 Switzerland - national flag
The flag was confirmed as the Swiss flag in 1848 and officially introduced in
1889, but a white cross on a red background is already known from the 1300's. as
a brand for Edsforbundet. The basis of the flag is the flag of the canton
of Schwyz. Apart from the Vatican City flag, it is the world's only square
national flag. As suitcase flags on ships on e.g. Lake Constance and the Rhine
have flagged the proportions 2: 3.
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Switzerland - prehistory
Old Paleolithic finds are poorly represented, while several Middle
Paleolithic sites are known. From the younger Paleolithic culture Magdalénia are
known settlements where bone and roof tools with carved motifs are preserved; of
great beauty is an engraved reindeer from Kesslerloch. The Mesolithic is well
represented. The oldest Neolithic find is Castel Grande in Ticino with two
square houses from 5400-5000 BC. From approximately 4200 BC pile-building villages are
known by the lake shores, where building elements and organic material in the
humid surroundings are well preserved. These are villages with rows of square
houses, sometimes surrounded by palisades and paved with beams. They existed
through the Neolithic and the battle-ax culture, as documented at Zurich, with a
break of 900 years in bell goblet culture and oldest Bronze Age and then through
the Bronze Age, approximately 1600-800 BC.
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At the beginning of the Iron Age, 800-700 BC, these settlements ceased due to
increased rainfall and elevated water levels. From the Hallstatt culture,
750-450 BC, princely tombs with carriages and prestigious equipment as well as
high-lying fortifications such as Wittnauer Horn are known. La Tène culture, approximately 450-50 BC, is characterized by many grave finds, but also by sacrificial
finds in water such as at La Tène, Cornaux and Port. Seven gold rings from
approximately 300 BC from Erstfeld adorned with mythological creatures testify to
sacrifices on mountain slopes. Around 100 BC. actual fortified cities arose, the
so-called oppida (see oppidum), eg present-day Bern and Geneva; best studied is
Basel Münsterhügel with large gates and murus Gallicus. On the other side
of the Rhine lay shrines surrounded by square ramparts, where sacrificial gold
rings and shafts with bones have been found.
Switzerland - history
I 100-tfKr. forced the Celtic Hell Tigers into present-day Switzerland; the
Latin names for the area, Helvetia, are derived from them.
The oldest story
The area was inhabited by Celts, especially Helvetians, and Raetiers, before
it came under Roman control. At the Battle of Bibracte in 58 BC. Julius Caesar
conquered western Switzerland. Later, the area became part of the province of
Germania Superior. In 15 BC. the eastern part of the country was incorporated
into the Roman Empire as the province of Raetia, and in the following centuries
the Romans built cities and roads in the area.
In the 300's and 400's. immigrant Germanic Alemanni pushed the original
residents back into northeastern Switzerland; in western Switzerland, the
immigrant Burgundians were assimilated with the population, which is why French
is the dominant language in western Switzerland; in the southeastern part of the
area, the Rhaeto-Romance population managed to preserve its culture and
language, ie. Rhaeto-Romance and Italian, and in the 500-t. present-day
Switzerland became part of the Frankish Empire.
Edsforbundet
approximately In 1030, the area fell to the German-Roman Empire, and it then got a
feudal structure, where the Swiss were subject to various rival secular and
ecclesiastical feudal lords, among others. the Habsburgs. The development met
with opposition from a number of free cities and peasant communities, which in
1291 founded an "eternal union", later called the Swiss Confederation. The
alliance was especially opposed to the Habsburgs' expansionist policy under the
German king Rudolf I. The Swiss built up a peasant army armed with spears and
halberds to take up the fight with the feudal lords. In 1315, a Habsburg knight
army was defeated at the Battle of Morgarten, after which several towns and
cantons joined the Confederation, consolidating its power by victories at the
Battle of Sempach against Leopold III (1351-86) in 1386, in the Burgundian War
1476-77 and in the Swabian War in 1499. Formally, the alliance remained part of
the German-Roman Empire until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, but after the
peace treaty with Emperor Maximilian I in 1499, this no longer played a role in
practice.
At the end of the Middle Ages, Edsforbundet included 13 cantons and a number
of cities and areas that were under the association's protection, among
others. Geneva. In addition, there were a number of land areas that were either
subject to the individual cantons or were jointly controlled by the cantons. The
common affairs of the Confederation were discussed at a Bundestag, but otherwise
the cantons were self-governing and generally dominated by a small aristocratic
elite. Pga. The military success of the Confederacy was highly valued by Swiss
mercenaries in the 15th and 16th centuries, and foreign military service became
an important source of income for many Swiss, especially from the economically
backward forest cantons, see Swiss Guards.
Reformation and counter-reformation
From the beginning of 1500-t. Basel was home to a number of the great figures
of humanism, for example Erasmus of Rotterdam lived from 1514 on several
occasions in the city. 1523-25 Zwingli carried out the Reformation in Zurich,
but as he was more radical than Luther, the Reformation movement soon split
between Lutherans and Reformed. In the years that followed, the Reformation was
carried out in other cities, including Basel, Bern, and Geneva, while the
conservative forest cantons, Uri, Lucerne, and others, remained Catholic. This
denominational split led to two civil wars in resp. 1529 and 1531. The latter
was settled at the Battle of Kappel, where the Catholics prevailed and Zwingli
was killed. After the Peace of Kappel, denominational issues were left to the
individual cantons, whereby the Catholics succeeded in putting an end to the
further spread of the Reformation. From 1536, Calvin led the Protestants, and he
sought to transform Geneva into a Christian model society, making the city an
ideal for other Reformed people. The split between the Protestants endedConfessio
Helvetica posterior in 1566, when Calvinists and Zwinglians joined together
in an alliance; see Swiss confessions. As part of the Counter - Reformation,
the Catholic cantons formed in 1586 the Golden League, from 1655 the Borromean
League.
