Norway started out as a modern country in 1814 during the Napoleonic Wars. At the Treaty of Kiel at the 7th of January king Frederick VI of Denmark agreed to cede Norway to Sweden. However, the Viceroy of Norway, Christian Frederick, declared himself King of Norway in 19th of February and at the 17th of May the Constitution was written at Eidsvoll. However, after a short war with Sweden, Norway was forced to enter a personal union with Sweden at 20th of October, forcing Christian Frederick to abdicate and electing Charles II (XIII of Sweden) as regent. It was under this period that the Norwegian merchant fleet started its world dominance.[PARAGRAPH:1]At 23rd May, 1905, Norway was after a long-time effort by Sweden to preserve the Union, declared independent. After a national referendum confirmed the people's preference for a monarchy over a republic, the Norwegian government offered the throne of Norway to the Danish Prince Carl, and Parliament unanimously elected him king, the first king of a fully independent Norway in 586 years. He took the name of Håkon VII, after the mediaeval kings of independent Norway.[PARAGRAPH:1]During the Second World War, in 1940, Norway was occupied by Nazi Germany mainly because of its strategic location. During the occupation, Norway suffered massive fundamental damage, and the resistance, the Milorg, sabotaged the German development of heavy water, which is required to construct nuclear bombs.[PARAGRAPH:1]Originally being an underdeveloped country, it was after the WWII that Norway became an important nation at world basis. Under Prime Minister Einar Gerhardsen, commonly known as Landsfaderen (Father of the Land), Norway went through a massive reform, with the Norwegian Labour Party holding the majority of the parliament in 16 years in which they modernized the country.[PARAGRAPH:1]In 1969 there was discovered oil on Norwegian soil, and in 1973 Statoil, a state founded oil company, was formed. Thanks to the income of the oil and the continued reforms of the first female Prime Minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Norway in the late 1990s had paid of all of its debt, and since it had a much higher stability than the Middle Eastern countries, large oil consumers like the US kept on good relations with the country, further increasing the countries wealth. Today Norway is one of the worlds wealthiest countries and have been for over seven years ranked as the worlds best country to live in by the United Nations. The city of Stavanger is a major research centre for oil producing and Trondheim is one of the main centres of research in the world in general. Norway still have one of the largest merchant fleets in the world and is a major country within trade.