Switzerland or Swiss Confederation, French Confédération Suisse, Italian Confederazione Svizzera, German Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft, Romansch Confederaziun Svizzra, republic (15,940 sq mi/41,284 sq km; 1993 estimated population 6,908,000; 2004 estimated population 7,450,867), central Europe; (cap.) Bern; other large cities are Zürich, Basel, and Geneva.
Geography
Switzerland borders on France in the W and SW, with the Jura mountains and Lake Geneva (traversed by the Rhône River) forming the frontier; in the N it is separated from Germany by the Rhine River and Lake Constance; its E neighbors are Austria and Liechtenstein; in the SE and S it is divided from Italy by the Alpine crests, Lake Lugano, and Lago Maggiore. In the NW, the Jura mountains occupy about 15% of the country; the Alps, in the S, occupy about 60%; in between is a long, relatively low plateau, the Mittelland, crossed by the Aare River and containing lakes Neuchâtel and Zürich. Alpine communications are assured by numerous passes and by railroad tunnels, notably the Lötschberg, Saint Gotthard, and Simplon.
Population
German, French, Italian, and Romansh (a Rhaeto-Roman dialect spoken in parts of the Grisons) are the national languages of Switzerland. German dialects (Schwyzerdütsch) are spoken by about 65% of the inhabitants; French, spoken by about 18%, predominates in the W; Italian, spoken by about 10%, is the language of Ticino, in the S and of half the foreign workers in Switzerland. The few Romansch-speakers (less than 1%) are in the canton of Grisons, in the SE. Approximately 40% of the population is Protestant and 46% R.C. Although the country absorbed many foreign workers after World War II, especially from Italy, slight rises in the unemployment rate have resulted in popular initiatives to restrict immigration. There are universities at Lausanne, Geneva, Bern, Basel, Zürich, St. Gallen, Neuchâtel, and Fribourg.
Economy
Switzerland has a highly successful market economy based on international trade and banking. Its standards of living, worker productivity, quality of education, and health care are higher than those of any other European country. Inflation is low, and unemployment is negligible. The economy is dependent on foreign guest workers, who represent approximately 10% of the labor force. Agriculture employs less than 5% of the population; only 10% of the land is arable, and the primary agricultural products are cattle, pigs, dairy goods, sugar beets, potatoes, and grains. Mineral resources are scarce, and most raw materials and many food products must be imported. Tourism, which adds significantly to the economy, would help to balance Switzerland’s trade deficit, except that Swiss tourists spend nearly as much abroad as foreign tourists do in Switzerland. Electricity is generated chiefly from hydroelectric and nuclear power sources. Switzerland has a worldwide reputation for the high quality of its export manufacture, which include motors, generators, turbines, and diverse high-tech products, such as pharmaceuticals, watches, and precision instruments; and processed foods, such as chocolates. Switzerland’s most important trading partners are Germany, France, Italy, France, and the U.S. Due to its central location in Western Europe, its control of the major routes from N Europe to the Mediterranean, and to the stability of its politics, economy, and currency, Switzerland has become one of the world’s leading financial centers. The banking, insurance, shipping, and freighting industries accommodate the enormous amount of international trade going through Switzerland. However, concern about pollution created by the huge amount of truck traffic has led the Swiss to consider seriously a ban on through-truck traffic.
History to 1513
In 58 B.C. the Helvetii who inhabited the country were conquered by the Romans (see Avenches commune, Augst, Chur). In the 5th century A.D., the country was invaded from the E by German-speaking Alemanni and from the W by Burgundians who had become romanized to the extent of speaking proto-French. The boundary between the languages of the two group has scarcely moved since then. Hapsburg encroachments on the privileges of the three mountainous localities of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden resulted in the conclusion (1291) of a defensive league among them. The league repeatedly defeated the Hapsburgs at Morgarten (1315) and (joined by Lucerne, Zürich, Zug, Glarus, and Bern) at Sempach (1386) and Näfels (1388). In the 15th century the Swiss Confederation rose to the first rank as a military power. The conquest of Aargau, Thurgau, and the valleys of Ticino, which were ruled as subject territories until 1798, was followed by Swiss victories over Charles the Bold of Burgundy (1476–1477) and over Emperor Maximilian I, who in 1499 granted Switzerland virtual independence.
