World War I and the interwar years

World War I

With the outbreak of war in 1914, Norway, like Sweden and Denmark, issued a declaration of neutrality. Norway was badly hurt by the war at sea, about half of Norwegian merchant shipping being lost. Because the Allied powers could almost totally control Norway’s foreign trade, they forced it to break off exports of fish to Germany and, at the same time, forbade exports of iron pyrites and copper, which were important commodities for the German war industry. Because of the many casualties caused by German submarine warfare, public feeling in Norway became strongly anti-German. The government, however, under the leadership of the Venstre politician Gunnar Knudsen, insisted on maintaining the appearance of neutrality. The war brought a distinct boom to Norway’s economy in shipping, mining, and fish exports, although the prosperity was unevenly distributed. Within the DNA, the left wing formed the majority in 1918, and in 1919 the DNA, unlike the other social democratic parties in western and central Europe, joined the Comintern (Third International). The DNA, however, was unwilling to submit to the centralization that Moscow demanded, and in 1923 it withdrew.

The Great Depression

In the years up to 1935 the various governments—formed alternately by the Conservatives, Venstre (the Liberals), and the Agrarian (Farmers’) Party—pursued, by and large, a liberal economic policy. After the inflation caused by World War I and the postwar years, the main aim during the 1920s was to guide the currency (the krone) back to its former value. Norway received only an insignificant share in improved world market conditions, and by 1927 the unemployment figures were as high as one-fifth of the workforce. The Great Depression in the early 1930s increased unemployment still further, and by 1933 at least one-third of the workforce, including many civil servants, was unemployed.

The government, led by the Agrarian Party (1931–33) and Venstre (1933–35), tried to combat the crisis with extensive reductions in governmental expenditure but refused to consider an expansionist financial policy or the emergency relief measures that the DNA demanded. The DNA thus enjoyed great success in the elections of 1933, although it failed to gain a majority in the Storting. When the DNA formed the government in 1935, with Johan Nygaardsvold as prime minister, it needed the support of at least one other party. By a compromise with the Agrarian Party, the DNA received support for a social program that included old-age pension reform, revision of the factory act, statutory holidays, and unemployment insurance financed by increased taxation. State investments were also greatly increased. Although the situation improved, unemployment in Norway was still as high as one-fifth of the organized labour force in 1938.

Despite economic difficulties, the high rate of unemployment, and the many labour conflicts, the interwar years were a period of vigorous expansion, and the country’s industrial production was increased by 75 percent during the years 1913–38.

Foreign policy

During the 1920s Norway acquired the islands of Svalbard and Jan Mayen, and Norwegian hunters and fishermen occupied an area on the east coast of Greenland. Denmark’s demand for sovereignty of the area led to a conflict that was settled in the Permanent Court of International Justice in The Hague in 1933 in Denmark’s favour. In 1939 the government proclaimed that Queen Maud Land in Antarctica was under Norwegian sovereignty. Because the League of Nations in 1936 had proved ineffective at keeping the peace, Norway’s foreign minister, Halvdan Koht, attempted to coordinate the policy of the smaller states within the framework of the league in an effort to preserve peace. Norway continued to pursue a strictly neutral policy and declined Germany’s invitation to join in a nonaggression pact in 1939.