A referendum on dissolving the union with Sweden was held in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

on 13 August 1905. Dissolving the union, which had been in place since 1814, was approved by almost 100% of voters, with just 184 voting against the proposal out of over 371,000 votes cast.

Dieter Nohlen Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An ex ...

& Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1446

Background

On 27 May 1905 the

Storting The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The Unicameralism, unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list propo ...

passed a bill supported by the government of Christian Michelsen calling for the establishment of separate Norwegian consulates. Under the terms of the union, Norway and Sweden shared a common foreign policy. King Oscar II vetoed the bill. Rather than countersign it as the king demanded, the government resigned. Oscar refused to accept the resignations, claiming he could not form a replacement government. On 7 June the Storting declared the union dissolved because Oscar had effectively abandoned his functions as

King of Norway The Norwegian monarch is the head of state of Norway, which is a constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system. The Norwegian monarchy can trace its line back to the reign of Harald Fairhair and the previous petty king ...

by failing to appoint a new government. The Swedish government was prepared to dissolve the union, provided the Norwegian people agreed to it in a referendum. The question presented to the voters ( only men had suffrage in Norway at the time) was whether they approved of the " already completed dissolution of the union" ("den stedfundne Opløsning af Unionen"). The wording was carefully considered to clarify that the Storting considered the union out of force even if the Swedish government insisted it could be dissolved only upon mutual consent. The Storting announced the referendum on 27 July, anticipating the Swedish demands, thereby avoiding the appearance that it was scheduled in response to Stockholm's demands. Although women did not have a vote, Norwegian suffragists started a campaign to collect signatures in favour of the dissolution and presented 244,765 signatures in favour of the dissolution within two weeks.

Results

Aftermath

The referendum was followed by negotiations in Karlstad. The two countries reached an agreement on 23 September, which was approved by the Norwegian and Swedish parliaments on 9 October and 13 October, respectively. Oscar gave up all claims to the Norwegian throne on 26 October. In November, Prince Carl of Denmark was elected as Norway's first independent king in over five centuries, assuming the throne as Haakon VII.

References

{{Norwegian elections

Political history of Norway Referendums in Norway

Union 1905 in international relations

Background

Results

Aftermath

See also

References