Norway

E

Health and Welfare

Health insurance is mandatory, with the state, the employer, and the individual all contributing to the health fund. All medical care is free. In 2006 Norway had 1 doctor for every 265 inhabitants. A compulsory National Pension Scheme that was put into effect in 1967 provides old-age, disability, rehabilitation, widow, widower, one-year paid maternity leave, universal child support, and other benefits.

F

Defence

The king is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, which total some 25,800 personnel. Conscription for 12 to 15 months is compulsory for all male citizens when they reach the age of 19. A home guard, with a strength of about 79,000, serves local areas. The defence of Norway is bound up with NATO, which the country joined in 1949.

G

International Organizations

Norway is a member of the United Nations (UN); NATO; the Arctic Council; the Council of the Baltic Sea States; the Council of Europe; the European Economic Area; the European Free Trade Association; the World Trade Organization (WTO); the Nordic Council; the Organization for Economic Cooperation and the Development (OECD); and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

VI

History

According to archaeological research, Norway was inhabited as early as 14,000 years ago by a hunting people with a Palaeolithic culture derived from western and central Europe. Later, farming communities from Denmark and Sweden were established in the region. These settlers spoke a Germanic language that became the mother tongue of the later Scandinavian languages. These new arrivals made their homes on the shores of the large lakes and fiords. Mountains formed natural boundaries around most of the settled areas. In time, social life in the separate settlements came to be dominated by an aristocracy and, eventually, by petty kings. By the time of the first historical records of Scandinavia, about the 8th century ad, some 29 small kingdoms existed in Norway.

A

Viking Period

Inevitably, the kings turned their attention to the sea, the easiest way of communication with the outside world. About ad 800, ships of war were built and sent on raiding expeditions, initiating the era of the Vikings. The northern sea rovers were traders, colonizers, and explorers as well as plunderers. Around ad 875 they established settlements in Ireland, Britain, and Iceland and in the Orkney, Faroe, and Shetland islands. A century later, in about ad 985, Eric the Red led Vikings to Greenland from Iceland; a few years later, his son, Leif Ericson, was one of the first Europeans to explore North America. Bands of the northern Vikings penetrated Russia, where their influence on the Russian state is still the subject of debate and research. Others settled in France, where they became the ancestors of the Normans of Normandy.

In the 9th century the first successful attempt to form a united Norwegian kingdom was made by King Harold I, called the Fairhaired, of Vestfold (south-eastern Norway). Succeeding to the throne of Vestfold as a child, Harold managed to establish his supremacy over all of Norway shortly before 900, but on his death in about 940, his sons divided Norway, with Eric Bloodaxe as Overking. Dissensions and wars among Harold’s heirs disrupted the temporary unity, and many of the petty rulers refused to surrender their independence. In addition to these domestic struggles, Danish and Swedish kings were attempting to acquire Norwegian territory.