There was once a secret paradise of freedom!
BERGEN, Norway (PNN) - August 2, 2012 - High up above Scandinavia about 75 degrees north latitude is an obscure archipelago that few people in the world know about, and even fewer have ever visited.
It’s called Svalbard, population 3,000.
For centuries, Svalbard was completely lawless, devoid of any government authority. It attracted whalers, hunters, merchants and fishermen from all over the world - the UK, Russia, France, Netherlands, North America and Scandinavia.
Amazingly enough, the people of Svalbard were able to coexist for hundreds of years without a sovereign authority or central government telling them what to do or how they could live.
Of course, it all got screwed up eventually. In time, as word got out about Svalbard, a number of countries tried to claim the islands as their own. Peace very quickly turned to conflict.
Various nations began sending their navies to fight the navies of other nations. When substantial coal deposits were discovered there, even more conflict ensued.
Svalbard’s fate was ultimately decided because of World War I. The utter devastation that was wracked across Europe led many war-weary politicians to consider a compromise.
The fascist and socialist governments of the world refused to allow Svalbard to go back to being governmentless, so in 1920, a group of 14 nations got together and signed the Spitsbergen Treaty, effectively awarding Svalbard to Norway.