Physical Description
Switzerland extends between the
parallels 45° 49' 2" and 47° 48' 32" lat.
(Greenwich) and the meridians 5° 57' 26" and 10 29' 40" long.
(Greenwich). It forms an irregular
quadrilateral, of which the greatest
length from east to west is 226.2 km., and the greatest breadth
from north to south is nearly 137 km. (136.8). It has, however, no
proper physical unity, as it consists of a number of small
districts, differing from each other widely in language, religion,
ethnology, customs,
&c., but bound together in a political
alliance, made originally for common defence
against a common foe. It is therefore an artificial land, just as
its inhabitants form an artificial nation, though nowadays it is
becoming more homogeneous in both respects. Its political
boundaries thus do not coincide with those of nature. The entire
canton of Ticino is south of
the
Alps, as are the valleys of
Simplon (Valais), Mesocco, Bregaglia, Poschiavo and
Munster (all in the Grisons);
the whole canton 3. The Swiss portion of the main chain of the Alps
and this great northern outlier run parallel to each other from the
Mont Dolent to near
Coire, while
for a short distance they actually unite near the
Pizzo Rotondo (west of the St Gotthard Pass),
parting again near the Oberalp Pass (east of the St Gotthard).
Between these two great snowclad ranges flow two of the mightiest
European rivers, the
Rhone
towards the west and the
Rhine
towards the east, their headwaters being only separated by the
tangled mountain mass between the Pizzo Rotondo and the Oberalp
Pass, which sends the
Reuss
towards the north and the Ticino towards the south.
4. To the north of this great northern outlier rises the
Jura range (q.v.), really a huge
spur of the Alps (with which it is
connected by the Jorat range), while between the northern outlier
and the Jura extends what may be called the plains or " plateau "
of Switzerland, consisting all but wholly of the undulating valley
of the
Aar (below Thun) with its
numerous affluents. To that river valley we must add the valley of
the Thur (a direct affluent of the Rhine), that lies between the
Aar basin and the Rhine basin (the
Lake of Constance).
Missing image
Switzerland-1.jpg
We may thus roughly describe Switzerland (as it exists at the
present time) as consisting of three great river valleys (Rhone,
Rhine and Aar) with the smaller one of the Thur, which Miilh usen
'Base? .?a ' Names of the 13 Cantons underlined a;
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The 3 original
Cantons(Die (lrhantone)12.91-1332 WA The 8 ancient Cantons1353-1481' 'MOM
The 13 Cantons1513-1798 (5
added between 1332 and
1353) (5 added between 1481 and 1513) Subject Districts Hiss E
i
Dates of Confederation,Alliance or Conquest,are shown
thus:-1512 Subject States incorporated with Cantons are indicated
by the word To
with the date of incorporation:- To
Bern 1536
Allied and Protected Districts
of
Schaffhausen
and part of that of
Basel are
north of the Rhine, while a large part of the
Grisons lies to the east of the Rhine basin,
and Porrentruy is far down on the western slope of the Jura. But it
is to be noted that all these exceptional cases were outside the
limits of the Swiss Confederation up to 1798. Putting them aside,
the physical
geography
of Switzerland may thus be described: I. On the south runs the main
chain of the Alps (q.v.), which is joined, at the Mont Dolent
(12,543 ft.) in the chain of
Mont Blanc, by the lower ranges that rise
south of the Lake of
Geneva,
and which continues partly Swiss till close to the Stelvio Pass on
the east.
2. To the north of this main chain there is another
great range of mountains (wholly Swiss) only slightly inferior in
extent and height, which starts from the hills known as the Jorat
range above
Lausanne, and
culminates in the great snowy summits of the Bernese Oberland and
of the Tbdi group, before trending to the north near Coire, and,
after rising once more in the Santis group, dies away on the
southern shore of the Lake of
Constance.
all lie to the north of the main chain of the Alps and include
the region between the Alps and the Jura. If we examine matters
more carefull y we note that the Rhone and Rhine valleys are shut
off from that of the Aar (and, of course, of the Thur) by the great
northern outlier of the Alps, which consists of the Bernese
Oberland and
Todi Alps. Two wide
and undulating valleys (Aar and Thur) and two deeply cut trenches
(Rhone and Rhine) thus lie on the northern slope of the Alps, to
the north and south respectively of the great northern outlier of
the Alps. The main chain cf the Alps rises in Swiss territory to
the height of 15,217 ft. in the loftiest summit or Dufourspitze
(wholly Swiss) of
Monte
Rosa, though the Dom (14,942 ft.), in the Mischabel range,
between
Zermatt and Saas, is
the highest mountain mass which is entirely Swiss. The great
northern outlier attains a height of 14,026 ft. in the
Finsteraarhorn (Bernese Oberland), while the lowest level (581 ft.)
within the Confederation is on the
Lago Maggiore. The highest permanently
inhabited village in Switzerland is Juf (69 9 8 ft.), at the head
of the Avers valley (a tributary of the Hinter Rhine, Grisons),
while the lowest is Ascona (666 ft.), on the Lago Maggiore and just
south-west of
Locarno.
According to the most recent calculations, the total area of
Switzerland is 15,951 sq. m. (some 2500 sq. m. less than that of
Servia). Of this 11,927.5 sq. m.
(or 74.8%) are reckoned as " productive," forests occupying 3,390.9
sq. m. and vineyards 108.7 sq. m., the remainder, or 8427.7 sq. m.,
consisting of arable and pasture land. Of the " unproductive " area
of 4023.5 sq. m (or 25.2%) much consists of lakes and rivers, while
glaciers cover 709.7 sq. m. Approximately the Alps occupy
one-sixtieth of this area, the Jura about one-tenth, and the "
plateau " the rest. Of the entire area the great cantons of the
Grisons, Bern and the
Valais
take up 7411.8 sq. m., or nearly onehalf, while if to them be added
Vaud, Ticino and St
Gall the extent of these six (out of
twenty-two) cantons is 10,527.6 sq. m., or almost two-thirds of the
area of the Confederation. Not included in the total area of
Switzerland are three small " enclaves " (4 sq. m. in all),
Busingen and Verenahof (both in Schaffhausen) belonging to
Baden, while Campione (opposite
Lugano) is
Italian.
Switzerland borders on many countriesFrance west and south-west,
Italy south, Austria east (Tirol and
Vorarlberg), and
Germany north (Bavaria,
Wurttemberg, Baden and
Alsace). Switzerland sends its waters to four
great river basins (which drain to three different seas) in the
following proportions: Rhine basin, 11,159 sq. m.; Rhone basin,
2768 sq. m.;
Po basin, 1361 sq. m.;
and
Inn basin, 663 sq. m.
The thirteen cantons which till 1798 formed the Confederation
are all comprised in the Rhine basin, the ten oldest (i.e. all
before 1500) being within that of the Aar, and it was only after
1798 that certain Romonsch-, Frenchand Italian-speaking " allies "
and subject lands-with their river basins-were tacked on to
them.
Most of the great Swiss rivers, being in their origin mere
mountain torrents, tend to overflow their
banks, and hence much is required and has been
done to prevent this by embanking them, and regaining arable land
from them. So the Rhine (between
Ragatz and the Lake of Constance), the Rhone,
the Aar, the Reuss; and in particular we may mention the great work
on the
Linth (1807-1816) carried
out by
Hans Konrad Escher, who earned
by his success the surname of " Von der Linth," and on the Zihl
near the lakes of
Neuchatel and
Bienne, while the diversion of the Kander from
its junction with the Aar at Thierachern to a channel by which it
flows into the
Lake of
Thun was effected as early as 1714.
There are very many
lakes, large and small, in
Switzerland. The two most extensive, those of Geneva and of
Constance, balance each other, as it were, at the south-west and
north-east corners of the land. But neither of these is wholly
Swiss, this distinction being claimed by the next in size, that of
Neuchatel (92.4 sq. m.), the Lago Maggiore (partly Swiss only)
coming next in the list, and being followed by the wholly Swiss
lakes of
Lucerne and of
Zurich. Then come
Lugano,
Thun, Bienne,
Zug,
Brienz,
Morat, the
Walensee, and
Sempach (52 sq. m.). These
fourteen only are over 4 sq. m. in extent. Eleven of them are in
the Rhine basin (also in that of the Aar), two (Maggiore and
Lugano) in that of the Po, and one (Geneva) in that of the Rhone.
There are no large lakes in the Swiss portion of the Inn basin, the
most extensive being that of Sils (12 sq. m.). Of the smaller lakes
those best known to travellers are the Daubensee (near the summit
of the Gemmi), the Oeschinensee (at the foot of the Blumlis
Alp range) and the Marjelensee, formed
by the damming up of the waters of the Great Aletsch
glacier by a huge lateral
moraine. Alpine tarns are
innumerable.
Of the countless
waterfalls in Switzerland those of the
Rhine (near Schaffhausen) have volume but not height, while the
reverse is the case in varying degrees with those of the Aar at the
Handegg, of the
Reichenbach, of Pissevache, and
particularly of the Staubbach, a mere
thread of water falling clear of a cliff of
great height.
There are said to be 1077
glaciers in Switzerland, but
it is really impossible to estimate the number accurately, as
practically all are now in retreat, and it is not easy to say
whether an isolated fragment of
ice
is or is not entitled to rank as an independent glacier. From them
flow all the more important Swiss rivers and streams. Yet their
distribution is very unequal, for eleven cantons (just one-half of
the Confederation) have none. The Valais heads the list with 375
sq. m., then come the Grisons (138.6), Bern (iii 3),
Uri (44.3),
Glarus (13.9) and Ticino (13.1). The five others
(Unterwalden, Vaud, St Gall,
Schwyz and Appenzell) boast of 13.3 all
together. The three longest glaciers in the Alps are all in the
great northern outlier (not in the main chain)-the Great Aletsch
(162 m.), the Fiescher and the Unteraar (each io m.). In the main
chain the Gorner (94 m.) is the longest. Of glaciers covering an
area of over 6 sq. m. no fewer than 17 are in Switzerland, as
against two each in the French portion of the chain of Mont Blanc
and in the Eastern Alps.
Forests cover 21.2% (339 0.99 sq. m.) of the total area
of Switzerland. Of the six most extensive cantons five. are also at
the head in the matter of forests: Bern (591 sq. m.), the Grisons
(503), Vaud (320), the Valais (297.4) and Ticino (267.2). St Gall
(157) ranks in this respect after Zurich (180.8) and
Aargau (172), while the only
other cantons with over ioo sq. m. are Lucerne (120.4),
Fribourg (119) and
Soleure (iii. 3), the lowest
place being taken by Geneva (9.9). By far the greater part (67%) of
the forest area belongs to the communes or private corporations,
while 28.5% is in the hands of private individuals (much of this
having become private property in the time of
Napoleon I.), but only 4.5%
is in the hands of the state, in consequence of the suppression of
many monasteries. The communes own 94.3% of the forest area in the
Valais, private individuals 78.8% in Lucerne, and the state 16% in
Schaffhausen. Schaffhausen and the Jura cantons are the most wooded
in proportion to their area, while at the other end of the scale
are the towns of Geneva and Basel, and the barren canton of Uri.
The great floods of 1834, 1852 and 1868 drew attention to the
negligent administration of the forests, considered specially as a
protection against damage due to the forces of nature. A forestry
department was created in the
polytechnic school in Zurich when it was
opened in 1855. The Federal Constitution of 1874 (art. 24) handed
over to the Confederation the oversight of the forests " in the
high mountains," this being interpreted to mean the Alps with their
spurs, but not to include the Jura, and a law of 1876 was enacted
to carry out this task. In 1897 the limitation mentioned above was
struck out, so that the Confederation now has oversight of
all forests within its territory, a law of 1902 regulating
in detail the whole subject. Since 1876 much has been done, either
directly by the Confederation or indirectly by subsidizing the
efforts of the cantons, to reafforest districts where the trees had
been recklessly cut down, and to ensure the proper administration
of forests generally.
Geology.-The
greater part of Switzerland is occupied by the belts of folded rock
which constitute the Alps and the Jura (q.v.). The central plain,
however, is covered by nearly undisturbed deposits of
Oligocene and
Miocene age, concealed in
many places by glacial, alluvial and other accumulations of later
date. Both the Oligocene and the Miocene beds are, for the most
part, of
freshwater or
brackish-water origin, but the middle of the Miocene series is
formed of marine deposits. During this period an arm of the
Mediterranean spread up the valley of the Rhone. It reached its
maximum extension during the middle portion of the Miocene period,
when it appears to have stretched continuously along the outer
border of the Alps from the present Golfe du
Lion into Austria; but at an earlier and a later
date it was represented in Switzerland only by a series of
brackish-water lagoons or fresh-water lakes.
Climate.-In Switzerland, where the height above
sea-level ranges from 581 ft. (Lago Maggiore) to 15,217 ft. (Monte
Rosa), we naturally find very many climates, from the regions of
olives, vines, oaks and beeches, pines and firs, to those of the
high mountain pastures, rhododendrons, and of eternal
snow. It has been reckoned that,
while in Italian Switzerland winter lasts only three months, at
Glarus (1578 ft.) it lasts four, in the
Engadine (5945 to 3406 ft.) six, on the St
Gotthard (6936 ft.) eight, on the Great St Bernard (81 i I ft.)
nine, and on the St Theodule Pass (10,899 ft.) practically always.
The highest mean annual temperature (J3° F.) in Switzerland is
naturally that at Lugano (909 ft.), while at Bevers (5610 ft.,
Upper Engadine) the lowest mean temperature in winter is -14° F.,
but the highest in summer is 77° F., an immense difference. At
Montreux the annual mean is
50°, at
Sion, Basel, Geneva and
Coire about 49°, at Zurich 48°, at Bern and Lucerne 47.5 at St Gall
45°, at
Davos 37.5°, at
Sils-Maria 34.5 and on the Great St Bernard 29°. Of course many
factors, such as the shape of the ground, the sheltered position of
the place, the degree of exposure to
sunshine, counterbalance the mere height at
which the town is situated.
The snow-clad Alps of course have the heaviest rainor snow-fall
in Switzerland, this being estimated at 89.7 in. per annum. The
greatest actually recorded rainfall (87.3 in.) was on the
San Bernardino
Pass (6769 ft.), while the lowest (21.7 in.) was at Sierre (1767
ft., Valais). At Lugano the average annual rainfall is 65.4 in., on
the Great St Bernard 48.7 in., at Lucerne 45.6 in., at Montreux
42.6 in., at Sils-Maria 37 in., at Bern and Davos 36.6 in., and at
Basel, Coire and Geneva about 32.7 in. It has been shown by careful
observations that the rainor snow-fall is greatest as we approach
the Alps, whether from the north or the south, the flanks of the
great ranges and the valleys opening out towards the plains
receiving much more
rain than the
high Alpine valleys enclosed on all sides by lofty ridges.
Thunderstorms generally vary in frequency with the amount of
rainfall, being most common near the great ranges, and often very
local. The floods caused by excessive rainfall are sometimes very
destructive, as in 1834, 1852 and 1868, while the same cause leads
to landslips, of which the most remarkable have been those of the
Rossberg above Goldau (1806), at Evionnaz (1835) and at
Elm (1881). The
Fohn is the most remarkable local wind.
For all these reasons Switzerland has many varieties of climate;
and, while, owing to the distribution of the rainfall, the Ticino
and Aar valleys are very fertile, the two great trenches between
the main chain and its north outlier, though warm, are less
productive, as the water comes from the rivers and not from the
skies.
People
The first estimate of the population of Switzerland with any
pretence to accuracy was that of 1817, which put the number at
1,687,900. The first regular
census took place in 1836 to 1838, but was
therefore not synchronous, while it was also not very systematic -
the number was put at 2,190,258. That of 1850 was better organized,
while in 1860 the census was declared decennial, a slight
alteration being made as to that of 1888 for practical reasons. The
following was the number of the population usually resident (the
number of those actually present was also taken, but all detailed
subdivisions refer only to the residents): in 1850, 2,392,740; in
1860, 2,510,494; in 1870, 2,655,001; in 1880, 2,831,787; in 1888,
2,917,754; and in 1900, 3,315,443. The
density per square mile was as follows: 150 in
1850; 157 in 1860; 159 in 1870; 177 in 1880; 182 in 1888; and 207
in 1900. The increase in the whole of the country from 1850 to 1900
was 39%. Thirteen cantons showed an increase lower than this
average, the lowest of all being Aargau, Glarus and Lucerne; while
in Bern the increase of the towns did not counterbalance the
diminution in the country districts. The nine cantons which
increased above the average rate did so either owing to special
circumstances (e.g. the construction of the Simplon
railway in the Valais), or
because their industries were very flourishing (e.g. St Gall), or
because they contain great towns (e.g. Zurich). The highest rates
of increase were shown by Geneva (107% increase) and the half
canton of Urban Basel (278% increase). As to the actual
distribution of the population, the Alpine regions are the sparsest
generally (with the exception of the Outer
Rhodes of
Appenzell), the Jura region has a much higher
ratio, while the densest region of all is the Swiss plateau. The
strong attraction of the towns is shown by the facts that between
1850 and 1900 the population of the nineteen largest nearly
tripled, while, in 1900, of the 187 " political districts " in
Switzerland 41 showed a decrease, and they were all exclusively
rural.
The shifting of the population within the country is also proved
when we note that in 1900 but 38.5% of the Swiss citizens inhabited
their
commune of birth, though the
proportion was 64% in 1850. If we consider the different cantons,
we find that in 1900 31.5% (in 1850 but 26.4%) lived in another
commune within their canton of birth, while 18.4% (as against 6.6%
in 1850) dwelt in a canton other than their canton of birth. To sum
up, in 1850, out of the 25 cantons and half cantons, no fewer than
21 had a majority of citizens living in their commune of birth,
while in 1900 the number was but 11, and those all rural cantons.
Of the 3164
communes (or civil parishes) in Switzerland,
only 21 in 1900 had a population exceeding 10,000, while 20 had
under 50 inhabitants. If we look at the height of the communes
above the sea-level, we find that there were but 3 (with a
population of 463 souls) above 1900 metres (2 953 ft.), while 68
(with a total population of 188 ,394) were below 300 metres (984
ft.). The number of inhabited houses
rose from 347,3 2 7 in 1860 (the number was not
taken in 1850) to 434,084 in 1900, while that of separate
households mounted from 485,087 in 1850 (528,105 in 1860) to
728,920 in 1900.
The
non-Swiss element of the population increased from
3% in 1850 to 11.6% in 1900, and its number from 71,570 in 1850 to
3 8 3,4 2 4 in 1900. The Germans are the most numerous, next in
order come Italians, French and Austrians. In 1900 there were 3535
British subjects resident in Switzerland, and 1 559 citizens of
the United
States. Of course most of the non-Swiss are found in the towns,
or in rural districts where any great railway line is being
constructed.
The
emigration of Swiss beyond seas was but
1691 in 1877, though it rose in 1883 to 13,502 (the maximum as yet
attained). Then the number fell pretty steadily till 18 99 (2493),
then rose again, and in 1906 was 5296. About 89% go to the United
States, and about 6% to the
Argentine Republic (mainly from the
French-speaking cantons). Bern, Zurich, Ticino, the town of Basel
and St Gall are the chief cantons which furnish emigrants.
In the matter of
religion, the Protestants formed 59.
3% in 1850 and 57.8% in 1900, and the Roman
Catholics (including the " Christian " or " Old " Catholics, who
arose in 1874) 40.6% and 41.6% respectively, while the
Jews increased from 1% in 1850 to 4%
in 1900 - the remainder (other religions or none) being 2% in 1860
(not reckoned separately in 1850) and in 1900. Ten and a half
cantons have a majority of Protestants, while in the rest the "
Catholics " have the upper hand. The same proportion prevailed in
1850, save that then Geneva had a
Protestant majority, whereas in 1870 already
the balance had shifted, owing to the number of immigrants from
France and Italy.
As to languages habitually spoken, Switzerland presents
a very variegated picture. By the Federal Constitutions of 1848
(art. 109) and 1874 (art. 116), German, French and Italian are
recognized as " national languages," so that debates in the Federal
parliament may be carried on in any of the three, while Federal
laws, decrees, &c., appear also in the three. The old
historical dialects of Romonsch and Ladin (nearly confined to the
canton of the Grisons, q.v.) enjoy no political recognition by the
Confederation, are largely maintained by artificial means in the
shape of societies founded for their preservation, and are not even
in the majority (which is German) in the Grisons. Of the other 21
cantons, all have a German-speaking majority save 6 - French
prevails in Fribourg, Vaud, the Valais, Neuchatel and Geneva, and
Italian in Ticino. Since the census of 1880, when detailed
inquiries as to language were made for the first time, there has
been a certain amount of shifting, as is shown by the following
figures. German was spoken by 71.3 of the population in 1880, by
71.4 in 1888 and by 69.8 in 1900; the figures for French are
respectively 21.4, 21.8 and 22, and for Italian 5.7, 5.3 and 6.7,
while Romonsch fell from 1.4 to 1.3 and 1.2%. " Other languages "
were 2, 2 and 3%. Thus in 1900 there were nearly 70% of
Germanspeaking persons, as against nearly 30% who spoke one or
other of the Romance tongues. The most interesting cases are the
cantons of Fribourg (q.v.) and the Valais (q.v.), in which French
is advancing at the expense of German.
Chief Political Divisions and Towns
When considering Switzerland it must never be forgotten that,
strictly speaking, the only political " divisions " are the 187 "
districts " into which the cantons are divided (Bern has 30, Vaud
19 and St Gall 15, no others having over 15). These are
administrative districts, created for political purposes. The
cantons themselves are not " divisions " but sovereign states,
which have formed an alliance for certain purposes, while they are
built up out of the 3164 " communes," which are really the
political units. Of the 22 cantons,' 3 are subdivided -
Unterwalden (from
before 1291) into Obwalden and Nidwalden, and Appenzell (since 1
597) into the Outer Rhodes and the Inner Rhodes, while Basel (since
1833) forms urban Basel (the city) and rural Basel (the country
districts). The Swiss political capital is Bern (by virtue of a
Federal law of 1848), while the Federal Supreme Tribunal is (since
its foundation in 1874) at Lausanne, and the Federal Polytechnic
School (since it was opened in 1855) at Zurich.
In 1900 there were 19 towns in Switzerland which had a
population exceeding 10,000 souls, all having increased very much
within the 50 previous years. The following are the six largest,
the figures for 1850 being enclosed within brackets: Zurich,
150,703 (35,483); Basel, 109,161 (27,844); Geneva, 104,796
(42,127), Bern, 64,227 (27,558); Lausanne, 46,732 (17,108), and
La Chaux de
Fonds, 35,968 (13,659). Thus Geneva was first in 1850, but only
third in 1900. Thirteen of these nineteen towns are cantonal
capitals, though La Chaux de Fonds,
Winterthur, Bienne, Tablat (practically a
suburb of St Gall), Le
Lode and
Vevey are not, while no fewer than
twelve cantonal capitals (Sion,
Bellinzona,
Aarau,
Altdorf, Schwyz,
Frauenfeld, Glarus,
Liestal,
Sarnen,
Stans, Appenzell and Zug) are below this limit.
It is reckoned that while the 19 Swiss towns having over 10,000
inhabitants had in 1850 a population of 255,722, that number had
swollen in 1900 to 742,205.
Communications
The
carriage roads of
Switzerland were much improved and increased in number after a
strong
Federal government was set up in
1848, for it largely subsidized cantonal undertakings. In the
course of the 19th century many splendid roads were carried over
the Alpine passes, whether within or leading from Swiss territory;
in the latter case with financial aid from Italy (or till 1859
Austria, as the
mistress
of the Milanese). The earliest in date was that over the Simplon
(1800-1807), while others were opened respectively over the Furka
(7992 ft.) in 1867, to the top of the Great St Bernard (8111 ft.)
in 1893, over the Grimsel (7100 ft.) in 1895, and over the Klausen
Pass (6404 ft.) in 1900. The highest carriage road entirely within
Switzerland is that over the Umbrail Pass (8242 ft.), opened in
1901, and leading from the Swiss upper Munster valley to close to
the Stelvio.
