How was Switzerland Formed? -The History of Switzerland

Today, Switzerland is known for its chocolate  and neutrality. Wedged between Italy, France, Germany, and Austria, the humble, non-belligerent  nation and base for the founding of the Red Cross has scarcely made a bad name for itself in  the recent history books. When we think of Switzerland, we don’t really think of  violence or political turmoil - but that’s because we also don’t really think  about how Switzerland became Switzerland… Today, the nation known by the name Switzerland in English

is actually officially  known as the Swiss Confederation. With 4 official languages and 41,285 square miles  of land filled with roughly 8.6 million people, when you start to pay attention, you may start  to wonder - how did this nation begin? Well, the formation of the Swiss Confederation  seems to have happened in a few stages. Back in the BC era, modern-day Switzerland was  occupied by Helvetic Celts and would later be taken under the crown of the Roman Empire. From  there, the region passed

between Germanic tribes, Charlemagne, and eventually the Holy Roman Empire. It was during this time that we see the  first phase of the Swiss Confederation starting on the path that turned  it into Switzerland as we know it… First came the Old Swiss Confederacy.  In 1291, 3 Swiss cantons from within the Holy Roman Empire decided to form an  alliance amongst each other in response to the destabilized environment around them.  These cantons, Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, agreed through a federal c

harter to jointly  manage common interests, including defense and economy. While this wasn’t the first  time that such an agreement had been made, it is still marked by many historians and the  Swiss state as the start of the modern nation’s journey. This early confederacy would also grow  fairly quickly, and by the 15th century, the 3 original members had welcomed in the city-states  of Lucerne, Zurich, and Bern, in addition to the cantons of Glarus and Zug. This successful  expansion was not p

raised by all though, and the Austrians, in particular, became agitated by it.  Military conflicts between members of the Swiss Confederacy and Austria began to break out off and  on throughout the latter half of the 14th century. This clash was a result of the ongoing strife  between the Old Swiss Confederacy and the Duchy of Austria under the command of Leopold III and  resulted in a remarkable Swiss triumph. Another victory came in 1388 when the Swiss and Austrians  collided again, this time

at the Battle of Nafels, and an even bigger turning point came for  the Swiss in 1499 with the Swabian War. The Swabian War occurred between the Habsburgs  of Austria and their Swabian League allies, against the Swiss Confederacy with their friends  from the Three Leagues of the Grisons. As before, the root of the conflict was a territorial dispute  over other neighboring lands as the Swiss were continuing their expansion at the expense of  Austria’s own ambitions. The war lasted from January th

rough September of the same year and  resulted in a peace treaty that greatly favored the Swiss and essentially granted the confederacy  de facto independence from the Holy Roman Empire. Still, the Swiss cantons remained an official  part of the HRE for a bit longer, however, their expansion did not end by any means. For  example, in 1501, two more cantons - Basel and Schaffhausen - joined the confederacy,  although this would be the last of such growth for a period as the events to come in  151

5 and after would humble the Swiss greatly… In September of 1515, the Battle of Marignano  between the Old Swiss Confederacy pitted against France and Venice proved that the so-far  invincibility shown by the Swiss was not quite as bullet-proof as they had hoped.  Nonetheless, despite the crushing defeat, the confederacy stood strong and moved on to  the next obstacle: the Protestant Reformation. The Swiss Confederacy was directly affected  by the Reformation and subsequently became greatly divi

ded. Between the influence from Luther  over in Germany, to that of Zwingli and Calvin, the Swiss were overwhelmed by Protestanism and  many began to follow the movement and align with its beliefs. This caused a rift between  those newly Protestant Swiss and the remaining Catholics within the confederation, and a period  known as the Wars of Kappel and later the Wars of Villmergen came as a consequence. Despite the  internal conflict though, the overall shared interests of the confederacy member

s proved to  be of high importance and managed to hold the alliance together. As a result, by the mid  17th century with the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia, the Swiss Confederacy was able to  gain full independence from the Holy Roman Empire. Though freedom was sweet, it was short-lived  for the Swiss. In the late 18th century, Napoleon led his troops into the Swiss  cantons for a successful annexation that resulted in the establishment of a centralized  government and a single state under

the French. It took almost two decades for this to be  undone with the Congress of Vienna in 1815, but this finally re-established the original  confederacy. Additionally, this agreement re-confirmed the former neutrality that the Swiss  Confederacy had established back with the Treaty of Westphalia and allowed the admission of Valais,  Neuchatel, and Geneva into the confederacy. This victory quickly led to another major step  toward the establishment of today’s Switzerland… After freeing itself

from the grasp of France, the Swiss Confederacy faced a new string  of internal conflict as the Catholics hoped to maintain the structures of old while the  Protestants wanted to create a more unified federal state instead, amongst other civil  and religious disputes between the sides. Ultimately, the Protestants won the day,  and it was decided that Switzerland would become a more unified, federal state  with a new official constitution in 1848. Later revisions were made to the  constitution i

n 1874 and once more in 1891, with some slight amendments also made in 1999.  Thanks to this constitution and its amendments, referendum democracy and autonomy for the included  cantons became the new pillars of Switzerland’s structure, and much of the constitution was  modeled after that of the United States… Some interesting inclusions in the  new constitution were, for example, one clause that allows the entire constitution to  be rewritten if that was found to be necessary. Another put an en

d to Swiss troops serving abroad  outside of the Holy See and under Francis II of the Two Sicilies. Furthermore, the 1891 update  put a strong emphasis on direct democracy, and for the most part, finalized its contents. During the 20th century, Switzerland continued to shape itself as a unified nation and a  strong European political entity. Nonetheless, it opted to stay out of both world wars and  eventually joined the Council of Europe in 1963 and became a full member of the United Nations 

in 2002. While attempts to join the European Union ultimately resulted in a culmination of  failure and withdrawal of effort, Switzerland still maintains close ties with its surrounding EU  neighbors and did vote to join the Schengen Area. So, today, the Swiss Confederation - or  Switzerland - is a unified nation of roughly 64% Swiss German speakers, 22% French speakers,  8% Italian speakers, and the remaining Romansch speakers, with its constitution dating back to  1848 while many argue that t

he true date of the nation’s origin can be traced all the way back  to 1291. The question of how Switzerland came to be formed can be answered in a few ways. One  being the simple timeline of how it happened. The formation of the Old Swiss  Confederation, the expansion period, freedom from the Holy Roman Empire,  the centralization under Napoleon, the re-establishment of the original  confederation with the Congress of Vienna, the civil war, and finally the establishment of  the modern confedera

tion and its constitution. This, of course, fails to address the  rest of the how, or maybe, the why… For a while, there was no desire for Switzerland  to become any type of unified nation and the rulers of the cantons were satisfied with the  structure of the old confederacy. At that point in time, the higher priority was gaining more  autonomy from the Holy Roman Empire and later France. Still, the first inklings of such changes  may have begun with the Protestant Reformation back in the 16th

century. Without a doubt though,  the division that this created proved to be a root cause in the eventually push by the Protestants  for a unified state amongst other changes. The war between the traditional Catholics and the liberal  Protestants only showed the people even more that unity was necessary and a federal government  would be beneficial in healing the divide.