Prelude To Dissolution
In early 1905, Christian Michelsen formed a coalition government consisting of liberals and conservatives, whose only stated objective was to establish a separate Norwegian corps of consuls. The law was passed by the Norwegian parliament. As expected and probably as planned, King Oscar II refused to accept the laws, and the Michelsen government resigned. When the king declared himself unable to form a cabinet under the present circumstances, a constitutional crisis broke out on 7 June 1905. The Norwegian position was that the impasse had resulted in a de facto dissolution of the union. Norway considers 7 June to be the date that it regained its independence, even though Norway had possessed the legal status of an independent state since 1814.
The text of the unanimous declaration, remarkable for the fact that the declaration of the dissolution was an aside to the main clause, read:
- Since all the members of the cabinet have resigned their positions; since His Majesty the King has declared his inability to obtain for the country a new government; and since the constitutional monarchy has ceased to exist, the Storting hereby authorizes the cabinet that resigned today to exercise the powers held by the King in accordance with the Constitution of Norway and relevant laws - with the amendments necessitated by the dissolution of the union with Sweden under one King, resulting from the fact that the King no longer functions as a Norwegian King.
Initially reacting to this declaration as a rebellious act, the Swedish government indicated an openness to a negotiated end to the union, insisting among other things on a Norwegian plebiscite.
Besides internal changes within Norway, a major key factor that allowed Norway to break from Sweden was the emerging Swedish social democratic movement. In the early years of the 20th century, Hjalmar Branting led the Social Democrats in opposing a war to keep Norway united with Sweden. When the crisis came in 1905, he coined the slogan "Hands off Norway, King!" The Social Democrats organized resistance to a call-up of reserves and a general strike against a war. Basically, the majority of Sweden supported a free state of Norway as much as the people of Norway did.
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The plebiscite was held on 13 August and resulted in an overwhelming 368,208 votes (99.95%) in favour of dissolution against 184 (0.05%) opposed. The government thereby had confirmation of the dissolution. 85 percent of Norwegian men had cast their votes, but no women (universal suffrage was not extended to women until 1913, but Norwegian feminists collected more than 200,000 signatures in favour of dissolution).
Polar explorer Fridtjof Nansen weighed in heavily for dissolving the union and travelled to the United Kingdom, where he successfully lobbied for British support for Norway's independence movement.
Read more about this topic: Dissolution Of The Union Between Norway And Sweden In 1905
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