The first Swiss lake over which a steamer plied regularly was
that of Geneva (1823), followed by Constance (1824), Lago Maggiore
(1826), Neuchatel (1827), Thun (1835), Lucerne (1835) and ' The
cantons are - Aargau, Appenzell, Basel, Bern, Fribourg, Geneva,
Glarus, Grisons, Lucerne, Neuchatel, St Gall, Schaffhausen, Schwyz,
Soleure,
Thurgau, Ticino,
Unterwalden, Uri, Valais, Vaud, Zug, Zurich (see separate
articles).
Brienz (1839). The first railway opened within Switzerland was
that (14 m. long) from Zurich to Baden in Aargau (1847), though the
S wiss
bit of that from Basel to
Strassburg had been
opened in 1844. From 1852 to 1872 the cantons granted concessions
for the building of railways to private companies, but from 1872
onwards the conditions were other and the lines were constructed
under. Federal supervision. In the 'fifties and 'sixties many lines
were built, but not always according to
sound financial principles, so
that in 1878 the great " National Railway " became bankrupt. Hence
the idea of the state purchase of the chief lines made considerable
progress, so that in 1898 such a scheme was accepted by the Swiss
people. Accordingly in 1901 most of the great lines became Federal
railways, and the Jura-Simplon in 1903, while the Gotthard line
became Federal in 1909. This state ownership only applies to the
main lines, not to the secondary lines or to
the mountain cog-
wheel railways (of which the first was that from
Vitznau up the Rigi, 1871) now so widespread throughout the
country. The highest point as yet attained in Switzerland by a
mountain railway is the Eismeer station (10,371 ft.) of the line
towards the
Jungfrau. Many
tunnels have been pierced through the Swiss Alps, such as the St
Gotthard (1882), the Albula (1903) and the Simplon (1906). The
highest line carried over a Swiss pass is that over the Little
Scheidegg (6772 ft.).
Indicstries. a. Of the Land. If we look at the annual
turnover there is no doubt that the principal Swiss industry is
that of the entertainment of foreign visitors, for its
gross receipts are larger than
those of any other branch. It appears from the official
statistics that in 1905
its gross receipts amounted to rather over £7,500,000 (as against
about £4,500,000 in 1894, and rather over £2,000,000 in 1880), the
net profit being nearly £1,500,000
(as against £656,000 and nearly £300,000 respectively), while in
1905 the capital invested in this industry was rather over
£31,000,000 (as against £20,750,000 and £12,750,000 respectively).
In 1905 there were in Switzerland 1924 hotels (of which 402 were in
Bern and 358 in the Grisons) specially built for the
accommodation of
foreign visitors, containing 124,068 beds, and employing 33,480
servants (the numbers for 1894 and 1880 are 1693 and 1002, 88,634
and 58,137, and 23,997 and 16,022 respectively). Part of this
increase is due to the fashion of visiting Switzerland in winter
for
skating,
tobogganing, skiing,
&c.
Of the actual " productive " soil about two-thirds is devoted to
arable or pasturage purposes, but the latter branch is by far the
more important, occupying about 83% of this two-thirds, for
Switzerland is much more a
pastoral than an agricultural country. In 1906
the number of
cattle was
officially put at 1 ,497,9 0 4 (as against 1,340,375 in 1901 and
993,291 in 1866). In summer they are supported on the numerous
mountain pastures or " alps " (see
Alps, 2), which number 4778, and are of an
estimated capital value of rather over £3,000,000, while in winter
they are fed on the
hay mown on the lower meadows or
purchased from outside. Two main
breeds of cattle are found in
Switzerland, the dun race (best represented by the cattle of
Schwyz) and the dappled race (of which the Simme valley beasts are
of the red and white kind, and those of the
Gruyere of the black and white variety). The
best Swiss cheeses are those of the Emmenthal a.nd of the Gruyere,
while the two principal condensed
milk factories (Nestle at Vevey and that at Cham)
are now united. It should be noted that the proportion of the land
devoted to pastoral pursuits increases, like the rainfall, from the
west and north-west to the east and north-east, so that it is
highest (nearly 90%) in Appenzell and St Gall. As regards other
domestic animals, the number of
swine increased from 304,428 in 1866 to 566,974
in 1896 (the maximum recorded), but in 1906 fell to 548,355. The
number of goats has remained pretty steady (359,913 in 1906 to
375,482 in 1866, the maximum, 416,323, being attained in 1886), but
that of
sheep has decreased from
447,001 in 1866 to 209,443 in 1906.
It is stated that but 14% of the " productive " area of
Switzerland is
corn-growing, this
proportion being however doubled in Vaud. Hence for its food supply
the country is largely dependent on its imports, the home supply
sufficing for 153 days only.
Tobacco is grown to a certain extent,
especially near Payerne in the Broye valley (Vaud) and in Ticino,
while more recently beetroot has been cultivated for the purpose of
manufacturing
sugar.
Fruit and vegetables are made into
jams and concentrated foods at Lenzburg and Kemptthal, while
kirschwasser (cherry brandy) is made in Zug. Forests cover
about 282% of the " productive " area of Switzerland. They are now
well cared for, and produce considerable profits.
Vineyards in Switzerland now cover 108.7 sq. m., though the area
is steadily decreasing owing to the competition of foreign cheap
wines. The only cantons which have over 10% of their area thus
planted are Vaud (25%), Ticino (20%), Zurich (17%) and the Valais
(10.7%). Among the best Swiss wines are those of La Cote, Lavaux
and Yvorne (all in Vaud), and
Muscat, Fendant and Vin du Glacier (all in the
Valais). Those grown near Neuchatel, at the northern end of the
lake of Zurich,
near Baden (Aargau), and along the Swiss
bank of the Rhine, are locally
much esteemed.
Among the raw mineral products of Switzerland the most important
is
asphalt, which is worked
by an English company in the Val de Travers (Neuchatel). Various
metals (even including
gold and
silver) exist in Switzerland, but are hardly worked at all, save
iron (Delemont),
copper (Val d'Anniviers) and
argentiferous
lead (Lotschenthal). True
coal is wholly absent, but lignites
occur here and there, and are sometimes worked (e.g. at Kapfnach,
Zurich).
Anthracite is
found in the Valais, while
peat is
worked in many parts.
Salt was
first found at Bex (Vaud) in 1544, and the mines are still worked.
But far more important are the saline deposits along the Rhine,
from near Basel to
Coblenz
(at the junction of the Rhine and the Aar), which were discovered
at Schweizerhall in the year 1836, at Kaiseraugst in 1844, at
Rheinfelden in 1845 and at Ryburg in 1848.
Marble,
sandstone and
granite are worked in various spots for
building purposes.
Marl,
clay and
limestone are also found, and are much used
for the manufacture of various kinds of
cement. There are said to be 620 mineral springs
in Switzerland, the best known being those at Baden in Aargau and
at Schinznach (both
sulphur), Schuls-Tarasp and St Moritz,
Stachelberg, Ragatz and Pfafers, Leukerbad and
Weissenburg. The most
important
slate quarries are
those in the canton of Glarus. The relative importance of the Swiss
industries concerned with the land is best shown by the census
taken in 1900 as to the occupations of the inhabitants. No fewer
than 1,035,010 (about one-third of the total population) were
engaged in pastoral or agricultural pursuits, as against 19,334
employed in market gardening, 18,233 in various matters touching
the forests, 12,785 in the vineyards and 12,323 in extracting
minerals (of these 8004 were employed in stone or marble
quarries).
Manufactures
The same census also shows the relative importance of the chief
branches of manufacture in Switzerland - textile industries 270,114
(of which 88,457 were in the
silk
branch and 63,853 in that of
cotton), watchmaking 115,617,
embroidery 8 9,55 8,
besides 74,148 engaged in the manufacture of machinery. Eastern
Switzerland is the industrial portion of the land, though
watchmaking and some minor industries are carried on in the Jura.
The textile industries are by far the most important in
Switzerland, Zurich and its neighbourhood being the main centre
both for silk (this branch was revived by the Protestant exiles
from Italy in the 16th century) and cotton, while St Gall,
Appenzell and Thurgau are mainly devoted to embroidery, and Basel
to the silk ribbon and floss silk departments. The watchmaking
industry has been established in Geneva since the end of the 16th
century, and spread in the early 18th century to the Neuchatel
portion of the Jura (centre La Chaux de Fonds and
Le Locle). Musical boxes are
chiefly made at Ste Croix in the Vaud section of the Jura, while
Geneva is famous for its
jewelry and goldsmiths' work. The growth of the
manufacture of machines is much more recent, having originally been
a mere
adjunct of the
textile industry, and developed in order to secure its independence
of imports from
England. Its
centres are in and around Zurich, Winterthur, St Gall and Basel.
Among other products and industries are
chocolate (Suchard, Cailler, Sprungli,
Tobler,
Peter, Maestrani, &c.),
shoemaking (SchOnenwerd),
straw
plaiting (Aargau and Gruyere),
wood carving (Brienz in the Bernese
Oberland since 1825), concentrated soups and meats (Maggi's factory
is at Kemptthal near Winterthur),
aniline dyes (Basel),
aluminium (Neuhausen in Schaffhausen).
Commerce
Switzerland is naturally adapted for
free trade for it depends on the outside
world for much of its food-stuffs and the raw materials of its
manufactures. After the adoption of the Federal Constitution of
1848,
customs
duties within the land were abolished, while moderate duties
only were levied on imports, the sum increasing as the articles
came more or less within the
category of luxuries, but being lowest on
necessaries of life. Down to 1870 Switzerland was all but entirely
on the side of free trade. Since that time it has been becoming
more and more protectionist. This change was due in part to the
increased tariffs levied in Germany and France, and in part to the
strong pressure exercised by certain branches of the Swiss
manufacturing industries, while
treaties of commerce have been made with
divers countries. Hence in 1903
the Swiss people adopted the principle of a greatly increased scale
of duties, the detailed
tariff
of the actual sums levied on the various articles coming into force
on the 1st of January 1906. These higher duties were meant to serve
as a
weapon for obtaining
better terms in future
commercial treaties, but were
finally increased still more at the instigation of certain of the
great manufacturers, so that Switzerland became decidedly a
protectionist country. In 1901 the receipts from the customs duties
were about £1,858,000, while in 1905 they were £2,541,000, and in
1907 rather more (£2,894,000).
Excluding goods in transit, the total value of imports rose from
about £36,500,000 in 1895 to about £55,000,000 in 1905, while
between the same dates the exports rose from about £26,500,000 to
£38,750,000 - in other words, the unfavourable
balance of
trade had increased from £10,000,000 in 1895 to £16,250,000 in
1905.
The increase during the same period in the case of the four
great articles of export from Switzerland was as follows: silk from
nearly £8,500,000 to rather over £10,000,000, embroideries from
nearly £3,000,000 to £5,000,000, watches from £3,500,000 to
£5,250,000, and machinery from rather under £1,000,000 to
£2,250,000.
Government
The Swiss Confederation must be carefully distinguished from the
22 cantons of which it is composed, and which are sovereign states,
save in so far as they have given up their rights to the Federal
government. These cantons themselves are built up of many political
communes, or Gemeinden, or civil parishes, which are the real
political units of the country (and not merely local subdivisions);
for any one desiring to become naturalized a Swiss must first
become (by purchase or grant) a member of a commune, and then, if
his burghership of the commune is confirmed by the cantonal
authorities, he obtains also, simultaneously, both cantonal and
Federal citizenship.
a. Now in Switzerland there are 3164
political
communes (municipalites or
Einwohnergemeinden). These
are composed of all male Swiss citizens over twenty years of age,
of good character and resident in the commune for at least three
months. The meeting of these persons is called the
assemblee
generate or
Gemeindeversammlung, while the executive
council chosen by it is the
conseil municipal or
Gemeinderat, the chief person in the commune (elected by
the larger meeting) being termed the
syndic or
maire, the
Gemeindepriisident or the
Gemeindeanzmann. This
kind of commune includes all Swiss residents (hence the German
name) within its territorial limits, and has practically all powers
of management of local affairs, including the carrying out of
cantonal and Federal laws or decrees, save and except matters
relating to the pastures and forests held in common. This class of
commune dates only from the time of the Helvetic republic
(1798-1802), and its duties were largely increased after the
liberal movement of 1830; the care of the highways, the
police, the schools, the
administration of the
poor
law being successively handed over to it, so that it became a
political body. As regards Swiss citizens belonging to cantons
other than that in which they reside, the Federal Constitution of
1848 (art. 41) gave them rights of voting there in cantonal and
Federal matters, but not in those relating exclusively to the
commune itself. The Federal Constitution of 1874 (art. 43) gives to
such persons as those named above (
establis or
Niedergelassenen - that 'is, ' permanent settlers) all
voting rights, Federal, cantonal and communal (save as below), the
two last named after a stay of three months. Temporary residents
being Swiss citizens (e.g. labourers, servants, students, officials
not being communal officials) are called
residents or
Aufenthalter, and are in most cantons considered to be as
such incapable of voting in communal matters until after a
residence of three months, though some cantons require a longer
sojourn. Foreign residents are included under this class of
Aufenthalter. The
burgher communes (communes
bourgeoises or
Burgergemeinden), now principally of
historical interest, having for the most part gradually merged with
the other class of communes, were originally simply the communities
that dealt with the management of the " lands subject to common
user " or
Allmend (mainly summer pastures and forests),
but gradually obtained, by purchase or otherwise, the manorial
rights, the burghers then being themselves the lords of the
manor (as at
Brixham in
Devonshire). But when after
the
Reformation, owing to the suppression of the monasteries, the
care of the poor was imposed by the Federal Diet, in 1551, on the
several communes, these naturally aided only their own members, a
course which gave rise to a " communal burghership, " a system
designed to prevent persons from gaining a " settlement " in any
commune to which they did not properly belong. Thus all nonburgher
residents, permanent or temporary, were excluded from any share in
the enjoyment of the lands subject to common user, or in their
management, and remained complete outsiders, though paying local
rates. With the increased facilities of communication and the rise
of a shifting industrial population such restrictions became
invidious and unfair, particularly after the introduction, under
the Helvetic republic, of a Federal citizenship, superior to
cantonal citizenship, and after the communes became more and more
burdened with public duties, so that the amount of the rates
equalled, if it did not exceed, the sums produced by the " common
lands." To avoid some of these inconveniences " political communes
" were set up, consisting practically of all Swiss permanent
residents. But the relation between these and the old
Burgergemeinden (the burghers of which only have rights of
user over the common lands) was very delicate, and has been settled
(if settled at all) in various fashions. In some cases the older
communes simply merged with the newer, the ownership of the common
lands thus passing from one to the other class. In other cases the
Burgergemeinden still exist as distinct from the "
political communes," but solely for purposes (enjoyment,
management, &c.) relating to the common lands, and thus form a
sort of privileged community inside the larger and now more
generally important community. In some cases the common lands have
been divided in varying proportions between the two classes of
communes, the
Burgergemeinden thus continuing to exist
solely as regards that part of the common lands which they have
retained. In other cases the common lands, whether before or after
1798, have passed into the possession of a small number of the
burghers, who form a close corporation, the revenues of which are
enjoyed by the members as such, and not as citizens - in short are
subject to no public obligations or burdens save rates and
taxes.
b. The twenty-two cantons (three are subdivided - Unterwalden,
Appenzell and Basel - into two halves) are divided into "
administrative districts " (187 in number), which are ruled by
prefects, in the French fashion, appointed by the cantonal
authorities. These are the true local divisions in the country.
Each canton has its own legislature, executive and judiciary. The
older cantons have in some cases (Uri, Unterwalden, Appenzell and
Glarus) preserved their ancient democratic assemblies (or
Landesgemeinden), in which each burgher appears in person,
and which usually meet once a year, on the last Sunday in April or
the first Sunday in May, always (weather permitting) in the open
air. These annual assemblies elect
annually a sort of standing committee, and also the chief
magistrate or
Landammann, as well as the judiciary. In the other
eighteen cantons the legislature (
Gross Rat or
grand conseil) is composed of
representatives chosen by the cantonal voters in proportion,
varying in each canton, to the population. They are thus local
parliaments rather than mere county councils. The executive
(
Regierungsrat or
conseil d'etat) is elected
everywhere (save Fribourg, the Valais and Vaud) by a popular vote,
this plan having gradually superseded election by the cantonal
legislature. All the cantons (save Fribourg) have the
referendum and
initiative, by which the
electors can exercise control over their
elected representatives. The cantonal judiciary is chosen by the
people.
c. In 1848 the
Federal government was reorganized
according to the plan adopted in the United States, at any rate so
far as regards the
legislature (Bundesversammlung or
assemblee federate). This is composed of two houses: (1)
the
Stdnderat or
conseil des etats, to which each
canton, great or small, sends two representatives (generally chosen
for varying terms by the people,, but, in 1907, still by the
cantonal legislature in Bern, Fribourg,, Neuchatel, St Gall, the
Valais and Vaud), this house being like the American
Senate; (2) the
Nationalrat or
conseil national,. composed of
representatives (at present 167 in number) elected within the
cantons in the proportion of 1 to every 20,000 (or fraction over
10,000) of the population, and holding office for three years,
before the expiration of which it cannot be dissolved.. The two
houses are on an absolutely equal footing, and bills are introduced
into one or the other simply because of reasons of practical
convenience. The Federal parliament meets, at least, once a year,
in Bern, the Federal capital. The
Federal executive
(Bundesrat or
conseil federal) was set up in 1848 and
is composed of seven members, who are elected for three years by
the two houses of the Federal legislature, sitting together as a
congress, but no two members may belong to the same canton. The
Federal parliament annually names the president
(
Bundespreisident or
president de la
confederation) and the vice-president, so that the former is
really but the chairman of a committee, and not in any way like the
American president. The Federal president always holds the foreign
portfolio (the "
political department "), the other portfolios being annually
redistributed among the other members, but all decisions proceed
from the council as a whole. The Federal councillors cannot be at
the same time members of either house of the Federal parliament,
though they may speak or introduce motions (but not vote) in either
house. The
Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgericht or
tribunal federal) was created by the Federal Constitution
of 1874 and is (since 1904) composed of 19 full members (plus 9
substitutes), all elected by the two houses of the Federal
parliament, sitting together and holding office for six years; the
Federal parliament also elects every two years the president and
vice-president of the Federal tribunal. Its seat is at Lausanne.
Its jurisdiction extends to disputes between the Confederation, the
cantons, and private individuals, so far as these differences refer
to Federal matters. An appeal lies in some cases (not too clearly
distinguished) to the Federal council, and in some to the two
houses of the Federal legislature sitting together. As to the
referendum and initiative (whether as to the revision of the
constitution or as to bills) see
Referendum.
It was natural that, as the members of the Swiss Confederation
were drawn closer and closer together, there should arise the idea
of a
Federal code as distinguished from the manifold
cantonal legal systems. The Federal Constitution of 1874 conferred
on the Federal authorities the power to legislate on certain
defined legal subjects, and advantage was taken of this to revise
and codify the Law of Obligations (1881) and the Law of
Bankruptcy (1889). The
success of these attempts led to the adoption by the Swiss people
(1898) of new constitutional articles, extending the powers of the
Federal authorities to the other departments of
civil law and also to
criminal law. Drafts
carefully prepared by commissions of specialists were slowly
considered during nearly two years by the two houses of the Federal
parliament, which finally adopted the civil code on the 10th of
December 1907, and it was expected that by 1912 both a complete
Federal civil code and a complete Federal criminal code would come
into operation.
Before 1848 there was scarcely such a thing as
Federal
finances for there was no strong central Federal authority. As
the power of those authorities increased, so naturally did their
expenditure and receipts. In 1849 the receipts were nearly £
240,000, as against an expenditure of £260,000. By 1873 each had
risen to rather over £1,250,000, while in 1883 they just overtopped
£ 2,000,000
sterling each,
and in 1900 the receipts were just over £4,000,000 sterling, as
against an expenditure of nearly £4,000,000. The figures for 1907
are £5,75 0, 000 as against just over £5,500,000, and are the
highest yet recorded. The funded Federal debt rose from a modest
£150,000 in 1849 to rather over £2,000,000 in 1891, and rather over
£4,000,000 in 1903, standing in 1905 at £3,250,000.
By the Federal Constitution of 1848 the
post office was
made a Federal attribute, and the first Federal law on the subject
was passed in 1849 (postage stamps within the country in 1850, for
foreign lands in 1854, and post-cards in 1870), while a Federal law
of 1851 extended this privilege to the electric
telegraph, so that in 1852
the first line was opened with thirty-four offices. In the Federal
Constitution of 1874 both branches are declared to fall within the
jurisdiction of the Confederation, while in 1878 this privilege was
extended to the newly invented
telephone. Inviolability of communications in
all three cases is guaranteed.
In 1891 the Swiss people accepted the principle of a
state
bank with a
monopoly
of note issue. A first scheme was rejected by a popular vote in
1897, but a second was more successful in 1905. The " Swiss
National Bank " was actually opened on the 20th of June 1907, its
two chief seats being at Zurich and at Bern. It has a capital of £
2,000,000 sterling, divided into 100,000 shares. Two-fifths of this
capital is reserved to the cantons in proportion to their
population in 1900, and two-fifths were taken up by public
subscription in June 1906. The remaining fifth was reserved to the
existing thirty-six banks in Switzerland (all founded between 1834
and 1900), which have hitherto enjoyed the right of issuing notes.
It was stipulated that within three years of the opening of the
National Bank all notes issued by these thirtysix banks must be
withdrawn, and many had by 1907 taken this course in
anticipation.
There is no " established Swiss Church " recognized by the
Federal Constitution, but there may be one or more " established
churches " in any canton. The Federal Constitution of 1874
guarantees full religious liberty and freedom of worship, not being
contrary to morals and the public peace, as well as exemption from
any compulsory church rates (arts. 49 and 50). But it repeats, with
fresh pricks (art. 51), the provision of the Constitution of 1848
by which the
Jesuits and all
affiliated religious orders are forbidden to
settle in Switzerland, extending this
prohibition to any
other orders that may endanger the safety of the state or the
public peace. It also introduces a new article (No. 52) forbidding
the erection of new religious orders or new monasteries or the
re-establishment of old ones, and also a new clause (last part of
art. 50) by which the erection of new bishoprics on Swiss soil is
subject to the approval of the Federal authorities. The Jesuit
article was due to the " Sonderbund " War of 1847, and the rest of
this exceptional legislation to the " Kulturkampf " which raged in
Switzerland in 1872-1874. The Protestants form rather over
three-fifths of the population, but have the majority in 102 of the
22 cantons only. In the German-speaking cantons they are
Zwinglians, and in the French-speaking cantons Calvinists, though
in neither case of the original and orthodox shade. The Protestants
alone are " established " in the Outer Rhodes of Appenzell; while
the Romanists alone are " established " in 72 cantons (Lucerne,
Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug, Ticino, the Valais, and the Inner
Rhodes of Appenzell), but only jointly in the 3 other cantons
(Fribourg, St Gall and Soleure) in which they are in a majority. In
June 1907 Geneva decided on the complete separation of church and
state, and now stands alone in Switzerland in not having any "
established church " at all (previously it had two - Protestants
and Christian Catholics). In the other 21 cantons, the Protestants
and Romanists are jointly " established " in 112 i as are the
Protestants and the Christian Catholics in i 2, in which the
Christian Catholics take the place of the Romanists. Thus out of
the 21 cantons with " established churches "
(
Landeskirchen or
eglises nationales) the
Protestants are solely or jointly " established " in 131, and the
Romanists in 19 (not in Bern, Urban Basel and the Outer Rhodes of
Appenzell), while the Christian Catholics are recognized in 7
cantons, in two of which (Basel and Neuchatel) they are also "
endowed." The case of Neuchatel is particularly striking, as it has
three " established churches " (Protestants, Romanists and
Christian Catholics), while there the Jewish rabbis, as well as the
pasteurs of the Free
Evangelical Church, are
exempt from military service. Besides a few parishes in Bern there
are also three " Evangelical
Free Churches " (
Eglises
libres), viz. in Vaud (since 1847), in Geneva (since 1848) and
in Neuchatel (since 1873). The Romanists have five diocesan
bishops in Switzerland - Sion
(founded in the 4th century), Geneva (4th century), Basel (4th
century, but reorganized in 1828), Coire (5th century), Lausanne
(6th century), and St Gall (till 1824 part of the bishopric of
Constance, and a separate see since 1847). There are besides the
sees of Lugano (erected in 1888 for Italian Switzerland - till then
in
Milan or
Como - but united for the present
to the see of Basel, though administered by a
suffragan bishop) and
Bethlehem (a see
inartibus, annexed
in 1840 to the abbacy of St
Maurice in the Valais). The
Christian Catholics (who resemble the
Old Catholics in Germany) split off from
the Romanists in 1874 on the question of papal
infallibility (in
Bern and Geneva politics also played a great part), and since 1876
have had a
bishop of their own
(consecrated by the German Old
Catholic, Bishop Reinkens), who resides in
Bern, but bears no diocesan title. The Christian Catholics (who in
the census are counted with the Romanists) are strongest in Bern,
Soleure and Geneva, while their number in 1906 was estimated
variously at from twenty to thirty-four thousand - they have 38
parishes (Po being in French-speaking Switzerland) and some 57
pastors. There are still a few monasteries in Switzerland which
have escaped suppression. The principal are the
Benedictine houses of
Disentis (founded in the 7th century by the Irish
monk Sigisbert),
Einsiedeln (q.v.; Loth century) and
Engelberg (q.v.; 12th
century) as well as the houses of
Austin Canons at St Maurice (held by them since
1128, though the house was founded by
Benedictines in the 6th century) and on
the Great St Bernard (11th century).
