The European press and the question of Norwegian independence in 1814

Abstract

The French Revolution, with its alternative legitimating principle of popular sovereignty, challenged and undermined the European old regime’s foundation of dynastic-absolutist divine legitimacy. The constitutional fathers of Norway were inspired by the republican revolutions in France and America, and when the country was ceded from Denmark to Sweden according to the Treaty of Kiel in January 1814, they sought to secure Norway’s independence through applying popular sovereignty as a legitimating principle. This qualitative study seeks to contribute to new insights in and understanding of how the dramatic political events of 1814 in Norway were perceived outside Scandinavia by examining historical newspapers from England, France, Prussia, Austria Russia, Saxony, Bavaria and Switzerland. Using discourse analytical tools this study attempts to shed light upon how the question of Norwegian sovereignty were perceived in 1814, whether Norwegian independence was conceptually possible in the eyes of people outside Scandinavia, and what the thinking about the possibility of a new independent state in 1814 looked like. The study establishes that there are to distinctly different discursive representations, or perceptions of reality, when it comes to the question of Norwegian independence in 1814: The Popular Sovereignty Representation and The Dynastic Sovereignty Representation. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that there is a palette of different varieties within these two main representations.