History - 1513 to 1648
By 1513, the admission to the Confederation of Fribourg, Solothurn, Basel, Schaffhausen, and Appenzell had raised the number of cantons to thirteen. The conquest by Bern of Vaud from Savoy (1536), and close alliances with the Grisons, Geneva, and Saint Gallen, further enlarged the Confederation, but Switzerland’s importance as a European power was broken when the French defeated the Swiss at Marignano in 1515. A “perpetual alliance” with France (1516) and neutrality became the basis of Swiss policy. Swiss mercenaries, however, continued to serve abroad for three centuries. The cantons, loosely bound by a federal diet and by individual treaties and often torn by internal feuds, were seriously split by the Reformation, preached by Zwingli at Zürich and by Calvin at Geneva. The Catholics, led by the “Four Forest Cantons,” defeated the Protestants in battle; the Treaty of Kappel (1531) preserved Catholicism in Lucerne, Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, Zug, Fribourg, and Solothurn. National unity almost disappeared for more than two centuries. Formal independence was recognized by the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.
History - 1648 to 1959
Invading French armies established the Helvetic Republic (1798–1803). Napoleon’s Act of Mediation (1803) partially restored the old, mostly Germanic, confederation. At the Congress of Vienna, the Pact of Restoration (1815) substantially reestablished the old regime. However, it added nine new cantons, including most of the romance language areas. By the Treaty of Paris (1815), Swiss neutrality was guaranteed for all time. Economic setbacks led to the rise of the Radical party, which favored greater centralization. Opposition to centralization centered in the Catholic rural cantons, which in 1845 formed a defensive alliance, the Sonderbund. After a brief and almost bloodless civil war (1847) the victorious Radicals transformed the confederation into one federal state under a new constitution adopted in 1848 (and recast in 1874). National unity grew, and progessive legislation (such as railroad nationalization and social insurance) was enacted. Armed neutrality was maintained throughout World Wars I and II. Switzerland was a member of the League of Nations, and though it participates in many activities of the UN it has only “observer status”; the UN Charter makes Swiss membership unlikely under current Swiss interpretations of neutrality.
History - 1959 to Present
In 1959, Switzerland became a member of the EFTA, and in 1972 it signed an industrial free-trade agreement with the European Common Market. In the 1950s, French-speaking inhabitants of the N Jura region of Bern canton petitioned for independence from Bern canton. After a national referendum in 1974, the Jura became the twenty-third canton of the Swiss Confederation. In 1992, the country applied for membership in the EU, but action on the application has been tabled, and the emphasis had switched to bilateral trade resolutions between Switzerland and the EU. In the mid-1990s, Switzerland’s international reputation was tarnished because of revelations of Swiss banks’ extensive cooperation with the Nazis during World War II, their aid in converting Jewish-owned wealth into “Nazi Gold,” and their attempts to conceal these activities in the years since the war. Switzerland’s federal constitution, adopted in 1848 and revised in 1874, assigns specified functions, notably communications, foreign relations, and tariffs, to the Confederation, leaving the cantons sovereign in other respects. There is universal male suffrage; women were granted (by a referendum in 1971) the vote in federal elections and may vote in most cantonal and local elections. In a 1981 plebiscite, measures were approved granting equal legal and economic rights for men and women.
Government
A council of states (two members from each canton, one from each half-canton) and a two-hundred-member national council (whose members are directly elected every four years) together form the federal assembly. The executive branch, or federal council, is composed of seven members (elected for four years by the federal assembly) and includes the president of the Confederation (elected by the federal assembly annually). Switzerland employs the referendum and the popular initiative to achieve political change. The constitution provides for religious equality, compulsory education, and universal military training. Cantonal constitutions differ widely. In Unterwalden, Glarus, and Appenzell the entire male electorate legislates directly in yearly outdoor meetings called Landsgemeinden; elsewhere a unicameral legislative council and an elected executive council are common.
Switzerland consists of twenty-six federated states, made up of twenty cantons and six half-cantons. They are listed here in the conventional Swiss order in which Zurich, Bern, and Lucerne come first, followed by the other cantons in the order of their accession to the Confederation (date shown in parentheses). Doubled or tripled names are in the official languages of the respective cantons. The cantons and half-cantons are Zürich (1351), Bern/Berne (1553), Lucerne (1332), Uri (1291), Schwyz (1291), Obwalden (1291), Nidwalden (1291) Glarus (1352), Zug (1352), Fribourg/Freiburg (1481), Solothurn (1481), Basel-Stadt (1501), Basel-Land (1501), Schaffhausen (1501), Appenzell Ausser Rhoden (1513), Appenzell Inner Rhoden (1513), Saint Gallen (1803), Graubünden/Grigioni/Grischun (1803; see Grisons), Aargau (1803), Thurgau (1803), Ticino (1803), Vaud (1803), Valais/Wallis (1815), Neuchâtel (1815), Geneva (1815), and Jura (1978). Of the half-cantons, Obwalden and Nidwalden form Unterwalden, Basel-Stadt and Basel-Land form Basel, and Ausser-Rhoden and Inner-Rhoden form Appenzell.
The current chief of state, elected in 2004, is President Joseph Deiss. He is also head of government.