Education
Education of all grades is well cared for in Switzerland, and
large sums are annually spent on it by the cantons and the
communes, with substantial grants from the Confederation (these
last in 1905 were about £224,000), so far as regards primary and
higher education. Four classes of educational establishments
exist.
a. In the case of the
primary education, the
Confederation has the oversight (Federal Constitution of 1874, art.
27), but the cantons the administration. It is laid down that in
the case of the public primary schools four principles must be
observed by the cantons: the instruction given must be sufficient,
it must be under state (i.e. lay) management (ecclesiastics as such
can have no share in it), attendance must be compulsory, and the
instruction must be gratuitous, while members of all religions must
be able to frequent the schools without offence to their belief or
consciences (this is interpreted to mean that the general
instruction given must be undenominational, while if any
denominational instruction is given attendance at it must not be
made compulsory). By an
amendment to the Federal Constitution adopted
in 1902 the Confederation is empowered to make grants in aid in the
case of primary schools, while a Federal law of 1903, regulating
such grants to be appropriated solely to certain specified
purposes, provides that the term " primary schools " shall include
continuation schools ii attendance is compulsory. The cantons
organize primary education in their territories, delegating local
arrangements (under the control of a cantonal inspector) to a
committee (
Schulkommission) elected
ad hoc in
each commune, so that it is not a committee of the communal
council. The general principles laid down by the Confederation are
elaborated into laws by each canton, while the communal councils
pass by-laws. Hence there is a great variety in details between
canton and canton. The school age varies from 6 to 16 (for younger
scholars there are voluntary
kindergarten schools or
ecoles
enfantines), and attendance during this period is compulsory,
it not being possible to obtain exemption by passing a certain
standard. Two-thirds of the schools are " mixed "; in the towns,
however, boys are often separated from girls. The teachers (who
must hold a cantonal certificate of efficiency) are chosen by the
Schulkommission from among the candidates who apply for the vacant
post, but are elected and paid by the communal council. Religious
tests prevail as to teachers, who must declare the religion they
profess, and are required to impart the religious instruction in
the school, this being compulsory on the children professing the
religion that is in the majority in that particular commune -
consequently a Protestant teacher would never be appointed in a
Romanist school or vice versa. The religious teaching occupies an
hour (always at the beginning of the school hours) thrice a week,
while special dogmatic instruction is imparted by the pastor,
outside the school-house as a rule, or in a room specially set
apart therein. The pastor is
ex officio president of the
Schulkommission, while the religious teaching in school is based on
a special " school
Bible,"
containing short versions of the chief events in Bible history. The
exact curriculum (code) is prescribed by the canton, and also the
number of hours during which the school must be open annually, but
the precise repartition of these is left to the local
Schulkommission. The attendance registers kept by the teachers are
submitted to the Schulkommission, which takes measures against
truant children or negligent parents by means of a written warning,
followed (if need be) by a
summons before a court. The treasurer of the
Schulkommission receives and distributes the money contributions of
the cantons (including the grant in aid from the Confederation) and
also of the communes, or of benevolent private individuals. The
school hours are as a rule four hours (from 7 a.m. in summer and 8
a.m. in winter) in the morning and (in the winter) three hours in
the afternoon, but on two afternoons in the week there is a
sewing school for the girls, the
boys being then free. There are no regular half-holidays. Private
schools are permitted, but receive no financial aid from the
outside, while the teacher must hold a certificate of efficiency as
in the state schools, must adopt the same curriculum, and is
subject to the by-laws made by the Schulkommission. On the other
hand he is not bound by any
conscience clause and can charge fees. A
cantonal inspector examines each school (of either class) annually
and reports to the cantonal educational authorities, who point out
any deficiencies to the local Schulkommission, which must remedy
them. There is no payment by results, nor do the money
contributions (from any source) depend on the number of attendances
made, though of course they are more or less in proportion to the
number of scholars attending that particular school. Some favour
the idea of making the primary schools wholly dependent financially
on the Confederation. This course has obvious conveniences, but a
first attempt was defeated in 1882, and the scheme is still
opposed, mainly on the ground that it would seriously impair the
principle of cantonal
sovereignty, and immensely strengthen the
power of the Federal educational authorities. By the law of 1903
the
quota of the Federal
subvention was fixed at sixpence per head of the resident
population of each canton, but in the case of 62 cantons (the
poorer ones) an extra twopence was added.
b. The
secondary schools are meant on the one side to
help those scholars of the primary schools who desire to increase
their knowledge though without any idea of going on to higher
studies, and on the other to prepare certain students for entrance
into the middle schools. The attendance everywhere is optional,
save in the city of Basel, where it is compulsory. These schools
vary very much from canton to canton. The course of studies extends
over two to four years, and students are admitted at ages from ten
upwards. The curriculum includes the elements of the classical and
modern languages, of
mathematics, and of the natural sciences.
They receive no Federal subvention, but are supported by the
cantons and the communes. In 1905 the cantons contributed £ 20,000
less than the communes to the total cost of about £234,000.
c. Under the general name of
middle schools
(Mittelschulen or
ecoles moyennes) the Swiss include
a variety of educational establishments, which fall roughly under
two heads: I. Technical schools (like those at Bienne and
Winterthur) and schools for instruction in various professions
(commerce;
agriculture, forestry and the training
colleges for teachers).
2. Grammar schools, colleges and cantonal schools, which in some
cases prepare for the universities and in some cases do not.
The expenses of both classes fall mainly on the cantons (in 1905
about £300,000 to £130,000 from the communes), who for the former
class (including certain departments of the second) receive a grant
in aid from the Confederation - in 1905 about £84,500.
d. As regards the
higher education the Federal
Constitution of 1874 (art. 27) empowered the Confederation to erect
and support, besides the existing Federal Polytechnic School
(opened at Zurich in 1855, having been founded by virtue of art. 22
of the Federal Constitution of 1848), a Federal university (this
has not yet been done) and other establishments for the higher
education (see
c. I above). This clause would seem to
authorize the Confederation to make grants in aid of the cantonal
universities, but as yet this has not been done, while the cantons
are in no
hurry to give up their
local universities. There are seven full universities in
Switzerland - Basel (founded in 1460), Zurich (1833), Bern (1834),
Geneva (1873, founded in 1559 as an academie), Fribourg
(international Catholic, founded in 1889), Lausanne (1890, founded
in 1537 as an academie) and Neuchatel (existed 1840-1848, refounded
in 1866, and raised from the rank of an academie to that of a
university in 1909). There is besides a law school at Sion (existed
1807-1810, refounded in 1824). In general they each (save Sion, of
course) have four faculties -
theology,
medicine, law and
philosophy. Fribourg and Neuchatel both lack
a medical faculty, while Zurich and Bern have distinct faculties
for veterinary medicine, and Zurich a special one for
dentistry (in Geneva there
is a school of dentistry), while Geneva and Neuchatel support
observatories. The theological faculty is in every case Protestant,
save that in Fribourg there is only a Romanist faculty (192
students in 1907), while Bern has both a Protestant faculty and
also a
Christian Catholic faculty
(II students in 1907), but no Romanist faculty, despite the fact
that the Romanists (mainly in the Bernese Jura) form about
one-sixth of the population, while there are not very many
Christian Catholics. These eight academical institutions were
maintained by the cantons at a cost in 1905 of. about £155,000,
while in the winter
session
of 1906 the total number of matriculated students (of whom 3784
were nonSwiss) was 6444 (of whom 1904 were women - Fribourg does
not receive them), besides 2077 " hearers" - in all 8521. The
largest institution was Bern (1626 matriculated students) and the
smallest Neuchatel (163). The Federal Polytechnic School is fixed
at Zurich and now comprises seven departments -
architecture,
engineering, industrial
mechanics, industrial
chemistry, agriculture and forestry, training
of teachers in mathematics, physics and the natural sciences, and
military science, besides a department for philosophy and political
science. It enjoys a very high reputation and is much frequented by
non-Swiss, who in the winter session of1905-1906numbered 522 out of
the 1325 matriculated students (women are not admitted). In 1905
the cost of the maintenance of the school (which falls entirely
upon the Confederation) was about £56,000.
Army
The Swiss army is a purely
militia force, receiving only periodical
training (so far as regards men between 20 and 48 years of age),
based upon the principle of universal compulsory personal military
service. Till 1848 the cantons alone raised, armed, equipped and
trained all military units and nominated the officers. By the
Federal Constitution of 1848 (art. 20) the Confederation was
entrusted with the training of the engineers, the
artillery and the
cavalry, with the education of
instructors for all other arms, and with the higher training of all
arms, while it was empowered to found military schools, to organize
general military manoeuvres, and to supply a part of the war
materiel. The Confederation, too, was given the
supervision of the training of the
infantry, as well as the furnishing, the
construction and the maintenance of all war
materiel,
which the cantons were bound to supply to the Confederation. The
Federal Constitution of 1874 marked an advance on that of 1848 as
to the following points. The principle of universal military
service and the organization of the Federal army were developed
according to the proportion of the population capable of bearing
arms (in contradistinction to the 1848 system, art. 19, of fixed
contingents in the proportion of 3 to every loo men of the
population of each canton); the entire military training and arming
of these men and the cost of their uniform and equipment were taken
over by the Confederation, which, too, supervised the military
administration of the cantons. The uniform, equipment and weapons
of the men were to be free of cost to them, while
compensation was due
from the Confederation to the families of those killed or
permanently injured in the course of their military service, as
well as to the invalids themselves. There thus remained to the
cantons the raising of all the infantry units and of most of the
cavalry and artillery units as well as the nomination of the
officers of all arms; all these acts were subject to the
supervision of the Confederation and had to be in accordance with
Federal laws and regulations. An attempt made in 1895 to extend
still further the sphere of action of the Confederation in military
matters was rejected by a vote of the Swiss people. Thus the
present system rests partly on the 1874 Constitution, and partly on
the new
military
law, passed by the Federal parliament on the 12th of April
1907.
a. The 1874 Constitution forbids the maintenance of any
standing army (art. 13), and also (art. II) the practice (formerly
very widespread) of
hiring out
contingents of
mercenary
soldiers by the Confederation or the cantons to foreign powers ("
military
capitulations "). The Federal government
can, at or without the request of any canton, repress any
disturbances within Switzerland by means of Federal troops, the
cantons being bound to allow these free passage over their
territory (arts. 16-17). By art. 18 every Swiss male
citizen is subject to the
obligation of personal
military service (the families of those killed or permanently
injured in the course of active Federal service as well as the
invalids themselves are provided for by the Confederation), and the
tax for those exempted is to be fixed by a Federal law, while every
recruit receives free of cost his first uniform, equipment and
weapons. Art. 16 provides that the Confederation has control of the
Federal army and of the war
metteriel, the cantons being
only allowed certain defined rights within their respective
territories. By art. 20 the limits of the jurisdiction of the
Confederation and of the cantons are defined. The Confederation has
the sole right of legislation in military matters, but the
execution of these laws is in the hands of the cantons, though
under Federal supervision, while all branches of military training
and arming are handed over to the Confederation; on the other hand,
the cantons supply and keep up the equipment and the
uniforms of the soldiers,
though these expenses are reimbursed by the Confederation according
to a certain scale fixed by Federal regulations to be made later
on. Art. 21 enacts that, where military considerations do not stand
in the way, the military units are to be formed of men of the same
canton, but the actual raising of these units and the maintenance
of their numbers, as well as the nomination and the promotion of
the officers, belong to the cantons, subject to certain general
principles to be laid down by the Confederation. Finally, the
Confederation has (art. 22) the right of using or acquiring
military
drill grounds,
buildings, &c., belonging to the cantons on payment of moderate
compensation according to principles to be laid down in a Federal
law. It will thus be seen that the Swiss army is by no means wholly
in the hands of the Federal authorities, the cantons still having a
large share in its management, though the military department of
the Federal executive has the ultimate control and pays most of the
military expenses. In fact it has been said in jest that the coat
of a soldier belongs to his canton and his
rifle to the Confederation.
b. After much discussion and careful consideration of
the opinions of many experts, the Federal law of 1907 was enacted,
by which more uniformity was introduced into administrative matters
and the whole system remodelled, of course according to the general
principles formulated in the Federal Constitution of 1874 and
summarized under
a. The following is a
bird's-eye view of the
actual organization of the Swiss army. Every Swiss male citizen is
bound to render personal military service between the ages of
twenty and fortyeight. Certain classes are exempt, such as high
Federal officials, clergymen (not being military chaplains),
officials of hospitals and prisons, as well as
custom-house
officials and policemen and officials of public means of
communication, but in the latter case only those whose services
would be indispensable in time of war,
e.g. post office,
telegraph, telephone, railway and steamer employes (all exempted
before 1907) - custom-house men, policemen and the officials last
named must have had a first period of training before they are
exempt. Those who are totally disqualified for any reason must,
till the age of forty, pay an extra tax of 6 francs a head, plus 12
francs on every woo francs of their net property, and 12 francs on
every 100 francs of their net income, the maximum tax that can be
levied in any particular case being 3000 francs a year (property
under woo francs and the first 600 francs of income are free from
this tax, which is only levied as to its half in case of the men in
the Landwehr): this tax is equally divided between the
Confederation and the cantons, its total yield in 1905 being about
£171,000. The cantonal authorities
muster in certain fixed centres their young men
of twenty years, who must appear personally in order to submit
themselves at the hands of the Federal officials to a medical
examination, a literary examination (reading,
arithmetic, elementary Swiss geography and
history, and the composition of a short written essay), as well as
(since 1905) pass certain elementary gymnastic tests (a long jump
of at least 8 ft., lifting at least four times a weight of about 37
lb in both hands at once, and running about 80 yds. in under 14
seconds), different marks being given according to the degree of
proficiency in these literary and gymnastic departments. Those
falling below a certain standard - bodily, mental or muscular - are
exempted, but may be " postponed " for not more than four years, in
hopes that before that date the desired standard will be attained.
If not totally disqualified (in that case they pay a tax) they may
be incorporated not in the territorial army, but in the
auxiliary forces (e.g.
pioneers,
hospital,
commissariat,
intelligence and transport departments). The cantons (under Federal
supervision) see that the lads, while still at school, receive a
gymnastic training, while the Confederation makes money grants to
societies which aim at preparing lads after leaving school for
their military service, whether by stimulating bodily training or
the practice of rifle
shooting, in which case rifles,
ammunition and equipment
are supplied free - in all these cases the attendance of the lads
is purely voluntary. In some cantons the young men, between the
ages of eighteen and twenty, are
required to attend a
night school (in order to rub up their school knowledge) for sixty
hours a winter for two winters, the teacher being paid by the
Confederation and the lads being under military law. Naturally the
lads from the large towns and the more prosperous cantons do best
in the literary examination and those who belong to gymnastic
societies in the gymnastic tests, though sheer bodily untrained
strength avails much in the lifting of
weights. In 1906 26,808 young men
of twenty years of age were examined (this is exclusive of older
men then first mustered). Of this number 1 4, 0 45 (52.4%) were at
once enrolled as recruits, 3497 (13%) were " postponed " for one or
two years, and 9266 (34.6%) were exempted wholly - these ratios
vary but little, for the standard is kept rather high, partly owing
to con siderations of expense, so that a young fellow of twenty who
becomes a " recruit " at once may be taken to be distinctly above
the average in bodily and mental qualities. By the new law of 1907
the army is divided into three (not, as previously, four) classes -
the
Auszug or
elite (men from twenty to
thirty-two), the
Landwehr (men between thirty-three and
forty) and the
Landsturm or
reserve (men
between forty-one and forty-eight). The recruits serve for
different periods during their first year according to the arm of
the service into which they are incorporated - infantry and
engineers sixty-five days, artillery and
garrison troops seventy-five
days and cavalry ninety days, while those in the auxiliary troops
serve but sixty days. Soldiers in the Elite are called out seven
times during their term of service for a period of eleven days a
year (fourteen days for the artillery and garrison troops), while
the Landwehr is only called out once for a training period of
eleven days. Cavalry men serve ten years in the Elite (no service
in the Landwehr), and during that period are called out eight times
for a training period of eleven days a year. Between the ages of
twenty and forty each soldier must attain a certain proficiency in
marksmanship (at least 30 points out of 90 in 10 shots), while
there is an annual inspection (by cantonal officials) of arms,
uniform and equipment. The Confederation also makes money grants to
rifle societies, which in 1906 numbered 3732, had 220,951 members
(all soldiers between twenty and forty must be members), and
received Federal grants to the amount of about £13,500. Rifle and
uniform become the full property of the soldier after he has
completed his full term of service. Officers serve in the Elite
till thirty-eight years of age, and in the Landwehr till forty-four
(in the case of officers on the staff the service lasts till
forty-eight years of age), while they remain in the Landsturm till
fifty-two years of age. The Swiss army is made up (according to the
new law of 1907) of a staff, composed of all the commanding
officers on active service from the rank of major upwards (in this
as in all the following cases the actual number is to be fixed by a
Federal law), the general staff, the army service corps (post
office, telegraph, railways, motor cars, chaplains,
police, courts of
justice, secretaries, &c., and the auxiliary services), while
the soldiers proper are divided into a number of classes - infantry
(including sharpshooters and cyclists), cavalry, artillery
(including the mountain batteries), engineers (including sappers
and railway labourers), garrison troops, the medical, veterinary
(veterinary surgeons and farriers), commissariat and transport
services (drivers and leaders of laden horses and mules). On the
first of January 1907 (still under the old system) the numbers of
the Swiss army were as follows: the Elite had 139,514 (of which
104,263 were infantry, 5183 cavalry, 18 ,544 artillery and 5567
engineers), and the Landwehr 93,163 (including 67,955 infantry,
4378 cavalry, 13,332 artillery and 4313 engineers) - making thus a
total of 232,677 men between the ages of twenty and forty-four
years of age (17,221 infantry, 9561 cavalry, 31,866 artillery and
9880 engineers). To this total must be added 44, 2 94 men in the
armed Landsturm (forty-five to fifty years of age) and 262,138
auxiliary troops (pioneers, workmen in military establishments,
medical, commissariat and transport departments, police, firemen,
clerks, and men at a military
depot). The total of the Landsturm and the
auxiliary services is 306,432, so that a grand total is 539,109 men
(under the old system officers served in the Landwehr till
forty-eight, and in the Landsturm till fifty-five). The total
expenses of the Swiss army rose from £928,000 in 1896 to £1,400,000
in 1906. Rifles are manufactured in Bern, ammunition at Thun and at
Altdorf, uniforms are macie in Bern, and the cavalry remount depot
is at Thun, which is also the chief artillery centre of
Switzerland. There is a department for military science at the
Federal Polytechnic School at Zurich, one section being meant for
students in general, and the other specially for officers. (W. A.
B. C.)
History The Swiss
Confederation is made up of twenty-two small states, differing from
each other in nearly every point - religious, political, social,
industrial, physical and linguistic; yet it forms a nation the
patriotism of whose members is universally acknowledged. History
alone can supply us with the
key to
this
puzzle; but Swiss
history, while thus essential if we could thoroughly grasp the
nature of the Confederation, is very intricate and very local. A
firm hold on a few guiding principles is therefore most desirable,
and of these there are three which we must always
bear in mind. (I) The first to be mentioned is
the connexion of Swiss history with that of the Empire.
Swiss history is largely the history of the drawing together of
bits of each of the imperial kingdoms (Germany, Italy and Burgundy)
for common defence against a common foe - the Habsburgs; and, when
this family have secured to themselves the permanent possession of
the Empire, the Swiss League little by little wins its independence
of the Empire, practically in 1499, formally in 1648. Originally a
member of the Empire, the Confederation becomes first an ally, then
merely a friend. (2) The second is
the German origin and nature
of the Confederation. Round a German
nucleus (the three Forest districts) there
gradually gather other German districts; the Confederation is
exclusively German (save partially in the case of Fribourg, in
which after its admission in 1481 Teutonic influences gradually
supplanted the Romance speech); and it is not till 1803 and 1815
that its Frenchand Italian-speaking " subjects " are raised to
political equality with their former masters, and that the
Romonschspeaking Leagues of
Raetia (Graubunden) pass from the status of an
ally to that of a member of the Confederation. (3) Swiss history is
a study in federalism. Based on the defensive alliances of
1291 and 1315 between the three Forest districts, the Confederation
is enlarged by the admission of other districts and towns, all
leagued with the original three members, but not necessarily with
each other. Hence great difficulties are encountered in looking
after common interests, in maintaining any real union; the Diet was
merely an assembly of ambassadors with powers very strictly limited
by their instructions, and there was no central executive
authority. The Confederation is a
Staatenbund, or
permanent alliance of several small states. After the break-up of
the old system in 1798 we
see the idea of a
Bundesstaat, or an organized state with a central
legislative, executive and judiciary, work its way to the front, an
idea which is gradually realized in the Constitutions of 1848 and
1874. The whole constitutional history of the Confederation is
summed up in this transition to a federal state, which, while a
single state in its foreign relations, in home matters maintains
the more or less absolute independence of its several members.
Swiss history falls naturally into five great divisions: (I) the
origins of the Confederation - up to 1291 (for the legendary origin
see Tell, William); (2) the shaking off dependence on the Habsburgs
- up to 1 394 (1474); (3) the shaking off dependence on the Empire
- up to 1499 (1648); (4) the period of religious divisions and
French influence - up to 181 4; (5) the construction of an
independent state as embodied in the Constitutions of 1848 and
1874.
I. On the Ist of August 1291 the men of the valley of Uri
(
honzines vallis Uraniae), the free community of the
valley of Schwyz (
universitas vallis de Switz), and the
association of the men of the lower valley or Nidwalden
(
communitas hominum intrasnontanorum vallis inferioris) -
Obwalden or the upper valley is not mentioned in the text,
though it is named on the
Early seal appended - formed an
Everlasting League for
History of the purpose of self-defence against all who
should
the Three attack or trouble them, a league which is
expressly the protests of the
abbey tenants, who feared the rapidly rising
power of that family, and perhaps also the desire of the German
king to obtain command of the St Gotthard Pass (of which the first
authentic mention occurs
about 1236, when of course it could only be traversed on foot), led
to the recall of the grant in 1231, the valley being thus restored
to its original privileged position, and depending immediately on
the king. (
b) In Schwyz (first mentioned in 972) we must
distinguish between the districts west and east of Steinen. In the
former the land was in the hands of many nobles, amongst whom were
the Habsburgs; in the latter there was, at the foot of the Mythen,
a free community of men governing themselves and cultivating their
land in common; both, however, were politically subject to the
king's delegates, the counts of the Zurichgau, who after 1173 were
the ever-advancing Habsburgs. But in 1240 the free community of
Schwyz obtained from the
emperor Frederick II. a charter which removed them
from the jurisdiction of the counts, placing them in immediate
dependence on the king, like the abbey men of Uri. In a few years,
however, the Habsburgs contrived to dispense with this charter in
practice. (
c) In Unterwalden things were very different.
