Abstract
This article discusses the politics of unification and consequential national reactions in two union states established in a transitional period in European history: the United Kingdoms of Norway and Sweden, a loose personal union from 1814, and the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, uniting the Northern and Southern Netherlands in a unitary state in 1815. Both state constructions were constitutional monarchies, led by ambitious rulers – Charles XIV John and William I. They had different means available for securing and strengthening their reorganized states; both applied a sort of politics of amalgamation in order to blend the two different national groups, in spite of the accepted status of the two groups as equal parts of the new state. This policy triggered national-based reactions on behalf of the non-dominant partner. This article will compare different aspects of the unification and state-building processes in these two regions, such as naming, mapping and cultivation of culture, which took place in the public sphere.
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