Norway is to have said to have people living on it at the end of the last Ice Age in a many as 12 thousand years ago the first written records were written in A.D. 800.

       Until about 3000 B.C. the people who lived in Norway lived in tents or caves and the hunted and fished.  Then warlike Germanic groups migrated to Norway and taught the people there how to attach handles to their axes, therefore making it easier to fight in battle and find food.

       After A.D. 600 Norway entered a period of rapid growth.  This may have been because of the people who moved to Scandinavia in the last two centuries.  This led to shortages in farmland.  By about 800 (probably sooner) the Norwegians, Danes, and the Swedes began to sail around conquering land and expanding the trade market.  This lasted until about 1050 and was later to be known as the Vikings.

       The Vikings first attacked a monastery on the island of Lindisfarne in 793.  Then they started to raid England, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and Scotland.  By the late 800s Viking expeditions were more peaceful.  They added Greenland, Iceland, and Newfoundland in Canada.  After the 15th century, though, the Norwegian population on Greenland and in North America dried out.

       Olaf I, who lived in England,  tried to spread the Roman Catholic Church.  He became king and imposed Christian faith on his subjects and he would kill those who would not accept this.  In 1000, at the naval battle of Svold, Denmark, Sweden, and Norwegian leaders united to defeat and kill Olaf I.  In 1015 Olaf II drove out the foreigners, reunited Norway and made himself king.

       Magnus was the next king of Norway.  He was Olaf II's son.  He united Norway and Denmark.  The next three centuries Norwegian kings grew the power of the Roman Catholic Church, expanded foreign trade, and Norwegian religious and trading centers developed in important cities.

       Haakon became king in 1299 and when he died in 1319 the throne went to his daughter.  During this time a plague struck the area and at least half of the population died and those who did live suffered from famine and severe economic destruction.  After this rule Norway was united with Denmark because of Haakon's wife, Margaret, was the ruler of Denmark.  Sweden also united with Norway even though Sweden controlled Norway's foreign affairs.  Later they became independent but when they were in their early years of independence, Norway underwent a rapid transition from an economy founded on agriculture to an economy based on manufacturing and trade.

       When World War II broke out in 1939 stayed neutral.  The Germans forced Norway into war.  After two months of fighting, Norway surrendered.  During the war about ten thousand people died and about half of the merchant fleet had sunk. 

       After the war, Norway became a part of the United Nations (UN) and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).  With help from the U.S. Norway rebuilt and its economy started thriving.  In 1972 Norway became a part of the European Union (EU).  All this helped make Norway what it is today.