Switzerlandofficially Swiss Confederation, French Suisse or Confédération Suisse, German Schweiz or Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft, Italian Svizzera or Confederazione Svizzera or Confederazione Elvetica, Romansch Svizzra or Confederaziun Helveticafederated country of central Europe, bordered to the west by France, to the north by Germany, to the east by Austria and Liechtenstein, and to the south by Italy. Switzerland extends about 135 miles (220 km) from north to south and 220 miles (350 km) at its widest extent from west to east. Its small area of 15,940 square miles (41,284 square km)—about half the size . Switzerland’s administrative capital is Bern, while Lausanne serves as its judicial centre. Switzerland’s small size—its total area is about half that of Scotland—and its modest population give little indication of its international significance. The nation’s geographically destined role as guardian of Europe’s natural trans-Alpine routes has been both a reason for and a basic tenet of its existence—a role expressed in its traditional neutrality in time of war.

Landlocked amid the mountains of central Europe, Switzerland comprises three major linguistic regions: German throughout much of the northern, central, and eastern portions, French to the west, and Italian in the south. The canton of Valais has both French and German speakers. There also is one minor linguistic group, Romansh, in the canton of Graubünden. Because of historical events, many of Switzerland’s people are either Roman Catholic or Protestant, but, except for the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, which is Roman Catholic, language and religion do not coincide. Despite cultural differences, a history that often pitted one region against another, and a divisive landscape that includes the Jura Mountains in the north and the rugged Alps to the south, Switzerland today is united and has achieved a per capita income that is among the highest in the industrialized world.

Switzerland is a federal republic of 26 cantons, 6 of which (Appenzell Ausser-Rhoden, Appenzell Inner-Rhoden, Basel-Landschaft, Basel-Stadt, Nidwalden, and Obwalden) are traditionally referred to as demi-cantons but function as full cantons. The only canton to be added after 1815 was Jura in 1979. The capital is Bern.

Switzerland is the nexus of the diverse physical and cultural geography of western Europe. Two-thirds of the frontier corresponds to the natural contours of mountain ridges and crests or is formed by lakes and rivers. Except for minor adjustments, Swiss borders have remained stable since their establishment at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, a stability from which the economy has benefited.

The country’s neutrality was sanctioned by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 and reinforced in 1815 in Vienna, in 1919 at Versailles, and in 1920, when the Council of the League of Nations acknowledged it as “conditioned by a centuries-old tradition explicitly incorporated in international law.” The tradition was upheld even while World War II raged around Switzerland’s frontiers during 1939–45, when the country was the only democracy in central Europe to escape Hitler’s legions.

Switzerland’s continued existence is related not only to the exigencies of geography but also to the will of its inhabitants. With almost one-fourth of its area comprising high Alps, lakes, and barren rock and with no seaboard and few natural resources other than waterpower, the country has managed to impose unity on people of diverse races, religions, and languages. For more than 700 years it has maintained the world’s oldest and one of Europe’s most effective democracies, achieving an exceptionally high standard of living, although in the process social and environmental problems have not been eliminated. The nation has become a major global financial centre and headquarters of many international institutions, including the International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva and the Universal Postal Union in Bern. Although the European headquarters of the United Nations (UN) has long occupied the old League of Nations building in Geneva, Switzerland’s voters continued to resist entry into the UN until 2002.

The land











Relief and drainage


The Jura (Celtic: “Forest”), a rolling mountain range in the northwest, occupies about 12 percent one-eighth of the country. The region was formed under the extended impact of the general Alpine folding, which created the folded Jura that abut abuts the Mittelland and the tabular plateau Jura that form forms the northern edge of the range. Jurassic limestone and marl with rich fossil content are the characteristic rocks that dip below the Mittelland and appear again in the pre-Alps. The limestone has been eroded in typical karst fashion; thus , with sinkholes, caves, and underground drainage are common. The ridges, covered with meadows and only sparsely forested, receive greater amounts of more precipitation than do the valleys, the slopes of which are wooded. Between Saint-Imier Valley (Vallon St. Imier) and the Doubs, a river that forms part of the border with France, the Jura have has been reduced by denudation to form an undulating plateau that extends into France. Known as the Franches - Montagnes (French: “Free Mountains”), a name acquired in 1384 when the bishop of Basel freed the inhabitants from taxation to encourage settlement of the remote area, this tableland is characterized by mixed agriculture and dairying. The highest point in the Jura, Monte Tendre, at about 5,500 feet (1,700 metres), is well below the Alps, and they were ; indeed, the Jura was not a significant barrier to surface movement even before modern railroads and highways were constructed. Entrenched transverse valleys known as cluses have been eroded across the Jura ridges, providing relatively easy routes for transportation. The climate of the Jura, which has abundant precipitation, is the most continental of Switzerland, with abundant precipitation; cross-country skiing is popular during the long winters. Switzerland’s watchmaking industry had its beginning in these mountains.

The Alps were built of large complexes of massed overthrusts of extremely varied sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks that were shaped by glaciation. The canton of Valais contains many striking Alpine peaks, including the Dufourspitze on the Monte Rosa massif, at 15,203 feet (4,634 metres) the highest point in Switzerland; the Weisshorn (14,780 feet [4,405 metres]), overlooking the valley called the Mattertal; the Dom (14,912 feet ; see photograph[4,545 metres]), above the village of Saas Fee; and the ice-sculpted Matterhorn (14,691 feet [4,478 metres]), long a symbol for of Switzerland. The northern and southern Swiss Alps are separated by the trough formed by the Rhône and upper Rhine valleys, the narrowest portion being the Urseren Valleyvalley, which lies between two crystalline central massifs, the Gotthard and the Aare.


The country’s geographically destined role as guardian of Europe’s natural trans-Alpine routes has been both a reason for and a basic tenet of its existence—a role expressed in its traditional neutrality in times of war. In the central Alpine region lies the St. Saint Gotthard route, the first and shortest north-south passage through the mountains and an important European linkage; it was opened in the early 13th century with the construction of a bridge in the Schöllenen Gorge, which traverses the northern chain, while the southern range is crossed by the St. Saint Gotthard Pass at an elevation of 6,916 feet (2,108 metres). The 9.3-mile (1514-km) St. Saint Gotthard rail tunnel through the pass was opened in 1882; a twin 10.5-mile (17-km) road tunnel was opened in 1980. Despite the tunnels, increasing rail and highway traffic often results in long delays through the mountains. For example, on weekends during the peak summer tourist season, cars and trucks are often backed up more than 30 milessome 10 to 15 miles (16 to 25 km).

Between the Jura and the main Alpine ranges lies the hilly Mittelland, accounting for some 23 percent nearly one-fourth of the country and enclosed by the two mountain ranges and the two largest lakes, Lake Geneva (Lac Léman) in the west and Lake Constance (Bodensee) in the east. The fertile rolling land of the Mittelland is the agricultural heartland of the country and is where the majority of Swiss settlements, population, and industry are situated. Furthermore, vital east-west highway and rail routes bind the urban areas. As a result, the Mittelland has become is highly urbanized. Large , with large chunks of land have been sterilized by shopping centres, housing estates, motorways, oil-storage tanks, container depots, warehouses, automobile distribution centres, and industrial complexes.





Wind systems



Since rainfall tends to increase in direct proportion to altitude, the precipitation map corresponds very closely to the relief map; andprecipitation varies according to relief. Thus, because of the marked variation in reliefsrelief that characterizes Switzerland, differences in precipitation within short linear distances are often very great. For example, Sankt Gallen (St. Gall (Sankt Gallen), at 2,556 feet (779 metres), has an average annual precipitation of 52 about 50 inches (1,318 300 mm), while that of the precipitation at Säntis, at an elevation of 8,202 feet (2,500 metres) but only some 12 miles (20 km) away, is 114 inchesmore than 110 inches (2,800 mm). The average annual precipitation of three-quarters fourths of the country exceeds 40 inches (1,000 mm), varying amounts of which fall as snow. In Lugano (at 896 feet [273 metres]), which is located in the canton of Ticino in the southeast and has a modified Mediterranean climate, only 5 percent of the little precipitation is in the form of snow; in Zürich (at 1,824 feet ) 11 percent [556 metres]) about one-tenth is snow; and on the Säntis 72 percent nearly three-fourths is snow. At altitudes elevations above 11,500 feet (3,500 metres), all precipitation is in the form of snow, which is compacted compacts into perpetual snowfields and glaciers; the snow line is at about 9,200 feet (2,800 metres) in the northern Alps and at about 10,800 feet (3,300 metres) in the southern Alps of the Valais.

Dry areas

In There are distinct dry pockets in the mountains of the interior, distinct dry pockets occur, the Switzerland’s interior. The best-known being dry area is the Rhône valley in the Valais, which is closely encircled by the highest (13,000 feet [4,000 metres]) mountain groups. Though Although precipitation is slight on the slopes near the cantonal capital of Sion (at 1,581 feet [482 metres]), extensive irrigation is possible, since the valley is surrounded by large snowfields and by glaciers that extend down the upper valleys. The rarefied and dry though increasingly somewhat polluted air of such high-altitude towns as Davos (5,216 feet [1,590 metres]) and Arosa (5,987 feet [1,825 metres]) permits a more intense, broader-spectrum solar irradiation , and thus producing produces a climate famous in the past for tuberculosis cures. Today the climate is a factor in attracting attracts skiers as well as tourists seeking an escape from the polluted air of lowland Europe. At altitudes elevations of 13,000 feet (4,000 metres), precipitation levels rise to some 160 inches (4,000 mm), and the Mönch (13,448 feet [4,099 metres]) in the Jungfrau group of mountains has the highest average annual precipitation in Switzerland, 163 inches (4,140 mm), while Stalden in the entrenched Vispa valley, 4 miles (6 km) south of the main Rhône valley, has the minimumlowest, 21 inches (533 mm).

Skies and temperatures

The stable high-pressure weather conditions prevailing over central Europe and the Alps during the autumn and winter create cold air masses that result in lowland fog, a climatic phenomenon with widely varying consequences. The mouths of the northern Alpine valleys, the basins of the Jura Mountains, and the villages and cities of the low areas of the Mittelland are blanketed for days and often for weeks on end, while towns located at higher altitudes enjoy warm, brilliant, high-pressure conditions and the view of the glistening sea of fog below them. Temperature inversions between mountain and valley locations in close proximity can be quite pronounced, with higher elevations having higher temperature readings. Frequent temperature inversion is a primary reason why has made Switzerland’s high-altitude Swiss resorts are healthful places even during the winter and why, in the present century, the has helped the Alpine winter season has gained gain popularity in Europe for sports; in addition, because of these inversions polluted air is much less common in areas of high elevation than in the lowlands. In fact, the temperature inversions that affect the Mittelland tend to trap polluted air for weeks when cyclonic activity stagnates. The result has been a dramatic increase in respiratory diseases, especially among the very young and old.


With the increase in winter tourism, the study of avalanches has developed as a branch of Alpine climatology, and during threatening weather in wintertime the research station near Davos publishes releases daily avalanche bulletins , which are also available by phone, as a warning for villagers and tourists. The Alpine cantons have about 10,000 avalanches annually, more than 8,000 with about four-fifths of them occurring in February, March, and April. For centuries, village communes have relied on forests on the mountain slopes for protection from these slides, since because a 20- to 30-year-old forest can inhibit or stop small avalanches. In addition, Villages, highways, and Alpine paths are also protected by costly artificial structures such as metal barriers, earthen walls, and concrete wedges and enclosures protect the villages, highways, and Alpine paths. The effects of acid rain have resulted in . Acid rain, however, has caused the illness and death of many trees in the mountain areas of Switzerland , posing and poses a serious threat to their ability to act as avalanche barriers to avalanches. In the mountain forests more than 40 percent , some two-fifths of the trees have been classified as damaged, sick, or dying. The prognosis for the future health of the trees, and for their ability to retard avalanches, is not positive.

Plant and animal life

The vegetation Vegetation in Switzerland is derived from that of the four European climatic regions converging that converge in Switzerland the country and has been influenced by the varied relief. It includes the beeches and oaks of the maritime west; hornbeam and larch trees in the more continental east, predominantly in the Engadin and the dry Valais; extensive spruce forests in the northern subalpine region; and chestnut groves in the south. Differences in vegetation are evident in the Alpine valleys because of exposure to the sun. The vegetation boundaries are several hundred feet higher in the south of the country—for example, in Valais—than in the north because of the southern exposure. Alpine vegetation, similar to that of Arctic tundra in the Arctic, prevails above the tree line. It is very susceptible to erosion through skiing impacts or and as a result of paths or four-wheel-drive trails being cut into the slopes.

Crop cultivation at high altitudes

The Alpine pastures of the Monte Rosa region reach an altitude of 10,800 feet, and until recently the highest Alpine grainfields, which have fallen victim to the decline in Alpine agriculture, lay above Zermatt at an altitude of 6,900 feet. The highest vineyard of central Europe, at an altitude of 3,900 feet, is still located near Visperterminen in the Valais. The largest vineyards are on the southern-exposed shore of Lake Geneva, on the sun-facing slopes of the Rhône valley, along Lakes Neuchâtel and Biel at the foot of the Jura, and in the northern Alpine valley of the Rhine, which is affected by the foehn. The Rhône valley between Martigny and Sion is noted for the irrigated cultivation of fruits, including berries, and vegetables. On the western Mittelland a considerable grain-producing area has developed on the sheltered side of the Jura Mountains, an area of scanty rainfall, while in the more humid eastern region, mainly in the cantons of Thurgau and St. Gall, fodder cultivation is combined with fruit growing. Throughout the country, but especially in the Mittelland and pre-Alps, dairying plays a significant role in the agricultural economy of the nation.

Animal lifeThe animal life of Switzerland is mainly Animal life

Switzerland’s animal life is primarily Alpine, but a mixture of species familiar to southern and north-central Europe is also found. Animal life is protected, except during a brief annual hunting season. The Alpine tourists may observe marmots, which live in the high meadows, and the chamois. Large herds of the round ibex, which had died out in the Swiss Alps and has since been reintroduced, have again developed in populate several areas, especially in the Bernina region of Graubünden (canton) and in the Saastal of Valais. In the forests there are deer, rabbits, foxes, badgers, squirrels, and many varieties of birds, including the eagleeagles, while lake and river trout may be found but are no longer as abundant as in the past. Snakes and lizards are concentrated in the south, but insects, in great variety, are diffused throughout the country.

