Editing Johan Sverdrup (section)

== Early years ==
He was born at [[Sem, Norway|Sem]] in [[Vestfold]], Norway, to Jacob Liv Borch Sverdrup (1775–1841) and Gundelle Birgitte Siang (1780–1820). His father was a pioneer in scientific agriculture in Norway. He finished his law studies in 1841. He worked as a lawyer in [[Larvik]], a small town on the west coast of the [[Oslofjord]]. In 1851, he was for the first time elected to the [[Storting]], and from then until his appointment as prime minister in 1884, he was one of the leaders of parliament. In Norway, political parties were considered inappropriate and unwanted. Sverdrup tried from his earliest days in the Storting to form a radical party consisting of the large group of peasants and the radical elements among the representatives from the cities. His first attempt was named the "lawyers' party" after the profession of the leaders of the group. It soon became evident that the times were not ripe for such a radical novelty, and for the next years Sverdrup knit a loose alliance with the peasant leader [[Ole Gabriel Gabrielsen Ueland|Ole Gabriel Ueland]] (1799–1870).<ref name=snl>{{cite web|url=https://snl.no/Johan_Sverdrup|title=Johan Sverdrup |publisher=Store norske leksikon 
|author=Knut Dørum|access-date= April 1, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://nbl.snl.no/Ole_Gabriel_Ueland|title=Ole Gabriel Ueland |publisher=Norsk biografisk leksikon|author= Åsmund Svendsen|access-date= April 1, 2018}}</ref>

[[File:Det sverdrupske ministerium.png|thumb|left|Sverdrup's ministry]]