The Norse ancestors of the people of Norway, the Vikings are
known for their early voyages to North America. Figures such as
19th and early 20th century explorers like Fridtjof Nansen and
Otto Sverdrup voyaged and charted Canada's Arctic seaways and
islands.
Immigration from Norway
But it was the period from 1880 to 1929 when the majority of
Norwegians came to Western Canada. In the period before World War
I, nearly 20,000 immigrants came from Norway
to Canada and many others came via the United States. By 1931,
there were over 90,000 people of Norwegian ancestry living in
Canada, 32,000 who had come directly from Norway, nearly 22,000
who had come to Canada via the United States and the remainder
were the sons and daughters of the immigrants.
The presence of Norwegians in Alberta is tied to a difficult
chapter in Norway's history. During the early 19th century,
schooling and education for all classes of people in Norway was
introduced. This marked the advent of a new kind of society that
would disrupt and change Norway's traditional village society of
farmers and fisherman.
This new learning took root in a religious movement within the
Lutheran Church, throughout northern Europe, called pietism.
A
response to the rigid and formal state-sponsored Lutheran Church,
the movement encouraged reflection on the importance of personal
experience and the importance of applying one's religious
convictions to the matters of daily life, including politics and
social concerns. The movement was critical of the Lutheran clergy
and the privileged classes who had seemed to abandon any sense of
justice in Norwegian society. Led by Hans Nielsen Hauge, the
movement was largely responsible for shaping the emerging
democratic sensibilities of the society. The Norwegian state
responded by imprisoning thousands active in the pietist movement,
including Hauge.
Together, this resulted in a generation of Norwegians who were
literate, interested in democratic institutions and critical of
privilege and seeking a society that could sustain their
aspirations and hopes for the future. They had the skills and
sensibilities required for a modern industrial society, a society
which had not yet emerged in Norway. The move from a traditional
to modern society is difficult and so it was with Norway. Unable
to accommodate this new generation, the period of modern
immigration began.