Settlement patternsThe diversity of geomorphology, climate, and plant distribution in Switzerland provides a wide variety of sites for the formation of settlements, a variety further enhanced by the country’s central European location. Because of its distinct cultural differences, Switzerland provides varied examples for the study of the geography of settlements. For example, the traditional house types differ from one region to another, especially well-known examples being the smooth stone houses of the Engadin, the small stone buildings of Ticino, the combination house and barn of the Berner Oberland, the distinctive shingled facades in Appenzell, and the wooden villages of the valleys of Valais canton. In function, too, there are distinct variations: the German-speaking cantons and large cities, such as Bern, Zürich, and Basel, reflect government, industry, and commerce. In Swiss Romand, Geneva is the most cosmopolitan of the Swiss cities, whereas Lausanne, expanding industrially to the west and residentially among the steep vineyards to the east, represents the modern Swiss urban centre. In Ticino canton, the cities of Locarno and Lugano have attracted tourists from all over Europe because of a mild climate and their splendid locations amid mountains, deltas, and glacial lakes

To survive as a cohesive unit and to protect the neutrality that has been their safeguard, the disparate elements of the Swiss people have had to learn a mutual cooperation. Their outlook has been shaped largely by economic and political necessity, which has made the Swiss public realistic, cautious, and prudent in accepting innovation and creative in the use of their resources. Switzerland’s human resource has been effectively educated and efficiently utilized to transform what was a predominantly mountainous, rural, and landlocked country with limited natural resources into one of the most diversified and important industrial and commercial countries in the world.

Ethnic groups and languages

Most of the major cultural regions of western continental Europe—German, French, and Italian—come into contact in Switzerland. Thus, one of the country’s distinctive features is the variety of its languages. The Swiss constitution recognizes German, French, and Italian as official languages. Since 1996 Romansh (Rhaeto-Romance), a linguistic relic preserved in the mountainous regions between the Gotthard massif and the eastern Alps, has had official status at the federal level for communicating with Romansh-speaking persons (it had been designated as an official “national” language in 1938). At the beginning of the 21st century, more than three-fifths of the total population spoke German, one-fifth French, about one-twelfth Italian, and less than 1 percent Romansh. Nearly one-tenth of the population spoke a nonofficial language, with people of Croatian, Portuguese, Serbian, and Spanish descent most prevalent in this category. The country’s ethnic breakdown largely mirrors its linguistic divisions. Foreign residents make up about one-fifth of the country’s total population, and in some cantons the proportion is considerably higher. For example, in Geneva more than one-third of residents are foreigners. The foreign-born population in Switzerland increased substantially in the 1990s, when the country provided refuge to those fleeing the violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Kosovo.


Switzerland also exhibits considerable religious diversity. However, the distribution of religions does not coincide with that of languages, as the population shifts brought on by industrialization resulted in greater mixture of religions. Roman Catholics slightly outnumber Protestants, and there is a small but significant Muslim population and a tiny Jewish community. The constitution of 1874 guaranteed full religious liberty but repeated the 1848 constitution’s prohibition of settlement by Jesuits (members of the Roman Catholic Society of Jesus) and their affiliated societies. This anti-Jesuit article was repealed in a national referendum in 1973. Although religion has been pivotal in shaping the country, church attendance and religiosity have declined substantially; about two-fifths of Roman Catholics and half of Protestants attend church regularly. About one-eighth of Swiss citizens profess no religious affiliation, a figure that increased in the last decades of the 20th century.

Settlement patterns

The diversity of geomorphology, climate, and plant distribution in Switzerland provides a wide variety of settlement sites, a variety further enhanced by the country’s central European location.

Rural communities

Rural settlements predominate in the valleys. , where characteristic Alpine villages extending extend along the base of slopes are a characteristic sight. Since the creation of extensive river diversions, made undertaken chiefly during the second half of the 19th century, many villages (e.g., in the Seeland between Lakes Neuchâtel and Biel) have expanded into valley plains, where intensive farming is carried on, as in the Seeland between Lakes Neuchâtel and Bieloccurs. The isolation of portions of many valleys—such as those of the Rheinwald, Poschiavo, and Urseren—by barriers of resistant rock or by prehistoric landslides was an impetus to the formation of communes and of the early Alpine cooperatives.

The modern network of communes, small but politically important units, communes stands out in the parallel relief of the Jura and the Alps, since as the boundaries of the communes are generally laid out with their boundaries drawn from one mountain crest to the next. Every commune has all the basic living requirements, including pasture, forest, fertile valley bottom, and water. Terraced slopes characterize the sites of villages that serve as bases for “Alpine nomadism,” or transhumance, the seasonal moving of livestock to or from the mountains. The In the latter part of the 20th century, the intensity of this practice has declined considerably in recent years.

Some villages, such as Guarda in the lower Engadin and Grimentz in the Val d’Anniviers of Valais, have a reputation are renowned for their picturesque beauty, while and others, such as Crans-Montana on the slopes above the Rhône valley in Valais canton , and Wengen in the Berner Oberland, have developed into famous resorts. Places such as Bad Ragaz in the Rhine valley and Leukerbad in Valais canton are noted as spas. Valley forks, where the traffic from two valleys combines, were natural sites for settlement. Two of the best examples are Martigny (the Roman city of Octodurum), at the meeting of the Great St. Saint Bernard Pass route and the Rhône valley, and Chur, a city more than 5,000 years -year-old city located where the Rhine connects with passes to the interior of the canton of Graubünden. In addition, settlements are found within the Alps, settlements are found such as Amsteg on the Saint Gotthard route Pass (Uri canton), Silvaplana, where the Julier Pass meets the Inn valley (the upper Engadin), and Gordola, at the junction of the Verzasca valley (Val Verzasca) and the Ticino River plain (near Locarno). In the Mittelland, with its abundant lakes, villages sited on deltas are especially closely related to the environment; in . In recent decades, towns have expanded toward each other and merged, creating population belts all along the lakes. Unfortunately, uncontrolled Uncontrolled property speculation has permitted many characteristic, substantial village settlements to spread into the surrounding areas with very little architectural or land-use planning. The goals of local environmental protection groups are clashing with large-scale financial interests, a conflict that has become a matter of grave concern throughout Switzerland.

Urban Switzerland

Owing to this sprawl, in 1979 the federal government introduced a law on spatial planning that attempted to control and structure the development of settlements.

Urban settlements

Some cities in Switzerland originally developed around monasteries , as did St. Gall, (e.g., Sankt Gallen) or around Roman settlements , as in the case of (e.g., Zürich and Lausanne). Within the Alps of Vaud, Vevey and Montreux were sited on small deltas jutting into Lake Geneva that provided flat land near the mountainous north shore; in the Alps of Ticino, Locarno and Ascona developed on the delta of the Maggia River. Many settlements evolved from their distinct sites. For example, Fribourg (founded in 1157) and Bern (1191) were founded established at strategic river crossings. Fribourg was sited on a loop of the entrenched Sarine River where a key trade route crossed the river; Bern was located on the easily defended great bend of the Aare. Both developed distinctive central cores with their unified urban architecture. Each Swiss city in Switzerland is geographically unique, particularly those lying at the head of a lake, such as Zürich, Geneva, and Lucerne (Luzern), which were essentially harbour towns until the opening of the railroads. Today , all three benefit from the summer lake steamers that transport large numbers of tourists. Their situations, Situated where, respectively, the Limmat, Rhône, and Reuss rivers drain the lakes, as well as local glacial topography and against backdrops of nearby sculpted Alpine peaks, interface with the cities’ buildings and Zurich, Geneva, and Lucerne combine local glacial topography with urban structures, including architecturally significant cathedrals, to form a composite landscape of nature and culture. Hill towns such as Regensberg and Gruyères, which were medieval fortified settlements with castles and distinctive late Gothic architecture, have a natural dominance of over the local region that was significant at the time of their origin. Today , both survive largely because of the tourists that are attracted to their relatively unspoiled appearances.

In Switzerland, isolated from the rest of Europe by mountainous barriers, location in relation to the traffic pattern patterns has played an important role in urban development. The keys to a series of mountain passes are the towns of Chur (to the passes of San Bernardino, Julier, and Albula), Martigny (Great St. Saint Bernard), and Bellinzona (St. Saint Gotthard). Lugano was sited on a small delta south of which the Gotthard route crossed Lake Lugano on a glacial causeway. Basel’s location, first as at a bridge crossing the Rhine and then at the head of modern Rhine navigation, has been of particular significance, since this was the basis of its early prominence as a city of scholars and bankers and of its present international importance as an industrial and transportation node. A number of Swiss cities enhance their function by tourismcities are also important tourist destinations. Interlaken, on a delta that separates Thun and Brienz lakes, is the best-known example. Others are include Geneva, Lucerne, Zürich, and Bern. In the mountains, St. Saint Moritz (Sankt Moritz), Zermatt, and Davos, all with vast areas of ski slopes and scores of lifts, are the most significant resorts. Switzerland’s largest cities are Zürich, Basel, Geneva, Bern, Lausanne, Winterthur, St. GallSankt Gallen, and Lucerne.


A number of environmental problems must be addressed if Switzerland is to maintain the integrity of its unique landscape. Air pollution in the cities and the mountain valleys, depending on atmospheric conditions, has steadily worsened despite federal legislation. All Swiss vehicles must pass an annual emissions test; however, weak links are the millions of foreign vehicles that pass through the country annually whose exhaust systems are not controlled and the fact that in the mountains thousands of fires are set by cultivators to burn rubbish. In addition, Switzerland is affected by pollution from other European countries and was hard hit, especially in the south, by the radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl accident. Because of the nature of the geography and the fact that temperature inversions are common, air pollution is a serious problem. In such a small country noise pollution from traffic and aircraft is a concern both in the cities and in the countryside. Sound barriers are found at strategic locations along the nation’s highways; however, the noise from jet aircraft, civilian as well as military, can be considerable.

Water pollution remains a problem despite attempts at regulation. In principle, water pollution should be mastered by strict government laws that require all towns and cities to have adequate sewage treatment plants; however, certain chemicals from fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides from both domestic and farm use find their way into the lakes, resulting in eutrophication. Detergents with phosphate have been banned; however, runoff from vineyards and overuse of animal wastes on the soil keep the levels high. Furthermore, many mountain valleys that cater to tourists do not treat organic wastes, which pass directly into the tributary streams of major rivers such as the Rhine and Rhône.

Attempts are being made to control pollution on land. Mountain communities have been strained by garbage overload from tourists. Organic garbage is trucked down the valleys to incinerators (this can create serious air pollution in the lower valleys); however, solid waste is still being dumped indiscriminately along rivers and over precipices.

Moreover, because of the development of ski areas, quarrying for rock and gravel, and the cutting of new roads and trails, erosion in the high mountains is evident in a number of cantons. In many resorts the natural attributes that have attracted tourists from all over the world are being steadily degraded.

The people

Etruscans, Rhaetians, Celts, Romans, and Germanic peoples have left their imprint on Switzerland in the course of its historical evolution. The present population shows traces mainly of the Alpine, “Nordic,” and southern Slav or Dinaric peoples. To survive as a cohesive unit, the disparate elements of the Swiss people have had to learn a mutual cooperation to protect the neutrality that has been their safeguard. Their outlook has been shaped largely by economic and political necessity, which has made them realistic, cautious, and prudent in accepting innovation and creative in the use of what resources they have. Switzerland’s human resource has been effectively educated and efficiently utilized to transform what was a predominantly mountainous, rural, and landlocked country with limited natural resources into one of the most diversified and important industrial and commercial nations in the world.

Switzerland encompasses the area in which the major cultural regions of western continental Europe—German, French, and Italian—come into contact. Thus, one of the distinctive features of the Swiss Confederation is the variety of its languages. In the early 1990s 65 percent of the total population spoke German, 18 percent French, about 10 percent Italian, and about 1 percent Romansh (Rhaeto-Romanic). The latter is a linguistic relic preserved in the mountainous regions between the Gotthard massif and the eastern Alps; it is subdivided into even smaller dialect regions. In 1938 a federal popular vote formally recognized Romansh as a fourth national, and a referendum in 1996 gave it semiofficial status as a federal, language.

Switzerland also exhibits diversity in the area of religion; however, the distribution of religions does not coincide with that of languages. The great internal population shift caused by industrialization has also resulted in a greater mixture of the religions. The Swiss are divided almost equally into Protestants and Roman Catholics, with a tiny Jewish community. The constitution of 1874 guaranteed full religious liberty but repeated the 1848 constitution’s prohibition of settlement by Jesuits (members of the Roman Catholic Society of Jesus) and their affiliated societies in Switzerland. This anti-Jesuit article was repealed in a national referendum in 1973.

The economySwiss
Demographic trends

Since the beginning of the 20th century, the population of Switzerland has more than doubled, from about 3.3 million in 1900 to slightly more than 7 million at the turn of the 20th century. Growth was largest in the post-World War II period, when relatively high birth rates coincided with a period of high economic growth and immigration. Switzerland experienced significant immigration throughout the 20th century. While about one in eight Swiss residents were foreigners in 1900, this figure dropped to about 5 percent during World War II; since the 1950s, it has increased steadily, and, at the turn of the 21st century, about one in five people were foreigners.

Largely as a result of Switzerland’s relatively low birth rate (about half the world average), the country’s population grew only slightly during the last decades of the 20th century. Excellent medical coverage and a high standard of living have combined to give the Swiss among the highest average life expectancies in the world. Moreover, as in many industrialized countries, Switzerland’s population has grown increasingly older. For example, the proportion of the population under age 20 fell from about two-fifths at the beginning of the 20th century to slightly more than one-fifth at the beginning of the 21st century. In contrast, the percentage of the population over age 65 grew from about 6 percent to more than 15 percent in the same period, and it is anticipated that a growing elderly population will put severe strains on the country’s medical care system.


Switzerland’s economic development has been affected by specific physical and cultural geographic factors. In the first instance, there was a paucity of the country has few raw materials; precipitation and soil quality to a large extent determined largely determine the type and size of cultivation; urban and industrial expansion encroached encroach on the limited amount of cultivable land; a the commerce and transport sectors have benefited from Switzerland’s central location , situated on along international trade routes, boosted commerce and transportation; and finally, a landscape of ; and tourism has been boosted by the landscape’s exceptional scenic beauty, including glacial peaks and Alpine lakes, sparked the growth of tourism. In the second instance, the inability of the country’s small domestic market to absorb the total output of a skilled and efficient population forced Switzerland to seek world markets. Thus, by importing raw materials and converting them into high-quality, high-value-added finished products for export, by pursuing aggressive commercial policies, and by developing a highly organized and efficient transportation system and tourist industry, the country has kept and establishing a free-market orientation, Switzerland generally has been able to keep unemployment low and inflation generally under control and has achieved one of among the world’s highest standards of living and per capita incomes in the world.These factors .

The various physical and cultural factors also have given rise to the development of service industries such as shipping, freight forwarding, banking, insurance, and tourism, as well as to exports such as chemicals, machines, precision instruments, and processed foods. Industry has also been boosted in wartime because of Swiss neutrality. Industrial The Swiss economy is characterized by industrial diversity and a lack of large firms are characteristic of Swiss industry. However, a number of Swiss enterprises—such as the food giant Nestlé and , in chemicals and biotechnology, Ciba-Geigy and the pharmaceutical firm Novartis—have worldwide enterprises that employ far more people abroad than in Switzerland and account for at least 90 percent of all sales from foreign markets. A significant characteristic of the Swiss economy is the number of foreign labourers, about a quarter sell most of their products in foreign markets. Foreign labourers constitute about one-fourth of the economically active population in Switzerland, and without whom their presence many sectors of the Swiss economy (e.g., especially hotels, restaurants, and tourism, ) would grind to a halt. Nonetheless, social tensions sometimes have been evident, particularly where foreigners were perceived to have threatened the Swiss way of life and to have displaced Swiss workers.