The upper valley (Obwalden or Sarnen), like the lower (Nidwalden or
Stans), formed part of the Zurichgau, while in both the soil was
owned by many ecclesiastical and lay lords, among them being the
Habsburgs and the Alsatian abbey of Murbach. Hence in this district
there were privileged tenants, but no free community, and no centre
of unity, and this explains why Obwalden and Nidwalden won their
way upwards so much more slowly than their neighbours in Uri and
Schwyz. Thus the early history and legal position of these three
districts was very far from being the same. In Uri the Habsburgs,
save for a brief space, had absolutely no rights; while in Schwyz,
Obwalden and Nidwalden they were also, as counts of the Zurichgau,
the representatives of the king.
The Habsburgs had been steadily rising for many years from the
position of an unimportant family in the Aargau to that of a
powerful
clan of large landed
proprietors in
Swabia and
Alsace, and had attained a certain political importance as counts
of the Zurichgau and Aargau. In one or both qualities the
cadet or Laufenburg line, to which
the family estates in the Forest districts round the
Lake of Lucerne
had fallen on the division of the
inheritance in 1232, seem to have exercised
their legal rights in a harsh manner. In 1240 the free men of
Schwyz obtained protection from the emperor, and in 1244 we hear of
the
castle of New
Habsburg, built by the
Habsburgs on a promontory jutting out into the lake not far
The
League P y 1 g
of 1291. from Lucerne, with the object
of enforcing their real or pretended rights. It is therefore not a
matter for surprise that when, after the
excommunication and deposition of
Frederick II. by
Innocent IV. at the Council of
Lyons in 1245, the head of the
cadet line of Habsburg sided with the
pope, some of the men of the Forest districts
should rally round the emperor. Schwyz joined Sarnen and Lucerne
(though Uri and Obwalden supported the pope); the castle of New
Habsburg was reduced to its present ruined state; and in 1247 the
men of Schwyz, Sarnen and Lucerne were threatened by the pope with
excommunication if they persisted in upholding the emperor and
defying their hereditary lords the counts of Habsburg. The rapid
decline of Frederick's cause soon enabled the Habsburgs to regain
their authority in these districts. Yet these obscure risings have
an historical interest, for they are the foundation in fact (so far
as they have any) of the legendary stories of Habsburg oppression
told of and by a later age. After this temporary check the power of
the Habsburgs continued to increase rapidly. In 1273 the head of
the cadet line sold all his lands and rights in the Forest
districts to the head of the elder or Alsatian line,
Rudolph, who a few months later
was elected to the imperial throne, in virtue of which he acquired
for his family in 1282 the duchy of Austria, which now for the
first time became connected with the Habsburgs. Rudolph recognized
the privileges of Uri but not those of Schwyz; and, as he now
united in his own person the characters of emperor, count of the
Zurichgau, and landowner in the Forest districts (a name occurring
first in the 14th century), such a union of offices might
Lands. stated to be a
confirmation of a former
one (
antiquam confederationis formam juramento vallatam
presentibus innovando). This league was the foundation of the
Swiss Confederation.
What were these districts? and why at this particular moment was
it necessary for them to form a defensive league? The legal and
political conditions of each were very different. (a) In 853
Louis the
German granted (
inter alia) all his lands (and the
rights annexed to them) situated in the
pagellus Uraniae
to the
convent of Sts
Felix and
Regula in Zurich (the present
Fraumunster), of which his daughter Hildegard was the first
abbess, and gave to this district
the privilege of exemption from all jurisdiction save that of the
king (
Reichsfreiheit), so that though locally within the
Zurichgau it was not subject to its count, the king's deputy. The
abbey thus became possessed of the greater part of the valley of
the Reuss between the present Devil's Bridge and the Lake. of
Lucerne, for the upper valley (Urseren) belonged at that time to
the abbey of Disentis in the Rhine valley, and did not become
permanently allied with Uri_ till 1410. The privileged position of
the abbey tenants gradually led the other men of the valley to "
commend " themselves to the abbey, whether they were tenants of
other lords or free men as in the Schachenthal. The meeting of all
the inhabitants of the valley, for purposes connected with the
customary cultivation of the soil according to fixed rules and
methods, served to prepare them for the enjoyment of full political
liberty in later days. The important post of "
protector " (
advocatus or
vogt) of the abbey was given to one family after another
by the emperor as a sign of
trust; but when, on the
extinction of the house of Zaringen in 1218, the office was granted
to the Habsburgs, be expected to result in a confusion of rights.
On the 16th of April 1291 Rudolph bought from the abbey of Murbach
in Alsace (of which he was " advocate ") all its rights over the
town of Lucerne and the abbey estates in Unterwalden. It thus
seemed probable that the other Forest districts would be shut off
from their natural means of communication with the outer world by
way of the lake. Rudolph's death, on the 15th of July of the same
year, cleared the way, and a fortnight later (August r) the
Everlasting League was made between the men of Uri, Schwyz and
Nidwalden (the words
et vallis superioris, i.e. Obwalden,
were inserted, perhaps between the time of the drawing up of the
document, the text of which does not mention Obwalden, and the
moment of its sealing on the original seal of Nidwalden) for the
purpose of self-defence against a common foe. We do not know the
names of the delegates of each valley who concluded the treaty, nor
the place where it was made, nor have we any account of the
deliberations of which it was the result. The common seal - that
great outward sign of the right of a corporate body to act in its
own name - appears first in Uri in 1243, in Schwyz in 1281, in
Unterwalden not till this very document of 1291; yet, despite the
great differences in their political status, they all joined in
concluding this League, and confirmed it by their separate
seals, thereby laying claim on
behalf of their union to an independent existence. Besides promises
of aid and assistance in the case of attack, they agree to punish
great criminals by their own authority, but advise that, in minor
cases and in all civil cases, each man should recognize the "judex
" to whom he owes suit, engaging that the Confederates will, in
case of need, enforce the decisions of the " judex." At the same
time they unanimously refuse to recognize any " judex " who has
bought his charge or is a stranger to the valleys. All disputes
between the parties to the treaty are, as far as possible, to be
settled by a reference to arbiters, a principle which remained in
force for over six hundred years. " Judex " is a general term for
any local official, especially the chief of the community, whether
named by the lord or by the community; and, as earlier in the same
year Rudolph had promised the men of Schwyz not to force upon them
a " judex " belonging to the class of serfs, we may conjecture from
this very decided protest that the chief source of disagreement was
in the matter of the jurisdictions of the lord and the free
community, and that some recent event in Schwyz led it to insist on
the insertion of this provision. It is stipulated also that every
man shall be bound to obey his own lord " convenienter," or so far
as is fitting and right. The
antiqua confoederatio
mentioned in this document was probably merely an ordinary
agreement to preserve the peace in that particular district, made
probably during the
interregnum (1254-1273) in the Empire.
2. In the struggle for the Empire, which extended over the years
following the conclusion of the League of 1291, we find that the
Confederates supported without exception the anti-Habsburg
candidate. On the 16th of October 12 9 1 Uri and Schwyz allied
themselves
1315. with Zurich, and joined the general
rising in Swabia against
Albert, the new head of the house
of Habsburg. It soon failed, but hopes revived when in 1292 Adolf
of
Nassau was chosen emperor.
In 1297 he confirmed to the free men of Schwyz their charter of
1240, and, strangely enough, confirmed the same charter to Uri,
instead of their own of 1231. It is in his reign that we have the
first recorded meeting of the " Landsgemeinde " (or legislative
assembly) of Schwyz (1294). But in 1298 Albert of Habsburg himself
was elected to the Empire. His rule was strict and severe, though
not oppressive. He did not indeed confirm the charters of Uri or of
Schwyz, but he did not attack the ancient rights of the former, and
in the latter he exercised his rights as a landowner and did not
abuse his political rights as emperor or as count. In Unterwalden
we find that in 1304 the two valleys were joined together under a
common administrator (the local deputy of the count) - a great step
forward to permanent union. The stories of Albert's tyrannical
actions in the Forest districts are not heard of till two centuries
later, though no doubt the union of offices in his person was a
permanent source of alarm to the Confederation. It was in his time
too that the " terrier " (or list of manors and estates, with
enumeration of all quit rents, dues, &c., payable by the
tenants to their lords) of all the Habsburg possessions in Upper
Germany was begun, and it was on the point of being extended to
Schwyz and Unterwalden when Albert was murdered (1308) and the
election of
Henry of
Luxemburg roused the free
men to resist the officials charged with the survey. Despite his
promise to restore to the Habsburgs all rights enjoyed by them
under his three predecessors (or maintain them in possession),
Henry confirmed, on the 3rd of June 1309, to Uri and Schwyz their
charters of 1297, and, for some unknown reason, confirmed to
Unterwalden all the liberties granted by his predecessor, though as
a matter of fact none had been granted. This charter, and the
nomination of one royal
bailiff to administer the three districts, had
the effect of placing them all (despite historical differences) in
an identical political position, and that the most privileged yet
given to any of them - the freedom of the free community of Schwyz.
A few days later the Confederates made a fresh treaty of alliance
with Zurich; and in 1310 the emperor placed certain other
inhabitants of Schwyz on the same privileged footing as the free
community. The Habsburgs were put off with promises; and, though
their request (1311) for an inquiry into their precise rights in
Alsace and in the Forest districts was granted, no steps were taken
to carry out this investigation. Thus in Henry's time the struggle
was between the Empire and the Habsburgs as to the recognition of
the rights of the latter,
not between the Habsburgs and
those dependent on them as landlords or counts.
On Henry's death in 1313 the electors hesitated long between
Frederick the Handsome of
Habsburg and Louis of
Bavaria. The men of Schwyz seized this
opportunity for making a wanton attack on the great abbey of
Einsiedeln, with which they had a long-standing quarrel as to
rights of pasture. The
abbot
caused them to be excommunicated, and Frederick (the choice of the
minority of the electors), who was the hereditary " advocate " of
the abbey, placed them under the
ban
of the Empire. Louis, to whom they appealed, removed the ban; on
which Frederick issued a
decree by which he restored to his family all
their rights and possessions in
the three valleys and
Urseren, and charged his brother Leopold with the execution of this
order. The Confederates hastily concluded alliances with Glarus,
Urseren, Arth and
Interlaken to protect themselves from attack
on every side. Leopold collected a brilliant army at the Austrian
town of Zug in order to attack Schwyz, while a body of troops was
to take Unterwalden in the
rear by
way of the Brunig Pass. On the 15th of November 1315, Leopold with
from 15,000 to 20,000 men moved forward along the shore of the Lake
of Aegeri, intending to assail the town of Schwyz by climbing the
slopes of
Morgarten
above the south-eastern end of the lake. There they were awaited by
the valiant band of the Confederates from 1300 to 1500 strong. The
march up the rugged and slippery slope threw the Austrian army into
disarray, which became a rout and mad flight when huge boulders and
trunks of trees were hurled from above by their foes, who charged
down and drove them into the
lake. Leopold fled in hot haste to
Winterthur, and the attack by the Brunig was driven back by the men
of Unterwalden. On the 9th of December 1315 representatives of the
victorious highlanders met at Brunnen, on the Lake of Lucerne, not
far from Schwyz, and renewed the Everlasting League of 1291. In
their main lines the two documents are very similar, the later
being chiefly an expansion of the earlier. That of 1315 is in
German (in contrast to the 1291 League, which is in
Latin), and has one or two striking
clauses largely indebted to a decree issued by Zurich on the 24th
of July 1291. None of the three districts or their dependents is to
recognize a new lord without the consent and
counsel of the rest. (This is
probably meant to provide for an interregnum in or disputed
election to the Empire, possibly for the
chance of the election of a Habsburg.) Strict
obedience in all lawful matters is to be rendered to the rightful
lord in each case, unless he attacks or wrongs any of the
Confederates, in which case they are to be free from all
obligations. No negotiations, so long as the " Lander" have no
lord, are to be entered on with outside powers, save by common
agreement of all. Louis solemnly recognized and confirmed the new
league in 1 3 16, and in 1 3 18 a truce was concluded between the
Confederates and the Habsburgs, who treat with them on equal terms.
The lands and rights annexed belonging to the Habsburgs in the
Forest districts are fully recognized as they existed in the days
of Henry of Luxemburg, and freedom of commerce is granted. But
there is not one word about the
political rights of the
Habsburgs as counts of the Zurichgau and Aargau. This distinction
gives the key to the whole history of the relations between the
Confederates and Habsburgs; the rights of the latter as landowners
are fully allowed, and till 1801 they possessed estates within the
Confederation; it is their political rights which were always
contested by the Swiss, who desired to rule themselves.
As early as 1320 we find the name " Switzerland "
(
Sweicz) (derived from Schwyz, which had always been the
leader in the struggle) applied to the three Forest cantons, and in
of Eight 1352 extended to the Confederation as a whole.
But it was not till after Sempach (1386) that it came into popular
use, the historian J. von Muller (1785) fixing the distinction
between " Schweiz " (for the country) and " Schwyz " (for the
canton), and it did not form the official name of the Confederation
till 1803. (Officially in
the middle ages and later the
Confederation was named " les Ligues de la Haute Allemagne," or, as
Commines, late in the 15th century, puts it, " les vieilles Ligues
d'Allemagne qu'on appelle Suisses," while from
c. 1452
onwards the people were called " Swiss "). This is in itself a
proof of the great renown which the League won by its victory at
Morgarten. Another is that as years go by we find other members
admitted to the privileges of the original alliance of the three
Forest districts. First to join the League (1332) was the
neighbouring town of Lucerne, which had grown up round the
monastery of St Leodegar or Leger (whence the place took its name),
perhaps a
colony, certainly a
cell of the great house of Murbach
in Alsace, under the rule of which the town remained till its sale
in 1291 to the Habsburgs. This act of Lucerne was opposed by the
house of Austria, but, despite the decision of certain chosen
arbitrators in favour of the Habsburg claims, the town clung to the
League with which it was connected by its natural position, and
thus brought a new element into the pastoral association of the
Forest districts, which now surrounded the entire Lake of Lucerne.
Next, in 1351, came the ancient town of Zurich, which in 1218, on
the extinction of the house of Zaringen, had become a free imperial
city in which the abbess of the FraumUnster (the lady of Uri) had
great influence, while in 1336 there had been a great civic
revolution, headed by Rudolph Brun, which had raised the members of
the craft
gilds to a position in
the municipal government of equal power with that of the
patricians, who, however,
did not cease intriguing to regain their lost privileges, so that
Brun, after long hesitation, decided to throw in the lot of the
town with the League rather than with Austria. In this way the
League now advanced from the hilly country to the plains, though
the terms of the treaty with Zurich did not bind it so closely to
the Confederates as in the other cases (the right of making
alliances apart from the League being reserved though the League
was to rank before these), and hence rendered it possible for
Zurich now and again to incline towards Austria in a fashion which
did great hurt to its allies. In 1352 the League was enlarged by
the admission of Glarus and Zug. Glarus belonged to the monastery
of Sackingen on the Rhine (founded by the Irish monk Fridolin), of
which the Habsburgs were " advocates," claiming therefore many
rights over the valley, which refused to admit them, and joyfully
received the Confederates who came to its aid; but it was placed on
a lower footing than the other members of the League, being bound
to obey their orders. Three weeks later the town and district of
Zug, attacked by the League and abandoned by their Habsburg
masters, joined the Confederation, forming a transition
link between the civic and rural
members of the League. The immediate occasion of the union of these
two districts was the war begun by the Austrian duke against
Zurich, which was ended by the
Brandenburg peace of 1352,
by which Glarus and Zug were to be restored to the Habsburgs, who
also regained their rights over Lucerne. Zug was won for good by a
bold stroke of the men of Schwyz in 1364, but it was not till the
day of Nafels (1388) that Glarus recovered its lost freedom. These
temporary losses and the treaty made by Brun of Zurich with Austria
in 1356 were, however, far outweighed by the entrance into the
League in 1353 of the famous town of Bern, which, founded in 1191
by Berthold V. of Zaringen, and endowed with great privileges, had
become a free imperial city in 1218 on the extinction of the
Zaringen dynasty. Founded for the purpose of bridling the turbulent
feudal nobles around, many of whom had become citizens, Bern
beat them back at Dornbuhl (1298),
and made a treaty with the Forest districts as early as 1323. In
1339, at the bloody fight of Laupen, she had broken the power of
the nobles for ever, and in 1352 had been forced by a treaty with
Austria to take part in the war against Zurich, but soon after the
conclusion of peace entered the League as the ally of the three
Forest districts, being thus only indirectly joined to Lucerne and
Zurich. The special importance of the accession of Bern was that
the League now began to spread to the west, and was thus brought
into connexion for the first time with the French-speaking land of
Savoy. The League thus numbered eight members, the fruits of
Morgarten, and no further members were admitted till 1481, after
the Burgundian War. But, in order thoroughly to understand the
nature of the League, it must be remembered that, while each of the
five new members was allied with the original nucleus - the three
Forest districts - these five were not directly allied to one
another: Lucerne was allied with Zurich and Zug; Zurich with
Lucerne, Zug and Glarus; Glarus with Zurich; Zug with Lucerne and
Zurich; Bern with no one except the three original members. The
circumstances under which each entered the League can alone explain
these very intricate relations.
After a short interval of peace the quarrels with Austria broke
out afresh; all the members of the League, save the three Forest
districts and Glarus, joined (1385) the great union of the south
German cities; but their attention was soon called to events nearer
home. Lucerne fretted much under the Austrian rule, received many
Austrian subjects among her citizens, and refused to pay custom
duties to the Austrian bailiff at Rothenburg, on the ground that
she had the right of free traffic. An attack on the custom-house at
Rothenburg, and the gift of the privileges of burghership to the
discontented inhabitants of the little town of Sempach a short way
off, so irritated Leopold III. (who then held all the possessions
of his house outside Austria) that he collected an army, with the
intention of crushing his rebellious town. Lucerne meanwhile had
summoned the other members of the League to her aid, and, though
Leopold's feint of attacking Zurich caused the troops of the League
to march at first in that direction, they discovered their mistake
in time to turn back and check his advance on Lucerne. From 1500 to
1600 men of Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, and Lucerne opposed the 6000
which made up the Austrian army. The decisive fight took place on
the 9th of July 1386, near Sempach, on a bit of sloping
meadow-land, cut up by streams and
hedges, which forced the Austrian
knights to dismount. The great heat of the day, which rendered it
impossible to fight in armour, and the furious attacks of the
Confederates, finally broke the Austrian line after more than one
repulse and turned the day (see Winkelmed). Leopold, with a large
number of his followers, was slain, and the Habsburg power within
the borders of the Confederation finally broken. Glarus at once
rose in arms against Austria, but it was not till the expiration of
the truce made after Sempach that Leopold's brother, Albert of
Austria, brought an army against Glarus, and was defeated at Nafels
(not far from Glarus) on the 9th of April 1388, by a handful of
Glarus and Schwyz men In 1389 a peace for
seven years
was made, the Confederates being secured in all their conquests; an
attempt made in 1 393 by Austria by means of Schuno, the chief
magistrate of Zurich and leader of the patrician party, to stir up
a fresh attack failed owing to a rising of the burghers, who
sympathized with the Confederates, and on the 16th of July 1394 the
peace was prolonged for twenty years (and again in
Political 1412 for fifty years), various stipulations
being made
of by which the long struggle of the
League against the Habsburgs was finally crowned with success.
By the peace of 1394 Glarus was freed on payment of £200
annually (in 1395 it bought up all the rights of Sackingen); Zug
too was released from Austrian rule. Schwyz was given the
advocatia of the great abbey of Einsiedeln; Lucerne got
the Entlebuch (finally in 1405), Sempach and Rothenburg, Bern and
Soleure were confirmed in their conquests. Above all, the
Confederation as a whole was relieved from the overlordship of the
Habsburgs, to whom, however, all their rights and dues as landed
proprietors were expressly reserved; Bern, Zurich and Soleure
guaranteeing the maintenance of these rights and dues, with power
in case of need to call on the other Confederates to support them
by arms. Though the house of Habsburg entertained hopes of
recovering its former rights, so that technically the treaties of
1389, 1 394 and 1412 were but truces, it finally and for ever
renounced all its feudal rights and privileges within the
Confederation by the " Everlasting Compact " of 1474.
It is probable that Bern did not take any active share in the
Sempach War because she was bound by the treaty of peace made with
the Austrians in 1368; and Soleure, allied with Bern, was doubtless
a party to the treaty of 1394 (though not yet in the League),
because of its sufferings in 1382 at the hands of the Kyburg line
of the Habsburgs, whose possessions (Thun,
Burgdorf, &c.) in 1384 fell into the hands
of the two allies.
We may mention here the foray (known as the English or Gugler
War) made in 1375 by Enguerrand de Coucy (husband of Isabella,
daughter of
Edward
III. of England) and his freebooters (many of them Englishmen
and Welshmen), called " Gugler " from their pointed
steel caps, with
the object of obtaining possession of certain towns in the Aargau
(including Sempach), which he claimed as the
dowry of his mother
Catherine, daughter of the Leopold who was
defeated at Morgarten. He was put to rout in the Entlebuch by the
men of Bern, Lucerne, Schwyz and Unterwalden in December 1375. This
victory was commemorated with great rejoicings in 1875.
3. The great victory at Sempach not merely vastly increased the
fame of the Everlasting League but also enabled it to extend
struggles in both its influence and its territory. The 15th century
is the period when both the League and
St its several
members took the aggressive, and the
the Valais. expansion
of their power and lands cannot be better seen than by comparing
the state of things at the beginning and at the end of this
century. The pastoral highlands of Appenzell (Abbatis Cella) and
the town of St Gall had long been trying to throw off the rights
exercised over them by the great abbey of St Gall. The
Appenzellers, especially, had offered a stubborn resistance, and
the abbot's troops had been beaten back by them in 1403 on the
heights of Vogelinseck, and again in 1405 in the great fight on the
Stoss Pass (which leads up into the highlands), in which the abbot
was backed by the duke of Austria. The tales of the heroic defence
of Uri Rotach of Appenzell, and of the appearance of a company of
Appenzell women disguised as warriors which turned the battle, are
told in connexion with this fight, but do not appear till the 17th
and 18th centuries, being thus quite unhistorical, so far as our
genuine evidence goes. Schwyz had given them some help, and in 1411
Appenzell was placed under the protection of the League (save
Bern), with which in the next year the city of St Gall made a
similar treaty to last ten years. So too in1416-1417several of the
" tithings " of the Upper Valais (i.e. the upper stretch of the
Rhone valley), which in 1388 had beaten the bishop and the nobles
in a great fight at Visp, became closely associated with Lucerne,
Uri and Unterwalden. It required aid in its final struggle
(1418-19) against the great house of Raron, the count-bishop of
Sitten (or Sion), and the
house of Savoy, which held the Lower
Valais - the Forest districts, on the other hand, wishing to secure
themselves against Raron and Savoy in their attempt to conquer
permanently the Val d'Ossola on the south side of the
Simplon Pass. Bern,
however, supported its burgher, the lord of Raron, and peace was
made in 1420. Such were the first links which bound these lands
with the League; but they did not become full members for a long
time - Appenzell in 1513, St Gall in 1803, the Balais in 1815.
Space will not allow us to enumerate all the small conquests
made in the first half of the 15th century by every member of the
League; suffice it to say that each increased and rounded off its
territory, but did not give the conquered lands any political
rights, governing them as " subject lands," often very harshly. The
same
phenomenon of
lands which had won their own freedom playing the part of
tyrant over other lands which
joined then more or less by their voluntary action is seen on a
larger scale in the case of the conquest of the Aargau, and in the
first attempts to secure a footing south of the Alps.
In 1412 the treaty of 1394 between the League and the Habsburgs
had been renewed for fifty years; but when in 1415 Duke Frederick
of Austria helped Pope
John XXII. to escape from
Constance, where the great
oecumenical council was then sitting, and
the emperor
Sigismund
placed the duke under the ban of the Empire, summoning all members
of the Empire to arm against him, the League hesitated, because of
their treaty of 1412, till the emperor declared that all the rights
and lands of Austria in the League were forfeited, and that their
compact did not release them from their obligations to the Empire.
In the name, therefore, of the emperor, and by his special command,
the different members of the League overran the extensive Habsburg
possessions in the Aargau. The chief share fell to Bern, but
certain districts (known as the
Freie Aemter) were joined
together and governed as bailiwicks held in common by all the
members of the League (save Uri, busied in the south, and Bern, who
had already secured the lion's share of the spoil for herself).
