Norway

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The national flag of Norway
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The national flag of Norway

Norway is a country in the north of Europe. It is a part of the Scandinavian peninsula and faces the North Sea to the west. Norway has a long common border with Sweden to the east. In the far north of Norway there is also a common border with Finland and a smaller border with Russia.

The capital of Norway is Oslo. Oslo is also the largest city of Norway with a population of over 530,000. Norway's other major cities are Bergen with 230,000 people and Trondheim with 150,000; both have been the Norwegian capital in earlier years.

Norway is a constitutional kingdom, and its head of state is now King Harald V. The national day is May 17, which celebrates Norway's constitution of 1814. The parliament is called the Storting (in Norwegian: Stortinget), and its members are elected by the people every 4 years.

Some 4.6 million people live in Norway, and they speak the Norwegian language. There are two official written versions of Norwegian called bokmål and nynorsk. A native population of Norway, the Sami people, residing mainly in the northern parts of Norway, also speaks the Sami languages.

Among tourists to Norway, more come from Germany than from any other country. The Norwegian and German languages are related.

[edit] History

In the 9th century Norway was still a number of separate, small kingdoms. Harald Fairhair gathered the kingdoms into one, with the final battle of Hafrsfjord in 872. King Harald is the first king born in Norway in over 600 years. He has two children; Princess Märtha Louise and Crown Prince Haakon Magnus.

In World War I Norway was neutral and served as a trading nation. Norway also tried to stay neutral in World War II, but was occupied by German forces from 9 April 1940 to 8 May 1945.

[edit] Economy

Norway is rich in natural resources such as oil, water power, fish, agriculture, forests, and minerals. These resources and industry have made Norway into a rich welfare state, but the country is also very dependent on the prices of oil and fish in international markets.

[edit] External links

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