The long-standing tradition of direct democracy (more than half of the world’s national referenda have been held in the country) and federalism in Switzerland and the country’s heavy dependence on foreign trade have given rise to an equally traditional dislike of state intervention and to strong and constant support for worldwide free trade. Apart from the Thus, with the exception of the post office, most utilities and important services are privately owned or municipal enterprises, in some cases subsidized by cantonal governments. Even the hydroelectric plants are owned by private companies under federal or cantonal grants. The Formerly federally owned and operated, the telephone network and Swiss Federal Railways the railways were privatized in the late 1990s.

The federal government collects customs duties, value-added taxes, and an income tax. The cantons levy separate income taxes, and rates are fixed by decision of the voters of communal or cantonal parliaments.

Employer-employee relations have generally been good. The Swiss Federation of Trade Unions has Social Democratic tendencies. Since the Great Depression of the early 1930s, the unions have increasingly denounced the use of strikes as economic and political weapons, and disputes are usually settled by arbitration.

Although the Swiss have tended to reject state intervention in their free-market economy, since World War II such intervention has been unavoidable, particularly in relation to the labour market. In the late 20th century many workers in the industrial and low-wage service sectors were foreigners. Social tensions became evident, particularly where foreigners were perceived to have threatened the Swiss way of life and to have displaced the Swiss workers. In reality, foreign labourers were essential to the functioning of the Swiss economy. Nevertheless, the government was forced to restrict the inflow.

Just as centralized bureaucracy was traditionally distrusted at home, so in relation to European integration the Swiss, though they acquired the Swiss also have been apprehensive about economic integration with Europe. Although Switzerland negotiated a special arrangement in 1972 with the European Community (EC; now part of the European Union [EU]), have preferred to remain in EFTA. However, because of the planned removal by 1993 it has remained outside the EU, preferring instead membership in the more limited European Free Trade Association (EFTA). In reaction to the planned removal in the early 1990s of all barriers to the movement of people, goods, and services in the ECEU, EFTA had negotiated a common trade bloc with the EC, the EU the creation of a new trade bloc—the European Economic Area (EEA). In a historic referendum in 1992, however, the Swiss voters narrowly rejected membership in the EEA. Consequently, Switzerland negotiated separate bilateral treaties with the EU that covered the most important topics of the EEA treaty. This package of bilateral treaties was completed in 1999 and confirmed in a referendum in 2000.

The Principality of Liechtenstein (62 square miles) uses Swiss currency, has a customs union with Switzerland, and is represented abroad by the Swiss government, but it is in its own right a member of both EFTA and the EEA.

Agriculture and forestryOf the territory that makes up Switzerland, only three-fourths is productive. About one-fourth of that productive land is devoted to agricultural cultivation



Agriculture and forestry

About one-third of Switzerland’s land is devoted to agricultural production (grains, fodder, vegetables, fruits, and vineyards, etc.) , and one-fifth is pasture, reflecting the significance of stock raising and dairying. Grain cultivation, accounting for about one-sixth of productive land, satisfies nearly four-fifths of domestic demand. and pasture. Some of the pastureland is used exclusively for mountain pasture, including the Monte Rosa region. The variation in soil quality within small areas in Switzerland, produced by geologic conditions and by the relief, makes large-scale , single-crop farming difficult; instead, a particularly varied assortment of crops is are grown in a limited space. About two-thirds of all farms combine grass and grain cultivation. The Valais, with its abundant sunshine and irrigation, specializes in cultivating berries and other fruits and vegetables and has the largest area of vineyards of any canton. In the southernmost canton, Ticino, and the latter satisfies nearly four-fifths of domestic demand. On the western Mittelland a considerable grain-producing area has developed on the sheltered side of the Jura Mountains, an area of scanty rainfall, while in the more humid eastern region, mainly in the cantons of Thurgau and Sankt Gallen, fodder cultivation is combined with fruit growing. Until recently the highest Alpine grainfields, which have fallen victim to the decline in Alpine agriculture, lay above Zermatt at an elevation of 6,900 feet (2,100 metres). In Ticino, the southernmost canton, a mixed Mediterranean agriculture has been attained, although it is has been endangered by the disruptions of urbanization. Viticulture characterizes slopes along many lakes, such as including Geneva, Neuchâtel, and Biel.The primary agricultural pursuit, however, is cattle raising, which yields



As a matter of national securityconsequence of Switzerland’s economic isolation in World War II, the government has subsidized agriculture heavily since World War II. In the 1990s, however, provided significant subsidies for agriculture, including direct market interventions and price guarantees gave way to , to maintain a high level of domestic production. Owing to trade-liberalization policies enacted in the 1990s, however, Switzerland has modified its agricultural support system, replacing these policies with direct payments to the farmers as compensation for services in the public interest.

Since the importance of forests for the ecology of large areas was recognized early, an exemplary forestation law forbids reduction of woodlands, which amount to almost about one-third of the total area of the country. Forests are vital for watershed functions, support wildlife, are a source of mushrooms, protect against avalanches, and function as recreational areas near cities such as Zürich as well as in the mountains. Furthermore, a small forestry industry that practices selective cutting supplements the income of owners of the land. Because of air pollution, about some one-fifth of the country’s forests have been classified as severely damaged, sick, or dying. Agriculture and forestry employ about one-twentieth of the labour force and contribute less than one-twentieth of the country’s gross domestic product.

IndustrySwitzerland’s transformation into an industrial state began during the second half of the 19th century. Today the major exports are machinery and equipment, chemicals and drugs, watches, and textiles and apparel. Lacking mineral and agricultural raw materials, Switzerland is forced to import raw materials, foodstuffs, and manufactured goods by rail, truck, and barge; raw materials, food, vegetable oils, and fuel account for about one-quarter of the total imports
Resources and power



Switzerland’s transformation into an industrial state began during the second half of the 19th century. The survival of Swiss industry is based on the following formula: Build a formula that has worked very well: build specialized products such as motors, turbines, and watches. Guarantee ; guarantee the delivery date. Offer ; offer the necessary financing through an efficient banking network. Provide ; provide effective after-sales service, whether it be for a minute part for a watch or a giant housing for a marine diesel engine. Sell ; sell the product all over the world , and thus achieving achieve economies of scale. And; and, where necessary, build local factories. The chemical-pharmaceutical industry, including the firms of Novartis, Ciba Specialty Chemicals, Clariant, and Roche Holdings (all with headquarters in Basel), is a good example of Swiss competitiveness. Like many Swiss industries, the chemical-pharmaceutical industry spends large sums of money on research and development. A number of companies firms collaborate with the country’s universities and with the Federal Institutes of Technology in Zürich and Lausanne.

Because of the single European market and world competition, a number of firms have merged; for example, the Swiss company BBC Brown, Boveri Ltd., which specializes in power generation, merged with its former competitor ASEA A.B. of Sweden. Others, especially in chemicals and elevator manufacture, have expanded by buying foreign concerns. In turn Swiss companies, such as the food manufacturer Jacobs Suchard, have been bought by foreign investorsSwitzerland’s manufacturing sector underwent major restructuring in the 1990s that included mergers, the international expansion of Swiss firms, the sale of Swiss companies to foreign firms, the closing of low-value-added types of activity, and the upgrading of technology-based activities. Despite the trend toward larger companies, Swiss industry manufacturing is still characterized by diversity. Most firms are small or medium-sized; they are located throughout the country but especially throughout in the Mittelland. In 1990 industry (including mining and quarrying, manufacturing, power, and construction) employed 34.9 percent of the labour force.

Although Switzerland lacks indigenous hydrocarbons to power its industries, high precipitation in the Alps, glaciated U-shaped valleys, the storage of glacial meltwaters behind giant dams, and the great range of altitudes provides an ideal environment for the generation of hydroelectricity. The electrical industry has become an essential branch of the Swiss economy, with nearly 45 reservoirs and a few hundred large hydroelectric power plants currently in operation; numerous low-pressure plants are situated on the lower courses of the rivers in the Mittelland. Major electrotechnical progress has occurred in the Alps, where large systems of tunnels and subterranean powerhouses have been constructed in suitable valleys. Two of the highest dams in Europe, Mauvoisin (777 feet) and Grande Dixence (see photograph; at 935 feet it has by far the largest-capacity reservoir in the country), have been erected high in the tributary valleys of the Rhône in Valais. That canton is the most important producer of hydroelectricity in Switzerland, with 30 percent of installed capacity. It is also a major consumer because of the aluminum plants that are located in the valley of the Rhône. By the late 20th century 95 percent of the hydroelectric energy worth harnessing for power plants was being utilized, and Switzerland had begun to operate thermal generating plants powered by imported oil. In addition, there are several nuclear power plants.

Trade and financeSwitzerland must export finished products in order to pay for the imports of raw materials, oil, foodstuffs, and manufactured goods. The Swiss have traditionally Trade


Traditionally Switzerland has been among the forerunners in liberalizing and facilitating international trade. The geographic distribution of the country’s trade shows dependence on western Europe and especially on the EC countries. In 1990 the EC took about 57 percent of exports, while providing some 71 percent of imports. In that year the Federal Republic of Germany was the largest market for exports and supplied the most imports, upon which its economy is heavily dependent. Most of Switzerland’s trade is with the EU, with about three-fourths of its imports coming from and three-fifths of its exports going to EU countries. Among its individual trading partners, Germany is its leading market, receiving more than one-fourth of Switzerland’s exports and providing about two-fifths of its imports. Other leading export markets include France, Italy, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Principal suppliers include France, Italy, the United States, and The Netherlands.


Switzerland’s official monetary unit is the Swiss franc, which is also used in Liechtenstein. A central location, political stability, and privacy laws have laws—the Swiss Banking Law (1934) made it a criminal offense to divulge information about clients and their accounts without consent—have been key factors in making Switzerland one of the world’s most important of the world’s financial centres, with hundreds of banks. The five largest are Union Bank of Switzerland, Swiss Bank Corporation, Crédit Swiss, Swiss Volksbank, and Bank Leu. The first three are among the largest companies in Europe . However, secrecy laws also encouraged organized-crime syndicates to establish accounts in Swiss banks, and this has prompted modification of Swiss banking laws to prevent abuse.

The banking system follows a two-tiered approach. One group (principally the larger banks) focuses primarily on private banking and possesses a strong international presence; the second group emphasizes national and regional banking and includes banks that are majority-owned by the cantons. The largest banks, United Bank of Switzerland (UBS; created in 1998 from the merger of the Union Bank of Switzerland and the Swiss Bank Corporation) and the Credit Suisse Group, are among the largest financial institutions in the world and have branches in major cities throughout the world. Features With globalization, features that were once were unique to Swiss banks have been usurped by other countries because of the increasing globalization of financebanks—discretion, reliability, and a high degree of professionalism—have been emulated by the world’s major financial institutions. In addition, the lessening of East-West tensions reduction in tensions that resulted from the end of the Cold War in the 1990s has made the safe-haven status of Switzerland afforded by Switzerland’s neutrality less relevant. Thus the competitiveness of Swiss banks must be improved, during the 1990s there was a focus on increasing the efficiency of the banking sector, which underwent consolidations and restructuring. The banking industry endured a scandal during the mid-1990s, when it was revealed that Swiss banks were still holding long-dormant accounts belonging to victims of the Holocaust during World War II. In 2000, Credit Suisse and UBS agreed to pay 2 billion Swiss francs to international Jewish organizations to be shielded from lawsuits related to such accounts. Along with banking and other financial services, there is a large industry has grown up specializing sector that specializes in insurance and reinsurance (which provides insurance for the insurance companies).


Tourism International tourist receipts amount to a considerable sum in Switzerland, but is a significant source of revenue for Switzerland, with receipts slightly outpacing expenditures by Swiss tourists abroad are also significant. Whatever surplus occurs is used to cover any deficit in the Swiss balance of payments. Primary destinations for Swiss tourists include France, Spain, Italy, and Germany. Among the principal foreign visitors to Switzerland are Germans, who account for more than one-fourth, followed by Americans, Britons, and Japanese. A significant proportion of tourism receipts also come from residents of Switzerland.

During the Middle Ages healing spas such as Baden, Bad Pfäfers, Leukerbad, and Rheinfelden flourished, while mountain-pass hospices such as those on the Great St. Saint Bernard or the Furka were the predecessors of Alpine hotels. Since World War II, travel has increased at an explosive rate: hotels, guest housesguesthouses, and vacation apartments count millions of visitors each year, as do youth hostels and campgrounds. Efforts have been made with limited success to broaden the tourist season from the peak summer and winter periods in order to reduce congestion both in the resorts and on the highways. Nearly 65 percent two-thirds of overnight stays are in the Alps and the Alpine foothills. About 80 percent of the tourists come from European countries, one-half of these being from Switzerland itself. The tourist industry as a whole employs more people than are engaged in farming and is heavily dependent on foreign workers because most Swiss do not work in this sector. All told, the tertiary sector (including services and administration) has grown considerably and in 1990 employed almost 60 percent of the labour force.



Labour and taxation




Transportation and telecommunications

Control of the most important Alpine passes and the ancient routeway route through the Mittelland between the Rhône, Rhine, and Danube waterways has given Switzerland a key position in European transit traffic. The Indeed, the main artery of European trans-Alpine traffic, the St. Saint Gotthard routePass, runs through Swiss territory.

The large-scale technical undertakings undertaking of modern highway construction were was preceded by those the building of the railway system, which has thousands of miles of track and includes hundreds of tunnels, among them the 12.35-mile (20-km) Simplon II Tunnel and the famous winding tunnels of the St. Saint Gotthard railway, by means of which altitude elevation differences between valley levels are overcome. New railway tunnels will be built under have been under construction under the Gotthard and the Lötschberg for trains carrying 53-ton (48-metric-ton) trucks, thereby ameliorating abating the movement of heavy vehicles through the Alpine road tunnels. More than 99 percent Nearly all of the track in the Swiss railway system has been electrified, thus saving the country from dependence on oil imports. The Swiss Federal Railways, which constitute more than half of the system, are operated by the federal government, while the remainderthough in 1999 they began to function as a limited company. The remainder of the railways, including the numerous mountain railways, are distributed among more than 75 scores of private railroads partially owned by the cantons and municipalities. The Vitznau-Rigi Bahn, built in 1871 as the world’s first cogwheel railway in the world, has achieved early fame. The highest cogwheel railway in the world tunnels within the Jungfrau, reaching the Jungfraujoch at more than 11,400 feet . Mainline (3,500 metres). Regular mainline trains link the main Swiss cities on an hourly or half-hourly basis. The airports of Zürich and Geneva have their own rail stations that connect with the Swiss network. The railways account for about 13 percent one-sixth of passenger traffic and 50 percent and nearly three-fifths of freight traffic.

Switzerland is a heavily motorized country with one of has among the highest numbers of automobiles per 1,000 inhabitants in Europe. Extensive use of cars results in has caused severe traffic and parking congestion. The network of main roads and motorways is packed, especially during the summer and winter tourist seasons, when hundreds of thousands of foreign automobiles pass through Switzerland daily. Three Alpine tunnels have been built: the Great St. Saint Bernard connects Valais with Valle d’Aosta in Italy, ; the 10-mile- long St. (15-km-) long Saint Gotthard links Göschenen and Airolo under the St. Saint Gotthard Pass, ; and the San Bernardino binds the cantons of Graubünden and Ticino. The dense traffic, especially in the Alpine valleys, is responsible for serious air and noise pollution.