This is the first case in which the League as a whole took up the
position of rulers over districts which, though guaranteed in the
enjoyment of their old rights, were nevertheless politically
unfree. As an encouragement and 'a reward, Sigismund had granted in
advance to the League the right of criminal jurisdiction (
haute
justice or
Blutbann), which points to the fact that
they were soon to become independent of the Empire, as they were of
Austria.
As the natural policy of Bern was to seek to enlarge its
borders. at the expense of Austria, and later of Savoy, so we find
that Uri, shut off by physical causes from extension in other
directions, as steadily turned its eyes towards the south. In 1410
the valley of Urseren was finally joined to Uri; though
communications were difficult, and carried on only by means of the
" Stiebende Brucke," a wooden bridge suspended by chains over the
Reuss, along the side of a great rocky
buttress (pierced in 1707 by the
tunnel known as the Urnerloch),
yet this enlargement of the territory of Uri gave it complete
command over the St Gotthard Pass, long commercially important, and
now to serve for purposes of war and conquest. Already in 1403 Uri
and Obwalden had taken advantage of a quarrel with the duke of
Milan as to custom dues at the market of
Varese to occupy the long narrow upper Ticino
valley on the south of the pass called the Val Leventina; in 1411
the men of the same two lands, exasperated by the insults of the
local lords, called on the other members of the League, and all
jointly (except Bern) occupied the Val d'Ossola, on the south side
of the Simplon Pass. But in 1414 they lost this to Savoy, and, with
the object of getting it back, obtained in1416-1417the alliance of
the men of the Upper Valais, then fighting for freedom, and thus
regained (1416) the valley, despite the exertions of the great
Milanese general
Carmagnola. In 1419 Uri and Obwalden bought
from its lord the town and district of Bellinzona. This rapid
advance, however, did not approve itself to the duke of Milan, and
Carmagnola reoccupied both valleys; the Confederates were not at
one with regard to these southern conquests; a small body pressed
on in front of the rest, but was cut to pieces at Arbedo near
Bellinzona in 1422. A bold attempt in 1425 by a Schwyzer, Peter
Rissi by name, to recover the Val d'Ossola caused the Confederates
to send a force to
rescue
these adventurers; but the duke of Milan intrigued with the divided
Confederates, and finally in 1426, by a payment of a large sum of
money and the grant of certain commercial privileges, the Val
Leventina, the Val d'Ossola and Bellinzona were formally restored
to him. Thus the first attempt of Uri to acquire a footing south of
the Alps failed; but a later attempt was successful, leading to the
inclusion in the Confederation of what has been called "Italian
Switzerland." The original contrasts between the social condition
of the different members of the League became more marked when the
period of conquest began, and led to quarrels and ill
The
First feeling in the matter of the Aargau and the Italian
Civil War. conquests which a few years later ripened into
1 a civil war, brought about by the dispute as to the succession to
the lands of Frederick, count of Toggenburg, the last male
representative of his house. Count Frederick's predecessors had
greatly extended their domains, so that they took in not only
the Toggenburg or
upper valley of the Thur, but Uznach, Sargans, the Rhine valley
between
Feldkirch and
Sargans, the Prattigau and the Davos valley. He himself, the last
great feudal lord on the left bank of the Rhine, had managed to
secure his vast possessions by making treaties with several members
of the League, particularly Zurich (1400) and Schwyz (x417) - from
1428 inclining more and more to Schwyz (then ruled by Ital
Riding), as he was disgusted with
the arrogant behaviour of Stussi, the burgomaster of Zurich. His
death (April 30, 1436) was the
signal for the breaking out of strife. The
Prattigau and Davos valley formed the League of the Ten
Jurisdictions in Raetia (see below), while Frederick's widow sided
with Zurich against Schwyz for different portions of the great
inheritance which had been promised them. After being twice
defeated, Zurich was forced in 14 4
0 to buy peace by
certain cessions (the " Hufe ") to Schwyz, the general feeling of
the Confederates being opposed to Zurich, so that several of them
went so far as to send men and arms to Schwyz. Zurich, however, was
bitterly disappointed at these defeats, and had recourse to the
policy which she had adopted in 1356 and
1 393 - an
alliance with Austria (concluded in 1442), which now held the
imperial throne in the person of
Frederick III. Though technically within
her rights according to the terms on which she had joined the
League in 1351, this act of Zurich caused the greatest irritation
in the Confederation, and civil war at once broke out, especially
when the Habsburg emperor had been solemnly received and
acknowledged in Zurich. In 1443 the Zurich troops were completely
defeated at St Jakob on the Sihl, close under the walls of the
city, Stussi himself being slain. Next year the city itself was
long besieged. Frederick, unable to get help elsewhere, procured
from
Charles VII. of
France the despatch of a body of
Armagnac free lances (the Ecorcheurs), who
came, 30,000 strong, under the
dauphin Louis, plundering and harrying the
land, till at the very gates of the free imperial city of Basel
(which had made a twenty years' alliance with Bern), by the leper
house of St Jakob on the Birs (Aug. 26, 1444), the desperate
resistance of a small body of Confederates (1200 to 150o), till cut
to pieces, checked the advance of the freebooters, who sustained
such tremendous losses that, though the victors, they hastily made
peace, and returned whence they had come. Several small engagements
ensued, Zurich long declining to make peace because the
Confederates required, as the result of a
solemn arbitration, the
abandonment of the Austrian alliance. At
length it was concluded in 1450, the Confederates restoring almost
all the lands they had won from Zurich. Thus ended the third
attempt of Austria to conquer the League by means of Zurich, which
used its position as an imperial free city to the harm of the
League, and caused the first civil war by which it was
distracted.
These fresh proofs of the valour of the Confederates, and of the
growing importance of the League, did not fail to produce
Constitution important results. In 1452
the " Confederates of
of the the Old League of Upper
Germany" (as they styled
League, themselves) made their
first treaty of alliance with
c. 1450. France, a connexion
which was destined to exercise so much influence on their history.
Round the League there began to gather a new class of allies (known
as " Zugewandte Orte," or associated districts), more closely
joined to it, or to certain members of it, than by a mere treaty of
friendship, yet not being admitted to the rank of a full member of
the League. Of these associates three, the abbot (r451) and town of
St Gall (1454), and the town of Bienne (Biel), through its alliance
(1352) with Bern, were given seats and votes in the Diet, being
called
socii; while others, known as confoederati, were
not so closely bound to the League, such as the Valais (1416-1417),
Schaffhausen (1454),
Rottweil (1463),
Muhlhausen (1466), (to the class of
confoederati belonged in later times Neuchatel 1406-1501), the
Three Leagues of Raetia (1497-1498), Geneva (1519-1536), and the
bishop of Basel (1579). Appenzell, too, in 1452, rose from the rank
of a " protected district " into the class of associates, outside
which were certain places " protected " by several members of the
League, such as Gersau (1359), the abbey of Engelberg (
c.
1421), and the town of Rapperswil (1464). The relation of the "
associates " to the League may be compared with the ancient
practice of "
commendation ": they were bound to obey
orders in declaring war, making alliances, &c. In 1439
Sigismund succeeded his father Frederick in the Habsburg lands in
Alsace, the Thurgau, and
Tirol
and, being much irritated by the constant encroachments of the
Confederates, in particular by the loss of Rapperswil (1458),
declared war against them, but fared very badly. In 1460 the
Confederates overran the Thurgau and occupied Sargans. Winterthur
was only saved by an heroic defence. Hence in 1461 Sigismund had to
give up his claims on those lands and renew the peace for fifteen
years, while in 1467 he sold Wintherthur to Zurich. Thus the whole
line of the Rhine was lost to the Habsburgs, who retained (till
1801) in the territories of the Confederates the Frickthal only.
The Thurgovian bailiwicks were governed in common as " subject "
lands by all the Confederates except Bern. The touchiness of the
now rapidly advancing League was shown by the eagerness with which
in 1468 its members took up arms against certain small feudal
nobles who were carrying on a harassing
guerrilla warfare with their allies
Schaffhausen and Muhlha.usen. They laid
siege to Waldshut, and to buy them off Sigismund
in August 1468 engaged to pay
10,000 gulden as
damages by the 24th of June
1469; in
default of payment
the Confederates were to keep for ever the
Black Forest, and Waldshut, one of the
Black Forest towns on the Rhine. A short time before (1467) the
League had made treaties of friendship with
Philip the
Good, duke of
Burgundy, and with the duke of Milan. All was
now prepared for the intricate series of intrigues which led up to
the Burgundian War - a great epoch in the history of the League, as
it created a common national feeling, enormously raised its
military reputation, and brought about the close connexion with
certain parts of Savoy, which finally (1803-1815) were admitted
into the League.
Sigismund did not know where to obtain the sum he had promised
to pay. In this strait he turned to
Charles the Bold (properly the Rash),
duke of Burgundy, who was
The then beginning his wonderful
career, and aiming at
Burgundian restoring the kingdom of
Burgundy. For this purpose
War. Charles wished to marry
his daughter and heiress to
Maximilian, son of the emperor, and first
cousin of Sigismund, in order that the emperor might be induced to
give him the Burgundian
crown. Hence he was ready to
meet Sigismund's advances. On the 9th of May 1469 Charles promised
to give Sigismund
50,000 florins, receiving as
security for repayment Upper
Alsace, the
Breisgau, the
Sundgau, the Black Forest, and the four Black Forest towns on the
Rhine (Rheinfelden, Sackingen, Laufenburg and Waldshut), and agreed
to give Sigismund aid against the Swiss, if he was attacked by
them. It was not unnatural for Sigismund to think of attacking the
League, but Charles's engagement to him is quite inconsistent with
the friendly agreement made between Burgundy and the League as late
as 1467. The emperor then on his side annulled Sigismund's treaty
of 1468 with the Swiss, and placed them under the ban of the
Empire. Charles committed the mortgaged lands to Peter von
Hagenbach, who proceeded to try to establish his master's power
there by such harsh measures as to cause the people to rise against
him.
The Swiss in these circumstances began to look towards
Louis XI. of France, who had
confirmed the treaty of friendship made with them by his father in
1452. Sigismund had applied to him early in 1469 to help him in his
many troubles, and to give him aid against the Swiss, but Louis had
point-
blank refused. Anxious to
secure their
neutrality in case of his war with Charles,
he made a treaty with them on the 13th of August 1470 to this
effect. All the evidence goes to show that Sigismund was not a tool
in the hands of Louis, and that Louis, at least at that time, had
no definite intention of involving Charles and the Swiss in a war,
but wished only to secure his own flank.
Sigismund in the next few years tried hard to get from Charles
the promised aid against the Swiss (the money was paid punctually
enough by Charles on his behalf), who put him off with various
excuses. Charles on his side, in 1471-1472, tried to make an
alliance with the Swiss, his efforts being supported by a party in
Bern headed by Adrian von Bubenberg. Probably Charles wished to use
both Sigismund and the Swiss to further his own interests, but his
shifty policy had the effect of alienating both from him.
Sigismund, disgusted with Charles, now inclined towards Louis,
whose ally he formally became in the summer of 1473 - a change
which was the real cause of the emperor's flight from Treves in
November 1473, when he had come there expressly to crown Charles.
The Confederates on their side were greatly moved by the oppression
of their friends and allies in Alsace by Hagenbach, and tried in
vain (January 1474) to obtain some redress from his master.
Charles's too astute policy had thus lost him both Sigismund and
the Swiss. They now looked upon Louis, who, thoroughly aware of
Charles's ambition, and fearing that his disappointment at Treves
would soon lead to open war, aimed at a master stroke - no less
than the reconciliation of Sigismund and the Swiss. This on the
face 'of it seemed impracticable, but common need and Louis's
dexterous management brought it to pass, so that on the 30th of
March 1474 the Everlasting Compact was signed at Constance, by
which Sigismund finally renounced all Austrian claims on the lands
of the Confederates, and guaranteed them in quiet enjoyment to
them; they, on the other hand, agreed to support him if Charles did
not give up the mortgaged lands when the money was paid down. The
next day the Swiss joined the league of the Alsatian and Rhine
cities, as also did Sigismund. Charles was called on to receive the
money contributed by the Alsatian cities, and to restore his lands
to Sigismund. He, however, took no steps. Within a week the
oppressive bailiff Hagenbach was captured, and a month later (May
9, 1 474) he was put to death, Bern alone of the Confederates being
represented. On the 9th of October the emperor, acting of course at
the instance of Sigismund, ordered them to declare war against
Charles, which took place on the 25th of October. Next day Louis
formally ratified his alliance with the Confederates, promising
money and pensions, the latter to be increased if he did not send
men. Throughout these negotiations and later Bern directs Swiss
policy, though all the Confederates are not quite agreed. She was
specially exposed to attack from Charles and Charles's ally (since
1468) Savoy, and her best chance of extending her territory lay
towards the west and south. A forward policy was thus distinctly
the best for Bern, and this was the line supported by the French
party under
Nicholas von Diesbach, Adrian
von Bubenberg opposing it, though not with any idea of handing over
Bern to Charles. The Forest districts, however, were very
suspicious of this movement to the west, by which Bern alone could
profit, though the League as a whole might lose; then, too, Uri had
in 1440 finally won the Val Leventina, and she and her neighbours
favoured a southerly policy - a policy which was crowned with
success after the gallant victory won at Giornico in 1478 by a
handful of men from Zurich, Lucerne, Uri and Schwyz over 12,000
Milanese troops. Thus Uri first gained a permanent footing south of
the Alps, not long before Bern won its first conquests from
Savoy.
The war in the west was begun by Bern and her allies (Fribourg,
Soleure, &c.) by marauding expeditions across the Jura, in
which Hericourt (November 1474) and Blamont (August 1475) were
taken, both towns being held of Charles by the " sires " de
Neuchatel, a cadet line of the counts of Montbeliard. It is said
that in the former expedition the white cross was borne (for the
first time) as the
ensign of
the Confederates, but not in the other. Meanwhile
Yolande, the duchess of Savoy,
had, through fear of her brother Louis XI. and hatred of Bern,
finally joined Charles and Milan (January 1475), the immediate
result of which was the capture, by the Bernese and friends (on the
way back from a foray on
Pontarlier in the free county of Burgundy or
Franche-Comte),
of several places in Vaud, notably Grandson and Echallens, both
held of Savoy by a member of the house of Chalon, princes of Orange
(April 1475), as well as of Orbe and Jougne, held by the same, but
under the count ,of Burgundy. In the summer Bern seized on the
Savoyard district of Aigle. Soon after (October - November 1 475)
the same energetic policy won for her the Savoyard towns of Morat,
Avenches, Estavayer and Yverdon; while (September) the Upper
Valais, which had conquered all Lower or Savoyard Valais, entered
into alliance with Bern for the purpose of opposing Savoy by
preventing the arrival of Milanese troops. Alarmed at their
success, the emperor and Louis deserted (June - September) the
Confederates, who thus, by the influence of Louis and Bernese
ambition, saw themselves led on and then abandoned to the wrath of
Charles, and very likely to lose their new conquests. They had
entered on the war as " helpers " of the emperor, and now became
principals in the war against Charles, who raised the siege of
Neuss, made an alliance with
Edward IV. of England,
received the surrender of
Lorraine, and hastened across the Jura
(February 1476) to the aid of his ally Yolande. On the 21st of
February Charles laid siege to the castle of Grandson, and after a
week's siege the garrison of Bernese and Fribourgers had to
surrender (Oct. 28), while, by way of
retaliation for the
massacre of the garrison of Estavayer in 1475,
of the 412 men two only were spared in order to act as executioners
of their comrades. This hideous news met a large body of the
Confederates gathered together in great haste to relieve the
garrison, and going to their
rendezvous at Neuchatel, where both the
count and town had become allies of Bern in 1406. An advance body
of Bernese, Fribourgers and Schwyzers, in order to avoid the castle
of Vauxmarcus (seized by Charles), on the shore of the
Lake of
Neuchatel, and on the direct road from Neuchatel to Grandson,
climbed over a wooded spur to the north, and attacked (March 2) the
Burgundian outposts. Charles drew back his force in order to bring
down the Swiss to the more level ground where his cavalry could
act, but his rear misinterpreted the order, and when the main Swiss
force appeared over the spur the Burgundian army was seized with a
panic and fled in disorder. The Swiss had gained a glorious
victory, and regained their conquest of Grandson, besides capturing
very rich spoil in Charles's camp, parts of which are preserved to
the present day in various Swiss armouries. Such was the famous
battle of Grandson. Charles at once retired to Lausanne, and set
about reorganizing his army. He resolved to advance on Bern by way
of Morat (or Murten), which was occupied by a Bernese garrison
under Adrian von Bubenburg,. and laid siege to it on the 9th of
June. The Confederates had now put away all
jealousy of Bern, and collected a large army.
The decisive battle took place on the afternoon of the 22nd of
June, after the arrival of the Zurich contingent under Hans
Waldmann. English archers were in Charles's army, while with the
Swiss was Rene, the dispossessed duke of Lorraine. After facing
each other many hours in the
driving rain, a body of Swiss, by outflanking
Charles's van, stormed his palisaded camp, and the Burgundians were
soon hopelessly beaten, the losses on both sides (a contrast to
Grandson) being exceedingly heavy. Vaud was reoccupied by the Swiss
(Savoy having overrun it on Charles's advance); but Louis now
stepped in and procured the restoration of that region to Savoy,
save Grandson, Morat, Orbe and Echallens, which were to be held by
the Bernese jointly with the Fribourgers, Aigle by Bern alone -
Savoy at the same time renouncing all its claims over Fribourg.
Thus French-speaking districts first became permanently connected
with the Confederation, hitherto purely German, and the war had
been one for the maintenance of recent conquests, rather than
purely in defence of Swiss freedom. Charles tried in vain to raise
a third army; Rene recovered Lorraine, and on the 5th of January
1477, under the walls of
Nancy,
Charles's wide-reaching plans were ended by his defeat and death,
many Swiss being with Rene's troops. The wish of the Bernese to
overrun Franche-Comte was opposed by the older members of the
Confederation, andj finally, in 1479, Louis, by very large
payments, secured the abandonment of all claims on that province,
which was annexed to the French crown.
These glorious victories really laid the foundation of Swiss
nationality; but soon
after them the long-standing jealousy between the civic and rural
elements in the Confederation nearly broke it up. This had always
the hindered common action save in the case of certain pressing
questions. In 1370, by the " Parsons'
ordinance " (Pfaffenbrief), agreed on by all
the Confederates except Bern and Glarus, all residents whether
clerics or laymen, in the Confederation who were bound by oath to
the duke of Austria were to swear faith to the Confederation, and
this oath was to rank before any other; no appeal was to lie to any
court spiritual or lay (except in matrimonial and purely spiritual
questions) outside the limits of the Confederation, and many
regulations were laid down as to the suppression of private wars
and keeping of the peace on the high roads. Further, in 1393, the "
Sempach ordinance " was accepted by all the Confederates and
Soleure; this was an attempt to enforce police regulations and to
lay down " articles of war " for the organization and discipline of
the army of the Confederates, minute regulations being made against
plundering - women, monasteries and churches being in particular
protected and secured. But save these two documents common action
was limited to the meeting of two envoys from each member of the
Confederation and one from each of the " socii " in the Diet, the
powers of which were greatly limited by the instructions brought by
each
envoy, thus entailing
frequent reference to his government, and included foreign
relations, war and peace, and common arrangements as to police,
pestilence, customs duties, coinage, &c. The decisions of the
majority did not bind the minority save in the case of the affairs
of the bailiwicks ruled in common. Thus everything depended on
common agreement and good will. But disputes as to the divisions of
the lands conquered in the Burgundian War, and the proposal to
admit into the League the towns of Fribourg and Soleure, which had
rendered such good help in the war, caused the two parties to form
separate unions, for by the latter proposal the number of towns
would have been made the same as that of the " Lander," which these
did not at all approve. Suspended a moment by the campaign in the
Val Leventina, these quarrels broke out after the victory of
Giornico; and at the Diet of Stans (December 1481), when it seemed
probable that the failure of all attempts to come to an
understanding would result in the disruption of the League, the
mediation of Nicholas von
der Flue (or Bruder, Klaus), a holy
hermit of Sachseln in Obwalden, though he did
not appear at the Diet in person, succeeded in bringing both sides
to reason, and the third great ordinance of the League - the "
compact of Stans " - was agreed on. By this the promise of mutual
aid and assistance was renewed, especially when one member attacked
another, and stress was laid on the duty of the several governments
to maintain the peace, and not to help the subjects of any other
member in case of a rising. The treasure and movables captured in
the war were to be equally divided amongst the combatants, but the
territories and towns amongst the members of the League. As a
practical proof of the reconciliation, on the same day the towns of
Fribourg and Soleure were received as full members of the
Confederation, united with all the other members, though on less
favourable terms than usual, for they were forbidden to make
alliances, save with the consent of all or of the greater part of
the other members. Both towns had long been allied with Bern, whose
influence was greatly increased by their admission. Fribourg,
founded in 1178 by Berthold IV. of Zaringen, had on the extinction
of that great dynasty (1218) passed successively by inheritance to
Kyburg (1218), by purchase to Austria (1277), and by commendation
to Savoy (1452); when Savoy gave up its claims in 1477 Fribourg
once more became a free imperial city. She had become allied with
Bern as early as 1243, but in the ,4th and 15th centuries became
Romance-speaking, though from 1483 onwards German gained in
strength and was the official language till 1798. Soleure (or
Solothurn) had been associated with Bern from 1295, but had in vain
sought admission into the League in 1411. Both the new members had
done much for Bern in the Burgundian War, and it was for their good
service that she now procured them this splendid reward, in hopes
perhaps of aid on other important and critical occasions.
The compact of Stans strengthened the bonds which joined the
members of the Confederation; and the same centralizing tendency is
well seen in the attempt (1483-1489) of Hans Waldmann,. the
burgomaster of Zurich, to assert the rule of his city over the
neighbouring country districts, to place all power in the hands of
the gilds (whereas by Brun's constitution the patricians had an
equal share), to suppress all minor jurisdictions, and to raise a
uniform tax. But this idea of concentrating all powers in the hands
of the government aroused great resistance, and led to his
overthrow and execution. Peter Kistler succeeded (1470) better at
Bern in a reform on the same lines, but less sweeping.
The early history of each member of the Confederation, and of
the Confederation itself, shows that they always professed to
belong to the Empire, trying to become immediately dependent on the
emperor in order to prevent oppression by middle lords, and to
enjoy practical liberty. The Empire itself had now become very much
of a
shadow; cities and
princes were gradually asserting their own independence, sometimes
breaking away from it altogether. Now, by. the time of the
Burgundian War, the Confederation stood in a position analogous to
that of a powerful free imperial city. As long as the emperor's
nominal
Empire. rights were not enforced, all went well;
but, when Maximilian,. in his attempt to reorganize the Empire,
erected in 1495 at
Worms an
imperial
chamber which had jurisdiction in all disputes between members
of the Empire, the Confederates were very unwilling to obey it -
partly because they could maintain peace at home by their own
authority, and partly because it interfered with their practical
independence. Again, their refusal to join the "
Swabian League,"
formed in 1488 by the lords and cities of South Germany to keep the
public peace, gave further offence, as well as their fresh
alliances with France. Hence a struggle was inevitable, and the
occasion by reason of which it broke out was the seizure by the
Tyrolese authorities. in 1499 of the Munsterthal, which belonged to
the " Gotteshausbund," one of the three leagues which had gradually
arisen in Raetia. These were the " Gotteshausbund " in 1367 (taking
in all the dependents of the
cathedral church at Chur living in the
Oberhalbstein and Engadine); the " Ober " or " Grauer Bund " in
1395 and 1424 (taking in the abbey of Disentis and many counts and
lords in the Vorder Rhein valley, though its name is not derived,
as often stated, from the " grey coats " of the first members, but
from " grawen " or " grafen," as so many counts formed part of it);
and the " League of the Ten Jurisdictions " (Zehngerichtenbund),
which arose in the Frattigau and Davos valley (1436) on the death
of Count Frederick of Toggenburg, but which, owing to certain
Austrian claims in it, was not quite so free as its neighbours. The
first and third of these became allied in 1450, but the formal
union of the three dates only from 1524, as documentary proof is
wanting of the alleged meeting at Vazerol in 1471, though
practically before 1524 they had very much in common. In 1497 the
Ober Bund, in 1498 the Gotteshausbund, made a treaty of alliance
with the Everlasting League or Swiss Confederation, the Ten
Jurisdictions being unable to do more than show sympathy, owing to
Austrian claims, which were not bought up till 1649 and 1652. Hence
this attack on the Munsterthal was an attack on an " associate "
member of the Swiss Confederation, Maximilian being supported by
the Swabian League; but its real historical importance is the
influence it had on the relations of the Swiss to the Empire. The
struggle lasted several months, the chief fight being that in the
Calven
gorge (above Mals; May
22, 1499), in which Benedict Fontana, a leader of the
Gotteshausbund men, performed many heroic deeds before his death.
