There is evidence from the tectonic evolution of Spitsbergen that contributes to an understanding of the North Atlantic region. No Precambrian metamorphic complex or framework has been demonstrated clearly. Hecla Hoek rocks totaling nearly 20 km in thickness, mostly late Precambrian but also Cambrian and Canadian, were an important part of the North Atlantic geosyncline and formed the basis of the Caledonides and the Appalachians. The main east-west compression, the Ny Friesland orogeny, was of about Silurian age. Granitic plutons were emplaced slightly later. Old Red Sandstone facies are of Early and Middle Devonian age. The Late Devonian Svalbardian movements are argued to have occurred primarily at a time of extensive sinistral transcurrent faulting along the North Atl ntic orogenic system. After vertical movements in Early and mid-Carboniferous time, the whole area became stable and remained so until the end of Jurassic time, when further faulting and dolerite intrusion occurred. Stable platform conditions with mixed marine and continental sedimentation continued through Early Cretaceous and through Paleocene time, after which the Western Spitsbergen orogeny resulted from the northward movement of Greenland. The Spitsbergen fracture zone involving dextral strike slip made possible the opening of the North Atlantic-Arctic ocean. The "mid"-oceanic ridge, site of seismic and volcanic activity, approached the Spitsbergen edge of the Barents Shelf, and the underlying hotter mantle is believed to have caused the later Cenozoic uplift of Spitsbergen, without which the mountains of Spitsbergen could not have been dissected. Broad conclusions are discussed with reference to the North Atlantic region, and it is suggested that the whole history of Spitsbergen is part of a North Atlantic tectonic cycle.