The Nobel Peace Prize comes from the fortune and final will of Swedish inventor and industrialist Alfred Nobel, who ordered that much of his wealth be used to create prizes for those who benefit humanity, including a specific prize for peace.

Origins in Alfred Nobel’s will

  • Alfred Nobel, who invented dynamite and built a large arms‑related industrial fortune, wrote in his 1895 will that most of his estate should be placed in a fund whose interest would be used to award annual prizes.
  • He specified five fields—physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, and peace —with the Peace Prize intended for those who had done “the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.”

Why the Peace Prize is Norwegian

  • Unusually, Nobel directed that the Peace Prize should be awarded by a committee of five people chosen by the Norwegian parliament (the Storting), even though he was Swedish and the other prizes are Swedish-based.
  • The Storting accepted this role in 1897, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee has since been responsible for selecting laureates and hosting the ceremony in Oslo.

From fortune to first awards

  • When Nobel died in 1896, his remaining fortune—about 31.5 million Swedish crowns at the time—was used to set up the Nobel Foundation, which manages the investments and finances of all the prizes.
  • The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901, with the inaugural Peace Prize shared by Jean Henry Dunant (founder of the Red Cross) and FrĂ©dĂ©ric Passy (a leading French pacifist).

Historical motives and debates

  • A long‑circulated story says Nobel was influenced by a harsh newspaper obituary that called him a “merchant of death” after his brother’s death was mistaken for his, possibly prompting him to reshape his legacy through the prizes. Historians note this story is plausible but not fully proven.
  • Nobel’s friendship with peace activist Bertha von Suttner—who later won the Peace Prize herself in 1905—may also have encouraged him to include a dedicated peace award in his will.

What the Prize represents today

  • Today the Nobel Peace Prize is often described as the most prestigious peace‑related award in the world, and it continues to be given to individuals and organizations working on mediation, disarmament, human rights, and broader conditions for peace.
  • Beyond the medal and money, it functions as a global spotlight: each year’s choice sparks debate about what “peace” means in that moment and whose efforts deserve to symbolize it.

TL;DR: The Nobel Peace Prize “comes from” Alfred Nobel’s will and the investment of his fortune into a permanent fund, with the peace category uniquely entrusted to a Norwegian committee to honor those who advance peace between nations.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.