I've been told that when Norway became independent in 1905 it was due to Kaiser Wilhelm II participation in the conflict. Is there any truth to this? If so, what did he do?

by Shltwalker
vonadler

It is quite the opposite, actually.

Sweden was awarded Norway at the Conference of Vienna 1814, however, the Norwegians would rather be independent than go from Denmark to Sweden, and Sweden had to force Norway into a personal union in a short war during late summer 1814.

However, the union was a personal union, which meant that the Norwegians handled a lot of their own business. They had their own constitution, their own parliament, their own government, their own army and their own navy. Foreign and trade (including tariffs) policy was decided in Sweden, and the Swedish monarch appointed the prime minister in Norway (as parliamentarism had not yet been introduced), but that was the extent of Swedish control of Norway.

When Norway unilaterally declared the union dissolved in 1905, it looked like both sides would go to war over the issue. Wilhelm II supported the Swedish government and urged them to use force of arms to enforce the union again and made vague promises of German support. Wilhelm II had also supported the Swedish government with even stronger words in 1895, when there was a crisis on diplomatic representation (the Norwegians wanting their own consuls).

The British supported the Norwegians, but rather low-key.

The Norwegian parliament had declared King Oscar II no longer King of Norway, but a plebiscite was held, and 368 392 Norwegians voted for dissolving the union and only 184 voted against it. Women did not have the right to vote, but Norwegian sufragettes gathered 244 765 signatures from females in favour of dissolving the union.

After the plebiscite, Wilhelm II changed his stance to one that Norway could not have a British-supported monarch - the chosen Prince Carl of Denmark was supported the British, the Danes and the Norwegians ascended to the Norwegian throne after another plebiscite on the 12th and 13th of November 1905 that showed the Norwegians were in favour of a monarchy and Prince Carl specifically.

In the end, the Swedes proved unwilling to go to war to force the Norwegians into the clearly unpopular union again, and the two countries separated peacefully.