Since World War II, Switzerland has also maintained its own small “oceangoing fleet” of merchant ships (i. In addition, the popularity of the steamers on Lake Geneva has never flagged since they were inaugurated in 1823. Regular summer services are e., Swiss-owned ships that sail on the high seas). Regular service is provided on several lakes by more than 120 100 vessels, which include a few some paddle wheelers. In addition, the steamers cruising on several lakes in the summer are very popular.

Swissair, established in 1931 as the national airline, ranks ranked among the world’s major commercial carriers , with flights serving all continentsuntil financial weakness caused it to stop flying in 2002. Much of Swissair’s extensive worldwide operations were sold off to other airlines or taken over by Crossair, a former regional unit of Swissair that was later renamed Swiss International Air Lines (generally known simply as Swiss). The main airports are in Zürich (Kloten) and Geneva (Cointrin). Bern has (Belpmoos) and Lugano (Agno) have international flights and a few domestic flights, and Mulhouse in France is used by Basel.

Administration and social conditions

The Swiss Confederation consists of some 3,000 communes, which, like the 26 cantons (including six demi-cantons, or Halbkantone, which function as full cantons), are largely autonomous; they range in size from Bagnes in Valais, with an area of 109 square miles (282 square km), to Ponte Tresa in Ticino, with an area of 0.1 square mile (0.3 square km). From the multiplicity of small communal republics stems a special quality and, paradoxically, a basis of national unity, for each citizen treasures and supports the freedom of the commune, a shared conviction that unites him or her with the rest of the population in a way that transcends differences of language and of party. It is the communes rather than the country that grant Swiss citizenship.


Government and society
Constitutional framework

Switzerland’s constitution (modeled after that of the United States) , was adopted in 1848 and substantially revised in 1874 and 1999; its 196 articles . A thoroughly revised constitution, approved by three-fifths of voters, entered into force in 2000, though the changes were mainly formal, with little alteration to the structure of Switzerland’s government. Because the old constitution had become immethodical and difficult to understand, the new constitution coherently incorporated the multitude of amendments passed in the previous 125 years. Switzerland’s constitution contains some 200 articles, which establish the rights and duties of the citizen citizens and of the governing bodies. It also created what has been termed a consociational democracy, which attempts to maintain political balance and stability, given the country’s linguistic and religious diversity.

The federal government supervises external and internal security, transportation affairs, forestry, and water conservation. It deals with also is responsible for foreign policy and customs, the postal service, the monetary system, and the military organization, as well as with and social insurance programs. It may has the authority to take steps to adjust the course of the economy and provide for uniform administration of justice in the areas of criminal and civil law. The organizational units of the federation are the people and the cantons, the Federal Assembly, the Federal Council, and the Federal Supreme Court.

Legislative power resides in the bicameral Federal Assembly, comprising the National Council, with 200 deputies elected by a system of proportional representation for four-year terms, and the Council of States, in which each canton is represented by two deputies and each demi-canton demicanton by one deputy (46 deputies in total). The administrative executive branch is headed by the Federal Council is , a seven-member collegial board, an organization of equals with a rotating presidency, with each councillor presiding . The presidency of the Federal Council rotates among the members annually, and each councillor presides over a federal department. Because of the vast amount of work that is required, both internally and because of increased international commitments, the persons holding these positions are under increasing pressure.Sovereign power The governments of other countries often have 20 or more ministers, and because of the Federal Council’s increasing workload (domestic responsibilities coupled with Switzerland’s burgeoning international commitments), there has been considerable debate about enlarging the Council or adding another level of ministers between the Federal Council and the Federal Assembly. However, Swiss voters, who would have to approve this restructuring, are fairly cautious about making such constitutional changes, especially those that might upset the very subtle balance between the different language groups.

One of the unique aspects of Switzerland’s constitution is the number of decisions it requires citizens to make through referenda and initiatives. Sovereign power ultimately rests with the people, who vote on proposed legislation several times a year and elect representatives every four years. The at the national level and often more frequently in the cantons; indeed, Switzerland has held more than half of the world’s national referenda. For example, in 1971 the constitution was amended by national referendum in 1971 to grant women the right to vote in federal elections and to hold federal office. In , in 1991 the voting age in federal elections was reduced from 20 to 18 years, and in 2002 voters endorsed entry into the United Nations (UN). Referenda must be held on constitutional matters and major international treaties; voters may also call a referendum to challenge a law passed by the Federal Assembly by obtaining 50,000 signatures within 100 days of passage. For a referendum to pass, it must receive an overall majority both of the national vote and in a majority of the cantons. In the 1999 federal elections the four-party coalition that has run the federal government since the 1950s—the Radical Democratic Party, the Social Democratic Party, the Christian Democratic People’s Party, and the Swiss People’s Party (Centre Democratic Union)—kept a comfortable majority, holding 173 of the 200 seats in the lower house, plus all of the upper house. However, the coalition has shown increasing internal polarization, largely because the Swiss People’s Party attracted many right-wing candidates and voters during the 1990s—thereby nearly doubling its representation in parliament—and became more xenophobic and anti-European in the process.addition to referenda, Swiss citizens can call a national vote on any issue by collecting 100,000 signatures. The first such initiative was undertaken in 1893, when voters decided against the wishes of the parliament and endorsed the prohibition of the killing of animals according to Jewish religious methods. More recently, voters have cast ballots on whether to join the European Economic Area (rejected), eliminate the Swiss army (rejected), reduce military spending (rejected), limit the foreign population of the country (rejected), conserve moorland (approved), and require that trucks passing through the country be put on railroad flatbeds (approved). The Swiss model has provided citizens with a direct voice in their own affairs that is without parallel in any other country, but it has sometimes been criticized on various grounds: voter turnout is often very low, averaging about two-fifths of the electorate; it often makes the passage of important legislation difficult (e.g., the parliament passed a law granting women the right to vote in 1959, but voters did not approve the change at the federal level until 12 years later); and it raises the prospect that the rights of minority groups can be undermined by a majority of the population, though Swiss voters in practice have generally respected the rights of minorities.

Cantonal and local government




The Swiss Civil Code of 1912 has furnished a model for the administration of justice in many countries; indeed, and parts of the code have been adopted verbatim in other legal systems. The difficult task of creating and preserving a uniform judicial system within so diverse a national structure has produced a number of great jurists and experts of international law experts in Switzerland. Each canton elects and maintains its own magistracy for ordinary civil and criminal trials. Supreme judicial power is vested in the Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgericht), the seat of which is in Lausanne (Vaud canton). Capital punishment was abolished by . Members of the court are elected by the Federal Assembly to six-year terms. Capital punishment was abolished—except under circumstances of martial law, general mobilization, or war—by the unified federal penal code of 1937, except under circumstances of martial law, general mobilization, or war.

Police and armed forces

Police authority is generally exercised by the cantons, but .

Political process




Policing is generally the responsibility of the cantons, though larger cities also maintain municipal police forces. A small federal police corps enforces special federal laws concerning such crimes as treason and forgery (mainly in collaboration with cantonal police). However, there is growing support for enlarging the role There has been considerable debate about increasing the scope and size of the federal police , particularly to combat organized crime, which transcends cantonal borderscrimes that transcend cantonal boundaries, but such a change would require the agreement of the cantonal governments.

In accordance with confederation Switzerland’s neutrality, which dates back to from the 16th century and in 1815 became international law, the army serves solely to preserve the country’s independence of the country. Defense is based on a system of universal conscription under which every Swiss male is liable for begins performing military duty between the ages of 20 and 42 years or, for high officers, 20 and 52 yearsat age 20 as a member of the national militia and remains active until age 42; officers remain active until age 52. The training of recruits is followed by 10 three-week refresher courses over the course of two years. Swiss women may serve as volunteers in the women’s military force. The Swiss is the only soldier in the world who keeps his Unlike soldiers in other countries, Swiss soldiers keep their equipment, including arms and ammunition, at home and who performs his perform obligatory gunnery duty each year in civilian clothes, a manifestation of the extraordinary degree of trust between citizen and government. However, the citizens’ army and the concept of neutrality, both deeply rooted in Swiss tradition, face increasing scrutiny. Neutrality, once a prudent strategy for a small nation surrounded by conflicting powers, has

Although deeply rooted in Swiss history, both the militia system and neutrality were increasingly questioned at the end of the 20th century. For example, in 1989 more than one-third of the electorate (including majorities in Jura and Geneva) voted in favour of abolishing the army, and neutrality—once a fully convincing concept for a small country surrounded by conflicting powers—has lost much of its justification in the geopolitical situation at of the beginning of the 21st century. Moreover, the development of arms technology has increased the importance of the professional rather than the citizen elements of the army.


The 1874 constitution stipulates that each canton or demi-canton is sovereign in education, that elementary education is compulsory and free, and that all public schools must be directed by the cantons. The confederation financially assists Thus, Swiss voters, who had overwhelmingly rejected entry into the UN in the mid-1980s as a violation of the tradition of neutrality, endorsed entry in 2002.

Health and welfare









The combination of an Alpine landscape, the pedagogic reputation of educational theorists such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, and Jean Piaget, and the multicultural nature of the country has attracted prompted many private schools, at all levels, to locate in Switzerland.

Social welfare

Public welfare services have developed in a typically federalistic way: first in the communes, then in the cantons, and later in the confederation. Support for the indigent remains mainly a communal task, sometimes in cooperation with the cantons; this poses particular budgetary problems for cities and small rural communities, which have the highest poverty rates. The federal constitution guarantees some forms of social insurance that already existed in some communes. The most important is compulsory old-age insurance, which provides annuities and rent allowances to all men over age 65, to all women over age 62, and to widows, orphans, and invalids; it is financed by contributions from all workers under retirement age and their employers and by smaller contributions from the cantons and the confederation. Because the old-age subsidy does not cover the cost of living, the government oversees a capital-formation program financed by employers and employees and provides tax incentives for private insurance.

Unemployment insurance is federal, financed by contributions from employees and employers. Health insurance is compulsory and regulated by federal law but financed in each canton by varying individual contributions, supplemented by federal and cantonal subsidies for the indigent.

Cultural lifeAlthough Switzerland may not rank foremost among the centres of European culture, the country Cultural life
Cultural milieu


On the one hand,


creative minds have chosen to live elsewhere. This has been especially true of architects.


The mid-19th century was such a period, as were the







Rhaeto-Romanic culture

. In a real sense, the four parts of the country represent a definite resistance to leveling or homogenizing influences, political or cultural.

There are many newspapers reflecting regional interests, and some, such as the Tribune de Genève and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, are respected for their international coverage.

Much of modern cultural life has been influenced by television. The three networks, French, German, and Italian, while portraying their respective cultures, include many programs from France, Germany, and Italy. French-language television also includes shows from Canada and Belgium, whereas the German network presents programs from Austria. All of the country is influenced by American movies and television programs. Cable television, reflecting the Europeanization of Switzerland, has brought a wide variety of additional programs to the large urban centres.

Switzerland’s geographic centrality in Europe can be seen reflected in the option of Helvetia mediatrix (“Switzerland the mediator”). Henri Dunant (1828–1910), the Swiss founder of the International Red Cross, lives on in the continued sense of a distinct mission of cultural union that is shared by many Swiss. This mission is revealed not only in the foreign assistance programs oriented toward self-help that are carried out in several small and developing nations but also in the unusual number of literary translators within the country.

Folk arts



Daily life and social customs








The arts and sciences
Folk arts



traditional forms of song and music, involving, for




the yodel, a


type of singing

marked by rapid switching of the voice to falsetto


perfect form

epitome of which is the alphorn

, or alpenhorn


very expressive



such as the

Schuhplattler, with its rapid sequence of jumping and hopping movements, and



, for example,


usually of a religious nature


to a lesser extent


, as a form of folk art, can be seen especially at prominent points

has been particularly prominent in such elements of traditional women’s clothing

, such

as cuffs, stomachers, hats, and scarves. It has





St. Gall. In

Sankt Gallen. During the Renaissance


many architectural masters, especially from Ticino,


practiced their

talents to

craft in Italy: Antonio da Ponte built the





In a later period




Everywhere in Switzerland, from the Gianadda museum in Martigny to the new factories that have sprung up along the motorways, there is evidence of distinctive, high-quality, and innovative modern


Visual arts


. The peculiar lack of either French or Italian Renaissance influence left Swiss artists in a limbo from which they began to emerge only in modern times. Artists of international renown have included


The arts are championed by renowned museums not only in cities such as Basel, Zürich, and Geneva but also in small towns such as Winterthur and Schaffhausen, which pride themselves as cultural bastions far beyond the usual provincial standards. A recent example is the Gianadda museum, built over Roman ruins in Martigny. In a short time it has become renowned for the quality of its exhibitions of international artists and sculptors, including Picasso, Chagall, Moore, and Rodin.



train stations.

There is a small film industry in Switzerland, characterized by





that feature excellent acting and superb photography.

LiteratureIn the field of literature, Switzerland has produced Jean-Jacques Rousseau; the historian and critic Jacob Burckhardt; Germaine de Stael




during the 18th century; Gottfried Keller; Conrad Ferdinand Meyer; Jeremias Gotthelf; Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz; and the Nobel Prize winners Hermann Hesse and Carl Spitteler. The plays of the 20th-century dramatists Friedrich Dürrenmatt and Max Frisch (also a novelist) have been widely produced outside Switzerland. With the great number of dialects in all the four languages, a living dialect literature is available and is an expressive cultural characteristic of nearly each valley.MusicAlthough Switzerland is not a leading musical nation, in the 20th century such composers as









gained international renown. An annual international music festival, one of many, is held in Lucerne, and numerous country and western, pop, and jazz events, especially the famous festival at Montreux, take place throughout the year.







the Bernoulli family


over three generations


.LeisureLiving in close proximity to the mountains, which are well linked by road and rail to the urban areas, the Swiss have become extremely sport-conscious and have encouraged the growth of skiing and mountaineering as tourist attractions. Other sports include Swiss-style wrestling, gymnastics, regular Sunday-morning shooting,


Cultural institutions


Sports and recreation

Sports are an integral part of Switzerland’s national life. The Swiss Olympic Association, the national clearinghouse for sports activities, estimated that its membership embraced some 3.5 million individuals and more than 25,000 separate organizations at the start of the 21st century, and nearly every commune in the country boasts several sports clubs, from mountaineering to football (soccer) to windsurfing. Local competitions are abundant, the most famous of which is the annual Knabenschiessen festival, held in Zürich each September, bringing teenagers together to compete in archery and other shooting events. Along with regular Sunday-morning shooting, other sports played in the country include Swiss-style wrestling (Schwingen), gymnastics, Hornussen (a kind of Alpine baseball), tennis, golf, ice hockey, football (soccer), basketball, floor handball, gliding, paragliding, hang gliding, sailing, swimming, and walking in the forests and mountainsand swimming. There is fishing in the lakes and rivers, though pollution has degraded the waters, and, when certain mountain lakes freeze over, they are used for curling and even horse racing.


