Who discovered Svalbard?

Perhaps Norwegians/Icelanders… Icelandic annals for the year 1194 bear the words “Fundr Svalbards”. The Landnámabók states that “… from Langanes in Northern Iceland it is a 4-day voyage to Svalbard in the north”. Then the island of Spitsbergen was discovered (or Svalbard rediscovered) in June 1596 by the Dutchman Willem Barentsz (originally Barentszoon), who had been dispatched to find the North-East Passage to the “Kingdom of China”.

Where is Svalbard?

Svalbard is defined as “Bear Island, West Spitsbergen, North-East Land, Barents Island, Edge Island, King Charles Land, Hope-Island, Prince Charles Foreland together with all islands, great or small and rocks appertaining thereto between 10° and 35° longitude east of Greenwich and between 74° and 81° latitude north”.

What does the name Svalbard mean?

The word Svalbard comes from the Old Norse svalr ‘cool’ and barð ‘edge, rim’. Most place names in Svalbard are otherwise Norwegian – and written in Nynorsk. Next follow English and Swedish language place names. Around half of all place names in Svalbard are named for individuals, e.g. the Russian Pomor Ivan Starostin (d. 1826), the first permanent resident in the archipelago.

What was Svalbard?

A no man’s land (terra nullius) in international law, without inhabitants / indigenous people. Alternatively a terra communis: an every man’s land, common land for citizens of all nations; almost a free-for-all for whalers and other hunters, researchers and scientists, mining companies and miners. All of the settlements in Svalbard – Barentsburg, Longyearbyen, Ny-Ålesund and Pyramiden (abandoned in 1998) – were originally company towns.

What is Svalbard?

Article 1 of the Svalbard Act of 1925 states that “Svalbard forms a part of the Kingdom of Norway”. Yet Svalbard is not a separate constituency when parliamentary elections are held. During the debates about the Svalbard Act there was also a subtle discussion in parliament about whether “Norway should include Svalbard as an overseas territory, i.e. Norwegian territory outside its borders” or whether it should “incorporate Svalbard into the realm”.

Svalbard – a Norwegian free zone

The Svalbard Treaty from 1920 recognises “the full and absolute sovereignty of Norway over the Archipelago of Spitsbergen”. However, all nationals of countries that have signed the treaty are equally granted the right to travel there, stay there and do business there – as long as they comply with prevailing laws and regulations.

Eternal peace (in the Arctic …)

The Svalbard Treaty was negotiated during the peace conference in Paris (Versailles) after WWI. The conference resulted in agreements on the redrawing of borders, the creation of the League of Nations and settlements on war reparations. Especially Germany was ordered to pay compensation. All these agreements are long since history. Only the Svalbard Treaty lives on.

Who signed the Svalbard Treaty in Paris?

Answer: Eight men and one woman: “The President of The United States of America; His Majesty the King of Great Britain and Ireland and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Emperor of India; His Majesty the King of Denmark; the President of the French Republic; His Majesty the King of Italy; His Majesty the Emperor of Japan; His Majesty the King of Norway; Her Majesty the Queen of the Netherlands; His Majesty the King of Sweden”.

Wedel Jarlsberg: a miniature portrait

Fredrik Hartvig Herman (“Fritz”) Wedel Jarlsberg (1855–1942) was a diplomat (by profession) for some fifty years. Unfettered by the Norwegian Nobility Law, he used the title of baron. Over the course of his career he served in Stockholm, Vienna, London, Madrid, Copenhagen and, not least, Paris from 1906. The French capital remained a base for Wedel Jarlsberg until the German invasion in 1940. Yet some of his finest hours occurred towards the end of and just after WWI. As early as 19 March 1918 he sent a memo to the foreign ministry with a list of Norwegian demands now that the peace had arrived. One key demand was Spitsbergen (Svalbard) and “full compensation for our losses at sea”. The Norwegian foreign ministry did not reply, so Wedel Jarlsberg began his own investigations. Amongst other things, he mooted the idea in diplomatic circles of a Norwegian colony in East Africa and thought aloud about a Norwegian East African Chartered Company under Norwegian sovereignty. However, the Norwegian foreign minister Nils Claus Ihlen protested. He threatened to resign if Wedel Jarlsberg pursued the idea of “a large, a greater Norway” far south of Norway. Prime Minister Gunnar Knudsen stepped in and backed his minister.

Neither Soviet Russia nor Germany was at the negotiating table during the peace conference in Paris. Wedel Jarlsberg, on the other hand, was circling that very table. On 10 April 1919 he gave “a detailed account of our claim to Spitsbergen”. All spring and summer he “continued to conduct negotiations with France, England and America”. After a face-to-face meeting with the French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau the latter saw to it that the peace conference would discuss the Svalbard issue “at the last minute”. Together with the French foreign ministry’s legal expert, a M. Fromageot, Wedel Jarlsberg was practically in the home straight when they wrote “a proposal for an international agreement concerning Spitsbergen’s cession to Norway”. Their draft was adopted almost unchanged in late September 1919.

So was it diplomatic plain sailing? No. The problem went by the name of Lord Curzon. He was a former Viceroy of India and now (as Wedel Jarlsberg put it) an “under-secretary” at the British foreign office. The English lord wanted “England” to “reserve Spitsbergen for herself”. The Norwegian baron conferred and conspired, talked to the British foreign office’s leading man in Paris, and invited the British ambassador to France home to his residence for breakfast. The end of the story? His Lordship drew the short straw, and the baron came out on top. Wedel Jarlsberg’s autobiography – Journey Through Life – is relatively clear that credit should be given where credit is due. Next, the treaty was signed on 9 February 1920 and came into force on 14 August 1925 after Japan – the last of the signatories – ratified it on 2 April that same year.

A globalised treaty

The Svalbard Treaty is first and foremost a European phenomenon. 27 European states have signed and ratified the treaty:

Then there are seven Asian countries:

Two countries in Africa

Three North American countries:

And three South American states:

What about Oceania? Indeed:

In total: 44 states all over the world.

Language and archive information

The Svalbard Treaty is available in French, English and Norwegian Riksmål of the 1920s. The treaty also states that all ratification documents should be deposited in Paris, the diplomatic nucleus of the agreement.