No divorce between Norway and Sweden in 1905

Driftless

Donor
From 1814 to 1904, who were the major farm and business owners in Norway? Norwegians, Swedes, Danes or other....?
 
From 1814 to 1904, who were the major farm and business owners in Norway?

Norwegians. there were a few baronies appointed by the danes to foreigners in the 1600s and early 1700s but these had all become native and really only wedel-Jarlsberg and Larvik remained after 1814. The appointment of nobility titles was outlawed after 1814 (and all noble priviliges were removed in 1821 against the will of the king)

The larger farms remained the major community focal points in much of Norway during the period and "storbøndene" were one of the major upper social classes alongside the clergy, traders and "embetsmenn".
 
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I dont think that Sweden would have major problems defeating Norway as both the army and navy were superior and as seen at Svinesund Norvegian fortifications had problems since they lacked trained personal, the big problem for Sweden is that all the Great Powers in Europe made it clear that use of force wouldnt be accepted

Sweden planned to use some 104000 troops against Norway. Norway would mobilize some 67000 troops.
Denmark in case of alliance would mobilize some 50000 troops and more importantly the Navy.

Sweden expected it to be difficult to break the Norwegian fortress line hence they planned a landing up Oslo Fiord to block the Norwegian Navy and circumvent the Norwegian fortifications.

Sweden may have been able to win the war but at a cost.
 
Sweden planned to use some 104000 troops against Norway. Norway would mobilize some 67000 troops.
Denmark in case of alliance would mobilize some 50000 troops and more importantly the Navy.

Sweden expected it to be difficult to break the Norwegian fortress line hence they planned a landing up Oslo Fiord to block the Norwegian Navy and circumvent the Norwegian fortifications.

Sweden may have been able to win the war but at a cost.
Orcbuster pointed out a good primary source for the OTL Norwegian mobilization: https://www.nb.no/baser/1905/dokumenter/database.php
"Rapport over de norske militære erfaringene i 1905."
 
Den svenska planen var offensiv till sin läggning. Huvuddelen av armén koncentrerades i den I:a armén i Värmland. Den skulle angripa Glomma-linjen. Längre söderut skulle flottan besätta Valöarna och blockera inloppet till Kristianiafjorden. Därefter skulle arméförbanden i Bohusdetachementet transporteras av flottan till Melsomvik, för att stödja den svenska flottans anfall mot den norska flottans ankringsplats. Från Jämtland anföll samtidigt den II:a armén mot Trondheim och längst i norr skyddade en bataljon ur II:a armén Luleå-Ofotenbanan mot norska anfall.

Lite övrig fakta
- Sverige kunde mobilisera totalt ca 440 000 man 1905.

I:a armén (Värmland):
  • 57 bataljoner infanteri
  • 32 skvadroner kavalleri
  • 45 batterier om 216 artilleripjäser
II:a armén (Jämtland):
  • 17 bataljoner infanteri
  • 4 skvadroner kavalleri
  • 9 batterier med 52 artilleripjäser
Bohusdetachementet:
  • 8 bataljoner infanteri
  • 4 skvadroner kavalleri
  • 3 batterier med 12 artilleripjäser
Källa: Lars Ericson, Svensk militärmakt: Strategi och operationer i svensk militärhistoria under 1500 år (Stockholm, 2003), s. 170-171
 
That is ofcourse only valid if the Socialdemocrats don´t start a general strike like they promised in case of war
 
Orcbuster pointed out a good primary source for the OTL Norwegian mobilization: https://www.nb.no/baser/1905/dokumenter/database.php
"Rapport over de norske militære erfaringene i 1905."


For those curious, just type in "Rapport over de norske militære erfaringene i 1905." into the upper search bar and click the "faksimilie" button in the one hit you'll get. This DB is a bit fiddly so you can't link directly to the document. This of course refers to the carried out partial and not the planned full mobilization.

Some short notes:

-Mobilization went much swifter than expected.
-Personell quality better than expected
-Shortage of NCOs and Officers
-Some details on the intelligence network established (with the attached files on individual agent operations unfortunately missing, would have been a real goldmine if that was the case)
-No reported shortages of equipment or ammunition.
-Handgrenades tested during mobilization (best possible reference I've found to the possible adoption of the Aasen grenade, if so this would be the first modern handgrenade used by any modern military)

Plus a million details minor and major. Any staff officer would appreciate how little things have changed in 100+ years.


Karelians: "the march of time" is of course the best work regarding a possible Norwegian-Swedish war on the site, not to mention the best TL on the site ATM IMO.
 
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I tried to tackle this in my abortive McKinley survival TL. Basically, what happened was:

- Unrest in Sweden over electoral reform (I made an OTL demonstration into a more severe incident)

- Victory for the Swedish liberals in the 1898/99 (?) election

- Swedish liberals conducive to Norwegian demands on trade/tariffs, negotiations play out over several years with favorable results

- Trade reform bill passes parliaments in Norway and Sweden (in Sweden, it managed to pass the conservative-held upper house through budget reconciliation), but doesn’t receive royal assent

- Dogger Bank incident takes place in the Kattegat, Swedish and Norwegian fishing vessels targeted

- Trade bill receives royal assent amid a surge of unity

Obviously it doesn’t solve things in the long-term, but solving the trade dispute would probably give Sweden-Norway another generation to live. My plan was for Sweden-Norway to eventually enter WW1* as part of the German alliance and extend the personal union to include Finland. This would provide the impetus for broader constitutional reform to consolidate the personal union of the three crowns into a more lasting form.
 
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