But, both sides being exhausted, peace was made at Basel on the
22nd of September 1499. By this the matters in dispute were
referred to arbitration, and the emperor annulled all the decisions
of the imperial chamber against the Confederation; but nothing was
laid down as to its future relations with the Empire. No further
real attempt, however, was made to enforce the rights of the
emperor, and the Confederation became a state allied with the
Empire, enjoying practical independence, though not formally freed
till 1648. Thus, 208 years after the origin of the Confederation in
1291, it had got rid of all Austrian claims (1394 and 1474), as
well as all practical subjection to the emperor. But its further
advance towards the position of an independent state was long
checked by religious divisions within, and by the enormous
influence of the French king on its foreign relations.
With the object of strengthening the northern border of the
Confederation, two more full members were admitted in 150rBasel and
Schaffhausen - on the same terms as Fribourg and Soleure. The city
of Basel had originally been ruled by its bishop, but early in the
14th century it became a free imperial city; before 1501 it had
made no permanent alliance with the Confederation, though it had
been in continual relations with it. Schaffhausen had grown up
round the Benedictine monastery
of All Saints, and became in the
early 13th century a free imperial city, but was mortgaged to
Austria from 1330 to 1415, in which last year the emperor Sigismund
declared all Duke Frederick's rights forfeited in consequence of
his abetting the flight of Pope John XXII. It bought its freedom in
1418 and became an " associate " of the Confederation in 1454.
A few years later, in 1513, Appenzell, which in 1411 had become
a " protected " district, and in 1452 an " associate "
League member of the Confederation, was admitted as the
thirteenth full member; and this remained the Thirteen
number till the fall of the old Confederation in 1798. Round the
three original members had gathered first five others, united with
the three, but not necessarily with each other; and then gradually
there grew up an outer circle, consisting of five more, allied with
all the eight old members, but tied down by certain stringent
conditions. Constance, which seemed called by nature to enter the
League, kept aloof, owing to a quarrel as to criminal jurisdiction
in the Thurgau, pledged to it before the district was conquered by
the Confederates.
In the first years of the 16th century the influence of the
Confederates south of the Alps was largely extended. The system of
giving pensions, in order to secure the r
i ght of
enlisting men within the Confederation, and
Italy. of
capitulations, by which the different members supplied troops, was
originated by Louis XI. in 1474, and later followed by many other
princes. Though ' a
tribute
to Swiss valour and courage, this practice had very evil results,
of which the firstfruits were seen in the Milanese troubles
(1500-1516), of which the following is a summary. Both
Charles VIII. (1484)
and
Louis XII.
(
1 499 for ten years) renewed Louis XI.'s treaty.
The French attempts to gain Milan were largely carried on by the
help of Swiss mercenaries, some of whom were on the opposite side;
and, as brotherly feeling was still too strong to make it possible
for them to fight against one another, Lodovico Sforza's Swiss
troops shamefully betrayed him to the French at
Novara (1500). In 1500, too, the three Forest
districts occupied Bellinzona (with the Val Blenio) at the request
of its inhabitants, and in 1503 Louis XII. was forced to cede it to
them. He, however, often held back the pay of his Swiss troops, and
treated them as mere hirelings, so that when the ten years' treaty
came to an end Matthew Schinner, bishop of Sitten (or Sion),
induced them to join (1510) the pope,
Julius II., then engaged in forming the Holy
League to expel the French from Italy. But when, after the battle
of
Ravenna, Louis XII.
became all-powerful in
Lombardy, 20,000 Swiss poured down into the
Milanese and occupied it, Felix Schmid, the burgomaster of Zurich,
naming Maximilian (Lodovico's son) duke of Milan, in return for
which he ceded to the Confederates Locarno, Val Maggia, Mendrisio
and Lugano (1512), while the Raetian Leagues seized
Chiavenna,
Bormio and the
Valtellina. (The former
districts, with Bellinzona, the Val Blenio and the Val Leventina,
were in 1803 made into the canton of Ticino, the latter were held
by Raetia till 1 797.) In 1513 the Swiss completely defeated the
French at Novara, and in 1515
Pace
was sent by
Henry VIII. of England to give
pensions and get soldiers.
Francis I. at once on his accession (1515)
began to prepare to win back the Milanese, and, successfully
evading the Swiss awaiting his descent from the Alps, beat them in
a pitched battle at Marignano near Milan (Sept. 13, 1515), which
broke the Swiss power in north Italy, so that in 1516 a peace was
made with France - the Valais, the Three Raetian Leagues and both
the abbot and town of St Gall being included on the side of the
Confederates. Provision was made for the neutrality of either party
in case the other became involved in war, and large pensions were
promised. This treaty was extended by another in 1521 (to which
Zurich, then under Zwingli's influence, would not agree, holding
aloof from the French alliance till 1614), by which the French king
might, with the consent of the Confederation, enlist any number of
men between 6000 and r6,000, paying them fit
wages, and the pensions were raised to 3000
francs annually to each member of the Confederation. These two
treaties were the startingpoint of later French interference with
Swiss affairs.
4. In 1499 the Swiss had practically renounced their
allegiance to the
emperor, the temporal chief of the world according to medieval
theory; and in the 6th century a great number of them did the same
by the world's spiritual
u chief, the pope. The scene of
the revolt was Zurich, and the leader
Ulrich Zwingli (who settled in Zurich at the
very end of 1518). But we cannot understand Zwingli's career unless
we remember that he was almost more a political reformer than a
religious one. In his former character his policy was threefold. He
bitterly opposed the French alliance and the
pension and mercenary system, for he had seen
its evils with his own eyes when serving as
chaplain with the troops in the Milanese in
1512 and 1515. Hence in 1521 his influence kept Zurich back from
joining in the treaty with Francis I. Then, too, at the time of the
Peasant Revolt (1525), he
did what he could to lighten the harsh rule of the city over the
neighbouring rural districts, and succeeded in getting serfage
abolished. Again he had it greatly at
heart to secure for Zurich and Bern the chief
power in the Confederation, because of their importance and size;
he wished to give them extra votes in the Diet, and would have
given them two-thirds of the " common bailiwicks " when these were
divided. In his character as a religious reformer we must remember
that he was a humanist, and deeply read in classical literature,
which accounts for his turning the canonries of the Grossmunster
into professorships, reviving the old school of the Carolinum, and
relying on the arm of the state to carry out religious changes (see
ZwINGLI). After succeeding at two public disputations (both held in
1523) his views rapidly gained ground at Zurich, which long,
however, stood quite alone, the other Confederates issuing an
appeal to await the decision of the asked-for general council, and
proposing to carry out by the arm of the state certain small
reforms, while clinging to the old doctrines. Zwingli had to put
down the extreme wing of the Reformers - the
Anabaptists - by force (1525-1526).
Quarrels soon arose as to allowing the new views in the " common
bailiwicks." The disputation at Baden (1526) was in favour of the
maintainers of the old faith; but that at Bern (1528) resulted in
securing for the new views the support of that great town, and so
matters began to take another aspect. In 1528 Bern joined the union
formed in December 1527 in favour of religious freedom by Zurich
and Constance (
Cliristliches Burgrecht), and her example
was followed by Schaffhausen, St Gall, Basel, Bienne and Muhlhausen
(1528-1529). This attempt virtually to break up the League was met
in February 1529 by the offensive and defensive alliance made with
King
Ferdinand of
Hungary (brother of the
emperor) by the three Forest districts, with Lucerne and Zug,
followed (April 1529) by the " Christliche Vereinigung," or union
between these five members of the League. Zurich was greatly moved
by this, and, as Zwingli held that for the honour of God war was as
necessary as iconoclasm, hostilities seemed imminent; but Bern held
back; and the first peace of Kappel was concluded (June 1529), by
which the Hungarian alliance was annulled and the principle of "
religious parity " (or freedom) was admitted in the case of each
member of the League, while in the "common bailiwicks " the
majority in each parish was to decide the religion of that parish.
This was at once a victory and a check for Zwingli. He tried to
make an alliance with the Protestants in Germany, but failed at the
meeting at
Marburg (October
1529) to come to an agreement with Luther on the subject of the
Eucharist, and the division
between the Swiss and the German Reformations was stereotyped.
Zwingli now developed his views as to the greater weight which
Zurich and Bern ought to have in the League. Quarrels, too, went on
in the " common bailiwicks," for the members of the League who
clung to the old faith had a majority of votes in matters relating
to these districts. Zurich tried to cut off supplies of food from
reaching the Romanist members (contrary to the wishes of Zwingli),
and, on the death of the abbot of St Gall, disregarding the rights
of Lucerne, Schwyz and Glarus, who shared with her since 1451 the
office of protectors of the abbey, suppressed the monastery, giving
the rule of the land and the people to her own officers. Bern in
vain tried to moderate this aggressive policy, and the Romanist
members of the League indignantly advanced from Zug towards Zurich.
Near Kappel, on the 11th of October 1531, the Zurich vanguard under
Goldli was (perhaps owing to his treachery) surprised, and despite
reinforcements the men of Zurich were beaten, among the slain being
Zwingli himself. Another defeat completed the discomfiture of
Zurich, and by the second peace of Kappel (November 1531) the
principle of " parity " was recognized, not merely in the case of
each member of the League and of the " common bailiwicks," but in
the latter Romanist minorities in every parish were to have a right
to celebrate their own worship. Thus everywhere the rights of a
minority were protected from the encroachments of the majority. The
" Christliches Burgrecht " was abolished, and Zurich was condemned
to pay heavy damages. Bullinger succeeded Zwingli, but this treaty
meant that neither side could now try to convert the other
wholesale. The League was permanently split into two religious
camps: the Romanists, who met at Lucerne, numbered, besides the
five already mentioned, Fribourg, Soleure, Appenzell (Inner Rhoden)
and the abbot of St Gall (wikh the Valais and the bishop of Basel),
thus commanding sixteen votes (out of twenty-nine) in the Diet; the
Evangelicals were Zurich, Bern, Schaffhausen, Appenzell (Ausser
Rhoden), Glarus. and the towns of St Gall, Basel and Bienne (with
Graubunden), who met at Aarau.
Bern had her eyes always fixed upon the Savoyard lands to the
south-west, in which she had got a footing in 1475, and now made
zeal for religious reforms the excuse for resum-
Vaua by
ing her advance policy. In 1526,
Guillaume Farel,
Bern. a
preacher from
Dauphine,
had been sent to reform Aigle, Morat and Neuchatel. In 1532 he came
to Geneva, an ancient city of which the rule had long been disputed
by the prince-bishop, the burgesses and the house of Savoy, the
latter holding the neighbouring districts. She had become in 1519
the ally of Fribourg, in 1526 that of Bern also; and in 1530, by
their influence, a peace was made between the contending parties.
The religious changes introduced by Farel greatly displeased
Fribourg, which abandoned the alliance (1534), and in 1535 the
Reformation was firmly planted in the city. The duke of Savoy,
however, took up arms against Bern (1536), who overran
Gex, Vaud and the independent bishopric
of Lausanne, as well as the Chablais to the south of the
lake. Geneva was only
saved by the unwillingness of the citizens. Bern thus ruled north
and south of the lake, and carried matters with a high hand.
Shortly after this
John
Calvin, a refugee from
Picardy, was, when passing through Geneva,
detained by Farel to aid him, and, after an exile from 1538-1541,
owing to opposition of the papal party and of the burghers, who
objected to Bernese rule, he was recalled (1541) and set up his
wonderful theocratic government in the city, in 1553 burning
Servetus, the Unitarian (see Calvin and Servetus), and in 1555
expelling many who upheld municipal liberty, replacing them by
French, English, Italians and Spaniards as new burghers, whose
names are still frequent in Geneva (e.g. Ca.ndolle, Mallet,
Diodati). His theological views led to disputes with the Zurich
Reformers, which were partly settled by the
Consensus
Tigurinus of 1549, and more completely by the
Helvetic Confession of
1562-1566, which formed the basis of union between the two
parties.
By the time of Calvin's death (1564) the old faith had begun to
take the offensive; the reforms made by the
Council of
Trent urged on the Romanists to make an attempt to recover lost
ground.
Emmanuel Philibert, duke of Savoy,
the hero of St Quentin (1557), and one of the greatest generals of
the day, with the support of the Romanist members of the League,
demanded the restoration of the districts seized by Bern in 1536,
and on the 30th of October 1564 the Treaty of Lausanne confirmed
the decision of the other Confederates sitting as arbitrators
(according to the old constitutional custom). By this treaty Gex,
the Genevois and the Chablais were to be given back, while
Lausanne, Vevey, Chillon, Villeneuve, Nyon, Avenches and Yverdon
were to be kept by Bern, who engaged to maintain the old rights and
liberties of Vaud. Thus Bern lost the lands south of the lake, in
which
St Francis of Sales, the exiled
prince-bishop of Geneva (1602-1622), at once proceeded to carry out
the restoration of the old faith. In 1555 Bern and Fribourg, as
creditors of the debt-laden count, divided the county of Gruyere,
thus getting French-speaking subjects. In 1558 Geneva renewed her
alliance with Bern, and in 1584 she made one with Zurich. The duke
of Savoy made several vain attempts to get hold of Geneva, the last
(in 1602) being known as the " escalade." The decrees of the
Council of Trent had been accepted fully by the Romanist members of
the League, so far as relates to
dogma, but not as regards discipline or the
relations
TheCounter- of church and
state, the sovereign rights and
juris diction of each state being always
carefully reserved.
tion. The
counter-Reformation, however, or reaction in
favour of the old faith, was making rapid progress in the
Confederation, mainly through the indefatigable exertions of
Charles Borromeo, from 1560 to 1584
archbishop of Milan (in which diocese the
Italian bailiwicks were included), and nephew of
Pius IV., supported at Lucerne by Ludwig Pfyffer,
who, having been (1562-1570) the chief of the Swiss mercenaries in
the
French wars of religion, did
so much till his death (1594) to further the religious reaction at
home that he was popularly known as the " Swiss king." In 1574 the
Jesuits, the great order of the reaction, were established at
Lucerne; in 1 579 a papal
nuncio came to Lucerne; Charles Borromeo founded
the " Collegium Helveticum " at Milan for the education of fortytwo
young Swiss, and the Catholic members of the League made an
alliance with the bishop of Basel; in 1581 the
Capuchins were introduced to influence the
more ignorant classes. Most important of all was the Golden or
Borromean League, concluded (Oct. 5, 1586) between the seven
Romanist members of the Confederation (Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden,
Lucerne, Zug, Fribourg and Soleure) for the maintenance of the true
faith in their territories, each engaging to punish backsliding
members and to help each other if attacked by external enemies,
notwithstanding any other leagues, old or new. This league marks
the final breaking up of the Confederation into two great parties,
which greatly hindered its progress. The Romanist members had a
majority in the Diet, and were therefore able to refuse admittance
to Geneva, Strassburg and Muhihausen. Another result of these
religious differences was the breaking up of Appenzell into two
parts (1597), each sending one representative to the Diet - " Inner
Rhoden " remaining Romanist, " Ausser Rhoden " adopting the new
views. We may compare with this the action of Zurich in 1555, when
she received the Protestant exiles (bringing with them the silk-
weaving industry) from Locarno
and the Italian bailiwicks into her burghership, and Italian names
are found there to this day (e.g. Orelli, Muralt).
In the
Thirty Years' War the Confederation
remained neutral, being bound both to Austria (1474) and to France
(1516), and neither religious party wishing to give the other an
excuse for calling in foreign armies. But the troubles in Raetia
threatened entanglements. Austria wished to secure the Miinsterthal
(belonging to the League of the Ten Jurisdictions), and
Spain wanted the command of the
passes leading from the Valtellina (conquered by the leagues of
Raetia in 1512), the object being to connect the Habsburg lands of
Tirol and Milan. In the Valtellina the rule of the Three Raetian
Leagues was very harsh, and Spanish intrigues easily brought about
the massacre of 1620, by which the valley was won, the Romanist
members of the Confederation stopping the troops of Zurich and
Bern. In 1622 the Austrians conquered the Prattigau, over which
they still had certain feudal rights. French troops regained the
Valtellina in 1624, but it was occupied once more in 1629 by the
imperial troops, and it was not till 1635 that the French, under
Rohan, finally succeeded in holding
it. The French, however, wished to keep it permanently; hence new
troubles arose, and in 1637 the natives, under George Jenatsch,
with Spanish aid drove them out, the Spaniards themselves being
forced to resign it in 1639. It was only in 1649 and 1652 that the
Austrian rights in the Prattigau were finally bought up by the
League of the Ten Jurisdictions, which thus gained its freedom.
In consequence of Ferdinand II.'s
edict of restitution (1629), by which the
status quo of 1552 was re-established - the highwater
mark of the counter-Reformation -
the abbot of St Gall tried to make some religious changes in his
territories, but the protest of Zurich led to the Baden
compromise of 1632, by
which, in the case of disputes on religious matters arising in the
" common bailiwicks, " the decision was to be, not by a majority of
the cantons, but by means of friendly discussion - a logical
application of the doctrine of religious parity - or by
arbitration.
But by far the most important event in Swiss history in this age
is the formal freeing of the Confederation from the empire. Basel
had been admitted a member of the League in 1501, two years after
the Confederation had been practically freed from the jurisdiction
of the imperial
Empire. chamber, though the city was
included in the new division of the empire into " circles " (1521),
which did not take in the older members of the Confederation.
Basel, however, refused to admit this jurisdiction; the question
was taken up by France and
Sweden at the congress of Munster, and formed
the subject of a special clause in both the treaties of
Westphalia, by which the
city of Basel and the other " Helvetiorum cantones " were declared
to be " in the possession, or almost in the possession, of entire
liberty and exemption from the empire, and
nullatenus
subject to the imperial tribunals." This was intended to mean
formal exemption from all obligations to the empire (with which the
Confederation was connected hereafter simply as a friend), and to
be a definitive settlement of the question. Thus by the events of
1499 and 1648 the Confederation had become an independent European
state, which, by the treaty of 1516, stood as regards France in a
relation of neutrality.
In 1668, in consequence of Louis XIV.'s temporary occupation of
the Franche Comte, an old scheme for settling the number of men to
be sent by each member of the Confederation to the joint army, and
the appointment of a council of war in war time, that is, an
attempt to create a common military organization, was accepted by
the Diet, which was to send two deputies to the council, armed with
full political powers. This agreement, known as the
Defensionale, is the only instance of joint and unanimous
action in this miserable period of Swiss history, when religious
divisions crippled the energy of the Confederation.
Throughout the t 7th and 18th centuries the Confederation was
practically a dependency of France. In 1614 Zurich for
French the first time joined in the treaty, which was
renewed in 1663 with special provisions as regards the Protestant
Swiss mercenaries in the king's pay and a promise of French
neutrality in case of civil war
Aristo- in the League.
The Swiss had to stand by while cracy.
Louis XIV. won Alsace
(1648), Franche Comte (1678) and Strassburg (1681). But, as Louis
inclined more and more to an anti-Protestant policy, the Protestant
members of the League favoured the Dutch military service; and it
was through their influence that in 1707 the " states " of the
principality of Neuchatel, on the extinction of the Longueville line of
these princes, decided in favour of the king of Prussia (representing the overlords - the house
of Chalon-Orange) as against the various French pretenders claiming
from the Longueville dynasty by descent or by will. In 1715 the
Romanist members of the League, in hopes of retrieving their defeat
of 1712 (see below), agreed, while renewing the treaty and
capitulations, to put France in the position of the guarantor of
their freedom, with rights of interfering in case of attack from
within or from without, whether by counsel or arms, while she
promised to procure restitution of the lands lost by them in 1712.
This last clause was simply the surrender of Swiss independence,
and was strongly objected to by the Protestant members of the
Confederation, so that in 1777 it was dropped, when all the
Confederates made a fresh defensive alliance, wherein their
sovereignty and independence were expressly set forth. Thus France
had succeeded to the position of the empire with regard to the
Confederation, save that her claims were practically asserted and
voluntarily admitted.Between 1648 and 1798 the Confederation was distracted by
religious divisions and feelings ran very high. A scheme to set up
a central administration fell through in 1655, through jealousy of
Bern and Zurich, the proposers. In 1656 a question as to certain
religious refugees, who were driven from Schwyz and took refuge at
Zurich, brought about the first Villemergen War, in which the
Romanists were successful, and procured a clause in the treaty
asserting very strongly the absolute sovereignty, in religious as
well as in political matters, of each member of the League within
its own territories, while in the " common bailiwicks " the Baden
arrangement (1632) was to prevail. Later, the attempt of the abbot
of St Gall to enforce his rights in the Toggenburg swelled into the
second Villemergen War (1712), which turned out very ill for the
defeated Romanists. Zurich and Bern were henceforth to hold in
severalty Baden, Rapperswil, and part of the " common bailiwicks "
of the Aargau, both towns being given a share in the government of
the rest, and Bern in that of Thurgau and Rheinthal, from which, as
well as from that part of Aargau, she had been carefully excluded
in 1415 and 1460. The only thing that prospered was the principle
Of " religious parity," which was established completely, as
regards
both religions, within each parish in the " common
bailiwick." The Diet had few powers; the Romanists had the majority
there; the sovereign rights of each member of the League and the
limited
mandate of the
envoys effectually checked all progress. Zurich, as the leader of
the League, managed matters when the Diet was not sitting, but
could not enforce her orders. The Confederation was little more
than a collection of separate atoms, and it is really marvellous
that it did not break up through its own weakness.
In these same two centuries, the chief feature in domestic Swiss
politics is the growth of an
aristocracy: the power of voting and the
power of ruling are placed in the hands of a small class. This is
chiefly seen in Bern, Lucerne, Fribourg and Soleure, where there
were not the primitive democracies of the Forest districts nor the
government by gilds as at Zurich, Basel and Schaffhausen. It was
effected by refusing to admit any new burghers, a practice which
dates from the middle of the ,6th century, and is connected (like
the similar movement in the smaller local units of the " communes "
in the rural districts) with the question of poor relief after the
suppression of the monasteries. Outsiders (Hintersasse or
Niedergelassene) had no political rights, however long they might
have resided, while the privileges of burghership were strictly
hereditary. Further, within the burghers, a small class succeeded
in securing the monopoly of all public offices, which was kept up
by the practice of co-opting, and was known as the " patriciate."
So in Bern, out of 360 burgher families 6 9 only towards the close
of the 18th century formed the ruling
oligarchy - and, though to foreigners the
government seemed admirably managed, yet the last thing that could
be said of it was that it was democratic. In 1749
Samuel Henzi (disgusted at being refused the
post of town librarian) made a fruitless attempt to overthrow this
oligarchy, like the lawyer, Pierre Fatio at Geneva in 1707. The
harsh character of Bernese rule (and the same holds good with
reference to Uri and the Val Leventina) was shown in the great
strictness with which its subject land Vaud was kept in hand: it
was ruled as a conquered land by a benevolent
despot, and we can feel no surprise that Major
J. D. A. Davel in 1723 tried to free his native land, or that it
was in Vaud that the principles of
the French Revolution were most
eagerly welcomed. Another result of this aristocratic tendency was
the way in which the cities despised the neighbouring country
districts, and managed gradually to deprive them of their equal
political rights and to
levy heavy
taxes upon them. These and other grievances (the fall in the price
of food after the close of the Thirty Years' War, the lowering of
the value of the
coin, &c.), combined with the
presence of many soldiers discharged after the great war, led to
the great Peasant Revolt (1653) in the territories of Bern,
Soleure, Lucerne and Basel, interesting historically as being the
first popular rising since the old days of the 13th and 14th
centuries, and because reminiscences of legends connected with
those times led to the appearance of the " three Tells," who
greatly stirred up the people. The rising was put down at the cost
of much bloodshed, but the demands of the peasants were not
granted. Yet during this period of political powerlessness a Swiss
literature first arises: Conrad
Gesner and Giles
Tschudi in the 16th century are succeeded by J.
