A beautiful small country Switzerland with amazing mountain scenery, cozy, as if toy villages and highly developed industry is an example of successful democracy and interethnic cooperation. For more than two hundred years, the country has been an island of stability and prosperity, including thanks to the once declared eternal neutrality. Despite the fact that everyone knows the country, the answer to the question of which city is the capital of the Swiss Confederation is difficult for many. Bern received this status in the 19th century, it houses the government, parliament and central bank of the country.
general review
Switzerland is a highly developed country with a high-tech industry and intensive agriculture. In terms of GDP in 2017, Switzerland was in 19th place in the world, its volume amounted to $ 665.48 billion. The country is one of the richest, now ranks second in the world in terms of GDP per capita ($ 79347.76).
The leading sector of the economy is financial institutions, for example, Zurich - this is one of the world centers of gold trading, whose sales in 2017 amounted to $ 113 billion. Approximately 75% of the population works in the service sector. The country is visited annually by approximately 10 million tourists. The Confederation of Switzerland is still the leading producer of luxury goods, chocolate and quality food.
Switzerland ranks 14th in the world in terms of exports, which totaled $ 774 billion last year. The country imported $ 664 billion worth of goods. Main export items: gold, medicine, watches and jewelry. Best trading partners: European Union, USA and China.
Switzerland has an estimated population of 8.1 million. Representatives of 190 nationalities live in the country, of which 65% are German Swiss, 18% Franco, 10% Italo, 1% Romans (romances and ladins). The increase in recent years has been mainly due to immigrants. The average life expectancy in the Confederation of Switzerland was 82.3 years, this is one of the best indicators in the world. There are approximately equal numbers of Catholics and Protestants; now there are also Jews and Muslims, mainly Turks and Kosovars.
Political structure
The Swiss Confederation is a parliamentary republic uniting 20 cantons and 6 semi-cantons (the so-called administrative-territorial units in the country). The federal government is entrusted with resolving issues of international relations, defense, communications, railways, money issues, the federal budget and some others.
The status of the constituent entities of the Swiss Confederation is distinguished by the division of certain cantons into two half-cantons. The separation occurred for various reasons. For example, religious, like Appenzell, where there is a Protestant and Catholic half-canton, or historical, like Basel, which was divided as a result of armed conflict between rural and urban communities. Both types of entities have the same rights, except that each canton is delegated by 1 representative to the Council of Cantons. The second difference: in national referenda, their vote is counted not as a point, but as a half.
Some contradiction between the name and the actual state system makes many wonder whether Switzerland is a federation or a confederation. Until 1848, the country was a confederation, after which it became a federal republic.
The cantons have broad powers, their own constitution, laws, the operation of which is limited only by the basic law of the country. Thanks to the federal structure, it was possible to preserve cultural and linguistic diversity. The official languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian and Romansh.
The country's parliament - the Federal Assembly - consists of the National Council and the Council of Cantons. The National Council is elected for 4 years according to the proportional representation system. Representatives of all regions are elected to the Council of Cantons.
The highest executive body is the Federal Council, consisting of 7 advisers, each of whom heads the ministry. The apparatus of the Federal Council is led by the Chancellor. The entire country's top leadership and the Chancellor are elected at a joint meeting of both chambers of parliament for a term of 4 years.
The President and Vice-President of the Confederation are elected from among the members of the Council for one year, without the right to occupy this position twice in a row. In practice, federal advisers are almost always re-elected to the Council, and they manage to work with several members of parliament, so as usual, they take turns in office.
Ancient history
The convenient location of the country at the crossroads of European roads made it a welcome acquisition for the dominant forces on the continent. From 15 BC, the territory of the modern Swiss Confederation was part of the Roman Empire. The tribes of the Reth and Helvetites that inhabited the country assimilated strongly. In imperial times, cities and roads were built along which there were flows of goods to the metropolis. The main logistics center of this Roman province was Genoa, as Geneva was then called. At the same time, other large cities of the country were founded: Zurich, Lausanne and Basel.
