History Of Switzerland
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History Of Switzerland
Since 1848, the Swiss Confederation has been a federal republic of relatively autonomous Cantons of Switzerland, cantons, some of which have a history of federation that goes back more than 700 years, putting them among the world's oldest surviving republics. The early history of Switzerland, early history of the region is tied to that of History of the Alps, Alpine culture. Switzerland was inhabited by the Helvetii, and it came under Switzerland in the Roman era, Roman rule in the 1st century BC. The Gallo-Roman culture was amalgamated with Migration period, Germanic influence during Late Antiquity, late antiquity, with the eastern part of Switzerland becoming Alemannic territory. The area of Switzerland was incorporated into the Frankish Empire in the 6th century. In the High Middle Ages, the eastern German-speaking part belonged to the Duchy of Swabia within the Holy Roman Empire, while the western French-speaking part was part of Kingdom of Burgundy, Burgundy. The Old Swiss ...
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Swiss Confederation
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland is geographically divided among the Swiss Plateau, the Alps and the Jura; the Alps occupy the greater part of the territory, whereas most of the country's 9 million people are concentrated on the plateau, which hosts its largest cities and economic centres, including Zurich, Geneva, and Lausanne. Switzerland is a federal republic composed of 26 cantons, with federal authorities based in Bern. It has four main linguistic and cultural regions: German, French, Italian and Romansh. Although most Swiss are German-speaking, national identity is fairly cohesive, being rooted in a common historical background, shared values such as federalism and direct democracy, and Alpine symbolism. Swiss identity transcends language, ethnicity, and r ...
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Old Swiss Confederacy
The Old Swiss Confederacy, also known as Switzerland or the Swiss Confederacy, was a loose confederation of independent small states (, German or ), initially within the Holy Roman Empire. It is the precursor of the modern state of Switzerland. It formed at the end of the 13th century, from foundation of the Old Swiss Confederacy, a nucleus in what is now Central Switzerland, growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy, expanding to include the cities of Zurich and Bern by the middle of the 14th century. This formed a rare union of rural and urban medieval commune, communes, all of which enjoyed imperial immediacy in the Holy Roman Empire. This confederation of eight cantons () was politically and militarily successful for more than a century, culminating in the Burgundy Wars of the 1470s which established it as a power in the complicated political landscape dominated by Early modern France, France and the Habsburg monarchy, Habsburgs. Its success resulted in the addition of more con ...
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Helvetic Republic
The Helvetic Republic (; ; ) was a sister republic of France that existed between 1798 and 1803, during the French Revolutionary Wars. It was created following the French invasion and the consequent dissolution of the Old Swiss Confederacy, marking the end of the ''ancien régime'' in Switzerland. Throughout its existence, the republic incorporated most of the territory of modern Switzerland, excluding the cantons of Geneva and Neuchâtel and the old Prince-Bishopric of Basel. The Swiss Confederacy, which until then had consisted of self-governing cantons united by a loose military alliance (and ruling over subject territories such as Vaud), was invaded by the French Revolutionary Army and turned into an ally known as the "Helvetic Republic". The interference with localism and traditional liberties was deeply resented, although some modernizing reforms took place. Resistance was strongest in the more traditional Catholic cantons, with armed uprisings breaking out in spring ...
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French Invasion Of Switzerland
The French invasion of Switzerland () occurred from January to May 1798 as part of the French Revolutionary Wars. The independent Old Swiss Confederacy collapsed from the invasion and simultaneous internal revolts called the "Helvetic Revolution". The Swiss ''ancien régime'' institutions were abolished and replaced by the centralised Helvetic Republic, one of the sister republics of the French First Republic. Background Before 1798, the modern canton of Vaud belonged to the canton of Bern, to which it had a subject status. Moreover, the majority of the Francophone Vaudois felt oppressed by German-speaking Bern. Several Vaudois patriots such as Frédéric-César de La Harpe advocated for independence. In 1795, La Harpe called on his compatriots to rise up against the Bernese aristocrats, but his appeal fell to deaf ears, and he had to flee to Revolutionary France, where he resumed his activism. In late 1797, French general Napoleon Bonaparte, who had just successfully conq ...
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Early Modern Switzerland
The early modern history of the Old Swiss Confederacy ('' Eidgenossenschaft'', also known as the "Swiss Republic" or ''Republica Helvetiorum'') and its constituent Thirteen Cantons encompasses the time of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) until the French invasion of 1798. The early modern period was characterized by an increasingly aristocratic and oligarchic ruling class as well as frequent economic or religious revolts. This period came to be referred to as the ''Ancien Régime'' retrospectively, in post-Napoleonic Switzerland. The loosely organized Confederation remained generally disorganized and crippled by the religious divisions created by the Swiss Reformation. During this period the Confederation gained formal independence from the Holy Roman Empire with support from France, and had very close relations with France. The early modern period also saw the growth of French-Swiss literature, and notable authors of the Age of Enlightenment such as the mathematicia ...
