Mining for Sovereignty? Norwegian Coal Companies and the Quest for Supremacy over Svalbard 1916-1925

At the outbreak of the First World War there was virtually no Norwegian coalmining activity on the Spitsbergen archipelago. The handful of small coal companies that were formed in Norway around the turn of the century were either idle or had been bought up by foreign interests after a few years. During the war, however, several new private companies were established, most notably the Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani in 1916. Two years later, in 1918–1919, the Norwegian government stated its desire to acquire full sovereignty over the archipelago. The wish was granted by the treaty of 9 February 1920 that came as a result of the peace negotiations in Paris. This paper reviews the role of the Norwegian coal companies in Norway’s quest for supremacy over Svalbard during and after the First World War. Were private enterprises an instrument of the Norwegian government’s ambitions or was it the other way around? It is argued that private companies were instrumental in moving the political authorities from a passive to an active stance regarding sovereignty during the last phase of the war and through the peace conference in 1919. Their primary concern was to protect their own vested interests. However, as soon as sovereignty was secured in 1920, it was the government that actively used the companies as instruments to improve Norway’s position on the archipelago before implementing the treaty and settling the property rights. Note: I use the official toponym ‘Svalbard’, although before 1925 ‘Spitsbergen’ was more commonly used.