The BeginningsLet’s start this short review at the beginning, about 2,000 years ago, with the Romans and a Celtic tribe that in those days inhabited most of the Swiss “Mittelland” around what is now Bern—the Helvetii. Their name echoes in the CH (Confoederatio Helvetica) on the back of Swiss cars and the .ch of Swiss e-mail addresses, as well as in the picture of the allegori-cal figure of Helvetia on the Swiss coins (standing with lance and shield in some, only her face on others) and the sculpture gazing over the Rhein from the Kleinbasel side of the Mittlere Brücke.The Romans finally left around 400 A.D., leaving the inhabi-tants of what is now Switzerland to the not-so-tender mer-cies of waves of Ger-manic tribes coming across the Rhein. The first were the Alle-mannen (translating simply as ‘all the men’) and then the Franks (who indirect-ly left their mark in the form of the Swiss currency, the Franc).What later became Switzerland started out in the very center, around Lake Lucerne, with the three territories of Uri, Schwyz (later to give its name to the whole country), and Unterwalden. They got together with a charter in 1291, promising to protect each other from negative outside interference, namely the “bad” Habsburgs. (This may or may not have involved the leg-endary “Rütlischwur” [oath on the Rütli meadow above Lake Uri]—histori-ans are still debating the issue.) The Habsburgs, an originally local family (their castle, the Habsburg, can still be seen overlooking the A3 motorway just before you enter the Habsburg Tunnel), was on the fast track to royal honors in the German Empire. They also had their beady eyes on the mountain passes of the Got-thard, the best transit route be-tween Northern and Southern Europe. The fight against the Habsburgs has also been immortalized in the tale of Wilhelm Tell. Every country needs a hero, and for the Swiss, this is Wilhelm Tell. He stands for courage, honor, and fierce inde-pendence. You have probably heard the story of how the evil Habsburg sheriff forced him to shoot an apple off his son Walter’s head, etc. What you may not know is that when first written down in the 1470s, this tale copied a very similar story from Scandinavia

where the bad guy was a king and the hero was an archer rather than a cross-bow-man like Tell. And to make sure we never forget him, Wilhelm Tell features proudly on every 5 Franc piece.

Coming TogetherOver the next centuries, which were marked by some epic battles and victories by the peasant “Eid genossen” (confederates) over the aristocracy of the time, the Swiss Confederacy gradually coagulated. First to join the original three rural territories were the cities of Luzern, Zürich, Bern, Fri-bourg, and Solothurn, as well as the rural states of Zug and Glarus. Then, in the early 1500s, Basel, Schaffhausen, and Appenzell joined to make up the 13-member Old Confederacy that was to last for almost 300 years. These states (not yet known as cantons) had, by force of arms and by taking clever advantage of opportunities, conquered pretty much all of what is currently Swiss territory. For example, an imperial ban on the unfortunate Habsburg Duke Frederick had allowed them to invade the Aargau in 1415.The conquered areas became subject territories whose inhabitants were second-class citizens. The Vaud was conquered by and became subject to Bern. The Aargau, Thurgau, and Ticino became subject territories ruled in common by a number of Swiss states in a unique system of “Gemeine Herrschaften” (common governance), with “Vögte” (sheriffs) from the dif-ferent states taking turns at governing in 2-year intervals. Known as ferocious and successful infantry warriors, the Swiss had even acquired control over Milan when, at the nearby battle of Marignano in 1515, they suffered a massive defeat at the hands of the young French king Francis I with his artillery and cavalry. How this and other developments shaped the further Swiss history will be the subject of next month’s install-ment of the "Swiss History Bites."

Swiss History Bites

Jakob Mettler grew up as an expat child in London with Swiss parents. Fluency in English greatly facilitated a long and interesting international marketing career in the Basel international pharmaceutical industry. Nowadays, Jakob is passionate about talking to visitors and expats about Switzerland and his hometown Basel with lectures and on city tours. If you are interested in a talk or a tour, just contact him at info@jamix.ch. www.jamix.ch

Wilhelm Tell & All That—Part 1By Jakob MettlerHow did a small group of states in a mountain-rich, resource-poor place in the middle of Europe, very poor until not much more than a century ago, become one of the world’s most successful and richest countries? This fall, our Swiss History Bites will take you on a three-part journey through Switzerland’s history.

27photo credits: © rudolf stingel (untitled, 2018), foto: john lehr; © pixabay (bread baking roman style); © kanton basel-stadt, photo: stefan holenstein (swiss history bites); © schweizerische nationalbank (swiss history bites); © droysens allgemeiner historischer handatlas published by r. andree, 1886 (swiss history bites)

September 2019

Basel Life Magazine / www.basel l i fe .com14

Events in Basel: February 2015 (continued)Swiss History Bites

By Jakob Mettler

How did a little group of states in a mountain-rich, resource-poor place in the middle of Europe, very poor until not much more than a century ago, become one of the world’s most successful and richest countries? In part 1 of the “Swiss History Bites” in last month’s issue of Basel Life Magazine, you read about the beginnings of Switzerland and how the Confederation came together to make up the 13 state Old Confederacy that was to last for almost 300 years.