Since the Reformation, confessional issues have several times resulted in
armed conflicts in Switzerland and made it impossible for the cantons to agree
on a common foreign policy, which has laid the foundations for the policy of
neutrality characteristic of Switzerland. Thus, the Confederacy largely
succeeded in keeping Switzerland out of the Thirty Years' War, and in 1648 the
Peace of Westphalia recognized Swiss neutrality.
1700-t. and the Hellish Republic
1700-t. was characterized by economic growth and the emergence of a home
industry within especially textile and watch manufacturing, and within the
cultural life provided Pestalozzi and Rousseau make significant
contributions to the Enlightenment. Inspired by the French Revolution, a
democratic movement arose, and in 1798 internal unrest gave France the
opportunity to intervene and transform the Confederacy into a centralist Hellish
Republic. Disputes between liberal centralists and conservative federalists,
however, again gave Napoleon the opportunity to intervene with the so-called
Mediation Act in 1803, whereby the Confederacy was restored. During the rest of
the Napoleonic Wars, Switzerland remained a French sound state, and Geneva,
Valais and Neuchâtel were incorporated into France, and Switzerland had to
contribute 12,000 men to Napoleon's Russian campaigns.
Restoration and revolution
At the Congress of Vienna in 1814-15, Switzerland's independence was
recognized, the great powers guaranteed the country's neutrality, and Geneva,
Valais became Swiss again. For Neuchâtel - German Neuenburg - special
circumstances prevailed. It had been the personal property of the Prussian king
since 1707, but in 1814 became the Prussian principality and at the same time
included in the oath of allegiance as the 21st canton. In the year of the
revolution of 1848, the canton was separated from Prussia and at the same time
gained a republican constitution.
The constitution of 1815 confirmed the independence of the now 22 cantons,
but did not change the balance of power in the individual cantons; the former
conservative rulers continued to have a monopoly on political
power. Industrialization, however, strengthened the liberal movement and its
political program of democratization, centralization, and limitation of the
power of the clergy. The political antagonisms resulted in 1845 in a short-lived
civil war between the liberal and conservative cantons, after the conservative
Catholic cantons in 1845 had formed a special alliance (Sonderbund). The liberal
forces prevailed, after which a constitutional reform became possible.
The federal state
The Constitution was adopted in 1848. Switzerland had hitherto been a
federation of independent states, but was now transformed into a federal state
with the Federal Assembly in Bern. In 1874, the constitution was revised under
the impression of the special democratic constitutions adopted in several
cantons. The constitution was an expression of a moderate centralization and had
intended to stifle the influence of the Catholic Church, and therefore gave
rise to violent strife between church and state and between the central
government and the Catholic cantons.
In Zurich, Basel, Geneva and St. Gallen, a significant chemical industry
emerged, and in the early 1900-t. was the working class in rapid growth. Central
to the economic development was especially the expansion of the railway network
and the establishment of the tunnels at Sankt Gotthard and Simplon. In the
Alpine regions, the tourism industry grew.
Swiss neutrality during World War I and II
During World War I, Switzerland managed to remain neutral, even though the
country was economically dependent on both Germany due to significant exports
and the Entente due to imports of raw materials and grain. The economic
hardships of the last years of the war led to a radicalization of the working
class and major strikes in 1918. This development brought the Liberals and the
Conservatives together, and only in 1943 did a Social Democrat get a seat in the
Federal Council. In the 1920's, extensive social reforms were implemented. The
economic crisis of the 1930's was met with a marked deflationary policy, and a
political right turn of the middle class and the peasants took
place. Switzerland was also neutral during World War II, but had to make certain
concessions to Germany. Pga. fear of attacks from Germany and Italy, numerous
troops were mobilized throughout the war,
Immediately before the war, many European Jews set up accounts in Swiss
banks; after the war, many banks were very reluctant to provide information on
these dormant accounts, which is why relatives of the deceased were
not paid their receivables. Following strong foreign pressure, in 1997
Switzerland published the names of approximately 5500 holders of dormant accounts to a
total value of approximately 49 mio. dollars.
Since 1945
After World War II, Switzerland maintained its strict policy of neutrality
and therefore did not become a member of the UN, but joined a number of UN
sub-institutions. In 1960 Switzerland became a member of EFTA, in 1966 of GATT,
and in 1972 the country got a special agreement with the EC. While attempts by
political parties to integrate the country into international economic
cooperation in particular have met with strong popular opposition, the country
has entered into a partnership agreement with NATO in 1997. In terms of domestic
policy, Switzerland has been characterized by political stability and broad
coalition governments. However, the creation of the predominantly Catholic
canton of Jura, which was separated from Bern in 1979, shows that cultural and
religious conditions continue to be a source of conflict. Another sensitive
issue in the political debate has been women's rights;
The controversy over the withholding of money by Swiss banks, which has been
one of the victims of Nazi persecution, culminated in 1998 with the creation of
a fund to pay out a total of 1.25 billion. dollars to holocaust
victims. Payments began in 2001. A referendum in 2001 on the opening of
accession negotiations with the EU showed continued skepticism about
participation in international associations, with 76.7% of voters voting against
joining the EU. However, Switzerland's traditionally strict policy of neutrality
has come under increasing pressure over the years, and in a referendum in 2002,
the Swiss voted for accession to the UN, and in September s.å. became a member
of Switzerland.
In the 2003 election, the immigrant and EU-critical party SVP won almost 28%
of the vote and became the largest party. SVP got another seat in the Federal
Council. This changed the balance that had characterized Swiss politics since
1959. SVP managed to maintain its position in the 2007 elections.
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