A Union Undivided or the survival of the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway

[Jürgen]

A general overview are needed to describe the Union and how many structures are different from OTL. Because the loss of Norway changed how the union continued to develop in the 19th century and this post will focus on this.

How did the union of Denmark-Norway survive, well I will go with them somehow changing side before Sweden did. It’s not really important, the important part is the result.

As for the Vienna Congress Denmark-Norway succeed in gaining Lauenburg, Sweden kept Swedish Pomerania. How this happened are very complex, but not really important, so roll with it people.

The result are a map of Europe in 1815, where the only significant changes are Danish Norway and Sweden keeping its province in Pomerania.

So what else are different for Denmark-Norway, well the end of conflict with UK earlier lead to Denmark avoiding its State Bankruptcy in 1813 as the state are able to export (Yay).
So the Denmark-Norway going into the post-War period have a far better economy, than OTL Denmark.

At the same time Denmark-Norway was quite different from the kingdom which entered the Napoleonic Wars, the fortunes build on slave and sugar trade was gone, instead large landowners and smuggler had made their own fortunes. The state had not end up in bankruptcy, but it was a impoverish state making it out of the wars, the Norwegian population dealt with aftermath of the famines.

Demographic the Union was home to around 2,8 million people, Norway and Denmark had each around a million people while Holstein was home to 400.000, Schleswig 300.000 and Lauenburg 35.000 people. the North Atlantic possession had another 60.000 people. Beside these there was also the Danish colonies of the Danish West Indies, Danish India and Danish Gold Coast. But the full population of these areas was unknown, but even with African vassals/allies the colonies counted less than 200.000 people.

If we look at the population around four out of five are Scandinavian speakers, while the rest are mostly German speakers. The most relevant speakers of other language are a small population of Frisian speakers, Icelander and a few Sami and Finns in northern Norway. The West Indies are in the middle of a language shift from a Dutch creole to English, the Cold Coast are populated by speakers of several local languages, through a Danish speaking biracial group lives around the Danish forts. At last Danish India are split between Tamil and Bengali speakers.

In OTL the Danish industry suffered the loss of Norway, which meant the centre of growth moved from the inner Danish waters (the islands and eastern Holstein) to south Holstein which was connected with Hamburg and had easier access to the European markets. In Norway much of the manufacturing collapsed without access to the Danish markets and the mining and forestry export suffered too. Well here the old structures of trade and transportation of goods stay. This means neither Denmark nor Norway suffer the economic crisis of OTL. Of course Holstein still see the growth of south Holstein, but it keep the growth in eastern Holstein which keep its agricultural export to Norway. In OTL the rise of south Holstein let to a greater focus on Germany and identity as Germans for the duchies. Here the east coast of the duchies keep a much greater focus on Denmark, the result are that Kiel, Schleswig (the town) and Flensburg stay oriented toward Denmark instead of Hamburg and Germany. The results are that the idea of Holsteiners as German speaking Danes rather than Germans living under a Danish king stays alive.

The result are that rather than placing their loyalty to the Danish king, instead they place their loyalty toward the Danish state. Of course German nationalism are still happening and it gain a widespread popularity among German students, but while in OTL it resulted in a alliance between liberals who wanted to join Germany and conservative who wanted greater autonomy against the Denmark, we instead see an alliance between Danish and Holsteiner conservatives to keep Helstaten united. While the liberals on the other hand are split between Danish/Scandinavian and German nationalists, with the Danish liberals force in the end into a coalition with the conservatives to keep the union together.

This will serve to fundamental change what a Danish and Scandinavian identity are. Danish simply becomes a term for people dwelling in the Danish-Norwegian Union, instead Danish and Norwegian nationalist see themselves as part of a Scandinavian national identity. There will be exceptions to this. Fundamental Danish shift or rather stay a similar identity to Austrian, Swiss, British or Canadian.

Of course just as we usually identify the average Canadian as a English speaking person, the Swiss with the German speakers and the British with the English. In the same manner foreigners will see the typical Dane as a speaker of standard Danish (Rigsdansk) and related dialects, but there will be a awareness of the existence of Danes who speak a weird version of German.

 

[Jürgen]

Well how do keeping Norway affect Danish science research, well in OTL Denmark was on the forefront in the early 19th century in researching chemical elements and electricity. One of the results in OTL was Denmark was a major exporter of the raw materials (cryonite) needed to produce aluminium, sadly Denmark lacked the hydro power to dominate the production. Norway on the other hand became the centre of aluminium production but lacked the capital and population to become anything but a produce of bulk materials.

Well here these two states stay united. The Viken region was a major proto-industrial region in Denmark-Norway with production of bulk metals. Of course the production build on use of charcoal, which was another reason it was outcompeted.

Well here these two things end up connected, using electric arc to melt metal was already proven to work before the POD, but it wasn’t economic rentable before the development of hydropower. I think people can see what way this is going.

Well Ørsted continue his research of OTL, but other researchers begin a more practical research based on the electric arc research by Sir Davy. The Danish crown support it, because it see a potential if the charcoal production of iron in Norway could be replaced with other fuel. There’re also research into producing larger amount of electricity. The result are the creation of a primitive generator in 1829. It’s connected to a water mill on the Mølleå. The experiment together with the development and discoveries by Faraday and Pixii result in improved generator. The result are a experimental water mill generator at Moss Iron Work and a experimental electric arc furnace in 1837. These show themselves to be a success and spread to other Norwegian ironworks in the next few decades. The result are a massive fall in the need of charcoal, of course new damms need to be made to fuel the water mills. Suddenly Denmark-Norway are competitive with the iron production elsewhere.

But the research into aluminium show that electricity can also be used to produce aluminium and in 1846 a experimental aluminium work are made in Viken. While the production are small, it’s bigger than the rest of the global production and Denmark will for decades enjoy a de facto aluminium monopoly.

Of course the production of bulk materials, also results in the need to work them into useful products. In the Viken region several factories which product cast iron, copper and aluminium products are established. At the same time Norway have a massive surplus population only made worse compared to OTL by the Danish policy of introduce new crops and agricultural techniques, which result in a even growth of the population. While some of these have begun to emigrate, there have also been a massive outflow the large city. Copenhagen have exploded in size. But the new factories of Viken also serve as safety valve and around these factories new communities are established. The Viken region in this period becomes dominated by many small factories towns. Christinia see the develop of the same kind of light industry as Copenhagen, and grow into a large city full of diverse industry.

Copenhagen see much the same development. Both in Denmark and in Norway outside the Viken region a a explosion in the use of mills to generate electricity to factories happens. Of course the result of this are that Denmark-Norway becomes dominated by decentral rural industry.

Of course Made in Denmark are international just the name of cheap shoddy industrial products, they doesn’t compare to the more mature industries of UK and Belgium. But it serves as a source of foreign currency.