J. Scheuchzer, A. von Haller, J. C. Lavater, J. J. Bodmer, H. B. de
Saussure, J. J. Rousseau, J. von Muller; the taste for Swiss travel
is stimulated by the publication (1793) of the first real Swiss
guide-book by J. G. Ebel (q.v.), based on the old
Deliciae; industry throve greatly. The residence of such
brilliant foreign writers as
Gibbon and Voltaire within or close to the
territories of the Confederation helped on this remarkable
intellectual revival. Political aspirations were not, however,
wholly crushed, and found their centre in the Helvetic Society,
founded in 1762 by F. U. Balthasar and others.
The Confederation and France had been closely connected for so
long that the outbreak of the French Revolution could not fail to
affect the Swiss. The Helvetian Club,
E the French founded
at
Paris in 1790 by several
exiled Vaudois and Fribourgers, was the centre from which the new
ideas were spread in the western part of the Confederation, and
risings directed or stirred up. In 1790 the Lower Valais rose
against the oppressive rule of the upper districts; in 1791
Porrentruy defied the prince-bishop of Basel, despite the imperial
troops he summoned, and proclaimed (November 1792) the " Rauracian
republic," which three months later (1793) became the French
department of the Mont Terrible; Geneva was only saved (1792) from
France by a force sent from Zurich and Bern; while the massacre of
the Swiss guard at the Tuileries on the 10th of August 1792 aroused
intense indignation. The rulers, however, unable to enter into the
new ideas, contented themselves with suppressing them by force,
e.g. Zurich in the case of Sta.fa (1795). St Gall managed
to free itself from its prince-abbot (1795-1797), but the Leagues
of Raetia so oppressed their subjects in the Valtellina that in
1797
Bonaparte (after
conquering the Milanese from the Austrians) joined them to the
Cisalpine republic. The Diet was distracted by party struggles and
the fall of the old Confederation was not far distant. The rumours
of the vast treasures stored up at Bern, and the desire of securing
a
bulwark against Austrian
attack, specially turned the attention of the
directory towards the Confederation; and this
was utilized by the heads of the Reform party in the Confederation
- Peter Ochs (1752-1821), the burgomaster of Basel, and Frederic
Cesar Laharpe (1754-1838; tutor, 1783-1794, to the later
tsar Alexander I.), who had left his
home in Vaud through disgust at Bernese oppression, both now
wishing for aid from outside in order to free their land from the
rule of the oligarchy.
x xv,. 9 Hence, when Laharpe, at the head of some twenty exiles
from Vaud and Fribourg, called (Dec. 9, 1797) on the Directory to
protect the liberties of Vaud, which, so he said (by a bit of
purely apocryphal history), France by the treaty of 1565 was bound
to
guarantee, his appeal
found a ready answer. In February 1798 French troops occupied
Miihlhausen and Bienne (Biel), as well as those parts of the lands
of the prince-bishop of Basel (St Imier and the Munsterthal) as
regards which he had been since 1579 the ally of the Catholic
members of the Confederation. Another army entered Vaud (February
1798), when the " Lemanic republic " was proclaimed, and the Diet
broke up in dismay without taking any steps to avert the coming
storm. Brune and his army occupied
Fribourg and Soleure, and, after fierce fighting at Neuenegg,
entered (March 5) Bern, deserted by her allies and distracted by
quarrels within. With Bern, the stronghold of the aristocratic
party, fell the old Confederation. The revolution triumphed
throughout the country. Brune (March 16-19) put forth a wonderful
scheme by which the Confederation with its " associates " and "
subjects " was to be split into three republics - the Tellgau (i.e.
the Forest districts), the Rhodanic (i.e. Vaud, the Valais, the
Bernese Oberland and the Italian bailiwicks), and the Helvetic
(i.e. the northern and eastern portions); but the directory
disapproved of this (March 23), and on the 29th of March the "
Helvetic republic, one and indivisible," was
The
proclaimed. This was accepted by ten cantons only as well as (April
12) the constitution drafted
Republic. by Ochs. By the new
scheme the territories of the Everlasting League were split up into
twenty-three (later nineteen, Raetia only coming in in 1799)
administrative districts, called " cantons," a name now officially
used in Switzerland for the first time, though it may be found
employed by foreigners in the French treaty of 1452, in Commynes
and
Machiavelli, and
in the treaties of Westphalia (1648). A central government was set
up, with its seat at Lucerne, comprising a senate and a great
council, together forming the legislature, and named by electors
chosen by the people in the proportion of 1 to every loo citizens,
with an executive of five
directors chosen by the legislature, and
having four ministers as subordinates or " chief secretaries." A
supreme court of justice was set up; a status of Swiss citizenship
was recognized; and absolute freedom to settle in any canton was
given, the political " communes " being now composed of all
residents, and not merely of the burghers. For the first time an
attempt was made to organize the Confederation as a single state,
but the change was too sweeping to last, for it largely ignored the
local patriotism which had done so much to create the
Confederation, though more recently it had made it politically
powerless. The three Forest districts rose in rebellion against the
invaders and the new constitutions which destroyed their ancient
prerogatives; but the valiant resistance of the Schwyzers, under
Alois Reding, on the heights of Morgarten (April and May), and that
of the Unterwaldners (August and September), were put down by
French armies. The proceedings of the French, however, soon turned
into disgust and hatred the joyful feelings with which they had
been hailed as liberators. Geneva was annexed to France (April
1798); Gersau, after an independent existence of over 400 years,
was made a mere district of Schwyz; immense fines were levied and
the treasury at Bern pillaged; the land was treated as if it had
been conquered. The new republic was compelled to make a very close
offensive and defensive alliance with France, and its directors
were practically nominated from Paris. In June - October 1799
Zurich, the Forest cantons and Raetia became the scene of the
struggles of the Austrians (welcomed with joy) against the French
and Russians. The manner, too, in which the reforms were carried
out alienated many, and, soon after the directory gave way to the
consulate in Paris (18
Brumaire or Nov. Io, 1799), the Helvetic
directory (January 1800) was replaced by an executive
committee.
The scheme of the Helvetic republic had gone too far in the
direction of centralization; but it was not easy to find the happy
mean, and violent discussions went on between the " Unitary "
(headed by Ochs and Laharpe) and " Federalist " parties. Many
drafts were put forward and one actually submitted to but rejected
by a popular vote (June 1802). In July 1802 the French troops were
withdrawn from Switzerland by Bonaparte, ostensibly to comply with
the treaty of
Amiens, really
to show the Swiss that their best hopes lay in appealing to him.
The Helvetic government was gradually driven back by armed force,
and the Federalists seemed getting the best of it, when (Oct. 4)
Bonaparte offered himself as mediator, and summoned ten of the
chief Swiss statesmen to Paris to discuss
The Act matters
with him (the " Consulta " - December 1802).
Mediation. He
had long taken a very special interest in Swiss matters, and in
1802 had given to the Helvetic republic the Frickthal (ceded to
France in 1801 by Austria), the last Austrian possession within the
borders of the Confederation. On the other hand, he had made
(August 1802) the Valais into an independent republic. In the
discussions he pointed out that Swiss needs required a federal
constitution and a neutral position guaranteed by France. Finally
(Feb. 19, 1803) he laid before the Consulta the Act of Mediation
which he had elaborated and which they had perforce to accept - a
document which formed a new departure in Swiss history, and the
influence of which is visible in the present constitution.
Throughout, " Switzerland " is used for the first time as the
official name of the Confederation. The thirteen members of the old
Confederation before 1798 are set up again, and to them are added
six new cantons - two (St Gall and Graubunden or Grisons) having
been formerly " associates," and the four others being made up of
the subject lands conquered at different times - Aargau (1415),
Thurgau (1460), Ticino or Tessin (1440, 1500, 1512), and Vaud
(1536). In the Diet, six cantons which had a population of more
than 10o,000 (viz. Bern, Zurich, Vaud, St Gall, Graubunden and
Aargau) were given two votes, the others having but one apiece, and
the deputies were to vote freely within limits, though not against
their instructions. Meetings of the Diet were to be held
alternately at Fribourg, Bern, Soleure, Basel, Zurich and Lucerne -
the chief magistrate of each of these cantons being named for that
year the " landamman of Switzerland." The " landsgemeinden," or
popular assemblies, were restored in the democratic cantons, the
cantonal governments in other cases being in the hands of a " great
council " (legislative) and the " small council " (executive) - a
property qualification being required both for voters and
candidates. No canton was to form any political alliances abroad or
at home. The " communes " were given larger political rights, the
burghers who owned and used the common lands became more and more
private associations. There was no Swiss burghership, as in 1798,
but perfect liberty of settlement in any canton. There were to be
no privileged classes or subject lands. A very close alliance with
France (on the basis of that of 1516) was concluded (Sept. 27,
1803). The whole constitution and organization were far better
suited for the Swiss than the more symmetrical system of the
Helvetic republic; but, as it was guaranteed by Bonaparte, and his
influence was predominant, the whole fabric was closely bound up
with him, and fell with him. Excellent in itself, the constitution
set forth in the Act of Mediation failed by reason of its
setting.
For ten years Switzerland enjoyed peace and prosperity under the
new constitution. Pestalozzi and Fellenberg worked out their
educational theories; K. Escher of Zurich embanked the Linth, and
his family was thence called " von der Linth "; the central
government prepared many schemes for the common welfare. On the
other hand, the mediator (who became emperor in 1804) lavishly
expended his Swiss troops, the number of which could only be kept
up by a regular blood tax, while the "
Berlin decrees " raised the price of "many
articles. In 1806 the principality of Neuchatel was given to
Marshal Berthier; Tessin was occupied by French troops from 1810 to
1813, and in 1810 the Valais was made into the department of the
Simplon, so as to secure that pass. At home, the liberty of moving
from one canton to another (though given by the constitution) was,
by the Diet in 1805, restricted by requiring ten years' residence,
and then not granting political rights in the canton or a right of
profiting by the communal property. As soon as Napoleon's power
began to wane (1812-1813), the position of Switzerland became
endangered. Despite the personal wishes of the tsar (a pupil of
Laharpe's), the Austrians, supported by the reactionary party in
Switzerland, and without any real resistance on the part of the
Diet, as well as the Russians troops, crossed the frontier on the
21st of December 1813, and on the 29th of December the Diet was
induced to declare the abolition of the 1803 constitution,
guaranteed, like Swiss neutrality, by Napoleon. Bern headed the
party which wished to restore the old state of things, but Zurich
and the majority stood out for the nineteen cantons. The powers
exercised great pressure to bring about a meeting of deputies from
all the nineteen cantons at Zurich (April 6, 1814, " the long Diet
"); party strife was very bitter, but on the 12th of September it
decided that the Valais, Neuchatel and Geneva should be raised from
the rank of " associates " to that of full members of the
Confederation (thus
making up the familiar twenty-two). As
compensation the
congress of Vienna (March 20, 1815)
gave Bern the town of Bienne (Biel), and all (save a small part
which went to Basel) of the territories of the princebishop of
Basel (" the Bernese Jura "); but the Valtellina was granted to
Austria, and Muhlhausen was not freed from France. On the 7th of
August 1815 the new constitution was sworn to by all the cantons
save Nidwalden, the consent of which was only obtained (Aug. 30) by
armed force, a delay for which she paid by seeing Engelberg and the
The Pact of 181.5. valley above (acquired by Nidwalden in
1798) given to Obwalden. By the new constitution the sovereign
rights of each canton were fully recognized, and a return made to
the lines of the old constitution, though there were to be no
subject lands, and political rights were not to be the exclusive
privilege of any class of citizens. Each canton had one vote in the
Diet, where an absolute majority was to decide all matters save
foreign affairs, when a majority of three-fourths was required. The
management of current business, &c., shifted every two years
between the governments of Zurich, Bern and Lucerne (the three "
Vororte "). The monasteries were guaranteed in their rights and
privileges; and no canton was to make any alliance contrary to the
rights of the Confederation or of any other canton. Provision was
made for a Federal army. Finally, the Congress, on the 20th of
November 1815, placed Switzerland and parts of North Savoy
(Chablais, Faucigny and part of the Genevois) under the guarantee
of the Great Powers, who engaged to maintain their neutrality, thus
freeing Switzerland from her 300 years' subservience to France, and
compensating in some degree for the reactionary nature of the new
Swiss constitution when compared with that of 1803.
5. The cities at once secured for themselves in the cantonal
great councils an overwhelming representation over the neighbouring
country districts, and the agreement of 1805 as to
migration from one canton to
another was
Re f orm. t
deform. renewed (1819) by twelve cantons. For some time there
was little talk of reforms, but in 1819 the Helvetic Society
definitely became a political society, and the foundation in 1824
of the Marksmen's Association enabled men from all cantons to meet
together. A few cantons (notably Tessin) were beginning to make
reforms, when the influence of the July revolution (1830) in Paris
and the sweeping changes in Zurich led the Diet to declare (Dec.
27) that it would not interfere with any reforms of cantonal
constitutions provided they were in agreement with the pact of
1815. Hence for the next few years great activity in this direction
was displayed, and most of the cantons reformed themselves, save
the most conservative (e.g. Uri, Glarus) and the advanced who
needed no changes (e.g. Geneva, Graubunden). Provision was always
made for revising these constitutions at fixed intervals, for the
changes were not felt to be final, and seven cantons - Zurich,
Bern, Lucerne, Soleure, St Gall, Aargau and Thurgau - joined
together to guarantee their new free constitutions (Siebener
Concordat of March 17,
1832). Soon after, the
The Pact of 1815. question of
revising the Federal pact was brought forward by a large majority
of cantons in the Diet (July 17), whereon, by the league of Sarnen
(Nov. 14), the three Forest cantons, with Neuchatel, the city of
Basel, and the Valais, agreed to maintain the pact of 1815 and to
protest against the separation of Basel in two halves (for in the
reform struggle Schwyz and Basel had been split up, though the
split was permanent only in the latter case). A draft constitution
providing for a Federal administration distinct from the cantons
could not secure a majority in its favour; a reaction against
reform set in, and the Diet was forced to sanction (1833) the
division of Basel into the " city " and " country " divisions (each
with half a vote in the Diet), though fortunately in Schwyz the
quarrel was healed. Religious quarrels further stirred up strife in
connexion with Aargau, which was a canton where religious parity
prevailed, later in others. In Zurich the extreme pretensions of
the Radicals and freethinkers (illustrated by offering a chair of
theology in the university to D. F. Strauss of Tubingen because of
his
Life of Jesus, then recently published)
brought about a great reaction in 1839, when Zurich was the "
Vorort." In Aargau the parties were very evenly balanced, and, when
in 1840, on occasion of the revision of the constitution, the
Radicals had a popular majority the aggrieved clerics stirred up a
revolt (1840), which was put down, but which gave their opponents,
headed by Augustine Keller, an excuse for carrying a vote in the
great council to suppress the eight monasteries in the canton (Jan.
1841). This was flatly opposed to the pact of 1815, which the Diet
by a small majority decided must be upheld (April 1841), though
after many discussions it determined (Aug. 31, 1843) to accept the
compromise by which the men's convents only were to be suppressed,
and declared that the matter was now settled. On this the seven
Romanist cantons - Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Lucerne, Zug, Fribourg
and the Valais - formed (Sept. 13, 1843) a " Sonderbund " or
separate league, which (February 1844) issued a manifesto demanding
the reopening of the question and the restoration of
all
the monasteries. Like the Radicals in former years the Romanists
went too far and too fast, for in October 1844 the clerical party
in Lucerne (in the majority since 1841, and favouring the reaction
in the Valais) officially invited in the Jesuits and gave them high
posts, an act which created all the more sensation because Lucerne
was the " Vorort." Twice (December 1844 and March 1845) parties of
free lances tried to capture the city. In December 1845 the
Sonderbund turned itself into an armed confederation, ready to
appeal to war in defence of the rights of each canton. The Radicals
carried Zurich in April 1845 and Bern in February 1846, but a
majority could not be secured in the Diet till Geneva (Oct. 1846)
and St Gall (May 1847) were won by the same party. On the 20th of
July 1847, the Diet, by a small majority, declared that the
Sonderbund was contrary to the Federal pact, which on the 16th of
August it was resolved to revise, while on the 3rd of September it
was decided to invite each canton to expel the Jesuits. Most of the
Great Powers favoured the Sonderbund, but England took the contrary
view, and the attempt of Metternich, supported by
Louis Philippe,
to bring about European intervention, on the plea of upholding the
treaties of
Vienna, was
frustrated by the policy of masterly inactivity pursued by Lord
Palmerston, who delayed
giving an answer till the forces of the Sonderbund had been
defeated, a friendly act that is still gratefully remembered in the
country. On the 29th of October the deputies of the unyielding
cantons left the Diet, which ordered on the 4th of November that
its decree should be enforced by arms.. The war was short (Nov.
10-29), mainly owing to the ability of the general, G. H. Dufour
(1787-1875), and the loss of life trifling. One after another the
rebellious cantons were forced to surrender, and, as the Paris
revolution of February 1848, entailing the retirement of Guizot
(followed three weeks later by that of Metternich), occupied all
the attention of the Great Powers (who by the constitution of 1815
should have been consulted in the revision of the pact), the Swiss
were enabled to settle their own affairs quietly. Schwyz and Zug
abolished their landsgemeinden," and the seven were condemned to
pay the
costs of the war
(ultimately defrayed by subscription), which had been waged rather
on religious than on strict particularist or states-rights grounds.
The Diet meanwhile debated the draft constitution drawn up by
Johann
Conrad Kern (1808-1888) of Thurgau and Henri Druey (1799-1855)
of Vaud, which in the summer of 1848 was accepted by fifteen and a
half cantons, the minority consisting of the three Forest cantons,
the Valais, Zug, Tessin and Appenzell (Inner Rhoden), and it was
proclaimed on the 12th of September.
The new constitution inclined rather to the Act of Mediation
than to the system which prevailed before 1798. A status of " Swiss
citizenship " was set up, closely joined to cantonal citizenship; a
man settling in a canton not Constitution p ? g of 1848.
being his birthplace got cantonal citizenship after a residence
of at most two years, but was excluded from all local rights in the
" commune " where he might reside. A Federal or central government
was set up, to which the cantons gave up a certain part of their
sovereign rights, retaining the rest. The Federal Legislature (or
assembly) was made up of two houses - the Council of States (St
y nderat), composed of two deputies from each canton, whether
small or great (44 in all), and the National Council
(Nationalrat), made up of deputies elected for three
years, in the proportion of one for every 20,000 souls or fraction
over io,000, the electors being all Swiss citizens. The Federal
council or executive (Bundesrat) consisted of seven
members elected by the Federal Assembly sitting as a congress; they
were jointly responsible for all business, though for sake of
convenience there were various departments, and their chairman was
called the president of the Confederation. The Federal judiciary
(Bundesgericht) was made up of eleven members elected for
three years by the Federal Assembly sitting in congress; its
jurisdiction was chiefly confined to civil cases, in which the
Confederation was a party (if a canton, the Federal council may
refer the case to the Federal tribunal), but took in also great
political crimes - all constitutional questions, however, being
reserved for the Federal Assembly. A Federal university and a
polytechnic school were to be founded. All military capitulations
were forbidden in the future. Every canton must treat Swiss
citizens who belong to one of the Christian confessions like their
own citizens, for the right of free settlement is given to all
such, though they acquired no rights in the " commune." All
Christians were guaranteed the exercise of their religion, but the
Jesuits and similar religious orders were not to be received in any
canton. German, French and Italian were recognized as national
languages.
The constitution as a whole marked a great step forward; though
very many rights were still reserved to the cantons, yet there was
a fully organized central government. Almost the first act of the
Federal Assembly was to exercise the power given them of
determining the home of the Federal authorities, and on the 28th of
November 1848 Bern was chosen, though Zurich still ranks as the
first canton in the Confederation. Soon after 1848 a beginning was
made of organizing the different public services, which had now
been brought within the jurisdiction of the central Federal
authority. Thus in 1849 a uniform letter post service was
established, in 1850 a single coinage replaced the intricate
cantonal currencies, while all customs duties between cantons were
abolished, in 1851 the telegraph service was organized, while all
weights and measures were unified (in 1868 the metrical system was
allowed, and in 1875 declared obligatory and universal), in 1854
roads and canals were taken in hand, while finally in 1855 the
Federal Polytechnic School at Zurich was opened, though the Federal
university authorized by the new constitution has not yet been set
up. These were some of the non-political benefits of the creation
of a Federal central executive. But in 1852 the Federal Assembly
decided to leave the construction of railways to private enterprise
and so had to buy them up in 1903 at a vastly enhanced price.
By this early settlement of disputes Switzerland was protected
from the general revolutionary movement of 1848, and in later years
her political history has been uneventful, though she has felt the
weight of the great European crises in industrial and social
matters.
The position of Neuchatel, as a member of the Confederation (as
regards its government only) and as a principality ruled by the
king of Prussia, whose rights had been expressly recognized by the
congress of Vienna, was uncertain. She had not sent troops in 1847,
and, though in 1848 there was a republican revolution there, the
prince did not recognize the changes. Finally, a royalist
conspiracy in September
1856 to undo the work of 1848 caused great excitement and anger in
Switzerland, and it was only by the mediation of
Napoleon III. and the
other powers that the prince renounced (1857) all his rights, save
his title, which his successor (the German emperor) has also
dropped. Since that time Neuchatel has been an ordinary member of
the Confederation. In1859-1860the cession of Savoy (part of it
neutralized in 1815) to France aroused considerable indignation,
and in 1862 the long-standing question of frontiers in the Vallee
des Dappes was finally arranged with France. In 1871 many French
refugees, especially Bourbaki's army, were most hospitably received
and sheltered. The growth of the Old Catholics after
the Vatican
Council (1870) caused many disturbances in western Switzerland,
especially in the Bernese Jura. The attack was led by Bishop Eugene
Lachat (1819-1886) of Basel, whose see was suppressed by several
cantons in 1873, but was set up again in 1884 though still not
recognized by Bern. The appointment by the pope of the abbe Gaspard
Mermillod (1824-1892) as " apostolic
vicar " of Geneva, which was separated from the
diocese of Fribourg, led to Monseigneur Mermillod's banishment from
Switzerland (1873), but in 1883 he was raised to the vacant see of
Lausanne and Geneva and allowed by, the Federal authorities to
return, but Geneva refused to recognize him, though he was created
a
cardinal in 1890. An
event of great importance to Switzerland was the opening of the St
Gotthard tunnel, which was begun in 1871 and opened in 1882; by it
the Forest cantons seem likely to regain the importance which was
theirs in the early days of the Confederation.
From 1848 onwards the cantons continually revised their
constitutions, always in a democratic sense, though after the
Sonderbund War Schwyz and Zug abolished their " landsgemeinden "
(1848). The chief point was the introduction of the
referendum, by which laws made by the cantonal legislature
may (facultative referendum) or must (obligatory referendum) be
submitted to the people for their approval, and this has obtained
such general acceptance that Fribourg alone does not possess the
referendum in either of its two forms. It was therefore only
natural that attempts should be made to revise the federal
constitution of 1848 in a democratic and centralizing sense, for it
had been provided that the Federal Assembly, on its own initiative
or on the written request of 50,000 Swiss electors, could submit
the question of revision to a popular vote. In 1866 the restriction
of certain rights (mentioned above) to Christians only was swept
away; but the attempt at final revision in 1872 was defeated by a
small majority, owing to the efforts of the anti-centralizing
party. Finally, however, another draft was better liked, and on the
r9th of April 1874 the Revised new constitution was
accepted by the people-141 cantons against 71 (those of 1848
without Tessin, but with Fribourg and Lucerne) and 340,199 votes as
against 198,013. This constitution is still in force, and is mainly
a revised edition of that of 1848, the Federal power being still
further strengthened. Among the more important novelties three
points may be mentioned. A system of free elementary education was
set up, under the superintendence of the Confederation, but managed
by the cantons. A man settling in another canton was, after a
residence of three months only, given all cantonal and communal
rights, save a share in the common property (an arrangement which
as far as possible kept up the old principle that the " commune "
is the true unit out of which cantons and the Confederation are
built), and the membership of the commune carries with it cantonal
and federal rights. The " Referendum " was introduced in its "
facultative " form; i.e. all federal laws must be
submitted to popular vote on the demand of 30,000 Swiss citizens or
of eight cantons. But the " Initiative " (i.e. the right of
compelling the legislature to consider a certain subject or bill)
was not introduced into the Federal Constitution till 1891 (when it
was given to 50,000 Swiss citizens) and then only as to a partial
(not a total) revision of that constitution. By the constitutions
of 1848 and 1874 Switzerland has ceased to be a mere union of
independent states jointed by a treaty, and has become a single
state with a well-organized central government, to which have been
given certain of the rights of the independent cantons, but
increased centralization would destroy the whole character of the
Confederation, in which the cantons are not administrative
divisions but living political communities. Swiss history teaches
us, all the way through, that Swiss liberty has been won by a close
union of many small states, and we cannot doubt that it will be
best preserved by the same means, and not by obliterating all local
peculiarities, nowhere so striking and nowhere so historically
important as in Switzerland.
