Flag of Norway
History
Norway was first unified by King Harald in 872. During this time Norwegian Vikings had already started raiding British and European coastal cities, but later they were also trading and colonising new territories. Around 1200 the Kingdom of Norway included Greenland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, the Isle of Man and many settlements in Scotland and Ireland. Norway entered a personal union with Denmark in 1379, and in 1397 Sweden joined which became the Kalmar Union.
Overseas explorations and conquests of Norsemen during the Viking Age, which went as far as Newfoundland in Canada.
Denmark-Norway (1379-1814)
Sweden left the Kalmar Union in 1521. The Norwegians tried to follow suit but their rebellion was defeated. Denmark and Norway remained in union, and economically it worked reasonably well as they exchanged valuable resources with each other. The union came to an end in the final stages of the Napoleonic Wars. The Danish King Frederik VI had allied himself with France, putting him against a coalition of Sweden, Russia and Britain. In 1814 the situation for Denmark was hopeless, and it was decided that Norway would pass to Sweden.
Sweden-Norway (1814-1905)
The union between Sweden and Norway did not work out very well. The countries only shared the monarch and foreign policy but all other matters were managed independently. Norwegian identity revived during the 19th century which brought a wave of famous Norwegian artists such as the composer Edvard Grieg and the painter Edvard Munch. The parliament of Norway declared independence in 1905, which was accepted peacefully by the Swedish neighbour. Modern Norway's first king named himself Haakon VII and his reign would last until 1957. He was a son of Danish King Frederik VIII, and older brother of King Christian X.
Location of modern Norway. The capital Oslo was known as Christiania or Kristiania until 1925.
Norway and the World Wars (1914-1945)
Norway remained neutral during World War I but it was forced by the British to participate in the naval blockade of Germany, losing ships to German submarine attacks. The country also declared neutrality at the outbreak of the Seond World War, but was invaded by Germany in 1940. Despite two months of stiff resistance the whole country was under German occupation until 1945.
Post-war Norway (1945-date)
Norway developed into a socialist economy during the first decades after the war, even though it was allied to the US and part of NATO. Large state companies dominated the economy. Oil was first discovered in 1969 just off the Norwegian coast, but only from the 1980's it started to generate so much profit that it financed a large part of the state. Norway is currently one of the wealthiest countries in the world with extremely high living standards. As a result it is also one of the most expensive countries to visit. Norway's sovereign wealth fund has almost $900 billion in assets and owns 2.3% of the European stock markets.
Currency
Norway's first coins date from Olafr Tryggvason's reign (995-1000) with a system based on the Penning, 1/240 of a silver Mark, a unit of mass of around 250 grams. An Ertog was equal to 10 Pennings and an Øre equal to 30 Pennings. From the 16th century new denominations were introduced: the Skilling of 12 Pennings and the Rigsdaler based on the German Thaler. The Rigsdaler was intially worth 48 Skilling but from 1625 the following system was in place:
1 Rigsdaler = 6 Mark = 96 Skilling
1 Ort = 24 Skilling
In 1695 the Rigsdaler was debased by 20% and renamed to Rigsdaler Courant. The Rigsdaler Specie kept the original pure silver content of around 25 grams and was therefore worth 120 Skilling or 5 Ort.
When Norway joined Sweden in personal union the currencies remained separate. The centuries before that Danish currency circulated alongside Norwegian money. In 1873 the three Nordic countries founded the Scandinavian Monetary Union, introducing the Krone as the common unit, decimalised into 100 Øre. The old Speciedaler was replaced at a rate of 4 Kroner, and 3 Skilling equalled 10 Øre.
Norwegian Krone
Under the gold standard, all three Krones were equal to 1/2.48 gram of gold or 18.16 Kr/£. The Scandinavian Monetary Union only lasted until the First World War, when the three member countries started refusing to exchange foreign banknotes for gold. The Norwegian Krone remained stable and was pegged to the British Pound in 1931 at a rate of 19.9 Kr/£. In 1939 it was pegged to the US Dollar at 4.4 Kr/$.
During the German occupation an exchange rate of 1 Krone = 0.6 Reichsmark was used, but this undervalued the Krone significantly. After WW2 the currency was reformed and once again pegged to British Pounds, now at a rate of 20 Kr/£. The Pound's devaluation in 1949 was followed, and the Norwegian Krone fell from $0.20 to $0.14, a rate which the Norwegian Central Bank tried to maintain until 1992. Since then the Krone has been a freely floating currency, somewhat correlated to oil prices but also to the other 'Scandies'. The current exchange rate is close to 8.3 Kr/$. The lowest denomination still in circulation is 1 Krone, which is 12 US Cents. The 20 Kroner coin is worth $2.40.
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/norvege-1.html
