 During its existence the confederacy was known as or ("oath fellowship"), in reference to treaties among cantons; this term was first used in the 1370 .Territories of the confederacy came to be known collectively as "Schweiz" or "Schweizerland" ("Schwytzerland" in contemporary spelling), with the English "Switzerland" beginning during the mid-16th century.From that time the Confederacy was seen as a single state, also known as the Swiss Republic (, and by Josias Simmler in 1576) after the fashion of calling individual urban cantons republics (such as the Republics of Zürich, Berne and Basel).