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Thirteen Cantons
The early modern period, early modern history of the Old Swiss Confederacy (''Eidgenossenschaft'', also known as the "Swiss Republic" or ''Republica Helvetiorum'') and its constituent Thirteen Cantons encompasses the time of the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) until the Switzerland in the Napoleonic era, French invasion of 1798. The early modern period was characterized by an increasingly Aristocracy, aristocratic and Oligarchy, oligarchic ruling class as well as frequent economic or religious revolts. This period came to be referred to as the ''Ancien Régime'' retrospectively, in Restoration (Switzerland), post-Napoleonic Switzerland. The loosely organized Confederation remained generally disorganized and crippled by the religious divisions created by the Swiss Reformation. During this period the Confederation gained formal independence from the Holy Roman Empire with support from kingdom of France, France, and had very close relations with France. The early modern perio ...
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Swiss Reformation
The Protestant Reformation in Switzerland was promoted initially by Huldrych Zwingli, who gained the support of the magistrate, Mark Reust, and the population of Zürich in the 1520s. It led to significant changes in civil life and state matters in Zürich and spread to several other cantons of Switzerland, cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy. Seven cantons remained Catholic, however, which led to intercantonal wars known as the Wars of Kappel. After the victory of the Catholic cantons in 1531, they proceeded to institute Counter-Reformation policies in some regions. The schism and distrust between the Catholic and the Protestant cantons defined their interior politics and paralysed any common foreign policy until well into the 18th century. Despite their religious differences and an exclusively Catholic defence alliance of the seven cantons (''Goldener Bund''), no other major armed conflicts directly between the cantons occurred. Soldiers from both sides fought in the French ...
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Duchy Of Milan
The Duchy of Milan (; ) was a state in Northern Italy, created in 1395 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, then the lord of Milan, and a member of the important Visconti of Milan, Visconti family, which had been ruling the city since 1277. At that time, it included twenty-six towns and the wide rural area of the middle Padan Plain east of the Montferrat, hills of Montferrat. During much of its existence, it was wedged between House of Savoy, Savoy to the west, Republic of Venice to the east, the Old Swiss Confederacy, Swiss Confederacy to the north, and separated from the Mediterranean by the Republic of Genoa to the south. The duchy was at its largest at the beginning of the 15th century, at which time it included almost all of what is now Lombardy and parts of what are now Piedmont, Veneto, Tuscany, and Emilia-Romagna. Under the House of Sforza, Milan experienced a period of great prosperity with the introduction of the silk industry, becoming one of the wealthiest states during the Ren ...
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Transalpine Campaign Of The Old Swiss Confederacy
Gallia Narbonensis (Latin for "Gaul of Narbonne", from its chief settlement) was a Roman province located in Occitania and Provence, in Southern France. It was also known as Provincia Nostra ("Our Province"), because it was the first Roman province north of the Alps, and as Gallia Transalpina ("Transalpine Gaul"), distinguishing it from Cisalpine Gaul in Northern Italy. It became a Roman province in the late 2nd century BC. Gallia Narbonensis was bordered by the Pyrenees Mountains on the west, the Cévennes to the north, the Alps on the east, and the Gulf of Lion on the south; the province included the majority of the Rhone catchment. The western region of Gallia Narbonensis was known as Septimania. The province was a valuable part of the Roman Empire, owing to the Greek colony and later Roman Civitas of Massalia, its location between the Spanish provinces and Rome, and its financial output. Names The province of ''Gallia Transalpina'' ("Transalpine Gaul") was late ...
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Italian Wars
The Italian Wars were a series of conflicts fought between 1494 and 1559, mostly in the Italian Peninsula, but later expanding into Flanders, the Rhineland and Mediterranean Sea. The primary belligerents were the House of Valois, Valois kings of Kingdom of France, France, on one side, and their opponents in the Holy Roman Empire and Habsburg Spain, Spain on the other. At different points, various Italian states participated in the war, some on both sides, with limited involvement from Kingdom of England, England, Switzerland, and the Ottoman Empire. The Italic League established in 1454 achieved a Balance of power (international relations), balance of power in Italy, but fell apart after the death of its chief architect, Lorenzo de' Medici, in 1492. Combined with the ambition of Ludovico Sforza, its collapse allowed Charles VIII of France to invade Kingdom of Naples, Naples in 1494, which drew in Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Although Charles was forced to withdraw in 1495, o ...
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Duchy Of Burgundy
The Duchy of Burgundy (; ; ) was a medieval and early modern feudal polity in north-western regions of historical Burgundy. It was a duchy, ruled by dukes of Burgundy. The Duchy belonged to the Kingdom of France, and was initially bordering the Kingdom of Burgundy to the east and south, thus being distinct from the neighboring Free County of Burgundy (modern region of Franche-Comté). The first duke of Burgundy (), attested in sources by that title, was Richard the Justiciar in 918. In 1004, prince Henry of France, a son of king Robert II of France, inherited the Duchy, but later ceded it to his younger brother Robert in 1032. Robert became the ancestor of the ducal House of Burgundy, a cadet branch of the royal Capet dynasty, ruling over a territory that roughly conformed to the borders and territories of the modern region of Burgundy (Bourgogne). Upon the extinction of the Burgundian male line with the death of Duke Philip I in 1361, the duchy reverted to King John ...
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