The history of Switzerland, a complex series of events, provides the background for an understanding of the country’s present-day cultural differences. Because of its central location in western Europe and pass routes through the Alps, which linked French and German lands with the Italian peninsula, Switzerland was coveted by surrounding powers. Swiss history, played out on the battlefields of Alpine Europe, was to a great extent the saga of local peoples trying to prevent foreign aggressors from taking control of their territory.

From the prehistoric period to the Swiss ConfederationPrehistoric SwitzerlandThough a hand wedge fashioned by Paleolithic hunters, found at Pratteln near Basel in 1974, is at least 350,000 years old, human habitation in Switzerland was not significant until the last glacial period, the Würm, approximately 30,000 years ago. At that time most of the land was covered by ice, many thousands of feet deep that flowed down from the Alps. But during interglacial periods nomadic hunters from encampments in



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Switzerland before confederation
Prehistoric Switzerland

Until the late Middle Ages, the territory constituting modern Switzerland never formed a single political or cultural unit. The first stone implements discovered in Switzerland are more than 250,000 years old, and early human Neanderthal hunting settlements date from about 50,000 BC. During the last glacial period in Alpine Europe, the Würm stage, which began about 70,000 years ago, the country was covered with ice, many thousands of feet deep, that flowed down from the Alps. Animal figures carved on antlers and bones (e.g., those found in Kesslerloch date from about 10,000 BC) prove that during interglacial periods nomadic hunters had camps in caves of the ice-free areas of the Jura and the Mittelland and followed their prey, mainly reindeer and bear, into the high mountain valleys. Carved designs of animals and birds on antlers and bone, found in caves, illuminate this era of prehistory. After Toward the end of the Würm, about 12,000 BC, Homo sapiens appeared; after the melting of the glaciers, Neolithic cultures established themselves corn (maize) growing and animal breeding in parts of the Rhône and Rhine valleys , and from (about 5000 BC). From about 1800 BC, Bronze Age settlements were scattered throughout the Mittelland and Alpine valleys.

Celtic Switzerland

During the Iron Age, from 850 about 800 BC on, the area that was to become Switzerland was inhabited by Celts in the west and Rhaetians Raetians in the east. A rough boundary between the tribes ran from Lake Constance to the Gotthard San Bernardino by way of the Linth valley. Much of what is now known about the Celts in western Europe during the period from approximately 400 to 50 BC was pieced together from information and artifacts gleaned from excavations at the lakeside encampment of La Tène, near the modern city of Neuchâtel. The Celts were noted for their metalwork, original ceramics, and superb jewelry crafted from gold. They first lived on single farms or in villages (of about 400 inhabitants, according to Caesar), and later they established larger towns (oppidum). Most of the cities of the Swiss Mittelland and of the transverse Alpine valleys were originally settled by Celts.

The Helvetii, one of the most powerful of the Celtic tribes, controlled much of the area between the Jura and the Alps. Because of pressures from Germanic tribes, they attempted to migrate to southwestern Gaul in 58 BC but were denied permission by the Romans. Defeated by Julius Caesar at Bibracte (modern Mont Beuvray, France) in the opening campaign of the Gallic Wars by Julius Ceasar, the Helvetii survivors returned to their Swiss lands as dependent but privileged allies (foederati) of Rome , and thus filling filled a vacuum that otherwise might have precipitated further Germanic encroachment.

Much of what is now known about the Celts in western Europe during the period from 400 to 50 BC was pieced together from information and artifacts gleaned from excavations at the lakeside encampment of La Tène, not far from the modern city of Neuchâtel. The Celts were noted for their metalwork, original ceramics, and the superb jewelry they crafted from gold. Most of the cities of the Swiss Mittelland and of the transverse Alpine valleys were originally settled by Celts.

Roman SwitzerlandFrom AD 101 to 150 Celtic, Rhaetian, and Roman peoples lived together in almost unbroken peace. The Romans enlarged the old Celtic settlements and built new towns Roman Switzerland

Caesar Augustus annexed present-day Switzerland to the Roman Empire in 15 BC. The Romans enlarged old Celtic settlements or built new military camps and towns, such as Augusta Raurica (now Augst), on the Rhine east of Basel; Dunum (Thun), at the head of Lake Thun (Thuner See); Novodunum (Nyon)Genava, Julia Equestris (Nyon), and Lousonna (Lausanne), on the shores of Lake Geneva; Aventicum (Avenches), near Lake Morat; Eburodunum (Yverdon), on the southwest shore of Lake Neuchâtel; Octodurum and Vindonissa (Martigny), on the northern approach of the Great St. Bernard Pass; Windisch) and Turicum (Zürich), where the Limmat flows north out of Lake Zürich (Zürichsee). They The Romans improved water supplies and constructed arenas and theatres, the best examples of which may be seen at Augst and Avenches. Villas, a type of fortified farmstead, were built, providing the bases for agricultural exploitation and for spreading of Roman influence into the surrounding countryside.

New fruits, plants, and vegetables were brought from the south. The grapevine was introduced despite attempts by Roman legislators to prevent wine from being produced north of the Alps. To facilitate increasing exports of wheat, cattle, and cheese, as well as to provide better lines of communication between for military purposes, roads connecting Rome and the northern outposts of the empire , roads were extended and improved across the Mittelland and improved. The pass routes, especially routes—especially the Great St. Saint Bernard in the west, between Octodurum (Martigny) and Augusta Praetoria (Aosta), and the San Bernardino, Splügen, Septimer, and Julier passes that linked the upper Rhine valley with the south of Switzerland, were Switzerland—were enlarged from trails to narrow paved roads.



Germanic invasions

The first of the barbaric Germanic incursions took place in AD 259. By occurred in AD 259–260 after the Roman limes (fortified strips of land that served as military barriers to invaders) fell. Although the Romans were able to temporarily reestablish the border at the Rhine, by AD 400 Roman Switzerland had disintegrated, and the lands of the Romanized Celts were occupied by Germanic tribes such as the Burgundians and , Alemannians. The Burgundians, few in number, , and Langobardians (in Ticino). Few in number, the Burgundians occupied the lands of western Switzerland. Although they They retained political control , they in Switzerland but lost contact with their former homelands and were assimilated into the Roman Celtic population. The French-speaking part of present-day Switzerland is approximately the territory settled by the Burgundians from the 5th century onward.

Large-scale migrations of Alemannians penetrated south of the Rhine during the 6th and 7th centuries. More numerous than the Burgundians and in direct contact with their kin north of the Rhine, the Alemannians colonized lands that had been only partially under Roman influence, which thus facilitating facilitated the imposition of their culture and language on the Celts. From the 6th to the 13th century, Germanic hegemony slowly penetrated westward from the Reuss River to the Sarine. The Alemannians also pushed farther into the upper Rhine valley, driving the Celts deeper into the Alps. Today , in the valleys of the Graubünden (Grisons), the descendants of these Celts speak the fourth language of Switzerland, RomanshRomansh, the least-prevalent of Switzerland’s four official languages.

During the late 5th and early 6th centuries, Burgundians and Alemannians came under the control of the Franks , and they later thus became part of Charlemagne’s resuscitated Holy Roman Empire . In 843, in the 9th century. The Burgundians already were Roman Catholic, but the Franks let Irish and Scottish monks do missionary work among the Alemannians; the followers of one Irish monk, St. Gall, established a monastic settlement that became the town of Sankt Gallen. By erecting new churches and imposing their own counts and bishops, the Franks integrated the territory that later became Switzerland into the Carolingian empire. But less than 30 years after Charlemagne’s death, the Treaty of Verdun (843) divided his empire, including Switzerland, among his grandsons. The middle kingdom of Lothair Lothar I included the Burgundian settlement area west of the Aare River, whereas ; it became part of an independent Burgundian kingdom that lasted until 1033, when it again joined the Holy Roman Empire. Alemannia, north and south of the Rhine, formed part of and Raetia were assigned in 843 to the East Frankish kingdom of Louis II (the German). By the year 1000 the territory that later became Switzerland was divided into 12 Swiss territories belonged to 12 different bishoprics, the four largest being of which were Lausanne, Konstanz (Constance), ValaisSion, and Chur.

Dynastic Switzerland

The Swiss area became united again in the 11th century under a German-dominated the Holy Roman Empire with its German emperors; however, the remoteness and the gradual decline of the empire gave rise to a loose confederation imperial power allowed the rise of quasi-independent states, enabling territories out of bailiwicks. This process enabled the feudal dynasties of the Zähringen, Savoy, Kyburg, and Habsburg families to emerge as territorial powers concentrate rudimentary administrative and judicial powers in their own hands by the beginning of the 13th century. During the 11th and 12th centuries new cities were founded by these families In the High Middle Ages these families founded monasteries and new cities to provide secure stopping places for the increasing numbers of merchants associated with participating in the rapidly expanding trade in of western Europe. By 1300 some 200 towns existed in what would become Switzerland, but only a few of them acquired major significance. Many of the fortified centres had the dual function of places had several functions: providing a source of revenue, offering a centre for (juridical) administration, defending newly acquired territories as well as , and serving as outposts an outpost for further dynastic expansion. The Zähringens founded strategic towns between Lake Constance and Lake Neuchâtel. Bern was Conflict with the Savoys prompted the Zähringens to found strategically located towns such as Bern, sited on the easily defended great bend of the Aare River; Fribourg was , located on a loop of the entrenched Sarine River where a key trade route crossed the river; and the walled city of Murten (Morat), which became the dynasty’s western outlying settlement of the dynastyoutlier. Under the Kyburgers, who were established in northeastern Switzerland, the settlements of Winterthur, Zug, Aarau, and Baden received town status. In the west the Savoys extended their domain from Geneva to Moudon and Yverdon, on the western end of Lake Neuchâtel, and up the Rhône valley into Valais.

By the end of the mid-13th century, the Habsburgs had Zähringers and Kyburgers had died out, and, after driving the Savoys back to the Vaud, the Habsburgs emerged as the dominant family in Switzerland. Their original castle, built in 1020, was strategically situated within a few miles of the confluence of the Aare, Reuss, and Limmat rivers in order to control east-west routes across the Mittelland and north-south passages through the St. Saint Gotthard Pass and , along with the waterways of Lakes Walen and Zürich. The expansion of Habsburg influence and territory threatened the independence of some of the small , facilitated by the royal dignity of Rudolf I (1273–91), the first German king of the Habsburg dynasty, eventually led to a confrontation with some small, relatively autonomous communities within central Switzerland and precipitated events leading ultimately to the establishment of the Swiss Confederation.

From the Swiss Confederation to the Constitution of 1848
The growth of confederation


The Swiss Confederation during the Late Middle Ages
The foundation of the confederation

The communities of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden were populated by a large number of free peasants. Although the origin of their freedom is not exactly known, it can be attributed in part to their need to cooperate in order to maintain an agrarian economy in Originally, secular or ecclesiastic lords had sent them to clear the woods and cultivate the land in the severe environmental conditions of the Alpine valleys. Problems relating to the use of pasturelands, overgrazing, the cutting of forests, and natural disasters such as landslides, floods, and avalanches were too complex for any one person or family to solve. A loyalty to the community (still evident in the high valleys of the Alps) rather than to a distant overlord was nurtured by the peasants, and, although this loyalty did not seek to end outside domination, it was strong enough to become a potent force in moments of crisis.

In 1273 Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden came under the direct control of the Habsburgs. The dynasty already held the northern approach to the St. Gotthard route from the Rhine to Lucerne and wished to incorporate the central Swiss valleys south of the city into their domain in order to completely control the pass. Alarmed by this intrusion, representatives of the communities, meeting on the field of the Rütli above Lake Vierwaldstätter, signed a pact on Aug. 1, 1291, that eternally pledged mutual assistance against all enemies. This pact was the beginning of the Everlasting League and the foundation of Swiss Confederation. In 1991 the Swiss celebrated 700 years of the country’s history.

In the early 14th century the Habsburgs, pressing to gain control of the Reuss valley and the St. Gotthard Pass, mounted a complex campaign against the forest cantons. On Nov. 15, 1315, their armoured knights were ambushed along the shores of Lake Ägeri between Morgarten and Sattel by peasant foot soldiers armed with long wooden pikes. Driven into the lake by the Swiss, the knights were soon routed. After the battle the Alliance of 1291 was reaffirmed and strengthened, becoming the legal basis for relations among the cantons until 1798. The war, whose original aim had been the prevention of further Habsburg encroachment, was now directed toward the complete removal of all Habsburg feudal rights within the area of confederation; it continued sporadically for the next 150 years.

The geographic area of the confederation was soon enlarged, for the original communities could not stand a prolonged state of siege. Their population, of perhaps 30,000 to 40,000, was too large for their meagre natural resources. The communities were particularly vulnerable to Habsburg blockades that could cut off needed provisions of grain, salt, cattle, and iron imported from, or by way of, the Mittelland. By the end of the 14th century the confederation had emerged from the Alpine valleys and extended itself westward over the Mittelland from Lake Zürich in the north to the eastern borders of French-speaking Switzerland. Lucerne (1332), Zürich (1351), Zug (became a permanent member in 1365), and Glarus (a permanent member from 1388) became part of the alliance (some sources date the entry of Zug and Glarus to 1352). Far away from their overlords, these peasants formed relatively independent communities (Talgenossenschaften), in which assemblies of all free men (Landsgemeinden) elected their own leaders (Landammann) from among the local oligarchy. Solemn oaths held these communities together, and stockbreeding procured considerable income. Their relative autonomy was strengthened by the Hohenstaufen kings and emperors, who privileged these rural communes and made them immediate subjects of the crown in order to keep free the roads between Swabia and Italy, especially the Saint Gotthard Pass, which was made accessible after 1200 by the construction of daring bridges. As contestants for the empire and rulers of the northern approach to Saint Gotthard, the house of Habsburg showed growing interest in the same area.



The expansion of the Swiss Confederation followed the same logic, promising help against foreign and internal dangers. Sometimes joining the confederation was the result of discord within a town; for example, Zürich became a member of the alliance in 1351 after a revolution by the guilds against the pro-Habsburg nobility. In the resulting treaty, common arbitration was first established as a means to settle conflicts between the cantons. By 1332 Lucerne had entered the league; Zug and Glarus became allies in 1352 for the first time but permanent members only in 1365 and 1388, respectively. Although these cantons were direct neighbours of the forest cantons, Bern, which joined in 1353, was located in and oriented toward the west. The new members strengthened the confederation by providing additional revenues, manpowerlabour, and political and strategic capacities. Nevertheless, the old homogeneity of the original three mountain cantons was lost. Fortunately, common hostility to the Habsburgs was strong enough to override the diversities that strained the youthful league. By 1394, after two further decisive military defeats, the Habsburgs could no longer maintain their dominance over Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden and were hard-pressed to protect their remaining possessions south of the Rhine.

