Today, Switzerland is known for its chocolate
and neutrality. Wedged between Italy, France, Germany, and Austria, the humble, non-belligerent
nation and base for the founding of the Red Cross has scarcely made a bad name for itself in
the recent history books. When we think of Switzerland, we don’t really think of
violence or political turmoil - but that’s because we also don’t really think
about how Switzerland became Switzerland… Today, the nation known by the name Switzerland in English is actually officially
known as the Swiss Confederation. With 4 official languages and 41,285 square miles
of land filled with roughly 8.6 million people, when you start to pay attention, you may start
to wonder - how did this nation begin? Well, the formation of the Swiss Confederation
seems to have happened in a few stages. Back in the BC era, modern-day Switzerland was
occupied by Helvetic Celts and would later be taken under the crown of the Roman Empire. From
there, the region passed between Germanic tribes, Charlemagne, and eventually the Holy Roman Empire. It was during this time that we see the
first phase of the Swiss Confederation starting on the path that turned
it into Switzerland as we know it… First came the Old Swiss Confederacy.
In 1291, 3 Swiss cantons from within the Holy Roman Empire decided to form an
alliance amongst each other in response to the destabilized environment around them.
These cantons, Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, agreed through a federal charter to jointly
manage common interests, including defense and economy. While this wasn’t the first
time that such an agreement had been made, it is still marked by many historians and the
Swiss state as the start of the modern nation’s journey. This early confederacy would also grow
fairly quickly, and by the 15th century, the 3 original members had welcomed in the city-states
of Lucerne, Zurich, and Bern, in addition to the cantons of Glarus and Zug. This successful
expansion was not praised by all though, and the Austrians, in particular, became agitated by it.
Military conflicts between members of the Swiss Confederacy and Austria began to break out off and
on throughout the latter half of the 14th century. This clash was a result of the ongoing strife
between the Old Swiss Confederacy and the Duchy of Austria under the command of Leopold III and
resulted in a remarkable Swiss triumph. Another victory came in 1388 when the Swiss and Austrians
collided again, this time at the Battle of Nafels, and an even bigger turning point came for
the Swiss in 1499 with the Swabian War. The Swabian War occurred between the Habsburgs
of Austria and their Swabian League allies, against the Swiss Confederacy with their friends
from the Three Leagues of the Grisons. As before, the root of the conflict was a territorial dispute
over other neighboring lands as the Swiss were continuing their expansion at the expense of
Austria’s own ambitions. The war lasted from January through September of the same year and
resulted in a peace treaty that greatly favored the Swiss and essentially granted the confederacy
de facto independence from the Holy Roman Empire. Still, the Swiss cantons remained an official
part of the HRE for a bit longer, however, their expansion did not end by any means. For
example, in 1501, two more cantons - Basel and Schaffhausen - joined the confederacy,
although this would be the last of such growth for a period as the events to come in
1515 and after would humble the Swiss greatly… In September of 1515, the Battle of Marignano
between the Old Swiss Confederacy pitted against France and Venice proved that the so-far
invincibility shown by the Swiss was not quite as bullet-proof as they had hoped.
Nonetheless, despite the crushing defeat, the confederacy stood strong and moved on to
the next obstacle: the Protestant Reformation. The Swiss Confederacy was directly affected
by the Reformation and subsequently became greatly divided. Between the influence from Luther
over in Germany, to that of Zwingli and Calvin, the Swiss were overwhelmed by Protestanism and
many began to follow the movement and align with its beliefs. This caused a rift between
those newly Protestant Swiss and the remaining Catholics within the confederation, and a period
known as the Wars of Kappel and later the Wars of Villmergen came as a consequence. Despite the
internal conflict though, the overall shared interests of the confederacy members proved to
be of high importance and managed to hold the alliance together. As a result, by the mid
17th century with the signing of the Treaty of Westphalia, the Swiss Confederacy was able to
gain full independence from the Holy Roman Empire. Though freedom was sweet, it was short-lived
for the Swiss. In the late 18th century, Napoleon led his troops into the Swiss
cantons for a successful annexation that resulted in the establishment of a centralized
government and a single state under the French. It took almost two decades for this to be
undone with the Congress of Vienna in 1815, but this finally re-established the original
confederacy. Additionally, this agreement re-confirmed the former neutrality that the Swiss
Confederacy had established back with the Treaty of Westphalia and allowed the admission of Valais,
Neuchatel, and Geneva into the confederacy. This victory quickly led to another major step
toward the establishment of today’s Switzerland… After freeing itself from the grasp of France, the Swiss Confederacy faced a new string
of internal conflict as the Catholics hoped to maintain the structures of old while the
Protestants wanted to create a more unified federal state instead, amongst other civil
and religious disputes between the sides. Ultimately, the Protestants won the day,
and it was decided that Switzerland would become a more unified, federal state
with a new official constitution in 1848. Later revisions were made to the
constitution in 1874 and once more in 1891, with some slight amendments also made in 1999.
Thanks to this constitution and its amendments, referendum democracy and autonomy for the included
cantons became the new pillars of Switzerland’s structure, and much of the constitution was
modeled after that of the United States… Some interesting inclusions in the
new constitution were, for example, one clause that allows the entire constitution to
be rewritten if that was found to be necessary. Another put an end to Swiss troops serving abroad
outside of the Holy See and under Francis II of the Two Sicilies. Furthermore, the 1891 update
put a strong emphasis on direct democracy, and for the most part, finalized its contents.
During the 20th century, Switzerland continued to shape itself as a unified nation and a
strong European political entity. Nonetheless, it opted to stay out of both world wars and
eventually joined the Council of Europe in 1963 and became a full member of the United Nations
in 2002. While attempts to join the European Union ultimately resulted in a culmination of
failure and withdrawal of effort, Switzerland still maintains close ties with its surrounding EU
neighbors and did vote to join the Schengen Area. So, today, the Swiss Confederation - or
Switzerland - is a unified nation of roughly 64% Swiss German speakers, 22% French speakers,
8% Italian speakers, and the remaining Romansch speakers, with its constitution dating back to
1848 while many argue that the true date of the nation’s origin can be traced all the way back
to 1291. The question of how Switzerland came to be formed can be answered in a few ways. One
being the simple timeline of how it happened. The formation of the Old Swiss
Confederation, the expansion period, freedom from the Holy Roman Empire,
the centralization under Napoleon, the re-establishment of the original
confederation with the Congress of Vienna, the civil war, and finally the establishment of
the modern confederation and its constitution. This, of course, fails to address the
rest of the how, or maybe, the why… For a while, there was no desire for Switzerland
to become any type of unified nation and the rulers of the cantons were satisfied with the
structure of the old confederacy. At that point in time, the higher priority was gaining more
autonomy from the Holy Roman Empire and later France. Still, the first inklings of such changes
may have begun with the Protestant Reformation back in the 16th century. Without a doubt though,
the division that this created proved to be a root cause in the eventually push by the Protestants
for a unified state amongst other changes. The war between the traditional Catholics and the liberal
Protestants only showed the people even more that unity was necessary and a federal government
would be beneficial in healing the divide.
