Norway is a country with about 5 million inhabitants; neighboring countries with common borders are Sweden, Finland and Russia in the far north. This year, she celebrates her 200 year anniversary of the Constitution, signed 17th of May 1814 after being developed by elected Norwegians inspired by the American and French Constitutions.
After the Black Plague in ab. 1350, that killed about half the population, including the elite, Norway was ruled by Denmark for more than 400 years. But Denmark happened to be on the losing side in the Napoleonic wars and lost Norway to the Swedes, who were on the winning side. They had just chosen a former French general Bernadotte as their king. He went for Norway instead of Finland as the war booty. In the interregnum between the Danes and the Swedes, the Norwegians, helped by a Danish prince, succeeded to create a Constitution, which had a great impact on the development towards the peaceful independence of Norway from Sweden in 1905. This independence is still enjoyed, as a majority of the Norwegian people rejected going into the European Union in two referendums, one in 1972 and the other in 1994.
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