Editing Spitsbergen (section)

==History==

[[File:Walvisvangst bij de kust van Spitsbergen - Dutch whalers near Spitsbergen (Abraham Storck, 1690).jpg|thumb|Dutch whalers near Spitsbergen by [[Abraham Storck]] (1690)]]

The first recorded sighting of the island was by Willem Barentsz, a Dutch explorer who came across it while searching for the [[Northern Sea Route]] in June 1596.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bt88AAAAIAAJ&q=Spitsbergen+1662+map&pg=PR12|title=No Man's Land|publisher=CUP Archive|year=1982}}</ref> The first good map, with the east coast roughly indicated, appeared in 1623, printed by [[Willem Janszoon Blaeu]]. Around 1660 and 1728, better maps were produced.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.oldworldauctions.com/detail.asp?owa_id=2145238494 |title=Old World Auctions - Auction Lot Detail |access-date=4 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160810020357/https://www.oldworldauctions.com/detail.asp?owa_id=2145238494 |archive-date=10 August 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.antiquemaps.no/itemimages/pama526.jpg |title=Archived copy |access-date=2010-09-15 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724174207/http://www.antiquemaps.no/itemimages/pama526.jpg |archive-date=24 July 2011 }}</ref>

The archipelago may have been known to Russian [[Pomor]] hunters as early as the 14th or 15th century, although solid evidence preceding the 17th century is lacking. Following the English whalers and others in referring to the archipelago as Greenland, they named it [[Grumant]] (Грумант). The name [[Svalbard]] is first mentioned in [[Icelandic sagas]] of the 10th and 11th centuries, but this may have been [[Jan Mayen]].

===Early claims===

[[File:Spitsbergen labelled.png|thumb|left|Map of Spitsbergen]]
Early [[whaling]] expeditions to Svalbard in general and Spitsbergen in particular tended, because of currents and fauna, to cluster on the western coast of Spitsbergen and the islands off shore. Shortly after whaling began (1611), the [[Denmark–Norway|Danish–Norwegian]] crown in 1616 claimed ownership of Jan Mayen and the Spitsbergen islands, as all of Svalbard was then known, but in 1613, the English [[Muscovy Company]] had done the same.

The primary and most profitable whaling grounds of this joint-stock company came to be centered on Spitsbergen in the early 17th century, and the company's 1613 Royal Charter from the English Crown granted a monopoly on whaling in Spitsbergen, based on the (erroneous) claim that [[Hugh Willoughby]] had discovered the land in 1553.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Hudson |first=Henry |authorlink=Henry Hudson |author2=Georg Michael Asher |title=Henry Hudson the Navigator: The Original Documents in which His Career is Recorded, Collected, Partly Translated, and Annotated |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_IwcVAAAAQAAJ |year=1860 |publisher=Hakluyt Society |location=London |pages=clix–clx }}</ref><ref>Schokkenbroek, Joost C.A. (2008). [http://de.scientificcommons.org/30176828 ''Trying-out: An anatomy of Dutch Whaling and Sealing in the Nineteenth Century, 1815-1885''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721023214/http://de.scientificcommons.org/30176828 |date=21 July 2011 }}, p. 27.</ref> Not only had they wrongly assumed a 1553 English voyage had reached the area, but on 27 June 1607, during his first voyage in search of a "northeast passage" on behalf of the company, [[Henry Hudson]] sighted "Newland" (i.e. Spitsbergen), near the mouth of the great bay Hudson later named the Great Indraught ([[Isfjord (Svalbard)|Isfjorden]]). In this way, the English hoped to head off expansion in the region by the Dutch, at the time their major rival.<ref>pp.1-22. Georg Michael Asher,(1860). ''Henry Hudson the Navigator''. Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, 27. {{ISBN|1-4021-9558-3}}.</ref><ref>William Martin Conway, (1906). ''No Man's Land: A History of Spitsbergen from Its Discovery in 1596 to the Beginning of the Scientific Exploration of the Country''. Cambridge, At the University Press.</ref>
Initially, the English tried to drive away competitors, but after disputes with the Dutch (1613–24), they, for the most part, only claimed the bays south of [[Kongsfjorden]].<ref>Schokkenbroek, p. 28.</ref>

===Danish expansion===
[[File:Bucentaur i Bellsund 1906-08-17.jpg|thumb|A 1906 photograph of the Norwegian whaling factory ship ''Bucentaur'' in [[Bellsund]], Spitsbergen]]
From 1617 onwards, a Danish-chartered company began sending whaling fleets to Spitsbergen.<ref>pp. 18-20 in Már Jónsson. "Denmark-Norway as a Potential World Power in the Early Seventeenth Century", ''Itinerario'', Volume 33, Issue 02, July 2009, pp 17-27.</ref> This successful expansion by Denmark into the North Atlantic has recently been cited by historians as the first step of the Danish–Norwegian state into overseas colonialism. It eventually built [[Danish colonial empire|a small overseas empire]] of East Indian trade posts, North Atlantic possessions (such as Greenland and Iceland), and a small Atlantic trade route between possessions on the [[Guinea Coast]] (in modern Ghana) and what are now the [[United States Virgin Islands]].<ref>Már Jónsson (2009) passim.,</ref><ref>Pernille Ipsen and Gunlög Fur. "Introduction to Scandinavian Colonialism", ''Itinerario'', Volume 33, Issue 02, July 2009, pp 7-16.</ref>