By the beginning of the 15th century, the eight cantons found themselves encircled by lands ruled by the powerful dynasties of Habsburg, Milan, Savoy, and Burgundy. Vulnerable to attack, the Swiss passed from defensive tactics to offensive thrusts in order to secure their territory. The last Austrian outpost south of the Rhine, Aargau, which separated Zürich from Lucerne and Bern, was captured in 1415, and threats from Savoy to the southwest were parried when Valais became allied with the confederation. But in the south the Swiss were not as fortunate; their expansion into Italian-speaking Ticino was thwarted by the Viscount di Milano. Dissension within the confederation remained a serious problem. For example, the attempted expansion of Zürich to the east and south precipitated civil war in the late 1430s. Despite French and Austrian support, Zürich was forced to give up its vision of building a powerful eastern state comparable to Bern in the west. Peace finally was restored in 1450. Zürich renounced its Austrian alliance and was accepted back into the confederation. At the same time, Schwyz gained control of territory on the southern shore of Lake Zürich, effectively blocking Zürich’s expansionist aims. During the middle of the 15th century there was a continuous shuffling of alliances. St. Gall, Appenzell, Schaffhausen, and Mulhouse became allied with the confederation. The free imperial town of Mulhouse commanded the strategic Belfort Gap (Porte de Bourgogne) between the Vosges and Jura mountains. Both the Austrians and dissident factions within the town were attempting to gain control of the lucrative trade between the Rhine rift valley and the Paris basin that passed through the Porte. To blunt this danger, the citizens of the city concluded a 25-year defensive pact with Bern and Solothurn.

The Burgundian War

Then followed a series of events that led directly to the Burgundian War. The Swiss came to the aid of Mulhouse and successfully repelled all threats to the city. Wishing to further probe the Habsburg defense, the Bernese moved eastward, laying siege to the key fortress town of Waldshut, sited near the confluence of the Aare and Rhine rivers, thereby controlling all the river systems draining off the Swiss Mittelland. The siege failed; however, the Austrians promised the Swiss a large sum of money as part of the peace settlement. The only source of funds was Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, who was in the process of trying to establish an empire extending from the North Sea to the Mediterranean. In return for the money, Charles gained control of With decisive military victories at the Battles of Sempach (1386) and Näfels (1388), the confederation pushed back the Habsburgs’ pretensions and further weakened the power and reputation of the local nobility dependent on them. About the same time, two joint concordats were concluded: the Pfaffenbrief (Pastors’ Ordinance, 1370), which protected passage along the Saint Gotthard Pass, prevented private feuds, and governed the relationship between secular and religious authorities, and the Sempacherbrief (Agreement of Sempach, 1393), which was to prevent private warfare by imposing common rules on all members of the league.

Expansion and position of power





Continued Swiss expansion northward was in jeopardy, and Burgundian alliances with Savoy and Milan threatened to block the Swiss in the west and south. The Austrians, after realizing that Burgundy was not helping them gain back their Swiss lands but was instead taking over their former territory, formed an alliance with the Swiss and the French. In a series of decisive encounters, culminating in the Burgundian defeat at the walled city of Murten, which guarded the western approach to Bern, the Swiss shattered Charles’s prospects for resurrecting the Lotharingian empire.

Fribourg and Solothurn, territories that had helped Bern during the Burgundian War, were brought into confederation in 1481. Thus, the five urban cantons of Bern, Lucerne, Zürich, Fribourg, and Solothurn now balanced the five rural cantons of Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Glarus, and Zug.

The Swabian War

After Bern had repelled Burgundy in the west, the time had come for Zürich to defend the east against renewed Austrian threats. The fledgling ruler of the Holy Roman Empire, Maximilian I (ruled 1493–1519), attempted to reestablish control throughout his domain, which included Switzerland. He united Tirol and Vorarlberg, thus threatening the confederation from the east. Responding defensively, the eastern Swiss cantons allied themselves with Graubünden, a group of three communities joined together in a mini-confederation. The geographic position of Graubünden was particularly important, as it controlled the headwaters of the Rhine and Inn rivers and thus was a buffer between Switzerland and the Vorarlberg and western Tirol.



In 1495 Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and the imperial Diet of Worms imposed a public peace and a Reichskammergericht (Imperial Chamber of Justice), which served as the empire’s supreme court. Like other peripheral regions, the Swiss Confederation opposed the intensification of the authority of the Habsburg ruler. Tensions also increased because of the antagonism between Swiss and Swabian mercenaries and a series of predatory excursions by both. The confederates were accused of being sacrilegious enemies of the nobility and true order. In 1499 Maximilian joined with the Swabian League, an alliance of southern German principalities princes, knights, and cities organized to block Swiss expansionmaintain public peace, and attacked Graubünden in 1499. Graubünden called in the Swiss ally Graubünden, and thus igniting the Swabian War, the last war of Swiss independence, was waged (or Swiss) War. After several battles in Graubünden and along the Rhine from Basel to the Vorarlberg. Peace , peace was declared at Basel on Sept. September 22, 1499, and Maximilian abandoned his plans, thus unofficially recognizing Swiss independence; the Swiss Confederation did not adhere to the decisions of Worms, but it remained a subject of the empire even though there was little effective control left. Within two years the strategic Rhine territories of Basel and Schaffhausen became full members of the confederationjoined the Swiss Confederation, and in 1513 Appenzell also became a full member. Thirteen independent states were now joined in a Federal Union that remained unchanged until the French Revolution.

War with France

Following the Swabian conflict, Switzerland was drawn into the struggle between the Holy Roman emperor, France, AustriaSpain, and Italy the Italian powers over control of the vital Po valleyduchy of Milan. The Swiss , of course, had more than a passing interest in this area, having followed Uri and extended their control into the southern Alpine valleys while fighting against the Milanese during the 15th century. They wanted to prevent either France or Austria from closing in on them.In the early years of the 16th century France moved against ItalyThe elites of the cantons were divided according to their contrasting foreign sympathies and the bribes they received for selling mercenary troops. At first the Swiss supported France, but later they later formed an alliance with Italy. Armed encounters finally drove the French from the Po valley; nevertheless, victory was short-lived and French troops were soon encamped again, sheltered by the poplars of the Pojoined the alliance led by the pope to drive the French out of Italy. In September 1515 a dispirited and disunited Swiss force was decisively defeated on the fields of Marignano southeast of Milan, losing more than 8,000 mensome 10,000 infantrymen in a battle against the French army, which used recently invented artillery and a modern cavalry.

The terms of the peace settlement of 1516 with French King Francis I were extremely generous to the vanquished Swiss . They Confederation, which kept most of present-day Ticino and all the territories they had claimed in the south except for Domodossola, which guarded the southern approach to the Simplon Pass. The good will as a joint dependency, while the Valtellina was accorded to the Graubünden. The goodwill generated by the peace terms and the mercenary pact of 1521 resulted in more than 250 years of accord between the former belligerents and had important economic consequences for Switzerland.Because free trade was guaranteed for all time between the two countries, the larger market acted as a stimulus for Swiss industries. Whenever the French tried to adopt protective tariffs, Swiss merchants invoked the treaty clause. The continuing French need for Swiss mercenaries provided leverage for the Swiss to retain their trading privileges, thus giving them an advantage over German and Italian competitors. France remained the main market for Swiss products , giving confederate merchants access to the large French market. Although the traditional trade with the empire and Italian states continued, France became, in keeping with the general shift of commerce toward the Atlantic countries, the main market for Swiss products (principally textiles and cheese and later books, jewelry, and watches) until the French Revolution.

The defeat at Marignano marked the first step toward neutrality. The Swiss realized that there was no policy on which their linguistic and religious factions could agree regarding territory outside their frontiers. They could either involve themselves in the affairs of neighbouring Austria, France, and Italy and destroy the confederation or remain independent. This point of view was reinforced during the 16th-century religious wars that ravaged Europe.

The Reformation

Shortly after the peace settlement with the French, the impact of the Reformation reached Switzerland. A period of internal strife ensued that was instrumental in shaping the human geography of the country. The cities, particularly the major centres of Bern, Basel, Geneva, Lausanne, Schaffhausen, and Zürich, were far more receptive to the reform preaching of such men as Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin, and John Knox than were the conservative rural cantons. This resulted in the end of Switzerland’s role as a European power and eventually—but not intentionally—led to a politics of neutrality. Its political structure as a federation of independent states no longer could match the efficiency and resources of the growing united monarchies. In particular, a common and active foreign policy became impossible as the Reformation added another dimension to the heterogeneity of the confederation, already split because of different regional interests and especially the opposition of rural and urban cantons. Nevertheless, the Swiss Confederation had shown more signs of institutional consolidation and cultural similarity in the 15th century than it would in the three following centuries. By 1500 it had established a historiographical tradition and a sense of itself as a political entity based on its shared topography and history; moreover, foreigners regarded it as an entity.

The ancien régime
The Reformation



The second peace of Kappel confirmed the territorial status quo, which essentially remained unchanged until the demographic movements of the 19th century. The result was an irregular pattern of Protestant and Roman Catholic areas, cutting across the boundaries of language and physical geography, that which is seen still in evidence today.

Somehow, despite two religious conflicts in the 16th century, the death of Zwingli at the Battle of Kappel, and the Thirty Years’ War, a major civil war was averted. Furthermore, both religious groups placed their loyalty to Switzerland above ideology and cooperated to maintain Switzerland’s neutrality during the destructive Thirty Years’ War. Finally in 1648, the Peace of Westphalia ended the war and recognized Switzerland’s independence, after 350 years of struggle, from the Austrian Empire.


The 17th and 18th centuries were periods of peace and rising prosperity. Industry, which had existed in certain Swiss communities as far back as the 14th century, expanded, setting the foundation for future growth and diversification. Swiss neutrality during the Thirty Years’ War was beneficial to the economy. The influx of refugees was particularly important in rehabilitating old industries, such as textiles, and setting up new enterprises. Swiss merchants traded their products and acted as middlemen in the movement of foreign goods among the warring nations.


Confessional equilibrium




The emergence of a modern state


Having accumulated mainly from the pensions of the mercenary system and from commercial sources, Swiss capital was desperately needed in those countries that constantly were at war, especially in France, and Genevan bankers became the centre of an extensive European financial network. Thanks to such benefits and without the costs of a court or a standing army, several towns were able to abolish the taxing of subjects in the 18th century. Thus, there was plenty of capital available to finance industrial expansion. Topography and historical development parceling precluded the possibility of investing in large agricultural estates. In addition, natural resources did not exist in sufficient quantities for easy exploitation, and the cultivation of land could not support the rising population. Consequently, an the Swiss Confederation benefited from the ample supply of labour was on handavailable. Because landlocked Switzerland had no shipping enterprises or colonial possessions, industry was the natural target for economic development. Thus, by the end of the 17th 18th century, more than about one-quarter of the 1.6 million Swiss were working in fourth of Switzerland’s working population was employed in industry, especially in the textile and watchmaking sectors. By 1785 the Owing to restrictions imposed by the guilds in the towns, this growth essentially occurred in the countryside; urban entrepreneurs provided raw materials to peasants, who were unable to subsist solely on their land and supplemented their incomes by spinning and weaving of silk, linen, and especially cotton was established in the eastern Jura and Mittelland. The manufacture of cotton cloth was in their own cottages.

Since its origin in the 14th century, the manufacture of wool cloth had always been among the most important Swiss industry before the French Revolution. Originating in the 14th century, textiles industries, but, after the demographic and economic crisis following the Black Death, textiles (excluding Sankt Gallen’s linen) did not blossom again until the 17th century, when refugees reestablished silk manufacture and later introduced fine spinning and muslin weaving. The free import of cheap machine-made thread from England sparked a last boom before the chaos of the French Revolution engulfed Switzerland, which was then among the most highly industrialized countries in Europe. The major producing regions were located in rural areas of the northeast, in proximity to Zürich–Winterthur and St. Gall–AppenzellSankt Gallen–Appenzell–Glarus, near sources of impounded water that provided mechanical energy for running the machines. In the 16th century French and Italian refugees introduced watchmaking to Geneva, and by the late 18th century the city had 1,000 masters and several thousand apprentices. Refugees were not instrumental in the founding of watchmaking in the canton of Neuchâtel, however; in Neuchâtel precision metallurgy was carried out as early as the 16th century. In 1679 a locksmith apprentice, Daniel Jean Richard, repaired a watch brought from London by a local citizen. Richard then designed his own watchmaking tools. From his home in Le Locle he trained many workers, who settled throughout the Jura, establishing this mountainous area as the major region of Swiss watchmaking.

The impact of the French Revolution

In spite of economic expansion, Switzerland’s contrast, Bern and the Catholic cantons continued to rely primarily on agriculture. Rational commercial farming was introduced with some success, sometimes with the help of enlightened societies (such as those in Zürich and Bern).

The Helvetic Republic

Despite the Swiss Confederation’s economic expansion, its political institutions were poorly prepared to meet the violent forces set loose by the French Revolution. The : the 13 cantons of the Helvetic Association had no central government; each had its own army; religious antagonisms still existedpersisted; the rural cantons were suspicious of the towns; and the small cantons were jealous of the larger ones; the call for reforming the oligarchic and often corrupt hierarchies had been issued in several urban revolts during the 18th century, most frequently and intensely in Geneva, but was always violently repressed; and the more moderate propositions of the enlightened statesmen in the Helvetische Gesellschaft (Helvetic Society), a supraconfessional patriotic organization founded in 1761, met with similar refusal.

Although both pro- and anti-French feelings existed, Switzerland attempted to remain neutral during the French revolutionary wars. The country’s strategic position on the main Paris-Milan route via the Simplon Pass was vital for France, however, as was control of the Great St. Saint Bernard Pass. Thus Napoleon, after conquering Napoleon’s armies had conquered northern Italy, France invaded Switzerland and occupied Bern on March 5, 1798. This was the end of the ancient Confederation of the Thirteen Cantons.The French established Earlier the subjects in the Vaud and elsewhere had started to revolt against their urban lords, which thus revealed the impossibility of uniting the whole country against an often welcomed invader. Napoleon’s occupation effectively ended the ancient confederation of the 13 cantons and their allies.