In the Middle Ages, the territory of the modern Confederation of Switzerland was divided into several small kingdoms. After a period of feudal fragmentation, the country was captured by Otto I the Great, the German king. In 1032, Switzerland received autonomous status as part of the Holy Roman Empire. To establish control in the country, numerous castles began to be built, which have now become popular tourist sites.
Christianity began to penetrate the country since the 4th century thanks to wandering Irish monks. The followers of one of them (Gallus) founded the famous monastery of St. Gallen. Monasteries were built on strategically important sites and played an important role in the development of the country's agriculture.
State foundation
In the 11-13 centuries, thanks to the rapid development of trade on new roads from the Mediterranean to Central Europe, the new cities of Bern, Lucerne and Friborg were founded in Switzerland. The creation of new trade routes was made possible thanks to the development of new technologies that allowed to break through tunnels and pave roads through previously inaccessible parts of the Alps.
Particularly lucrative was one of the trade routes through the St. Gotthard Pass. Therefore, the central German government has repeatedly tried to raise taxes and limit sovereignty in the valleys through which it passed. In response to the oppression, the population of these regions concluded the first military treaty. It was signed in complete secrecy on August 1, 1291, now it is Confederation Day in Switzerland. The cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden joined together in the first union.
Subsequently, these events were overgrown with numerous legends, the most famous of them being that the legendary national hero Wilhelm Tell participated in the signing. Now it is no longer known how the signing took place, but the text of the agreement on the creation of the Helvetian Confederation, written in Latin, is stored in the archive of the city of Schwyz. Since 1891, August 1 became a public holiday in Switzerland - Confederation Day.
Country formation
The Habsburg dynasty, ruling in the Holy Roman Empire, repeatedly tried to return the rebellious lands. Armed clashes with the former metropolis took place for 200 years, the Helvetian troops won in most battles.
In the 14th century, five more cantons joined the union, however, this growth caused a number of contradictions in the relations between them due to the struggle for spheres of influence. The dispute was resolved by the Zurich war (1440-1446) between Zurich, supported by Austria and France, and other cantons.
In 1469, the Confederation of Switzerland gained access to the Rhine River, joining the cantons of Zargans and Thurgau. However, tensions reappeared between the cantons regarding the admission of new members. To develop a common approach, the Stan Treaty was developed and signed, which created the conditions for expanding the union to 13 members.
The cities that entered into the union became free in time, grew rich in trade with other regions of Europe. They bought land, gradually becoming large landowners. A significant source of income for the cantons was the supply of hired troops.
The first university in the country in Basel was opened in the 15th century (until the 19th century it was the only one), in the same era famous scientists worked here, including one of the founders of modern medicine - Paracelsus, as well as the great scientist humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam.
First eternal peace
In 1499, the Swabian war broke out, then the Holy Roman Empire again made an attempt to regain control of its former regions. The German troops suffered several defeats, which finally consolidated the de facto independence of the Confederation of Switzerland.
Troops from different cantons participated in many European wars. In 1515, at the battle of Marignano, the army of Swiss mercenaries was defeated, having lost about 10 thousand people killed. After that, Switzerland began to refrain from large-scale participation in wars, although mercenaries from the country were in demand for a long time. It is believed that this defeat was one of the first reasons that later led to the adoption of neutrality.
The French king Francis I captured the Duchy of Milan on November 29, 1516 and entered into "eternal peace" with the Swiss Union, which lasted 250 years. France pledged to open a market for the sale of Swiss goods, including jewelry and watches, fabrics, cheeses, in turn, having the opportunity to recruit troops in the cantons.
Reformation
At the beginning of the 16th century, the Reformation began in the country, Zurich became the center of a new religious movement, where the Bible in German was first translated and printed. In Geneva, the main ideologist of church reforms was the French theologian Jean Calvin who fled from Paris. It should be noted that supporters of the reformers were also cruel to heretics, like Catholics, for ten years in the Protestant canton of Vaud only 300 women were burned during the witch hunt.