M. Numa Droz (who was for seventeen years-1876 to 1892 - a
member of the Federal executive, and twice, in 1881 and in 1887,
president of the Swiss Confederation) expressed the opinion shortly
before his death in December 1899 (he was born in 1844) that while
the dominant note of Swiss politics from 1848 to 1874 was the
establishment of a Federal state, that of the period extending from
1874 to 1899 (and this is true of a later period) was the direct
rule of the people, as distinguished from government by elected
representatives. Whether this distinction be just or not, it is
certain that this advance towards
democracy in its true sense is due indirectly
to the monopoly of political power in the Federal government
enjoyed by the Radical party from 1848 onwards: many were willing
to go with it some part of the way, but its success in maintaining
its close monopoly has provoked a reaction against it on the part
of those who desire to see the Confederation remain a
Confederation, and not become a strongly centralized state,
contrary to its past history and genius. Hence after 1874 we find
that democratic measures are not advocated as we should expect by
the Radicals, but by all the other political parties with a view of
breaking down this Radical monopoly, for it is a strange fact that
the people elect and retain Radical representatives, though they
reject the measures laid before them for their approval by the said
Radical representatives. For these reasons the struggle between
Federalists and Centralists (the two permanent political parties in
Switzerland), which up to 1874 resulted in favour of the
Centralists, has been turning gradually in favour of the
Federalists, and that because of the adoption of such democratic
institutions as the Referendum and the Initiative.
The general lines on which Swiss politics have run since 1874
may be most conveniently summarized under three headings - the
working of the political machinery, the principal political events,
and then the chief economical and financial features of the period.
But it must be always borne in mind that all the following remarks
relate only to Federal politics, those of the several
cantons being much more intricate, and of course turning more on
purely local differences of opinion.
1.
Political Machinery. - The Federal Constitution of
1848 set up a permanent Federal executive, legislature and
tribunal, each and all quite distinct from and independent of any
cantonal government. This system was a modified revival of the
state of things that had prevailed from 1798 to 1803, and was an
imitation of the political changes that had taken place in the
cantonal constitutions after 1830. Both were victories of the
Centralist or Radical party, and it was therefore but natural that
this party should be called upon to undertake the Federal
government under the new constitution, a supremacy that it has kept
ever since. To the Centralists the
Council of States (two
members from each canton, however large or small) has always been a
stumbling-block, and they have mockingly nicknamed it " the fifth
wheel of the
coach." In the
other house of the Federal legislature, the
National
Council (one member per 20,000, or fraction of over ro,000 of
the entire population), the Radicals have always since its creation
in 1848 had a majority. Hence, in the Congress formed by both
houses sitting together, the Radicals have had it all their own
way. This is particularly important as regards the election of the
seven members of the Federal executive which is made by such a
Congress. Now the Federal executive (
Federal Council) is
in no sense a cabinet,
i.e. a committee of the party in
the majority in the legislature for the time being. In the Swiss
Federal Constitution the cabinet has no place at all. Each member
of the Federal executive is elected by a separate ballot,;'and
holds office for the fixed term of three years, during which he
cannot be turned out of office, while as yet but a single instance
has occurred of the rejection of a Federal councillor who offered
himself for re-election. Further, none of the members of the
Federal executive can hold a seat in either house of the Federal
legislature, though they may appear and speak (but not vote) -in
either, while the Federal Council as such has not necessarily any
common policy, and never expresses its views on the general
situation (though it does as regards particular legislative and
administrative measures) in anything resembling the " speech from
the Throne " in England. Thus it seems clear that the Federal
executive was intended by the Federal Constitution of 1848 (and in
this respect that of 1874 made no change) to be a standing
committee of the legislature as a whole, but
not of a
single party in the legislature, or a " cabinet," even though it
had the majority. Yet this rule of a single political party is just
what has taken place. Between 1848 and the end of 1908, 38 Federal
councillors were elected (24 from German-speaking, 12 from
French-speaking and 2 from Italian-speaking Switzerland, the canton
of Vaud heading the list with 7). Now of these 38 three only were
not Radicals, viz. M Paul Ceresole (1870-1875) of Vaud, who was a
Protestant Liberal-Conservative, Herren Josef Zemp (1891-1908) and
Josef Anton Schobinger (elected 1908), both of Lucerne and Romanist
Conservatives, yet the Conservative minority is a large one, while
the Romanists form about two-fifths of the population of
Switzerland. But despite this predominance of a single party in the
Federal Council, no true cabinet system has come into existence in
Switzerland, as members of the council do not resign even when
their personal policy is condemned by a popular vote, so that the
resignation of Herr Welti (a member of the Federal Council from
1867 to 1891), in consequence of the rejection by the people of his
railway policy, caused the greatest amazement and consternation in
Switzerland.
The chief political parties in the Federal legislature are the
Right, or Conservatives (whether Romanists or Protestants), the
Centre (now often called " Liberals," but rather answering to the
Whigs of English political language, the Left (or Radicals) and the
Extreme Left (or the Socialists of varying shades). In the Council
of States there is always a Federalist majority, since in this
house the smaller cantons are on an equality with the greater ones,
each indifferently having two members. But in the National Council
(167 elected members) there has always (since 1848) been a
considerable Radical majority over all other parties. The
Socialists long worked under the wing of the Radicals, but now in
every canton (save Geneva) the two parties have quarrelled, the
Socialist vote having largely increased, especially in the town of
Zurich. In the country the antiRadical opposition is made up of the
Conservatives, who are strongest in the Romanist, and especially
the Forest, cantons, and of the " Federalists " of French-speaking
Switzerland. There is no doubt that the people are really
anti-Radical, though occasionally led away by the experiments made
recently in the domain of State
socialism: they elect, indeed, a Radical
majority, but very frequently reject the bills laid before them by
their elected representatives.
2.
Politics. - The cantons had led the way before 1848,
and they continued to do so after that date, gradually introducing
reforms all of which tended to give the direct rule to the people.
The Confederation was bound to follow this example, though it
adopted a far more leisurely pace. Hence, in 1872 a new Federal
Constitution was drafted, but was rejected on a popular vote by a
small majority, as it was thought to go too far in a centralizing
direction, and so encountered the combined opposition of the
Conservatives and of the Federalists of Frenchspeaking Switzerland.
The last-named party was won over by means of concessions as to
military matters and the proposed unification of cantonal laws,
civil and criminal, and especially by strong provisions as to
religious freedom, since the " Kulturkampf " was then raging in
French-speaking Switzerland. Hence a revised draft was accepted in
1874 by a considerable popular majority, and this is the existing
Federal Constitution. But it bears marks of its origin as a
compromise, and no one party has ever been very eager to support it
as a whole. At first all went smoothly, and various very useful
laws carrying out in detail the new provisions of the constitution
were drafted and accepted. But divisions of opinion arose when it
was proposed to reform the military system at a very great
expenditure, and also as to the question of the limitation of the
right to issue
bank-notes, while (as will be seen under 3
below) just at this time grave financial difficulties arose with
regard to the Swiss railways, and in consequence of Prince
Bismarck's antifree trade policy, which threatened the prosperity
of Switzerland as an exporting country. Further, the disturbed
political state of the canton of Ticino (or Tessin) became more or
less acute from 1873 onwards. There the Radicals and the
Conservatives are nearly equally balanced. In 1872 the
Conservatives obtained the majority in this canton, and tried to
assure it by some certainly questionable means. The Radicals
repeatedly appealed to the Federal government to obtain its armed
intervention, but in vain. In 1876 the Conservatives at a rifle
match at Stabio fired on the
Radicals, but in 1880 the accused persons were acquitted. The
long-desired detachment of Ticino from the jurisdiction of the
foreign dioceses of Como and Milan was effected in 1888 by the
erection of a see at Lugano, but this event caused the Radicals to
fear an increase of clerical influence. Growing impatient, they
finally took matters in their own hands, and in September 1890
brought about a bloody revolution. The partial conduct of the
Radical Federal commissioner was much blamed, but after a state
trial at Zurich in 1891 the revolutionists were acquitted, although
they loudly boasted of their share in this use of force in
political matters.
From 1885 onwards Switzerland had some troubles with foreign
powers owing to her defence of the
right of asylum for fugitive German
Socialists, despite the threats of Prince
Bismarck, who maintained a
secret police in Switzerland, one member of which, Wohlgemuth, was
expelled in 1889, to the prince's huge but useless indignation.
From about 1890, as the above troubles within and without gradually
subsided, the agitation in the country against the centralizing
policy of the Radicals became more and more strongly marked. By the
united exertions of all the opposition parties, and against the
steady resistance of the Radicals, an amendment was introduced in
1891 into the Federal Constitution, by which 50,000 Swiss citizens
can by the " Initiative "
compel the Federal legislature
and executive to take into consideration some point in the Federal
Constitution which, in the opinion of the petitioners, requires
reform, and to prepare a bill dealing with it which must be
submitted to a popular vote. Great hopes and fears were entertained
at the time as to the working of this new institution, but both
have been falsified, for the Initiative has as yet only succeeded
in inserting (in 1893) in the Federal Constitution a provision by
which the Jewish method of killing animals is forbidden, and
another (in 1908) prohibiting the manufacture or sale of
absinthe in the country. On
the other hand, it has failed (in 1894) to secure the adoption of a
Socialist scheme by which the state was bound to provide work for
every able-bodied man in the country, and (also in 1894) to carry a
proposal to give to the cantons a
bonus of two francs per head of the population
out of the rapidly growing returns of the customs duties, similarly
in 1900 an attempt to introduce the election of the Federal
executive by a popular vote and proportional representation in the
Nationalrat failed, as in 1903 did a proposal to make the
elections to the
Nationalrat depend on the Swiss
population only, instead of the total population of the
country.
The great rise in the productiveness of the customs duties (see
3 below) has tempted the Swiss people of late years to embark on a
course of state socialism, which may be also described as a series
of measures tending to give more and more power to the central
Federal government at the expense of the cantons. So in 1890 the
principle of compulsory universal
insurance against sickness and accidents was
accepted by a popular vote, in 1891 likewise that of a state or
Federal bank, and in 1898 that of the unification of the cantonal
laws, civil and criminal, into a set of Federal codes. In each case
the Federal government and legislature were charged with the
preparation of laws carrying out in detail these general
principles. But in 1897 their proposals as to a Federal bank were
rejected by the people, though another draft was accepted in 1905,
so that the bank (with a monopoly of note issue, a provision
accepted by a popular vote in 1891) was actually opened in 1907. At
the beginning of 1900 the suspicion felt as to the insurance
proposals elaborated by the Federal authorities was so keen that a
popular demand for a popular vote was signed by 117,000 Swiss
citizens, the legal minimum being only 30,000: they were rejected
(May 20, 1900) on a popular vote by a nearly two to one majority.
The preparation of the Federal civil and criminal codes has
progressed quietly, drafts being framed by experts and then
submitted for criticism to special commissions and public opinion,
but finally the civil code was adopted by the Federal Assembly in
December 1907. By a popular vote in 1887 the Federal authorities
were given a monopoly of
alcohol, but a proposal to deal similarly with
tobacco has been very ill received (though such a monopoly would
undoubtedly produce a large amount), and would pretty certainly be
refused by the people if a popular vote were ever taken upon it. In
1895 the people declined to sanction a state monopoly of matches,
even though the unhealthy nature of the works was strongly urged,
and have also resolutely refused on several occasions to accept any
projects for the centralizing of the various branches of military
administration, &c., though in 1897 the forests high up on the
mountains were placed under Federal supervision, while in 190z
large Federal grants in aid were made to the cantons towards the
expenses of primary education, and in 1908 the supervision of the
employment of the power derived from rivers and streams was given
to the Confederation. Among other reforms which have recently been
much discussed in Switzerland are the introduction of the
obligatory referendum (which hitherto has applied only to
amendments to the Federal Constitution) and the extension of the
initiative (now limited to piecemeal revision of the Federal
Constitution) to
all Federal laws, &c. The first-named
scheme is an attempt to restrain important centralizing measures
from being presented as laws (and as such exempt from the
compulsory referendum), and not as amendments to the Federal
Constitution.
Besides the insurance project mentioned above, two great
political questions have engaged the attention of the Swiss.
a. State Purchase of the Railways
In 1891 the purchase of the Central railway was rejected by a
popular vote, but in 1898, by the aid of various baits thrown out,
the people were induced to accept the principle of the purchase by
the Confederation of the five great Swiss railway lines - three in
1901, viz. the Central, the North-Eastern, and the United Swiss
lines; one (the Jura-Simplon) in 1903, and one (the St Gotthard
line) in 1909, this delay being due to international conventions
that still have some years to run. Further, very important
economical consequences, e.g. as to strikes, may be
expected to result from the transformation of all railway officials
of whatever grade into state servants, who may naturally be
expected to vote (as in other cases) for their employers, and so
greatly increase the strength of the Centralist political
party.
b. The " Double Initiative.
This phrase denotes two purely political reforms that have been
coupled together, though in reality they are by no means
inseparable. One is the introduction of proportional representation
(within the several cantons) into the elections for the National
Council of the Federal parliament, the object being thus to secure
for several large minorities a number of M.P.'s more in accordance
with the size of those minorities in the country than is now
possible under the regime of pure majorities: naturally these
minorities would then receive a proper share of political power in
the senate house, instead of merely exerting great political
influence in the country, while if they were thus strengthened in
the legislature they would soon be able to claim the right of
naming several members of the Federal executive, thus making both
legislature and executive a
mirror of the actual political situation of the
country, instead of the preserve of one political party. The other
reform is the election of the members of the Federal executive by
popular vote, the whole body of voters voting, not by cantons, but
as a single electoral
constituency. This would put an end to the
"
lobbying " that goes on
previously to the election of a member of the executive by the two
houses of the Federal parliament sitting jointly in Congress; but,
on the other hand, it might stereotype the present system of
electing members of the executive by the majority system, and so
reduce large minorities to political
impotence. The " double initiative " scheme
was launched in the beginning of 1899, and by the beginning of the
following July secured more than the requisite number of signatures
(50,000), the first-named
item
having been supported by nearly 65,000 citizens, and the second
item by 56,000. Hence the Federal parliament was
bound to
take these two reforms into formal consideration, but in June 1900
it rejected both, and this decision was confirmed by a popular vote
taken in the following November.
3.
Economics and Finance. - Soon after the adoption of the
Federal Constitution of 1874 the economical and financial state of
the Confederation became very unsatisfactory. The great financial
crisis in Vienna in 1873 was a severe blow to Swiss commerce, which
had taken a very great start after the FrancoGerman War of 1870-71.
In the later 'seventies, too, the financial position of some of the
great Swiss railway lines was very unfavourable: the bankruptcy of
the National line ruined for the time (till a Federal
loan at a very low rate of interest
was forced upon them) the four Swiss towns which were its
guarantors; the North-Eastern line had to beg for a "
moratorium " (a
legal delay of the period at which it had to pay its
debts) from the Federal government; the Bern-Lucerne line was
actually put up to auction, and was bought by the canton of Bern.
Further, the expenses of constructing the St Gotthard railway
vastly exceeded all estimates, and in 1876 over ioo,000,000 francs
more were required. Hence the subventions already granted had to be
increased. Germany (which gave originally 20,000,000 francs) and
Italy (original contribution 45,000,000 francs) each promised
10,000,000 francs more; the St Gotthard company itself gave
12,000,000. and the two Swiss railway lines interested (Central and
North-Eastern) added 1,500,000 to the 20,000,000 they had already
agreed to give jointly with the cantons interested in the
completion of this great undertaking. But these latter refused to
add anything to their previous contributions, so that finally the
Federal government proposed that it should itself pay the 6,500,000
francs most urgently required. This proposal aroused great anger in
east and west Switzerland, but the matter was ultimately settled by
the Confederation paying 4,500,000 francs and the interested
cantons 2,000,000, the latter gift being made dependent on a grant
of 4,500,000 francs by the Federal government for new tunnels
through the Alps in east and west Switzerland, and of 2,000,000
more for the Monte Cenere tunnel between Bellinzona and Lugano.
This solution of a most thorny question was approved by a popular
vote in 1879, and the St Gotthard line was successfully completed
in 1882. Gradually, too, the other Swiss railway lines, attained a
state of financial
equilibrium, owing to the more careful
management of new directors and managers. The completion of the
Simplon tunnel (1906), the commencement (1906) of that beneath the
Lotschen Pass,
and the rival claims of projected tunnels under the Spliigen Pass
(q.v.), besides the struggle for or against a tunnel under the
Faucille (supported by Geneva almost alone), show that railway
politics play a very prominent part in Swiss national life. They
are, too, complicated by many local rivalries, which in this
country are of greater importance than elsewhere because of the
considerable share of power still legally belonging to the cantons.
Another kindred question (owing to the rapid development of
electric
traction in
Switzerland) is the equitable proposal (accepted in 1908) that the
utilization of the immense force supplied by the many rivers and
torrents in Switzerland should become a Federal monopoly, so as to
secure to the Confederation the control over such important sources
of revenue as otherwise might easily be unscrupulously exploited by
private companies and firms.
Switzerland, by reason of natural conditions, is properly a free
trade country, for it exports far more than it imports, in order to
supply the demand for objects that it cannot itself produce. But
Prince Bismarck's protectionist policy in 1879 was imitated by
France, Austria and Italy, so that Switzerland was gradually shut
in by a high wall of tariffs. Hence in 1891 the Swiss people
approved, in sheer self-defence, a great increase of the customs
duties, and in 1903 sanctioned a further very considerable advance
in these duties, so that it is now a thoroughly Protectionist
country, despite its obvious natural disadvantages. The huge
increase in revenue naturally led to increased expenditure, which
took the form of lavish subventions to all sorts of cantonal
objects, magnificent Federal buildings, most useful improvements in
the post and telegraph services, and extensive and lamentable
construction of military fortifications in Uri and the Valais
against some unknown foe. In 1894 it was proposed to distribute
part of this new wealth in giving a bonus to the cantons at the
rate of 2 francs per head of the population, but this extravagant
proposal (nicknamed the " Beutezug ") was rejected, owing to the
cool common sense of the Swiss people, by a majority of over two to
one. These prosperous circumstances, however, contributed mainly to
the adoption or suggestion of various measures of state socialism,
e.g. compulsory sick insurance, Federal subvention to
primary schools, purchase of the five great Swiss railway lines,
giving a right to every ablebodied man to have work at the expense
of the state, subventions to many objects, &c. (W. A. B. C.)
Literature There is no
such thing as a Swiss national
vernacular literature properly speaking,
this being explained by the diversity between the states of which
it is composed, which has not favoured any common intellectual
life. But there are four branches which make up a literature of
Switzerland, distinguished according to the language in which the
works in each are composed. As the Confederation, from its
foundation in 1291 till 1798, was exclusively composed (with a
partial exception in the case of Fribourg) of German-speaking
districts, the real Swiss. vernacular literature (if any one branch
is to be dignified by that name) is in German, though in the 18th
century French became the fashionable language in Bern and
elsewhere, while the influence of the Frenchspeaking " allies " and
subject lands was more marked than before. Hence the German branch
is by far the more important and more national, while the French
branch is not really Swiss till after 1815, when these regions took
full rank as cantons. Thus Geneva and Lausanne in the 18th century,
with their respective brilliant societies, were only " Swiss " in
so far as Geneva was an " ally " and Vaud a " subject land." The
Italian and Romonsch-Ladin branches are of not sufficient
importance to deserve more than a passing notice.
a. German Branch
It is noticeable that while the original League of 1291 (like
the earlier charters of liberties to the first members of the
Confederation) is drawn up in Latin, all later alliances among the
cantons, as well as documents concerning the whole Confederation
(the Parsons' Ordinance of 1370, the Sempach Ordinance of 1393, and
the Compact of Stans 1481) and all the Recesses of the Diets are
compiled in German. Though such political documents are not "
literature," yet they show that these early pre-Reformation
alliances rested on the popular consent, and so were expressed in
vernacular German rather than in clerkly Latin. But this vigorous
popular life found other channels in which to develop its energy.
First in order of date are the
Minnesingers, the number of whom in the
districts that ultimately formed part of the medieval Swiss
Confederation are said to have exceeded thirty. Zurich then (as
now) was the chief literary centre of the Confederation. The two
Manesses (father and son) collected many of their songs in a MS.
that has happily come down to us and is preserved in Paris. The
most prominent personage of this circle of the muses was Master
John Hadlaub, who flourished in the second half of the 13th and the
first quarter of the 14th centuries. Next we have a long series of
war songs, celebrating the marvellous victories of the early Swiss.
One of the earliest and most famous of these was composed by Hans
Halbsuter of Lucerne to commemorate the glorious fight of Sempach
(1386), not far from his native town. There are other similar songs
for the victory of Na.fels (1388) and those of Grandson and Morat
(both 1476) in the Burgundian War, while in the 14th century the
Dominican
friar Ulrich
Boner of Bern versified many old
fables. Still more important are the historical chronicles relating
to different parts of Switzerland. Thus in the 14th century we have
Christian Kuchimeister's continuation of the annals of the famous
monastery of St Gall, in the early 15th century the rhymed
chronicle of the war between the Appenzellers and the abbot of St
Gall, and rather later in the same century the chronicles of Conrad
Justinger of Bern and Hans Frund (d. 1469) of Lucerne, besides the
fantastical chronicle of Strattligen and a scarcely less fanciful
poem on the supposed Scandinavian descent of the"men of Schwyz and
of Ober Hasle, both by Eulogius Kiburger (d. 1506) of Bern. In the
15th century, too, we have the
White Book of Sarnen and
the first Tell song (see Tell), which gave rise to the well-known
legend, as well as the rather later play named the
Urnerspiel dealing with the same subject. The Burgundian
War witnessed a great outburst of historical ardour in the shape of
chronicles written by Diebold Schilling (d. 1486) of Bern, by
Melchior Russ (d. 1499), Diebold Schilling (d. between 1516 and
1523) and Petermann Etterlin (d. 1509), all three of Lucerne as
well as by Gerold Edlibach (d. 1530) of ZUrich, and by Johnanes
Lenz (d. 1541) of Brugg. In the vernacular, too, are the earliest
descriptions of the Confederation, those by Albert von Bonstetten
of Einsiedeln (1479) and by Conrad Turst of Zurich (1496), to whom
also we owe the first
map of the
country (1495-1497).
The Swiss Humanists wrote naturally in Latin, as did also, what
was more surprising, the Swiss Reformers, at any rate for the most
part, though the Zurich Bible of 1531 forms a striking exception.
But Nicholas Manuel (1484-1530), a many-sided Bernese, composed
satirical poems in German against the pope, while Valerius Anshelm
(d. 1540), also of Bern, wrote one of the best Swiss chronicles
extant. Giles Tschudi (q.v.) of Glarus, despite great literary
activity, published but a single German work in his lifetime - the
Uralt warhaftig Alpisch Rhaetia sampt dem Tract der anderen
Alpgebirgen r1538) - besides his map of Switzerland (same
date).
Sebastian Munster
(q.v.), who was a Swiss by adoption, published (1544) his
Cosmographia in German, the work being translated into
Latin in 1550. But the many-sided Conrad Gesner (q.v.), a born
Swiss, wrote all his works in Latin, German translations appearing
only at a later date. Thus the first important original product in
German was the very remarkable and
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