Under French protection the Helvetic Republic, which lasted from 1798 to 1803. This government was racked by dissension. A single constitution, drawn up in Paris with little consideration for Swiss tradition, was imposed. The occupiers , was established. For the first time in Swiss history, a constitution granted sovereignty to the people and provided individual rights and equality before the law; the subjects were liberated, and the Bernese and joint dependencies became cantons of their own. Although some former allies such as Sankt Gallen and the Graubünden joined the republic as full members, other cantons—Geneva, Neuchâtel, Valais, and the bishopric of Basel—were temporarily annexed by France. The unitary constitution, largely written by Peter Ochs, Basel’s chief master of the guilds, was modeled in Paris after the French constitution of 1795 and neglected the Swiss tradition of cantonal sovereignty. Opposition to the new state was strongest in central Switzerland, where Nidwalden’s revolt ended with a massacre. But even the supporters of the Helvetic Republic soon split into factions and fought each other in several coups d’état. Furthermore, the French treated Switzerland as a vassal state, plundering it and making it became a battlefield for the French and their enemies. Internal disorder steadily worsened, so that by 1803 Switzerland was beset by anarchy. At this point Napoleon intervened with the Mediation Act, which stabilized the country.Despite some loss of territory, Switzerland emerged almost intact. in their conflicts with Austrian and Russian enemies. By the time French troops withdrew in 1803, Switzerland was plagued by civil war and anarchy, which prompted Napoleon to intervene with the Mediation Act; this stabilized the country without sacrificing the recently acquired individual rights. The 13 cantons were reestablished as near-sovereign states, and 6 new ones—St. Gall, ones were created with full rights: Sankt Gallen, the Graubünden, Aargau, Thurgau, Ticino, and Vaud—were added. These 19 cantons formed the Helvetic Confederation.The Swiss remained neutral during the Vaud. During the rest of the Napoleonic Wars; nevertheless, industry, , the Swiss were bound to France by a defensive alliance, and several thousand Swiss soldiers died during Napoleon’s Russian campaign. Industry, especially textiles, suffered heavily from the continental blockade. In 1815, after Napoleon’s fall at the Battle of Waterloo, the Congress of Vienna recognized the perpetual neutrality of the confederation. Three ancient allies, handed over the Valtellina from Graubünden to Austria, but it added the three ancient allies of Valais, Neuchâtel, and Geneva , were added to the confederationSwiss Confederation, bringing the its total to 25 22 cantons. (The 26th canton, Jura, was carved out of the French-speaking Catholic area of canton Bern, and it entered the confederation in 1974, becoming a canton in 1979.)

Economic development


Economic growth


The first mechanized spinning mill was set up in Sankt Gallen in 1801, and the first large-scale plant was established a year later in the canton of Zürich in 1802. The cotton industry gave birth to the machine-fabricating industry, and mechanized spinning plants multiplied. There were 60 mechanized spinning firms in the canton by 1814; 74 by 1817; and 126 by 1827. In 1832 the manufacturers began exporting spinning machinesboth soon started exporting. By 1810 one-fourth of the thread needed by the cotton industry was being supplied from domestic sources, and shortly thereafter Switzerland became wholly independent of foreign supply. Although craftsmen of the cottage industry resisted mechanization—sometimes violently—machine production was also introduced for weaving cloth.

The pattern of Switzerland’s future economic life was taking shape. Swiss industry had to export in order to grow. It was dependent on inexpensive labour and cheap raw material and inexpensive labourmaterials, both of which the country lacked and needed to import. Free trade was therefore a necessity. The dangers of foreign protectionism were met by increasing specialization, scientific and technical progress, and more-intensive occupational training rather than by retaliatory tariffs. Also, Swiss companies also began opening plants in other countries.

In the early 19th century a speaker at the Zürich Technical Institute stated that only rapid progress in all fields of scientific and technical education would allow the Swiss to compete with other manufacturing and trading nations. Products must be exported throughout the world, foreign languages must be learned, new technology must be mastered, and goods must be produced cheaply.

Internal political difficulties; external threats to neutrality
Unfortunately, this era of material prosperity was not free from political problemsThe liberal triumph

On the political level the half century spanning from 1798 to 1848 can be considered a lasting crisis of transition. The Mediation Act had disappeared with NapoleonNapoleon’s demise, its place taken by a new the Federal Pact that , which once again established Switzerland as a confederation of sovereign states united only for common defense and the maintenance of internal order. Thus, the formulation and execution of a united foreign policy was still impossible. In addition, the Swiss were separated by legal barriers, because each barriers—each canton had its own laws, currency, postal service, system of weights and measures, and army. The right to reside freely in any canton had also ended along with the Mediation Act, and therefore the inhabitants of each canton therefore regarded the inhabitants those of the other cantons as nationals of different countries. Furthermore, civil liberties were almost nonexistent, and religious differences reappeared.These deep religious divisions led in 1845 to the formation of a separatist defensive league of Roman Catholic cantons , as the Roman Catholic hierarchy abandoned some of its earlier positions and sided firmly with reactionary antimodernism.


Both conservative and liberal legal and revolutionary changes occurred in the cantons during the 1830s. When the radical wing of the liberals suppressed convents in Aargau in 1841, Lucerne turned conservative and invited the Jesuits to its schools. The radicals responded by launching two unsuccessful guerrilla attacks against Lucerne. Thus, the political conflict was infused with confessionalism, and in 1845 the Catholic cantons formed the separatist defensive league known as the Sonderbund, comprising Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug, Fribourg, and Valais. Still, two other Catholic cantons, Solothurn and Ticino, along with several religiously mixed ones, sided with the majority and thus proved that the conflict was essentially political and not religious. In July 1847 the Diet, representing the other majority of liberal cantons, declared the Sonderbund to be incompatible with the Federal Pact and demanded its dissolution. A 25-day civil war broke out that lasted for only 25 days and resulted in a erupted, and the result was a complete victory for the forces of the confederation. Fortunately, Owing to the military superiority and moderation of the majority and their commander in chief, General Guillaume-Henri Dufour, few lives were lost, making reconciliation relatively easy.A new constitution, modeled after that of the United States, was established in 1848 and modified in 1874. It defined the political organization that exists today. Sovereignty was divided among the cantons and the federal state. Representatives to the federal government were elected either by a majority of the country’s population or by the canton, thereby providing national representation for the small cantons. . Nevertheless, the vanquished bitterly resented their humiliation, and, on a national level, political Catholicism retired into an oppositional “ghetto” until the end of the century. It was protected by the sovereignty of the conservative cantons, where Roman Catholics remained in power and fervently defended local autonomy and ecclesiastical rights against liberal-radical nationalism and centralism.

Immediately after their victory and while the suspicious conservative regimes in the neighbouring countries were embroiled in domestic revolutions, the Swiss liberals established the new federal constitution of 1848, the essential structure of which has remained unchanged. The constitution provided considerable national representation even for the small cantons, which maintained essential sovereign rights (taxation, jurisdiction, and education). It created a bicameral legislative system, modeled after that of the United States, which combined a council of cantons (Ständerat), with each canton entitled to two members, and the National Council (Nationalrat), whose members would be elected in equal proportion to the Swiss population. The constitution also established the Federal Council (Bundesrat), an executive consisting of seven equally entitled secretaries. A common foreign policy was finally possible. In addition, and the new federal state now regulated unified customs, currency, weights and measures, and the postal service. It also provided for the promotion of the national welfare and for the protection of the civil rights and liberties of all citizens and for the promotion of the national welfareliberties—though these were not granted to Jews until 1866. Finally, in one of the parliament’s first decisions, Bern was chosen for the capital of the new country over Zürich, Switzerland’s largest city.

Switzerland from 1848 to the present

The year 1848 was a decisive turning point , then, in modern Swiss history was 1848. Before that date Although internal conflict was a fact of Swiss political life; since then there has been an absence of major internal crises along ethnic and religious lines, and the country has prospered. With political stability, the Swiss could spend a greater portion of their time and efforts not wholly eliminated thereafter, it was always settled within the framework of the 1848 federal constitution. The liberals and radicals, who completely dominated the state in the 19th century and remained a leading force into the 21st century, gradually and not always willingly integrated other political and social groups into the government: first the conservative Catholics, then the peasants’ party, and finally, during World War II, the socialists. Enjoying internal political stability and spared from war—phenomena unmatched elsewhere in Europe—the Swiss focused much of their attention and efforts on developing industry, agriculture, communications, and communicationsthe financial sector.

Economic expansion

The unification of the Swiss Switzerland’s economy both promoted and was promoted aided by the development of a rail network that rapidly expanded as soon as the new constitution had been adoptedapproved. In 1847 the first railroad had opened between Zürich and Baden. The Because of the influence of the “railway barons,” the most prominent of whom was Alfred Escher from Zürich, the railways were built not according to central planning but through competition among between private entrepreneurs rather than in accordance with some central plan. The result was an extensive network of small and medium-sized lines that had poor connections but ran on were barely coordinated but covered more than 600 miles (1,000 km) of track by 1860 and more than 1,200 twice that amount by 1876. In 1898 the The Swiss eventually voted in 1898 to nationalize the main lines, and in 1902 the Swiss Federal Railways (Schweizerische Bundesbahnen) was formed.

To compete with the newly opened opening of the trans-Alpine Mont Mount Cenis and Brenner Pass rail links, the Swiss negotiated construction of the Saint Gotthard Tunnel with Italian and German interests for the construction of the St. Gotthard Tunnel. After 10 years of excavation, marked by labour unrest and the death of some 167 workers, the 9.3-mile tunnel, then (15-km) tunnel—then the world’s longest, opened longest—opened in 1882. Thus, the cantons of Uri and Ticino were connected by rail, and a direct line linked was inaugurated between Zürich and Milan. This was In the first of several major Alpine tunnels built in Switzerland.early years of the 20th century, the 12-mile (20-km) Simplon Tunnel and the 9-mile (14.5-km) Lötschberg Tunnel linking Bern to Brig were also opened to rail traffic.

To finance railway construction, six Escher in 1856 founded one of Switzerland’s largest and most successful banks, the Kreditanstalt (now Credit Suisse). Six other large commercial banks were set up also established in the 1850s alone. Because these banks were mainly interested mainly in large investments, reformers stimulated the creation of cantonal banks were founded to offer credit to individuals. The rapid provide credit for the general public. In other areas of economic, internal, and foreign politics too, the radical-democratic middle class opposed the liberal economic elites, whose interaction of industrial, financial, and political power tinged with nepotism was characteristic of the bourgeois capitalism of Escher’s time.

Another effect of the quick development of rail (and river) communications also facilitated growing imports maritime) transportation was the growing importation of cheap cereals that , which plunged Swiss agriculture into crisis. In 1850 more than half the grain consumed was produced domestically, in 1914 only but by 1914 that measure stood at about one-fifth. In ; in the same period, the proportion number of Switzerland’s inhabitants Swiss employed in agriculture fell dropped from more than half to less than one-fourth. The In the economic depression of the 1870s, the textile industry also fell victim to cheap imports. However, lost its predominant position, while other export industries , such as chemical and machine manufacture, profited from the expanded transport network.

Neutrality and internal challenges

During the 1850s the (e.g., chemicals and machine building) profited from the expanding means of communication.

Internal challenge

In 1856–57 the young republic clashed with Prussia over sovereignty in Neuchâtel, and war seemed inevitable; but ultimately, the Prussian king finally emperor renounced his hereditary rights to the former principality. Otherwise, Yet, despite some smaller incidents (such as the conflict over the territories of Savoy with Napoleon III in 1860 as well as a clash with German chancellor Otto von Bismarck in 1889), Switzerland’s foreign relations were relatively untroubled smooth in the second half of the 19th century. The country adopted a policy of Even radical politicians started to regard armed but cautious neutrality as the best strategy appropriate role for a nation surrounded small country bounded by bellicose and more powerful monarchies, and it pursued this strategy increasingly stronger monarchies. This neutrality was maintained during the Franco-Prussian War.Internal challenges were more important German War (1870–71), in which the problems of interning a French army on Swiss soil eventually led to military reforms along the Prussian model without abolishing the principle of a militia army.

Domestic challenges rather than foreign ones were typical during this period. Economic development caused dissatisfaction among labourers, who faced harsh a malaise among different social groups; for example, labourers suffered from difficult working conditions, and among former the precapitalist elites, peasantsrural masses, and urban craftsmen who all were losing their traditional sources of income. Although they all had different ideals needs and needsgoals, these groups sought limitations on liberal representative institutions and they all sought greater popular participation in government. The This democratic movement was particularly strong in Zürich, where in 1869 it imposed direct election was able to impose direct elections of the government and the right of popular referendum for all parliamentary bills. After similar success in other cantons, the democratic reform movement moved to a passed at the national level , where the factory act Factory Act of 1877 began the involvement of the , which heavily involved the federal government in social welfare for the first time. In 1874 an alliance led by the Democrats passed of the new democratic party and the dominant radical-liberal groups secured passage of a revised federal constitution that . The 1874 constitution introduced a substantial innovation. It allowed for : direct democracy by became possible through referendum and was amended reinforced in 1891 to provide for citizens’ initiative—the right to petition for a referendum with sufficient signatures.

World War I and economic crisis

An alliance of the bourgeois parties (representing propertied interests), including the conservatives and liberals who had clashed in 1847, confronted a labour movement that comprised trade unions and the Social Democratic Party. World War I, in which Switzerland remained neutral, not only caused tensions between the German-speaking Swiss and those speaking French or Italian (each sympathizing with combatants sharing their language) but also heavily burdened the working poor. Mobilized for long periods in the citizens’ army guarding the borders, they were not compensated for their loss of wages or even of jobs. Others, however, profited from the war. The metallurgical through initiative, the right for citizens to place an issue before the public if they were able to secure enough signatures.


World War I and economic crisis


Social tension finally tensions erupted in unrest at the end of the war. In November 1918 there was a nationwide general strike began national strike, which originated in Zürich. The Federal Councilfederal government, fearing a Soviet-style Bolshevik revolution, mobilized a large number of loyal troops, especially from the countryside. Within three days the strike leaders gave in without a fight, and many of whom were arrested, capitulated without a fight. Because the strike coincided with a worldwide influenza epidemic that cost many lives among those who had been mobilized, bitter feelings against the working class lasted for generations, especially among the farmers. Nevertheless, some of the strikers’ demands claims were soon fulfilled, such as realized (e.g., the 48-hour workweek and improved provision benefits for the unemployed). Particularly important was a reform of the voting system; with the replacement of majoritarian voting by proportional representation in 1919, the liberals immediately lost the dominant parliamentary position that they had enjoyed since 1848. In short order a second conservative joined the Federal Council, and in 1929 a member of the peasants’ party was elected. Since the end of the 19th century, the Farmers’ Association, representing a clientele particularly struck by structural crisis and in favour of protectionism, already had been the most successful of the different lobbying groups that increasingly influenced federal politics.

The worldwide economic crisis after 1929 dramatically reduced Swiss exports to one-third of their former level. The crisis reached its peak in Switzerland in 1936, when many workers were dismissed . Many banks became insolvent, while the machine-building industry was resilient, particularly because in this time the Swiss railway lines were largely electrified and needed new machines. The domestic crisis peaked in 1936 when many workers—especially in the construction industry—were dismissed, and the national bank was forced to devalue the Swiss franc by 30 percent. The following year , there was a breakthrough in the relationship between the metallurgical employers and the trade unions in the metallurgical industry , both of which agreed to negotiate find compromises without violent confrontation, . This agreement served as a model that for other industries adopted as well.Behind this and henceforth ensured a high degree of social peace.

This economic rapprochement, which also had political parallels, was occurred against the backdrop of the growing danger of fascismNational Socialism in Germany. Its Swiss imitators in Switzerland, the so-called Fronten (“fronts”), were loud but weak: in 1935, at their peak, they had only one representative in a national parliament of 187. Like the communists on the left, they were considered a fifth column, the agents of a foreign power. As Germany and Italy mobilized, After some time the Social Democrats—who had largely been pacifists since World War I or antimilitary since the troops’ intervention in the general strike—joined the bourgeois parties in 1935 to arm authorize the arming of a comparatively outdated army. After World War I Switzerland had joined the Geneva-based League of Nations, based in Geneva, with which accorded it the special status of “differentiated neutrality,” excluding Switzerland from participation in collective military measures. When Hitler annexed AustriaAs the fascist countries became increasingly aggressive and the Western powers barely reacted, the federal government looked for good foreign relations with its totalitarian neighbours; indeed, Switzerland was among the first countries to recognize Italy’s conquest of Ethiopia under Benito Mussolini and the Spanish regime of Francisco Franco. After the political union (Anschluss) of Austria by Germany in 1938, Switzerland returned to absolute neutrality, since as the system of collective security had proved revealed itself to be incapable of protecting smaller minor states.

