Swedish campaign against Norway (1814)
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| Swedish-Norwegian War | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Napoleonic Wars | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Norway |
 Sweden |
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| Commanders | |||||||
| Christian Frederik | Crown Prince Jean Baptiste Bernadotte | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 30,000 | 45,523 | ||||||
The Campaign against Norway, or The Norwegian-Swedish War of 1814 was fought between Sweden and Norway in the summer of 1814. The war resulted in Norway entering into union with Sweden, but with its own constitution and parliament. It is the last war to have been fought by Sweden to date.
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[edit] Background
By the Treaty of Kiel the king of Denmark-Norway had to cede Norway to the king of Sweden, due to the alliance with France during the later phase of the Napoleonic Wars. The treaty was however not accepted by the Norwegians. The vice-roy and crown prince Christian Frederik took the lead in the insurrection and called a constitutional assembly, which adopted the liberal constitution of May 17, and elected Christian Frederik as king of independent Norway. As head of the new state, he desperately tried to gain support from Britain to maintain its independence. The allied diplomats gave no hope for any outside support to the Norwegians.
[edit] The war
The Norwegian army could muster 30,000 men, and it had taken positions away from the border with Sweden, in fear of being outflanked. The Norwegian navy had a few vessels, most of them stationed at the islands of Hvaler, close to Sweden.
The Swedish army consisted of 45,000 men, experienced and well equipped soldiers. The Swedish navy had a number of large vessels and a capacity for moving and landing troops.
The hostilities opened on 26 July with a swift Swedish naval attack against the Norwegian gunboats at Hvaler. The Norwegian vessels managed to escape, but did not take part in the rest of the war. The main Swedish thrust came across the border at Halden, bypassing and surrounding the fortress of Fredriksten and continuing north, while a second force of 6,000 soldiers landed at Kråkerøy outside Fredrikstad. The town surrendered the day after. This was the start of a pincers movement around the main part of the Norwegian army at Rakkestad. The Norwegian army delivered several blows to the Swedes, thus applying pressure on the Swedes to accept Norway as a sovereign nation and opening up negotiations. As the war put a heavy strain on the Norwegian finances and every day of delay in securing Norway by the Swedes brought uncertainty on the outcome, both parties were interested in a quick end to the war.
[edit] Major commanders
- Jean Baptiste Bernadotte - Swedish general and crown prince
- Magnus Fredrik Ferdinand Björnstjerna - Swedish general
- Johannes Klingenberg Sejersted - Norwegian major general
- Friedrich Gotchalk Maximilian von Haxthausen - Norwegian minister of finance and Oberhofmarschall
[edit] Aftermath
Negotiations started in Moss on 10 August 1814, and after a few days of hard negotiations a cease fire agreement, called the Convention of Moss, was signed 14 August 1814. King Christian Frederik was forced to abdicate, but Norway remained nominallly independent within a personal union with Sweden. Its Constitution was upheld with only such amendments as were required to allow it to enter into the union, and the two united kingdoms retained separate institutions, except for the king and the foreign service.
