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!
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▬ 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

[@visionnr2004]

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

[@rewriting-history]

You're close, but since I already made a video on the Kalmar Union, I will not do it again

[@Britiainballvimxyl]

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

[@rewriting-history]

Many creators have done it already, I will also look into it!

[@Britiainballvimxyl]

@@rewriting-historythanks:)

[@lanne9938]

As a Swede I've always loved Norway. Godlike nature and their language sounds funny 😂

[@rewriting-history]

I completely agree! Norway has some of the most breathtaking landscapes and their language definitely adds to the charm.

[@ItsTherealmeal]

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

[@kuroazrem5376]

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

[@rewriting-history]

As a black metal listener, I would love for it to succeed!

[@willum4629]

Lets go!! elsker videoerne!

[@wegdhass5587]

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

[@rewriting-history]

Will maybe do a video on that very soon!

[@hampa2972]

PLS DO@@rewriting-history

[@JustJ_KK]

Great vid

[@rewriting-history]

yoo i appreciate it a lot!

[@bukanIqbal375]

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

[@mariasirona1622]

Moreover, a lack of the korean war (no korean division, no korean war) would mean a chinese intervention in Vietnam, since the USA would not have learnt not to approach China's borders

[@rewriting-history]

Very good! Didn't think about this! Should have explored the whole world, not just Europe

[@Ihatebritain]

Not the timeline we get but the timeline we deserve

[@rewriting-history]

I hope this means that you liked the video! Cheers

[@Ihatebritain]

@@rewriting-history I did, thanks for the effort you put into it

[@void_fruit212]

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

[@rewriting-history]

I could, but my audience is mostly not interested in this

[@void_fruit212]

Also I have a pretty outlandish scenario but a fun one what if Rome beat Persia and went on to conquer Central Asia and China, it's not realistic but it would be fun to see how cultures in Asia would progress as well as religions

[@The-tank-engine]

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

[@rewriting-history]

You can always watch it later! I won't remove this one

[@micahistory]

interesting idea, never considered this before

[@rewriting-history]

Thank you! Hope you liked it!

[@micahistory]

i did@@rewriting-history

[@olsnes3020]

Scenario: Germany never attacks Sweden-Norway. That means that they have 300k to 500k more troops available against the Soviet Union, which means that they conquer them. I don't know if those troops would win them the war, that's above my paygrade. But Germany did actually station that many troops in Norway throughout the war, which arguably was a waste of troops in retrospect.

[@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.

[@BamBamAbraham]

Nice

[@rewriting-history]

Yoo I appreciate it!

[@TheSwedishHistorian]

I have said this for years! This would have saved us from so much problems

[@Vexillogically]

I’m sorry I have to ask, it’s been bothering me, did you use MapChart to make the map outline?

[@Vexillogically]

The main map looks like it was taken from MapChart’s hoi4 map. Of course I don’t mean this in a negative way I just can help but notice. 😂

[@rewriting-history]

Yes it's mapchart

[@Vexillogically]

Nice, I feel like a major nerd being able to identify specific maps

[@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.

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

Love your content the House of bernadotte deserved to preserve the union🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@rewriting-history]

Appreciate the constant support, as always! You're one of the most dedicated followers I have!

[@danielsantiagourtado3430]

@@rewriting-history np man

[@thedanishsocialmonarchist7286]

Will you make a senario were Denmark keeps scania and sleswig?

[@rewriting-history]

I could do a short, since nothing much would change

[@thedanishsocialmonarchist7286]

@@rewriting-history but @rewriting-history THICC Denmark deserves the Best

[@luciendolo6604]

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

[@echidnanatsuki882]

Then PewDiePie won't hate Norway

[@rewriting-history]

This would be the worst! 🤣

[@vincedaprince]

10:49 That would simply be impossitle. The first railroad in Sweden was built in 1856 and I don´t see how anything else in this scenario would make the aquistion of raildroad any faster in Sweden (or Sweden-Norway). I mean it´s a 42 year difference if it was built in 1814 like you suggested.

[@PoppopPoppipappaa-vo7in]

15:30 why they arent even the same language group that would never happen

[@rewriting-history]

For the sake of a pretty map. Not being part of the same language group didn't stop Sweden from controlling them for hundreds if years. Also they have geopolitical reasons

[@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.

[@sebastian5671]

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

[@xhorus88]

Finland joining that union is like Germany joining panslavia

[@turtle-balloon]

Swedish-Finnish relations are very good

[@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?

[@pastorinasse]

I agree, these youtubers never think their scenarios through

[@rewriting-history]

Simply because the allies wanted to occupy these bits of Germany themselves. Why would Sweden-Norway want these parts of Germany? They were historically Swedish, but the population is almost 100% German. It would only create problems and be hard to govern. Imagine Finland annexing Leningrad just because.

