New land is discovered in the north

The first record of anyone using the name Svalbard is in the Icelandic Annals of 1194. We are far from certain whether the place referred to in the chronicles is present-day Svalbard; what we do know, however, is that it was the Dutch explorer Willem Barents whose eyewitness account is the first description of the islands. He was part of a longer Arctic expedition when, in 1596, he sighted the northern part of the archipelago. 

In 1598, the earliest known map of Svalbard was made on the basis of this expedition. The sight of the jagged peaks gave rise to the name Spitsbergen.

In the first decades of the 17^th Century, whaling was the region’s most important industry. Initially, the Dutch dominated, but gradually other nations also developed an interest in whaling. This led to several other nations, throughout the 17^th Century, laying claim to sovereignty over both Svalbard and the surrounding seas. The Kingdom of Denmark-Norway’s claim was based on the notion that Svalbard and Greenland were physically connected.

For its part, England’s claim to Svalbard was based on the belief that the English Arctic voyager Sir Hugh Willoughby was the first man to discover the archipelago, and that British whalers were the first to take possession of the area. The Netherlands, Spain and France were less concerned about territorial claims, and more interested in their right to engage in whaling, invoking mare liberum – the freedom of the seas – in their arguments.

Towards the mid-17^th Century, whaling in the seas directly round the Svalbard coast began to decline, moving instead to open waters. This made it less important to set up facilities on Svalbard for the processing of whale blubber. Reduced whaling activity in the surrounding seas resulted in an extended period during which the assertion of territorial claims tailed off. For a long time, the region was sparsely populated other than small groups of Russian fur trappers, who first arrived in 1704, and continued to hunt until the 1850s. Consequently, Svalbard entered a long period when it was referred to as Terra Nullius – Nobody’s Land.

Svalbard in Norwegian nation-building

International interest in the High North was revived in 1871 when Sweden-Norway made diplomatic moves to take possession of the Svalbard archipelago. The backdrop for this new diplomatic offensive was an ever-increasing interest in the area’s resources. In 1875, the Storting allocated funding for research into fishing resources in the waters surrounding Svalbard. Russia’s reply to this Swedish-Norwegian move was to demand that the region, through a tacit agreement, should remain open to all states who wished to conduct their activities there. This renewed High North offensive may also be viewed in the context of the nation-building that was taking place at the end of the 19^th Century. For example, it was at this time that the Norwegian Sea was first used as a name for the area of water south of Svalbard.

New resources prompt fresh interest in Svalbard

The advent of mining in the early 1900s prompted fresh demands and the need to clarify ownership of Svalbard’s natural resources. The prevailing opinion on rights did not include ownership rights, or rights associated with the exploitation of coal deposits.

In 1907, two years after the dissolution of the union with Sweden, Norway took the initiative to propose a new international framework of governance. This furthered the principle of Terra Nullius, by which no single nation held sovereignty, but all had the right to engage in commercial activities. The strategy was eventually changed, and Norway initiated three separate conferences on the archipelago’s sovereignty (the Kristiania Conferences) between 1910 and 1914. At these, it emerged that both the USA and Germany wished to be included in the governance of Svalbard, a move opposed by Russia. The outbreak of World War I in 1914 ushered the friction over Svalbard into the background for the next four years until hostilities ended in November 1918.

The Svalbard Treaty

After peace had once again settled over Europe, the Norwegian authorities saw new opportunities to take up their diplomatic claims in the High North. On 1^st November 1918, the Storting’s Foreign Affairs Committee recommended that Norway should make fresh moves to gain sovereignty over Svalbard. The Storting debated the issue in a closed sitting on 8^th March 1919, and the matter was sent to the Government for further diplomatic action. Little more than a month later, during the peace conference at Versailles, Norway proposed a solution to the Svalbard question by which it would assume sovereignty over the area. This resulted in the appointment of the Spitsbergen Commission, whose remit it was to put forward a draft solution.

Norway’s Minister to Paris, Fritz Wedel Jarlsberg, was charged with drafting his country’s input to the wording of the treaty. The Norwegian draft appeared to be partly based on a text previously drawn up by a committee appointed by a private Norwegian coalmining company, the Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani. This clearly suggests that those with interests in Svalbard’s natural resources were intent on playing an significant role in proceedings.

One proposal was that Norway should be able to govern the archipelago on behalf of the international community. This proposal was dropped. Instead, the Commission, impressed by how Norway had handled its neutrality during World War I, made the unanimous decision to recognize full Norwegian sovereignty over Svalbard, under certain conditions.

The Svalbard Treaty was signed on 9^th February 1920 by Norway, the USA, Denmark, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Great Britain, and Sweden. Since then, a succession of other countries have signed the treaty, which today numbers 48 parties. The treaty was ratified by the Storting on 24^th July 1924, and entered into force on 14^th August 1925. After the Svalbard Act was adopted by the Storting on 17^th July 1925, Svalbard became an indivisible and inalienable part of the Kingdom of Norway.

The aim and contents of the Svalbard Treaty

The Svalbard Treaty consists of 10 articles and an annex with three sections. Article 1 gives Norway sovereignty over Svalbard, Bear Island, and the surrounding waters. Articles 2 and 3 oblige Norway to ensure that citizens and companies from countries that are party to the treaty enjoy equal rights. This means that it is prohibited to discriminate against individuals on the basis of their citizenship, or companies on the basis of their national affiliation. These provisions apply in the areas of hunting and fishing; access to the archipelago; the exercise of certain commercial activities; and ownership rights, including mining rights.

Norway also basically retains full authority, by virtue of its sovereignty, in the field of defence and the military. However, Article 9 of the Svalbard Treaty imposes restrictions on establishing – or allowing others to establish – naval bases, constructing fortifications, or using Svalbard for military purposes. These restrictions, especially the last of the three, should be viewed in the light of the treaty’s so-called preamble. Here, the parties declare that by acknowledging Norwegian sovereignty, they wish to safeguard Svalbard’s development and peaceful utilization through fair governance.