The central part of the Confederation of Switzerland remained Catholic in many respects because Protestants condemned the use of mercenary troops, and many residents of these cantons earned service in the armies of other countries. The base of the Catholic Reformation was the city of Lucerne, in which one of the most prominent figures in the counter-reformation Carlo Borromeo settled. A Jesuit college was opened here in 1577, and a century later a Jesuit church.
The confrontation between the Catholic and Protestant cantons resulted in two civil wars in 1656 and 1712. Religious conflicts continued in the Confederation of Switzerland from the 16th to the 19th century. True, at the end of the period these were no longer wars, but rather a political confrontation, the only exception being the Zurich putsch.
The implementation of religious reform had a strong impact on the economy of the country, Jacques Calvin wrote and preached that constant work is the greatest value, and wealth is God's reward for it. In addition, he actively pursued economic reforms, and hundreds of refugees from the Catholic countries of Europe traveled to the Protestant cantons. Among them were many artisans, merchants and bankers who created new industries in the country. Watchmaking, silk production, and banking began to develop. Thanks to them, Geneva, Neuchâtel and Basel, located in the west of the Swiss Confederation, are now world centers for finance and watch production.
In 1648, the independence of the Confederation of Switzerland was officially recognized in the Westphalian Peace Treaty, concluded as a result of the Thirty Years War, between the strongest European powers.
First industrialization
Despite the ongoing religious confrontation, life in the country in the 17-18 century was mostly calm. Low government spending, the lack of costs for the regular army and the royal court made it possible to facilitate taxation. Revenues from the service of mercenary troops allowed to accumulate significant financial resources, which were directed to the development of the industry, mainly textile and watch. More than a quarter of the population was employed in industry, for example, more than a thousand watchmakers worked in only one canton of Geneva.
Thanks to the high concentration of banks, Geneva was gradually becoming the financial center of Europe. Significant income came from loans issued to European countries to finance military operations.
Weaving developed in the countryside in the vicinity of cities due to restrictions on city guilds, including near Zurich, St. Gallen, Winterthur. The central cantons and Bern remained for the most part agrarian regions.
Confederation Formation
The country, like many European states, was under the rule of Napoleonic France for just over 25 years. At that time, the cantons, and in fact the independent countries of the Swiss Confederation, were poorly united, in each of them several wealthy families ruled. Influenced by the ideas of the French Revolution, many segments of the population demanded the liberalization of the political structure of the country.
By 1815, by the decisions of the victorious anti-Napoleonic coalition, Switzerland was again recognized as an independent state, and the status of a neutral state was assigned to the country by the Paris Peace Treaty.
In November 1847, the 29-day Sondenburgh war broke out between the Catholic and Protestant cantons, the last civil war in the country's history. It addressed the issue of the future state system of Switzerland as a federation or confederation of cantons.
The victorious Protestants carried out liberal reforms, taking the basic US law as a model. The observance of fundamental human rights was proclaimed, a federal government and parliament were formed. Bern became the capital of the Swiss Confederation.
The federal government was delegated the rights to conclude international treaties, the postal and customs services, and the issue of money. The official name was adopted - the Swiss Confederation.
In 1859, the country's single currency, the Swiss franc, was introduced. After revising the constitution of the Swiss Confederation in 1874, the possibility of holding a referendum on all significant issues was secured. The role of central bodies in defense and law-making, social and economic spheres has been strengthened. Officially, the name of the country is "Switzerland Confederation", which is why it is not entirely clear, because the state has a fully federal structure.
The reform of the political system helped stabilize the situation in Switzerland and provided the conditions for economic development. Almost the entire industry was transferred to machine production, the famous Swiss banks Credit Suisse and UBS were opened. Railways were nationalized and a federal network was created, tourism began to develop.
