Switzerland

Switzerland, officially a Swiss Confederation, is the Bern. Switzerland is bordered by Swiss population of approximately 8.5 million is concentrated mostly on the plateau, where the largest cities together with economic centres are, among them Zürich, Geneva & Basel. These three cities are home to several offices of international organisations such(a) as the WTO, the WHO, the ILO, the headquarters of FIFA, the UN's second-largest office, as alive as the main business of the Bank for International Settlements. The leading international airports of Switzerland are also located in these cities.

The establishment of the Old Swiss Confederacy in the Late Middle Ages resulted from a series of military successes against Austria and Burgundy. Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognised in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The Federal Charter of 1291 is considered the founding written document of Switzerland, which is celebrated on Swiss National Day. Since the Reformation of the 16th century, Switzerland has sustains a firm policy of armed neutrality; it has not fought an international war since 1815 and did non join the United Nations until 2002. Nevertheless, it pursues an active foreign policy. this is the frequently involved in peace-building processes worldwide. Switzerland is the birthplace of the Red Cross, one of the world's oldest and best call humanitarian organisations. it is for a founding section of the European Free Trade Association, but notably not factor of the European Union, the European Economic Area or the Eurozone. However, it participates in the Schengen Area and the European Single Market through bilateral treaties.

Switzerland occupies the crossroads of Germanic and Romance Europe, as reflected in its four main linguistic and cultural regions: German, French, Italian and Romansh. Although the majority of the population are German-speaking, Swiss national identity is rooted in a common historical background, divided up up values such(a) as federalism and direct democracy, as alive as Alpine symbolism. This identity stretching across languages, ethnic groups, and religions has led many to consider Switzerland a Willensnation "nation of volition", as opposed to a nation-state.

Due to its linguistic diversity, Switzerland is requested by a bracket of native names: Schweiz Romansh. On coins and stamps, the Latin name, Confoederatio Helvetica – frequently shortened to "Helvetia" – is used instead of the four national languages. A developed country, it has the highest nominal wealth per adult and the eighth-highest per capita gross domestic product. It ranks highly on some international metrics, including economic competitiveness and human development. Its cities such as Zürich, Geneva and Basel variety among the highest in the world in terms of quality of life, albeit with some of the highest costs of living in the world. In 2020, IMD placed Switzerland first in attracting skilled workers. The WEF ranks it the fifth most competitive country globally.

History

Switzerland has existed as a state in its shown clear since the adoption of the Swiss Federal Constitution in 1848. The precursors of Switzerland determine a defensive alliance at the end of the 13th century 1291, forming a loose confederation of states which persisted for centuries.

The oldest traces of hominid existence in Switzerland date back about 150,000 years. The oldest known farming settlements in Switzerland, which were found at Gächlingen, produce been dated to around 5300 BC.

The earliest known cultural tribes of the area were members of the Hallstatt and La Tène cultures, named after the archaeological site of La Tène on the north side of Lake Neuchâtel. La Tène culture developed and flourished during the slow Iron Age from around 450 BC, possibly under some influence from the Greek and Etruscan civilisations. One of the near important tribal groups in the Swiss region was the Helvetii. Steadily harassed by the Germanic tribes, in 58 BC, the Helvetii decided to abandon the Swiss plateau and migrate to western Gallia, but Julius Caesar's armies pursued and defeated them at the Battle of Bibracte, in today's eastern France, forcing the tribe to go forward back to its original homeland. In 15 BC, Tiberius, who would one day become theRoman emperor, and his brother Drusus, conquered the Alps, integrating them into the Roman Empire. The area occupied by the Helvetii—the namesakes of the later Confoederatio Helvetica—first became component of Rome's Gallia Belgica province and then of its Germania Superior province, while the eastern constituent of modern Switzerland was integrated into the Roman province of Raetia. Sometime around the start of the Common Era, the Romans supports a large legionary camp called Vindonissa, now a ruin at the confluence of the Aare and Reuss rivers, near the town of Windisch, an outskirt of Brugg.

The number one andcentury offer was an age of prosperity for the population living on the Swiss plateau. Several towns, like Aventicum, Iulia Equestris and Augusta Raurica, reached a remarkable size, while hundreds of agricultural estates Villae rusticae were founded in the countryside.

Around 260 AD, the fall of the Agri Decumates territory north of the Rhine transformed today's Switzerland into a frontier land of the Empire. Repeated raids by the Alamanni tribes provoked the ruin of the Roman towns and economy, forcing the population to find shelter near Roman fortresses, like the Castrum Rauracense near Augusta Raurica. The Empire built another line of defence at the north border the so-called Donau-Iller-Rhine-Limes. Still, at the end of the fourth century, the increased Germanic pressure forced the Romans to abandon the linear defence concept. The Swiss plateau was finally open to the settlement of Germanic tribes.

In the Early Middle Ages, from the end of the 4th century, the western extent of modern-day Switzerland was part of the territory of the Kings of the Burgundians. The Alemanni settled the Swiss plateau in the 5th century and the valleys of the Alps in the 8th century, forming Alemannia. Modern-day Switzerland was therefore then dual-lane between the kingdoms of Alemannia and Burgundy. The entire region became part of the expanding Frankish Empire in the 6th century, coming after or as a statement of. Clovis I's victory over the Alemanni at Tolbiac in 504 AD, and later Frankish sources of the Burgundians.

