Switzerland , Fr. Suisse, Ger. Schweiz, Ital. Svizzera, officially Swiss Confederation, federal republic (2005 est. pop. 7,489,000), 15,941 sq mi (41,287 sq km), central Europe. It borders on France in the west and southwest, with the Jura Mts. and the Lake of Geneva (traversed by the Rhône River) forming the frontier; in the north it is separated from Germany by the Rhine River and Lake Constance; its eastern neighbors are Austria and Liechtenstein; in the southeast and south it is divided from Italy by the Alpine crests, the Lake of Lugano, and Lago Maggiore. The federal capital is Bern, and the largest city is Zürich.
Land and People
Between the Jura and the Central Alps, which occupy the southern section (more than half) of the country, there is a long, relatively narrow plateau, crossed by the Aare River and containing the lakes of Neuchâtel and Zürich. Alpine communications are assured by numerous passes and by railroad tunnels, notably those of Lötschberg, St. Gotthard, and Simplon. Switzerland consists of 26 federated states, of which 20 are called cantons and 6 are called half cantons.
The cantons are Zürich , Bern , Lucerne , Uri , Schwyz , Glarus , Zug , Fribourg , Solothurn , Schaffhausen , Saint Gall , the Grisons (Graubünden), Aargau , Thurgau , Ticino , Vaud , Valais , Neuchâtel , Geneva , and Jura . Of the half cantons, Obwalden and Nidwalden together form Unterwalden , Basel-Land and Basel-Stadt form Basel , and Ausser-Rhoden and Inner-Rhoden form Appenzell .
German, French, and Italian are Switzerland’s major and official languages; Romansh (a Rhaeto-Roman dialect spoken in parts of the Grisons) was designated a “semiofficial” language in 1996, entitled to federal funds to help promote its continued use. German dialects (Schwyzerdütsch) are spoken by about 65% of the inhabitants. French, spoken by about 18% of the population, predominates in the southwest; Italian, spoken by about 10%, is the language of Ticino, in the south.
The few Romansh-speakers are in the southeast. Over 40% of the population is Roman Catholic and 35% is Protestant; there is a small Muslim minority, and 11% of the people professes no religion. Although the country absorbed many foreign industrial workers after World War II, especially from Italy, social tensions in the late 20th cent. led the government to restrict immigration.
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 any other European country. Inflation is low, and unemployment is negligible. The economy is heavily dependent on foreign guest workers, who represent approximately 20% of the labor force.
Agriculture employs less than 5% of the population, and since only 10% of the land is arable, the primary agricultural products are cattle and dairy goods (especially cheeses); grains, fruits, and vegetables are also grown, and there is a large chocolate-processing industry. Mineral resources are scarce, and most raw materials and many food products must be imported. Tourism adds significantly to the economy. Electricity is generated chiefly from hydroelectrical and nuclear power sources.
Switzerland has a worldwide reputation for the high quality of its export manufactures, which include machinery, chemicals, watches, textiles, precision instruments, and diverse high-tech products. Centered in Basel, the chemical-pharmaceutical industry exports around the globe. Due to its central location in Europe and the stability of its politics and currency, Switzerland has become one of the world’s most important financial centers.
The banking, insurance, shipping, and freighting industries accommodate the enormous amount of international trade going through Switzerland. Imports include manufactured goods, vehicles, and clothing and textiles. Its most important trading partners are Germany, Italy, France, the United States, and Great Britain.
Switzerland is a confederation governed under the constitution of 1874 as revised in 1998. The president, who is both head of state and head of government, is elected annually by the legislature. The cabinet, or Federal Council, is the main executive body; it is composed of seven members elected for four years by the legislature. The bicameral legislature, or Federal Assembly, consists of the 46-seat Council of States, with two members from each canton and one from each half canton, and the 200-seat National Council, whose members are popularly elected.
All legislators serve four-year terms. Switzerland frequently employs the referendum as well as the popular initiative to achieve political change. Switzerland’s 20 cantons and 6 half cantons remain sovereign in many respects; cantonal constitutions differ widely. In Unterwalden, Glarus, and Appenzell the entire electorate legislates directly in yearly outdoor meetings called Landsgemeinden; elsewhere a unicameral legislative council and an elected executive council are common.
History
Emergence of the Swiss Nation
In 58 BC the Helvetii who inhabited the country (see Helvetia ) were conquered by the Romans. Invaded (5th cent. AD) by the Alemanni and by the Burgundii, the area passed to the Franks in the 6th cent. Divided (9th cent.) between Swabia and Transjurane Burgundy , it was united (1033) under the Holy Roman Empire.