[@rewriting-history]

Uh no? What you're suggesting is a terrible idea. Unless they annex it and deport all the Germans, which most likely won't happen + The UK already controlled these parts of Germany and they won't give up control to the Swedes for no reason.

[@pastorinasse]

@@rewriting-history schleswig had many danes, besides finland would never join scandinavian countries unless all of karelia was promised to them

[@PolnocMapping]

The same reasons Denmark didn't gain any territory from Germany following WWII irl, it would've been costly, and the British wouldn't have wanted to give up parts of their occupation zones.

[@Lau2856.]

Wasn't the only reason why germany invaded denmark that they wanted to get to norway?

[@rewriting-history]

Yes, but why not still invade and get their manpower? They were very week, so why not

[@greatblondino]

No Germany wanted to lock the Baltic Sea.

[@Smurfen249]

Actually Norway was annexed by Sweden for the compensation of the loss of Finland by Russia, but also in a treaty between Russia, Brittain and Sweden where Sweden had full authority to claim Norway. For Russia it was peace in the Baltic sea, for Brittain it was Denmarks alliegence with Napoleon but also Britts and Swedes have had a very good relationship with trade (yes Brittain relied on timber, fur and iron from Scandinavia) and they have been good partners since the 16th century, it would also give Brittain control of the North Sea and both are protestant nations and for Sweden it was for the territorial loss of Finland wich was its last oversea territory, and since Sweden did not side with Napoleon this was a win win situation at that time for Russia, Brittain and Sweden. The Unification under the Swedish monarch would maintain peace in Scandinavia and both Brittain and Russia would benefit greatly from this.

[@theexplodingDarkrai]

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

[@rewriting-history]

i mean this is just an alternate history scenario, no need to take it too seriously

[@theexplodingDarkrai]

@@rewriting-historyIt was a joke lmao. I just have a distaste of Sw*den since i'm Norwegian

[@theexplodingDarkrai]

@@rewriting-historyI didn't mean to send any hate towards you, and if you perceived it as so, sorry

[@erikaostad5035]

sameeee

[@Ossian_Mik]

@@theexplodingDarkrai Im a swede and i loved norway, but after i saw ur comment now i hate norway.

[@greatblondino]

Norway wanted help from Sweden when invaded. Swedens prime minister said you wanted out not we. Sorry but no help. You made your own choice. 😂

[@rewriting-history]

Damn what a savage, should have added that to the video. I'm sure this is big part of the reason why both of them dislike eachother

[@ibraheemshuaib8954]

then again, Sweden planned Operation Save Norway and Operation Save Denmark, which would've gone into action but the war ended too early.

[@kurlzzfjartson6424]

if we stilltogether, we would have been what the germans wanted steel and oil XD

[@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.

[@rewriting-history]

I agree with you, but this would make Germany weaker on other fronts. Perhaps the Franco-British union also gets formed, due to the fall of France being delayed

[@grandicus]

honestly fascinated with this, because with the exact same reasoning i find it really unrealistic, because there would be no need to secure swedish exports from swedish lands, and the threat a neutral sweden posesses is still minimal, yet its much harder to invade. this union would be very strong defensively but have the same problems sweden had during the great norhtern war of just not having the manpower for an extended fight

[@matthiuskoenig3378]

In the first scenario where Germany does not invade. It's possible and quite likely tje allies {British and French at this time} would have invaded norway-sweden if the germans didn't. The allies wanted to cut of Swedish iron from Germany and planned to invade neutral Norway AND Sweden, but the germans did their invasion of Norway first. This is important as it means they would have invaded even if the countries were United. also Denmark was invaded to get to Norway, so if Germany does not invade Sweden-Norway (either due to no plans or due to hesitation resulting in delayed plans and the allies do it first) then neither does Denmark. So the first scenario will likely result in Denmark-Norway becoming a reluctant axis power atleast initially, that likely switched sides sometime after 1941 (and likely in or before 1943). As the German defeats in this time, Germany being stretched on multiple fronts and the joining of the Americans would convince the reluctant axis power they can safely switch sides. Meanwhile the allies would have recognised their diplomatic blunder in invading and offered good terms to switch sides. This would make the European war shorter as Germany would be cut off from Swedish iron ore AND fight a war on 4 fronts (northern scandi front, western front, eastern front and Italian front) over stretched and under resourced even more than OTL Germany would have collapsed quicker (possibly due to a coup/bomb plot, which would have even more support in the german army due to even more fronts). For the second scenario, a delayed barb would probably in someways be better for germany, as they would be forced to accept that the war would likely be fought in winter (and thus better supply for winter combat, aswell as potentially planing to do a 2 stage plan rather than a 1 stage plan due to even an optimistic timetable being drawn through winter) even if the Soviets are just as weak as they thought, which might also change depending on how much the Soviets advertise their new tanks/etc Eitherway the initial invasion would still go just as well as the Soviets didn't expect an attack until the British were at peace with Germany. And had most of their troops near the border and easily encircled. And the t34 would continue with its planned redesign rather than rushed into service so the added time would not be dramatically better for the Soviets. Except for the Americans likely being involved in lend lease earlier relative to the german invasion.

