Svalbard started out as a whaling base in the 17th and 18th centuries, with the region originally being named Spitsbergen (which the main island retains as its name) by the Dutch, before being abandoned until the 20th century, when it became a hotspot for coal mining. Several permanent settlements then popped up, and American and British interests brought business to the remote area. Svalbard would soon gain its current name and become a sovereignty of Norway under the Svalbard Treaty of 1920, and in 1925, the Svalbard Act would make Svalbard a full part of the Kingdom of Norway, as well as a free economic zone and a demilitarized zone.
During World War II, Svalbard was invaded by the Germans in Operations Zitronella and Haudegen, and they establish a meteorological station which was active from the 9th of September, 1944 to the 4th of September, 1945. The German soldiers stationed here were the last German soldiers to surrender after the Second World War, being picked up by a Norwegian seal hunting vessel. The Soviet Union would soon come in and propose common Norwegian and Soviet administration and military defence of Svalbard, but be rejected by the Norwegians as they joined NATO in 1947. The Soviet Union would still retain high civilian activity on Svalbard, in part to ensure that the archipelago was not used by NATO, and two-thirds of the population of the island would be Soviets, with them setting up mining operations at Barentsburg, Pyramiden and Grumant. The Russian population would sharply decline after the fall of the Soviet Union and Pyramiden and Grumant were closed, but they still inhabit the settlement of Barentsburg to this day, and Pyramiden still gets some tourism due to being the home of the two most northerly Lenin statues and socialist realism artwork.
Miscellaneous
- Administrative center and largest town: Longyearbyen
- Population: 2,939
- Area: 61,022 km² (23,561 sq mi)
- Currency: Norwegian krone (kr) (NOK)
- ISO-3166-1 Code: SJ