The expanding feudal houses, notably Zähringen and Kyburg, were supplanted (13th cent.) by the houses of Hapsburg and of Savoy . 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 legendary hero of this event is William Tell . The league triumphed at Morgarten (1315) and, joined by Lucerne, Zürich, Zug, Glarus, and Bern, decisively defeated the Hapsburgs at Sempach (1386) and Näfels (1388).
In the 15th cent. the Swiss league 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 (1476-77) and over Emperor Maximilian I, who in 1499 granted Switzerland virtual independence. By 1513, the admission to the confederation of Fribourg, Solothurn, Basel, Schaffhausen, and Appenzell had raised the number of cantons to 13, and this number was maintained until 1798.
The conquest by Bern of Vaud from Savoy (1536), and close alliances with the Grisons, Geneva, St. Gall, and other towns and regions, further increased the Swiss orbit, but Switzerland’s importance as a European power was broken in 1515 when the French defeated the Swiss at Marignano (see also Italian Wars ).
A “perpetual alliance” with France (1516) and neutrality became the basis of Swiss policy. Swiss mercenaries, however, continued to serve abroad for three centuries (see Swiss Guards ). 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, but religious divisions did not prevent the Swiss (except the Grisons) from remaining neutral throughout the Thirty Years War. Switzerland was an island of prosperity when, in 1648, at the end of the war, its formal independence was recognized in the Peace of Westphalia.
Internal Conflict and Consolidation
In the following century and a half, government in many cantons became the exclusive business of a small oligarchy. While Switzerland became insignificant politically in the 18th cent., its wealth steadily increased, and its scientists and writers (von Haller, von Mühler, Pestalozzi, Rousseau) made it an intellectual center. The Swiss oligarchies strongly opposed the French Revolution.
Invading French armies established the Helvetic Republic (1798-1803) and in 1799 clashed with Austrian and Russian forces. Napoleon’s Act of Mediation (1803) partially restored the old confederation, and, at the Congress of Vienna, the Pact of Restoration (1815) substantially reestablished the old regime, except that the confirmation of nine new cantons brought the total to its present number.
By the Treaty of Paris (1815), Swiss neutrality was guaranteed for all time. A subsequent economic depression, which caused large-scale emigration to North and South America, and generally reactionary rule contributed to widely successful demands for revision of the cantonal constitutions and the rise of the Radical party, which favored greater centralization. Opposition to centralization centered in the Catholic rural cantons, which in 1845 formed the Sonderbund , a defensive alliance.
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 much socialist 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 although it has long participated in many activities of the United Nations, it did not become a UN member until 2002 for fear that its neutrality would be compromised. From 1959 Switzerland was governed by a four-party coalition that began as a center-right coalition and subsequently became a broader grouping. Also in 1959 Switzerland became a member of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA); in 1972 it signed an industrial free-trade agreement with the European Community (EC; since 1993 the European Union).
In the 1950s, French-speaking inhabitants of the Jura region of Bern canton unsuccessfully demanded, with some violence, the creation of a Jura canton. In 1977 a constitution was accepted, and in 1979 it officially became the twenty-third canton of the Swiss Confederation. In 1971, after a referendum was passed by male voters, women were given the right to vote and be elected at the federal level; subsequently, Elisabeth Kopp of the Radical Democratic party became the first woman government minister (1984-88).
In a 1986 plebiscite, a parliamentary proposal to join the United Nations was rejected by Swiss voters.
In 1992, Swiss voters also rejected participation in the European Economic Area, an EFTA-EC common market, but did approve joining the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The rejection of the European Economic Area led to negotiations that resulted in a package of accords that established closer economic links with the European Union; voters approved the agreements in 2000.
Following charges that stolen assets deposited in Swiss banks by Nazis during World War II had not been properly returned, the country’s two largest banks agreed in 1998 to pay $1.25 billion to the families of Holocaust victims; the banks had been facing lawsuits in the United States and were under international political pressure. Ruth Dreifuss, Switzerland’s first woman president, served in the annually rotated post during 1999. In elections in 1999, the right-wing, nationalist People’s party made sizable gains; this was regarded in part as a reaction to international criticism of Switzerland’s role in World War II
Despite the turn to the right, Swiss voters in 2002 approved joining the United Nations, becoming the one of the last nations to seek membership in that organization (only Vatican City is not a member). In the 2003 and 2007 elections the People’s party made further gains, becoming the largest party in the national council. Late in 2007 Switzerland’s long-standing consensus coalition government ended when the People’s party withdrew after the coalition refused to support a cabinet post for its leader, who was accused by members of the other parties in the government of acting like an opposition leader.
Bern Time
November 29th, 2010 
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Many people only visualize ski slopes when they hear Switzerland; however this country has much to offer beyond the slopes in the urban cities of Zurich, Lucerne and Lausanne. These cities offer wonderful and interesting art, colorful old towns and beautiful waterfront settings worthy of a visit on your way to the slopes.
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