Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean on the northwest corner of the Barents Shelf. It is 800 kilometres (497 mi) north of mainland Norway and sits roughly midway between the top of Norway and the North Pole. It is bordered by Greenland (Denmark) in the west and Franz Josef Land (Russia) in the east. Svalbard (Old Norse for "Cold Coast") was formerly known by its Dutch name of Spitsbergen ("jagged mountains").
This is a companion discussion topic for the original content at https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1922/a-history-of-svalbard/.