[@MessiDaBessi]

Хорошо

[@Desmuu]

What if Novgorod united Russia??

[@Potocalter]

Christiania was the original name of Oslo? I thought I made that up for Medeinia 😭😭😭

[@Tom-jg9de]

I gona say somting realy fast Polish axis

[@rewriting-history]

Oh my god no, not in this video, but I'm working on another similar video

[@drippyamongus3235]

It wasnt a real country tho it was a Personal union not a real union like the empire of Denmark-norway.

[@rewriting-history]

I'm very well aware, but this confuses people more

[@ratisgood4448]

social democratic empire - budget edition

[@rewriting-history]

This would actually work, not gonna lie

[@xanderlalla3510]

It would happen 1906

[@RealAdelie]

I dont think Germany will invade denmark. After all, they only used denmark as a jumping board to norway

[@rewriting-history]

This is in the case they don't invade norway, if they do, then denmark would be again invaded

[@randomguy6152]

what if crassus conquered persia

[@rewriting-history]

Dude I'll make a video about this, but what else would you spam on my comments next?

[@randomguy6152]

@@rewriting-history most likely a filler word like "hi" until the next idea I possibly get! also this the only way I can get attention from KZbinrs I've never been into the patreons and stuff so i usually try to leave a like and comment on stuff my comment thanks for actually noticing me tho(no homo felt there was a need) I've been trying to get monsieur z to try it for over a year now I just lucked up that you and your friend group been blowing up in the alt history thing this year

[@randomguy6152]

@@rewriting-history my comments aren't usually to deep I'll think of something

[@rune-ick860]

I'd love to see a similar video but on the kingdom of Denmark-Norway

[@rewriting-history]

Oh nice! Didn't think about that one! Saving the idea right now!

[@rune-ick860]

nice, I love your content by the way, your videos are very interesting, and they never fails to entertain the history nerd in me@@rewriting-history

[@ChangeNameEdits]

Minecraft?!!

[@davida.jansen7551]

No

[@rewriting-history]

Just no?

[@davida.jansen7551]

Yes

[@finncarlbomholtsrensen1188]

Actually Norway and Denmark were united for much longer, since Viking times, and when Norway wanted to become a Kingdom again, after having ended the connection to Sweden, to connect to old times, the Norwegians asked the Danish Prince: Carl to become the new Norwegian King! He agreed, but only if the Norwegian Population would vote for it and he became Norwegian King: Haakon 7th. This fact has given several Danish actors a job, as if King Haakon is to appear in a Norwegian film, he is normally portrayed by a Danish actor! He spoke with a heavy Danish accent all his life! 😄

[@ToneyCrimson]

Norweden

[@rewriting-history]

Sounds better than Swenor

[@Vaticiangovofficial1130]

I think a good name would be The Swed-Norwegian Kingdom

[@rewriting-history]

Something like that, United Kingdoms sounds beyond stupid

[@m.s.8927]

Norden Kingdom

[@xhorus88]

Kingdom of Scandinavia

[@drippyamongus3235]

@@xhorus88 Then Denmark would have to be parr of it so the name makes sence.

[@nealjroberts4050]

What about something like Samvaldet Norden? (Assuming I've not butchered the grammar) Ie The Commonwealth of the North

[@barsukascool]

*fr*

[@rewriting-history]

Fr fr

[@minifolko]

Sweden ruled Norway, we did not share the country.

[@lorp_ooo6204]

Crimea is UUkraine

[@rewriting-history]

This video has nothing to do with that and Crimea wasn't mentioned even once? What do you mean?

[@eirikarnesen9691]

its a good thing the "union" failed. the swedes would not have managed the oil money propperly. would have gone the same route as everyone else, and given all the money to private companies. no extra taxes, no state own oil company. its been good for us to be split, as it has allowed us to use very different economic policies. no gouvernmental involvement does not work well when dealing with natural ressourses

[@loveglas3580]

You are literally just making things up. Sweden for example do have state run companies when it comes to mining and other sectors so obviously something like that would have been set up for the oil industry as well.

[@3Swedishidiots]

as a swede, i see this as a win