What if Norway never broke away from Sweden in 1905?

The countries of Sweden and Norway were united for exactly 91 years, but what if they never broke up? Both countries were neutral during the First World War, but not the Second.

There Germany invaded Norway, but not Sweden. What if Norway never declared independence from Sweden? Would Germany still invade, or choose to respect their independence?

How would that change the history of Northern Europe and the outcome of the Second World War? Let’s find out!

▬ LINKS ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

▬ Chanel Description▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
This channel is a haven for those who crave intellectual stimulation and love to ponder the profound "what ifs" of history. Join our passionate community of history enthusiasts, where engaging discussions and insightful commentaries fuel our collective imagination.

Subscribe now and embark on this enthralling adventure with us. Prepare to question, wonder, and discover as we navigate the corridors of time, peeling back the layers of history to reveal a tapestry of alternate paths and captivating possibilities.

Welcome aboard, fellow explorers of alternative history. Let's rewrite the past together!

▬ Contents of this video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
00:00 - Video Intro
00:32 - How did Sweden-Norway Unite?
01:58 - Tensions in the Union
02:55 - Other Unions between Sweden and Norway
04:02 - Why did Norway Leave?
06:15 - Problems in the Union
07:52 - Sweden-Norway Collapses
08:54 - Both Countries After the Collapse
09:10 - What if Sweden-Norway Never Broke Up?
09:45 - Solving Problems Early On
10:56 - Both World Wars
13:12 - Alternate World War 2
14:55 - Alternate Peace Deal
15:55 - Video Outro

[visionnr]

Right off the back, this screams modern Kalmar Union. That's all I'll say for now

[Britiainballvimxyl]

What if the treaty of Versailles was different? Say independence for the Rhineland or Sudetenland for Austria

[kuroazrem]

This union would have the best metal scene in the world.

[bukanIqbal]

14:58 Not only that, Korea would be united. Due to the war in Europe ending faster, the Red army would have more time to defeat the Japanese army, resulting to a Communist united Korea.

Also, due to the Soviets reaching Berlin in late 44, East Germany probably would've been bigger, maybe everything east of the Rhine river would be east german

[DelusionalSkeleton]

Not the timeline we get but the timeline we deserve

[Superslemmet]

When the alternate history comes to WW2, this fell apart completely because it looks like you have misunderstood why Germany invaded Norway and Denmark. Germany didn't want to invade either country, the situation with them was the same as with Sweden, Germany would much rather just trade since they desperately needed all their manpower in other places, and they needed their fleet intact to have any chance of threatening Great Britain.
However, the iron ore trade from Sweden needed to be shipped along the Norwegian coast (due to the northern Baltic coast freezing in the winter), and the Norwegian coast was very exposed to the British navy. GB prepared an invasion of Norway and actually launched it (though called it off mid-way due to Germany intercepting it), and before that GB mined Norwegian waters in clear violation of Norwegian neutrality to force Germany to respond, thus giving GB an excuse to invade. Germany was aware of the British plans and launched their invasion of Denmark and Norway as a direct response to them intercepting the British invasion plan dates. This is also a reason why the invasion of Denmark was over so fast, and why the defense of Norway was so sporadic. The Danes knew they were just sort of in the way, while the Norwegians didn't know if the Germans were there to help them against the British or if they were the enemy.
A united Sweden/Norway would change nothing from a German point of view, but the question is if GB would have risked provoking Sweden/Norway into joining Germany of their own accord by attacking Swedish/Norwegian shipping to Germany.
As the countries were split, a quick surprise invasion of Norway was feasible given the low population and long coastline of Norway. If Norway and Sweden were united, a quick invasion would no longer be realistic.
If that's not realistic, it would make no sense to mine Norwegian waters to try and provoke Germany into attacking, since all it would do is force Sweden/Norway to join the Axis instead.
As it happened, the invasion of Norway damaged the German navy to the point that it was no longer a threat to GB. Without that happening, the balance of power would swing more to Germany in the conflict with GB, while Germany would free up a lot of manpower too. So a united Sweden/Norway would have been a huge boon to Germany as that would have prevented GB from luring out the German fleet in a hurry like it did.

[theexplodingDarkrai]

As a Norwegian person i would take my life if this was reality :)

[wegdhass]

It would be rlly cool to see a scenario where Scandinavianism is successful and scandinavia is united with a swedish or danish "Keiser"

[Raastoff]

You seem to forget how inportant it was for Norway to have its own consulat services, and how much impact that had on the merchant fleet. This sparked the Norwegian Industry and later made it possible for the oil to be nationalised.