The entire Svalbard archipelago, nominally ruled first by [[Denmark–Norway]], and later the Norwegians (as [[Union between Sweden and Norway]] from 1814 to 1905, independent Norway from 1905), remained a source of riches for fishery and whaling vessels from many nations. The islands also became the launching point for a number of [[Arctic]] explorers, including [[William Edward Parry]], [[Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld]], [[Otto Martin Torell]], [[Alfred Gabriel Nathorst]], [[Roald Amundsen]] and [[Ernest Shackleton]].

===Spitsbergen Treaty===
[[File:Hornsund1 (js).jpg|thumb|Hornsund Polish Arctic Station, photographed in 2003]]
Between 1913 and 1920, Spitsbergen was a neutral [[Condominium (international law)|condominium]]. The [[Spitsbergen Treaty]] of 9 February 1920, recognises the full and absolute sovereignty of Norway over all the arctic archipelago of Svalbard.<ref>Knowles, Daniel (2018) Tirpitz:The Life And Death of Germany's Last Great Battleship (Stroud:Fonthill Media)</ref> The exercise of sovereignty is, however, subject to certain stipulations, and not all Norwegian law applies. Originally limited to nine signatory nations, over 40 are now signatories of the treaty. Citizens of any of the signatory countries may settle in the archipelago. Once named Spitsbergen after its largest island, the Svalbard archipelago was made a part of Norway—not a dependency—by the [[Politics of Svalbard#Svalbard Act|Svalbard Act of 1925]]. Since this date, it has been a region of Norway, with a Norwegian-appointed governor resident at the administrative centre of Longyearbyen. Limitations on the imposition of certain Norwegian laws are outlined in the Spitsbergen Treaty.

The largest settlement on Spitsbergen is the Norwegian town of [[Longyearbyen]], while the second-largest settlement is the Russian [[coal-mining]] settlement of [[Barentsburg]]. (This was sold by the Netherlands in 1932 to the Soviet company Arktikugol.) Other settlements on the island include the former Russian mining communities of Grumantbyen and [[Pyramiden]] (abandoned in 1961 and 1998, respectively), a [[Polish Polar Station, Hornsund|Polish research station]] at [[Hornsund]], and the remote northern settlement of [[Ny-Ålesund]].<ref>[http://www.hiddeneurope.co.uk/article_info.php?articles_id=239 "Northern Townships: Spitsbergen"], ''Hidden Europe'' magazine, 10 (September 2006), pp.2-5</ref>

===World War II===

{{Campaignbox Arctic (1941–1944)}}

[[Allies of World War II|Allied soldiers]] were stationed on the island in 1941 to prevent [[Nazi Germany]] from occupying the islands. Norway came under [[German occupation of Norway|German occupation]] in 1940. Germany took control of the coal fields and the weather station during this time, although most of the inhabitants on the island were Russian and Germany and the Soviet Union had a [[non-aggression pact]] until 22 June 1941. Once the non-aggression pact was ended, the United Kingdom and Canada sent military forces to the island to destroy German installations, both the Soviet coal mines and the German weather station.<ref>[http://www.lonesentry.com/manuals/commandos/spitsbergen.html? "Spitsbergen Operation"], Lone Sentry website</ref>

In 1943, the German battleship ''[[German battleship Tirpitz|Tirpitz]]'' and an escort flotilla shelled and destroyed the Allied weather station in [[Operation Zitronella]]. On 6 September, a squadron consisting of ''Tirpitz'', the battleship [[German battleship Scharnhorst|''Scharnhorst'']], and nine destroyers weighed anchor in [[Altenfjord]] and Kåfjord and headed for Spitsbergen, to attack the Allied base. At dawn on 8 September 1943, ''Tirpitz'' and ''Scharnhorst'' opened fire against the two 3-inch guns which comprised the defences of Barentsburg, and the destroyers ran inshore with landing parties, destroying a supply dump and wrecking a landing station. By noon, the hostilities had ended, with the landing parties returning to the ships, along with some prisoners. The German ships returned safely to Altenfjord and Kåfjord on 9 September 1943. This was the last operation for the ''Tirpitz''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bismarck-class.dk/tirpitz/history/tiropersizilien.html?title=Operation|title=Tirpitz - The History - Operation "Sizilien"|first=John|last=Asmussen|website=www.bismarck-class.dk}}</ref>

=== Postwar ===
On 29 August 1996, [[Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801]] crashed on the island, killing all 141 people on board.<ref name="ASN">{{cite web |last=Ranter |first=Harro |title=29 Aug 1996 |url=http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19960829-0 |access-date=26 August 2010 |website=Aviation Safety Network |publisher=[[Flight Safety Foundation]]}}</ref>