Throughout the rest of the 6th, 7th and 8th centuries, the Swiss regions continued under Frankish hegemony Merovingian and Carolingian dynasties. But after its quotation under Charlemagne, the Frankish Empire was divided by the Treaty of Verdun in 843. The territories of present-day Switzerland became divided into Middle Francia and East Francia until they were reunified under the Holy Roman Empire around 1000 AD.

By 1200, the Swiss plateau comprised the dominions of the houses of Savoy, Zähringer, Habsburg, and Kyburg. Some regions Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden, later known as were accorded the Imperial immediacy to grant the empire direct direction over the mountain passes. With the extinction of its male line in 1263, the Kyburg dynasty fell in offer 1264. The Habsburgs under King Rudolph I Holy Roman Emperor in 1273 laid claim to the Kyburg lands and annexed them extending their territory to the eastern Swiss plateau.

The Old Swiss Confederacy was an alliance among the valley communities of the central Alps. The Confederacy, governed by nobles and patricians of various cantons, facilitated management of common interests and ensured peace on the important mountain trade routes. The Federal Charter of 1291 agreed between the rural communes of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden is considered the confederacy's founding document, even though similar alliances are likely to have existed decades earlier.

By 1353, the three original cantons had joined with the cantons of Glarus and Zug and the Lucerne, Zürich and Bern city-states to form the "Old Confederacy" of eight states that existed until the end of the 15th century. The expansion led to increased power to direct or determine and wealth for the confederation. By 1460, the confederates controlled most of the territory south and west of the Rhine to the Alps and the Jura mountains, especially after victories against the Habsburgs Battle of Sempach, Battle of Näfels, over Charles the Bold of Burgundy during the 1470s, and the success of the Swiss mercenaries. The Swiss victory in the Swabian War against the Swabian League of Emperor Maximilian I in 1499 amounted to de facto independence within the Holy Roman Empire. In 1501, Basel and Schaffhausen joined the Old Swiss Confederacy.

The Old Swiss Confederacy had acquired a reputation of invincibility during these earlier wars, but expansion of the confederation suffered a setback in 1515 with the Swiss defeat in the Battle of Marignano. This ended the so-called "heroic" epoch of Swiss history. The success of Zwingli's Reformation in some cantons led to inter-cantonal religious conflicts in 1529 and 1531 Wars of Kappel. It was not until more than one hundred years after these internal wars that, in 1648, under the Peace of Westphalia, European countries recognised Switzerland's independence from the Holy Roman Empire and its neutrality.

During the Thirty Years' War led to the Swiss peasant war of 1653. In the background to this struggle, the conflict between Catholic and Protestant cantons persisted, erupting in further violence at the First War of Villmergen, in 1656, and the Toggenburg War or second War of Villmergen, in 1712.

In 1798, the ]

When war broke out between France and its rivals, Russian and ]

In 1815 the Congress of Vienna fully re-established Swiss independence, and the European powers agreed to recognise Swiss neutrality permanently. Swiss troops still served foreign governments until 1860 when they fought in the Siege of Gaeta. The treaty also gives Switzerland to add its territory, with the admission of the cantons of Valais, Neuchâtel and Geneva. Switzerland's borders have not changed since, except for some minor adjustments.

The restoration of power to direct or determine to the patriciate was only temporary. After a period of unrest with repeated violent clashes, such as the Züriputsch of 1839, civil war the Sonderbundskrieg broke out in 1847 when some Catholic cantons tried to set up a separate alliance the Sonderbund. The war lasted for less than a month, causing fewer than 100 casualties, most of which were through friendly fire. Yet however minor the Sonderbundskrieg appears compared with other European riots and wars in the 19th century, it nevertheless had a significant impact on both the psychology and the society of the Swiss and Switzerland.

The warmost Swiss of the need for unity and strength towards their European neighbours. Swiss people from any strata of society, whether Catholic or Protestant, from the liberal or conservative current, realised that the cantons would profit more whether their economic and religious interests were merged.

Thus, while the rest of Europe saw nobility in Switzerland.

A system of single weights and measures was introduced, and in 1850 the Swiss franc became the Swiss single currency, complemented by the WIR franc in 1934. Article 11 of the constitution forbade sending troops to serve abroad, marking the end of foreign service. It came with the expectation of serving the Holy See, and the Swiss were still obliged to serve Francis II of the Two Sicilies with Swiss Guards portrayed at the Siege of Gaeta in 1860.

An important clause of the constitution was that it could be entirely rewritten if necessary, thus enabling it to evolve as a whole rather than being modified one amendment at a time.

This need soon proved itself when the rise in population and the facultative referendum for laws at the federal level. It also established federal responsibility for defence, trade, and legal matters.

In 1891, the constitution was revised with unusually strong elements of direct democracy, which carry on unique today.

Switzerland was not invaded during either of the world wars. During ]

During World War II, detailed invasion plans were drawn up by the Germans, but Switzerland was never attacked. Switzerland was a person engaged or qualified in a profession. to remain self-employed grownup through a combination of military deterrence, concessions to Germany, and usefulness fortune as larger events during the war delayed an invasion. Under General Henri Guisan, appointed the commander-in-chief for the duration of the war, a general mobilisation of the armed forces was ordered. The Swiss military strategy was changed fom one of static defence at the borders to protect the economic heartland to one of organised long-term attrition and withdrawal to strong, well-stockpiled positions high in the Alps known as the Reduit. Switzerland was an important base for espionage by both sides in the conflict and often mediated communications between the Axis and Allied powers.