To understand how it all got started, we have to go back to the 1800 s.

Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel was then mostly known for the invention of dynamite,

a breakthrough which launched his career as a successful inventor and businessman.

Thirty years later, he had become extremely wealthy, but never married and had no children.

When his will was opened after his death, it came as a surprise that his fortune

was to be used for five prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace.

These prizes illustrated his lifelong commitment to sciences

and his passion for literature.

But what about peace?

Because Nobel 's name was tied to inventions used in the war industry,

many have assumed that he created the Peace Prize out of regret.

However, this is all speculation, as he never expressed any such sentiments,

and his inventions were also used for constructive purposes.

Instead, many historians connect Alfred Nobel 's interest for the peace cause,

to his decade long friendship and correspondence with an Austrian pacifist, named Bertha Von Suttner.

Von Suttner was one of the leaders of the International Peace Movement

and in 1905, after Nobel 's death, she became the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Nobel 's will outlined three criteria for the Peace Prize which,

unlike the other Sweden based prizes, would be administered in Norway ;

disarmament, peace congresses and brotherhood between nations.

These standards have since been expanded to include other ways of promoting peace,

such as human rights and negotiations.