World War II After and the Cold War

When World War II broke out, Switzerland mobilized 450,000 soldiers and 200,000 auxiliaries (it eventually mobilized 850,000 people out of a total population of 4,000,000). Thanks to the experience of the preceding warHaving learned from World War I, the government compensated soldiers provided compensation to workers for lost wages, and, despite economic difficulties, it was able to keep inflation at a tolerable level throughout the war. Another difference from World War I was the unity evident throughout Switzerland, irrespective of the nation across barriers of language and classclass and language. Symbolic of this singularity of purpose was the election of the first Social Democrat to the Federal Council in 1943. The most difficult phase of the war was in the summer of 1940, after when France had unexpectedly fallen and Switzerland was surrounded by the Axis powers. Most The only open tunnel to Vichy France closed in late 1942 when Germany occupied the southern part of France. When most Swiss feared that they would become the next victims victim of Nazi expansionism, and Federal Councillor federal councillor Marcel Pilet-Golaz gave a speech in on June 1940 widely perceived 25, 1940, that generally was interpreted as an accommodation adaptation to the new Europe controlled by Nazi Germany. However, Switzerland quietly adopted a policy of committed resistance, including a military plan for a “redoubt,” a concentration of troops in the Alps to continue fighting even after a German conquest of the rest of the country.In 1940 Many Swiss refused accommodation, and, in a speech given the following month to the army’s highest officers at the symbolic Rütli plateau, the commander in chief of the Swiss army, General Henri Guisan, expressed a lasting spirit of military resistance; in addition, a fortress in the central Alps, the réduit, was equipped with ammunition, medical supplies, food, water, hydroelectric plants, and factories to enable the Swiss army to fight the Nazis even if the cities of the Mittelland were captured.

In the days following Guisan’s speech, Switzerland signed the first of several toughly negotiated commercial treaties with Germany that secured . The Germans supplied raw materials (coal, iron, and seeds for a country that produced only 60 percent of the food it needed) in exchange for considerable Swiss financial credits and military and strategic material produced by private companies, including aluminum, machine tools, and watches. Weapons (e.g., antiaircraft defense) made up a significant share of Switzerland’s exports to Germany; though they constituted less than 1 percent of Germany’s own armaments, these supplies may have been important at specific moments of the war. It was the central national bank, however, that rendered the most problematic service to Germany, buying gold looted from Western western European central banks and, to a much lesser extent, , including small quantities of victims’ gold from concentration -camp victims. While no Swiss seems to have known of that origin, the central bank by early 1943 knew about the German looting of Western central banks but went on buying that gold until camps. Although historical evidence suggests that the Swiss did not know the origins of this gold, by at least early 1943 the Swiss national bank was aware of the German looting of central banks yet continued to buy the melted and reformed gold in large quantities until 1944 and in lesser amounts even until the last weeks of the war. The gold yielded a total of total amount the Swiss national bank paid to Germany for mostly looted gold was 1.2 billion Swiss francs for ; Germany , which used this—its this money—its only remaining convertible currency—to purchase crucial missing raw materials from abroad.

Transit through the Alps benefited the Axis but generally conformed to international law, which allows shipments other than those of weapons or troops; by far the most important shipment was of coal. Despite its geographic isolationlocation, Switzerland also maintained economic relations with the Western Allies throughout during the war; for example, it bought a considerable amount of (nonlooted) gold from the United States and Britain. The Allies had then used Swiss francs to pay for intelligence services in Switzerland and helped pay for the services that good offices the neutral country and could provide through the Red Cross could provide for prisoners of war. Humanitarian policy, however, was a sad chapter the saddest—yet most ambivalent—chapter of Switzerland’s war history. Switzerland admitted refugees only for a transfer to a third country. The government justified this policy by citing fears of social unrest and competition from foreign workers in a weak labour market, the costs of accommodating refugees, and the lack of food, but the policy also stemmed from widespread anti-Semitism and a To a large extent, the alleged humanitarian tradition of a neutral minor state was given over to the initiative of private persons and charitable organizations. The government itself declared a restrictive immigration policy, admitting refugees essentially for transit into a third country but without pursuing this policy consistently. There were several reasons for the harsh policy against refugees; one was the fear that immigration might provoke social unrest, especially given the country’s weak labour market after the economic crises. Officials further adduced the economic costs of accommodation—the lack of food and impediments for national defense—but anti-Semitism and the fear that the country might lose its character due to as a result of Überfremdung (“overforeignization”) also were decisive factors. During the war Switzerland accepted nearly 300,000 refugees—one-third of whom were military internees, while many others, especially children, arrived only for a short period or, especially from the neighbouring areas, only in the last weeks of the war. Among the roughly 5055,000 civilian refugees that Switzerland accepted during the war, only , about 20,000 were Jews, who were denied asylum because they were not considered “political refugees.” Between 1942 and 1943 at least 24During the war, especially in 1942–43, when the Swiss border was officially but not hermetically sealed, at least another 20,000 civilian refugees, most of them Jewish, were turned away. It is probably impossible to know exactly how many died establish the precise number of those who were killed in concentration camps after a vain attempt to flee to Switzerland.

The postwar period


The postwar period

At the end of the war, Swiss politics and neutrality were internationally compromised because Switzerland had maintained relations with Nazi Germany until its demise. The Soviet Union only reluctantly accorded diplomatic recognition to Switzerland, which had been a herald of anticommunism in the interwar period. In a 1946 agreement the Western Allies, especially the United States, compelled Switzerland to compensate the looted Western western European central banks, requiring the payment of some 250 million Swiss francs. Because Switzerland would have received no special recognition of its neutrality, the Federal Council decided not to join the United Nations (UN), which nonetheless occupied offices in Geneva. Joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the U.S.-led Western alliance, was never a serious option for a country that believed that armed neutrality had been the best defense against Nazism and would also save the country from communism. The Cold War allowed Switzerland to again become a respectable member of the international community again. On one hand, as a neutral country, it could mediate between . Neutrality enabled it to play a mediating role between the two antagonistic camps; on the other, but, as a capitalist democracy with a strong citizens’ army, it was a tacit member of the noncommunist world and one of its key defenders. A An interesting and complicated mixture of neutrality, isolationism, solidarity, anticommunism, and militarism became the common, often complacent , ideology of most Swiss, whether be they bourgeois or Social Democratssocialist.

In 1959 a the so-called Zauberformel (“magic formula” (Zauberformel) for the Federal Council was established, under which it was composed of two liberals, two conservatives, two Social Democrats, and one member of the peasants’ partypeasant-based Swiss People’s Party. This formula persisted into the 21st century and , which persisted until 2003, permitted the government to sidestep party rivalries to distribute Switzerland’s growing wealth and build a strong social welfare state. For many years a long period after World War II, the undamaged Swiss economy worked at full steam, with experienced very little unemployment, and growth of it grew approximately 5 percent per year in the 1950s and ’60s. Foreign During this period, foreign policy was virtually reduced to negotiating bilateral trade agreements. Because Switzerland avoided multilateral ties that could affect its sovereignty, it resisted European integration efforts. Thus, it did not join the European Economic Community (now the European Community, part of the European Union [EU]) but ; instead it was a founding member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) in 1960. However, it joined some international bodies such as Switzerland’s economic growth rapidly changed the landscape and the living standard, helping to perpetuate the image of the country as a special case (Sonderfall). It renounced bilateralism only slowly and gradually within “apolitical” international bodies, including the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (1966) and , the International Monetary Fund and World Bank (1992), and the World Trade Organization (1995).


Switzerland also has kept a conservative approach to several other issues. Open immigration is a controversial topic, for For example, and the government was reluctant to grant women the right to vote. Women were enfranchised on the national level only in 1971, and in the canton of Appenzell they had to wait until 1990 for full voting rights. NonethelessRelatively late, in 1981, an equal rights amendment was added to the constitution, and in 1985 the rather patriarchal marriage law was amended. Although the Another problem that had lasted for decades was resolved pragmatically in 1978, when a national referendum authorized Jura, a French-speaking Catholic area of the Protestant canton of Bern, to form its own canton.

The 1968 student revolt touched the common throughout the West left its traces in the country, but the bourgeois majority furiously rejected it because of its grounding in Marxismits Marxist ideas. However, changes in lifestyles, gender relations, and youth the popular culture did not pass Switzerland by, and spare the Helvetic island, and the successful opposition against an atomic power station near Basel was one trigger of a strong environmental movement emerged there.. A youth rebellion, originating in 1980 in Zürich, caught international interest, as did “Needle Park,” a temporarily free market for drugs, years later.

Recent developments

In the 1990s Switzerland was one of the world’s wealthiest and most prosperous countries, and neutrality, still the country’s official doctrine, became much more complicated. In 1986 some three-fourths of voters had rejected entry into the UN, despite the endorsement of membership by most mainstream politicians. Moreover, in 1992 they ; in a second referendum, in 2002, a very slight majority approved entry into the UN. Yet, the changed proportions show that decisive and seemingly contradictory changes occurred in a few years. In 1989, for example, some one-third of voters endorsed a referendum proposing the abolition of the Swiss army, which had been considered the untouchable backbone of Swiss sovereignty. On the other hand, in 1992 Swiss voters narrowly turned down membership in a European Economic Area that comprised the EU and EFTA. Because most EFTA members had joined the EU, Switzerland was politically isolated within Europe at the start beginning of the new millennium but 21st century. However, it maintained strong bilateral economic ties with the EU, which was by far its largest trading partner. During the , and, during the First Persian Gulf War in 1991, however, Switzerland did side (1990–91), Switzerland sided with the UN against Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait.

Remaining challenges

At the end of the 20th century, growing doubts about Switzerland’s past and future emerged. Many Swiss questioned the country’s traditional “bunker mentality” in a Europe at peace and with open borders. Particularly troubling for Switzerland was an international debate during the 1990s about “dormant accounts”—assets left by foreign Jews in Swiss banks during the Nazi era but never returned—a controversy that challenged Switzerland’s self-image. Further, with many UN and international organizations headquartered in Switzerland, there was a growing debate about whether Swiss neutrality was hindered or furthered by its refusal to join the UN. Finally, after nearly 60 years of nonmembership, Swiss voters, taking the lead of the major political parties, endorsed entry into the UN in 2002image of itself and resulted in a settlement between two large commercial banks and Jewish plaintiffs in which the banks agreed to pay international Jewish organizations 2 billion Swiss francs.



General works

Niklaus Flüeler and Roland Gfeller-Corthésy (eds.), Die Schweiz vom Bau der Alpen bis zur Frage nach der Zukunft (1975), is a complete, well-illustrated lexicon. Overviews of all aspects of Swiss life include Emil Egli, Switzerland: A Survey of Its Land and People, trans. from German (1978), which provides a description of landscape, climate, settlement patterns, and economy; Aubrey Diem, Switzerland: Land, People, Economy, 3rd 4th rev. ed. (19911994), presents the history and discusses a concise text including history as well as an analysis of the major cities and regions. Jean-Bernard Racine and Claude Raffestin (eds.), Nouvelle Géographie de la Suisse et des Suisses, 2 vol. (1990), is a comprehensive work; Christopher Hughes, Switzerland (1975), a critical account; and Jonathan Steinberg, Why Switzerland?, 2nd ed. (1996), an assessment of Swiss behaviour and culture.

Other broad treatments of note include René Lebeau, La Suisse (1975), a historical and geographic analysis; J. Murray Luck (ed.), Modern Switzerland (1978); Swiss Office for the Development of Trade, Focus on Switzerland, 2nd ed., rev. and enlarged, 4 vol. (1982), a comprehensive, beautifully illustrated work that examines the country’s landscape, history, institutions, cultural life, and economy; Oskar Bär, Geographie der Schweiz, new and Eduard Imhof (ed. (1979), a well-illustrated text; and François Jeanneret and Franz auf der Maur, Der grosse schweizer Atlas (1981 Atlas der Schweiz (1965–2000), a comprehensive series of large-format atlas, detailed maps with detailed text and colour photographs and maps, that analyzes Switzerland from prehistoric times to the present.


Emil Egli, Switzerland: A Survey of Its Land and People, trans. from German (1978), provides a description of landscape, climate, settlement patterns, and economy. text, relating to all aspects of the country. The environment is the subject of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Environmental Performance Reviews: Switzerland (1998).



Swiss National Tourist Office, Switzerland and Her Glaciers: From the Ice Age to the Present (1981), gives a vivid portrayal, with detailed text and excellent colour photographs. Jaro Stvan, Les Alpes apprivoisées (1991), is an illustrated analysis of the infrastructural impact on the Swiss Alpine environment. Max Iklé, Switzerland: An International Banking and Finance Center (1972; originally published in German, 1970), chronicles the history of the country’s financial institutions. Kenneth D. McRae, Conflict and Compromise in Multilingual Societies, vol. 1, Switzerland (1983); and Carol L. Schmid, Conflict and Consensus in Switzerland (1981), offer historical insight into the reasons why relative social and political stability exists in Switzerland.


Historical overviews are provided by Handbuch der schweizer Geschichte, 2 vol. (1972–77); Peter Dürrenmatt, Schweizer Geschichte (1957, reissued in 2 vol., 1976); A useful resource in German is Andre Odermatt and Daniel Wachter, Schweiz: eine moderne Geographie, 4th ed. (2004).


A broad overview of Swiss history in German is found in Ulrich Im Hof and Beatrix Mesmer, Geschichte der Schweiz und der Schweizer, 3 vol. (1982–83). Historical introductions in English include Edgar Bonjour, H.S. Offler, and G.R. Potter, A Short History of Switzerland (1952, reprinted 1985); Georg Thürer Edgar Bonjour, Free and Swiss : The Story of Switzerland (1970; originally published in German, 3rd ed., 1964); Marc-R. Sauter, Switzerland, from Earliest Times to the Roman Conquest (1976); and Neutrality: Its History and Meaning, 2nd ed., trans. from German (1952); William Martin, Switzerland: From Roman Times to the Present, 6th ed. (1971; originally published in French, 6th ed., 1966). 1966); Frederick William Dame, History of Switzerland, 3 vol. (2001); Dieter Fahrni, An Outline History of Switzerland, 8th ed. (2003); and Roger Sablonier, “The Swiss Confederation,” in Christopher Allmand (ed.), The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 7 (1998), pp. 645–670, which focuses on the Middle Ages. The debates about Switzerland’s war history have produced a variety of literature, both apologetic and polemic. A biased assessment is Georg Kreis, Switzerland in the Second World War (1999). Hektor Ammann and Karl Schib (eds.), Historischen Atlas der Schweiz, 2nd ed. (1958), is an excellent atlas of Swiss history.