern states
Kingdom of Norway
1814
When Denmark–Norway, on the losing Napoleonic side, ceded Norway to the King of Sweden (of the new House of Bernadotte) by the Treaty of Kiel (14 January 1814), Norwegians resisted.
- Existed
- 1814
- Shown on the map
- 1814, 1905–2024 (2 periods)
- Peak area
- 440k km²
- Region
- Europe
Overview
When Denmark–Norway, on the losing Napoleonic side, ceded Norway to the King of Sweden (of the new House of Bernadotte) by the Treaty of Kiel (14 January 1814), Norwegians resisted. A constituent assembly of "the Men of Eidsvoll" met at Eidsvoll Manor (from 10–11 April 1814) and adopted the Constitution of Norway on 17 May 1814 (still celebrated as Norwegian Constitution Day) — one of the most liberal constitutions of its era, grounded in popular sovereignty, drawing on American and French Revolutionary ideas — and elected the Danish viceroy and heir Prince Christian Frederick as king. The ensuing Swedish–Norwegian War (from late July 1814) and the Convention of Moss (14 August 1814) forced Christian Frederick's abdication but, crucially, preserved the Norwegian constitution with only minor amendments. On 4 November 1814 the Storting elected Charles XIII of Sweden as King of Norway, establishing a personal union on relatively equal terms that lasted until 1905. Christian Frederick later became King Christian VIII of Denmark (1839). Norway's 1814 achievement is a foundational moment of modern Norwegian nationalism and constitutionalism.
Common questions
- What was the Kingdom of Norway?
- When Denmark–Norway, on the losing Napoleonic side, ceded Norway to the King of Sweden (of the new House of Bernadotte) by the Treaty of Kiel (14 January 1814), Norwegians resisted.
- When did the Kingdom of Norway exist?
- The Kingdom of Norway existed 1814. On this map it is drawn 1814, 1905–2024.
- How large was the Kingdom of Norway?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Kingdom of Norway covered about 440,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each polity as the primary basis, with Encyclopædia Britannica, the World History Encyclopedia, napoleon.org (Fondation Napoléon), the Deutsches Historisches Museum, and academic studies (H-France Review, the *Napoleonica* journal) on the Revolution's and Napoleon's contested death tolls and legacy. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Norway en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norway
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
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