[void_fruit]

you should make a paradox mega campaign as Bulgaria also i love your vids

[The-tank-engine]

:sob: ill be at school when this starts, if it stays up I’ll watch it

[Therealestmeal]

I love your videos!!! Keep it up mate!!!

[CATOGUSTAVSON]

If Germany didnt invade Norway and forcing Norway to side with the Allies, Norway would stay neutral like Sweden and the Allies wouldn't benefit from having the world's fourth largest merchant fleet, the world's most modern tanker fleet, and Nortraship - the world's largest shipping company - on their side.

During World War II, there was no land connection between the three major Allies: the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the United States. Therefore, almost all transportation between them had to occur by sea. Access to fuel was of paramount importance to Britain. Norwegian shipowners had built up the world's most modern tanker fleet before the war. Access to these ships was crucial, as Nazi Germany's attacks on Britain were most intense during "The Battle of Britain, " from July to October 1940. About half of Britain's fuel was transported to the island nation on Norwegian ships during that time.

Later in the war, war sailors participated in several major operations. In the Allied invasions of North Africa, Italy, and on D-Day, Norwegian ships and sailors were involved in supplying the military forces.

Churchill himself said, regarding "The Battle of Britain":
"If we had not had the Norwegian fleet of tankers on our side, we should not have had the aviation spirit to put our Hawker Hurricanes and our Spitfires into the sky. Without the Norwegian merchant fleet, Britain and the allies would have lost the war".

As a bonus, the Germans had a plan for Norway called "Festung Norwegen" or "Fortress Norway" where they foolishly stationed over 300.000 German soldiers across the country. Norwegian partisans and special forces effectively sabotaged ship transports and train tracks to keep them there until the end of the war keeping a vast number of soldiers from the front lines down on the continent - shortening the war significantly.

[Ťăřăš-sus]

5:04 - that was Peruvian Parliament, but video is great like all
Your videos!

[sunclausewitz]

Historically Norway was for the most part independent, not ruled by Denmark.

Norway has existed from 872 to today which is 1152 years of existence.

And was ruled from Denmark from 1397-1814, a total of 417 years, plus some short terms during viking age, but it's a bit unknown of the lengths and to which extents Denmark ruled Norway then. So let's be generous and say 50 years pre Kalmar Union.

Sweden ruled Norway from 1814-1905 (91 years) plus some years before the Kalmar Union, can be a debate if it was Norwegian monarchs ruling Sweden from Norway or if it was Swedish monarchs ruling Norway from Sweden, since it was a lot of intermarriages and capitals was where the king/queen was at any given point.

So let's be generous and say 20 years before Kalmar Union.

1152 - 467 = 685
685 - 111 = 574
574 year of independence is greater then 467 years of Danish rule.

[rey_nemaattori]

After the Napoleontic Wars there would be three 'United Kindoms': Britain, Netherlands and Norway & Sweden.

All around the North Sea coincidentally.If they allied they would've ruled Europe.

[luciendolo]

I will always recommend to avoid being demonetized over a certain evil fidget spinner to use the YouTube logo. The color scheme matches and I always find it hilarious to associate the two as a way to get back at YouTube over-censorship

[TheSecretPower]

I'm sure Germany would still invade if they were united. Norway was invaded mostly to control the export of Swedish iron ore from the port of Narvik. Sweden was not invaded because they were not seen as a threat, plus they were neutral. The Germans would have no problem taking out the Swedes too if they had to in order to secure the iron ore and Norwegian coastline. Of course, this would increase the invasion fleet and amount of resources that would have to send north and away from the western and eastern fronts. But i'm quite confident Germany would still go through with it.

[sebastian]

As someone who's both swedish and norwegian, the best way to secure the union would be harsher rule IMO. Swedish administrators etc. Make a more united army, station Norwegian regiments in sweden and swedish regiments in Norway. Perhaps even make Göteborg a the new capital, a parliament (riksdag) with both Norwegian and swedes. Encourage cultural unity, sponsor authors who subscribe to scandinavianism and spread their work, build even more railways, incentivise movement of peoples from both norway and sweden to further make independence seem ridiculous. United trade and foreign policy. Try to change the national identity to a more Scandinavian one, try to standardize Norwegian written language to swedish spellings instead of danish etc. This would sure create resentment from norwegians but any sort of autonomy instead of attempting to create a new nation would make sure it would never be a true country

[FelidaeEnjoyer]

Uhm, why scandinavia didn't get slight adjustments into deutschland even though they won? It's the same germano-danish borders as before, just blue. Why not to the end of the jylland/jutland peninsula, or to the kiel river basically taking all of schleswig?