history of Switzerland

Switzerland’s history is one of a medieval defensive league formed during a time and in an area lacking imperial authority. The different cantons (traditionally called Orte in German) were to a large extent independent states that remained united through the shared defense of…

…the Belgian provinces, Savoy, and Switzerland and the trade relations between Britain and the French-controlled European continent. Notwithstanding military reverses overseas, France and its allies recovered most of their colonies, though Britain retained Trinidad (taken from Spain) and Ceylon (taken from the Dutch). France recognized the Republic of the Seven…

…the political capital of the Swiss Confederation in 1848.

…the member states of the Swiss Confederation was averted. When the five rural cantons of the federation—Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug, and Glarus—concluded a treaty of common citizenship between themselves and the bishopric of Constance (1477), the three other, urban cantons—Luzern, Bern, and Zürich—retorted by concluding a similar treaty for themselves…

…a long series of accessions, Switzerland grew to statehood. The league was concluded by the representatives of three districts, Uri, Schwyz, and Nidwalden, for self-defense against all who might attack or trouble them. The league’s formation was prompted by the death (July 15, 1291) of Rudolf I of Habsburg, who…

Admitted into the Swiss Confederation in 1815, Genève was increased in 1815–16 by adding to the old territory belonging to the city 16 communes (to the south and east) ceded by Savoy and 6 communes (to the north) from the French district of Gex. The population, about one-third…

… constituting the greater part of Switzerland, founded on March 29, 1798, after the country had been conquered by Revolutionary France. The new republic excluded both Geneva, which was annexed to France (April 1798), and the three provinces of Valtellina, Chiavenna, and Bormio, which went to the Italian Cisalpine Republic. In…

…reality from 1315 onward (see Switzerland: Expansion and Position of Power), were finally renounced in 1474; and Frederick’s control over the Austrian inheritance itself was long precarious, not only because of aggression from Hungary but also because of dissension between him and his Habsburg kinsmen. Yet Frederick, one of whose…

Further, in May 1512, 20,000 Swiss troops entered Italy on the papal side, and the French army was recalled to repel invasions of Navarre (Navarra) by the Spanish and of Normandy and Guyenne by the English. Francis I (ruled 1515–47), who succeeded his cousin and father-in-law, Louis XII, reopened hostilities…

It was admitted to the Swiss Confederation in 1815 as the 21st canton and the only nonrepublican member, its hereditary rulers the last to maintain their position in Switzerland. A republican form of government was established by a peaceful revolution in 1848, and after long negotiations and several attempts at…

…legal system in all the Swiss cantons, particularly highlighting two features: safety on the highways for traders and nonintervention by foreign priests. Bruno Brun, a provost wanting to escape punishment, was the catalyst for an amendment in the Zürich constitution, which ruled against the foreign clergy exercising jurisdiction while in…

… (1484–1531), the great figure in Swiss Protestantism before Calvin, was more committed to military action than Müntzer and died in battle. He became a reformer independently of Luther, with whom he agreed concerning justification by faith and predestination, but with whom he disagreed concerning the rite of communion. The Lord’s…

…in the Reformation in 16th-century Switzerland. Reformed is the term identifying churches regarded as essentially Calvinistic in doctrine. The term presbyterian designates a collegial type of church government by pastors and by lay leaders called elders, or presbyters, from the New Testament term presbyteroi. Presbyters govern through a series of…

…when it was revealed that Swiss banks had laundered Nazi gold (much of it likely confiscated from Jews) during World War II and had failed to return money to Jewish depositors after the war, international criticism and demands for restitution provoked increased antisemitism in Switzerland. In postcommunist Russia, political opposition…

The Swiss government and its bankers had to confront their role as bankers to the Nazis and in recycling gold and valuables taken from the victims. Under the leadership of German Prime Minister Gerhard Schröder, German corporations and the German government established a fund to compensate…

…1845, by the seven Catholic Swiss cantons (Luzern, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug, Fribourg, and Valais) to oppose anti-Catholic measures by Protestant liberal cantons. The term Sonderbund also refers to the civil war that resulted from this conflict.

Swiss history, a long territorial dispute that gave rise to the Old Zürich War (1436–50) and the Second Villmergen War (1712). In the Middle Ages the counts of Toggenburg, as vassals of the German kings or Holy Roman emperors, held extensive possessions in what is…

…of the Netherlands and the Swiss Confederation as independent republics, thus formally recognizing a status which those two states had actually held for many decades. Apart from these territorial changes, a universal and unconditional amnesty to all those who had been deprived of their possessions was declared, and it was…

…most important reformer in the Swiss Protestant Reformation. He founded the Swiss Reformed Church and was an important figure in the broader Reformed tradition. Like Martin Luther, he accepted the supreme authority of the Scriptures, but he applied it more rigorously and comprehensively to all doctrines and practices.