The End of Territorial Expansion and a New Business

The defeat at Marignano in 1515 and the Reformation just afterwards, which split the Confederation into two religious camps, made coordination between the states for further military campaigns impossible. This led to the end of territorial expansion and the beginning of a new business mod-el—the recruiting and export of Swiss mercenaries. In the following almost three centuries of the so-called “Ancien Régime,” until Napoleon’s inva-sion and even beyond until 1850, over 1.5 million Swiss men served as sol-diers for a large number of European masters. The main recipient of Swiss mercenaries was France, whose government compensated the elite of the Swiss states with money, the salt that the Swiss needed for cheese production, and commercial privileges for Swiss exports. Other Swiss mercenaries fought for the Kingdom of Naples, the Dutch, and others, the most exotic example being the De Meuron Regiment of Bern fighting for the British Colonel Wesley (the later Duke of Welling-ton) in the conquest of India. The Swiss Guard that has been protecting the Pope in Rome from 1506 to this day is the last remnant of this tradition.

Business as Usual

Under the Ancien Régime, the Confederation itself stayed out of the main conflicts of the times (eg, the 30 years’ war) and in time slowly withdrew from the German Empire, with the formal departure finalized in 1648, at the Peace of Westphalia. Cattle and milk farming (beef & cheese) thrived, and early pre-industrial textile production grew up. Politically—apart from some early forms of democratic participation in the rural states—the cities came under the rule of family oligarchies, with Bern, the most powerful city state north of the Alps, almost achieving a hereditary aristocracy. The only common instrument of government hold-ing the Confederacy together was still the once-a-year “Tagsatzung” in the city of Baden with its therapeutic waters and other comforts. Here, repre-sentatives of all the states (“Stände”) came together to discuss matters of common concern and make decisions.

Napoleon Comes Knocking

The end of the Ancien Régime came suddenly in 1798, when Napoleon Bonaparte became the first to conquer Switzerland in a thousand years—Swiss resistance was weak. He came for the money and for the soldiers that he as a French officer knew well. Some 9,000 young Swiss men had to follow him to Russia—only 400 came back. Napoleon’s re-organization of the country as a centralized Helvetian Republic was quick, as was its end and its replacement by a federal system of Cantons that now included the formerly subject territories.When Napoleon was finally beaten definitively at Waterloo, the victors (Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Austria) gathered again at the second Con-gress of Vienna in1815 to re-organize a post-Napoleonic Europe. Thankful-ly, the suggestion to turn Switzerland into a monarchy was rejected, and it was decided that the Swiss Republic should basically maintain its new shape as organized by Napoleon and act as a neutral but armed buffer state in the center of Europe between the hereditary enemies Austria and France. This decision ushered in the modern era of Swiss history, which you can read about in next month’s third and final installment of this series.

Wilhelm Tell & All That—Part 2

Jakob Mettler grew up as an expat child in London with Swiss parents. Fluen-cy in English greatly facilitated a long and interesting international marketing career in the Basel international pharmaceutical industry. Nowadays, Jakob is passionate about talking to visitors and expats about Switzerland and his hometown Basel with lectures and on city tours. If you are interested in a talk or a tour, just contact him at info@jamix.ch. www.jamix.ch

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November 2019

By Jakob Mettler

How did a little group of states in a mountain-rich, resource-poor place in the middle of Europe, very poor until not much more than a century ago, become one of the world’s most successful and richest countries? In the second of the “Swiss History Bites” in last month’s issue of Basel Life Magazine, you read about what happened in Switzerland in the 300 years of the “Ancien Régime” (Old Confederacy), from when the business of merce-naries started up to Napoleon’s invasion and the second Congress of Vien-na in 1815.

The First Modern State in Europe

After the end of Napoleon’s involvement, the next half century in Switzer-land saw very different constitutional developments in the cantons, with the new and most of the protestant cantons passing modern liberal consti-tutions and also aiming for a centralized constitution for the entire confed-eracy. The more conservative catholic cantons opposed this new constitu-tion, and in 1845 these dissatisfied cantons, headed by Lucerne, founded the “Sonderbund” (separate confederation). Things came to a head in the fall of 1847, when the liberal majority in the “Tagsatzung” (the legislative and executive council of the confederacy at the time) declared the Sonder-bund unconstitutional. The resulting short (4-week) civil war known as the “Sonderbundskrieg” was won by the protestant cantons. The year after, in 1848, the winners drafted and passed the first Federal Constitution (borrowing significantly from the American example), which ended the far-reaching independence of the cantons and instead created a federal state. They established a very liberal government for the Europe of the time, setting the scene for a rapid modernization and harmonization of the country and an excellent basis for the quick industrialization that fol-lowed.Two revisions of the Constitution in 1874 and 1891 included the direct dem-ocratic rights that have made the Swiss direct democracy so successful—the popular referendum (a direct vote in which all voters can decide on a particular proposal or law) and the federal popular initiative, where any citizen may seek a decision on an amendment they want to make to the constitution.

The Two World Wars & Women’s Vote and Emancipation

Next came the 20th century with its two World Wars. Switzerland was spared the worst effects of both wars due to its neutrality. However, a large portion of the population suffered during World War I, especially because the men were drafted for long-term military duties for which they did not receive any financial compensation.In 1971, the Swiss men finally voted “yes” to allow women to vote at the federal level (only in Switzerland and Lichtenstein was it the electorate, the men, who were asked to vote on this subject). In most other European countries, women had obtained the right to vote from their respective gov-ernments much earlier, in most cases after suffering through one of the terrible World Wars. And, even more importantly, only in 1988 did the revi-sion of the Civil Code emancipate Swiss women from their husbands!

The Present

Even today, Switzerland has maintained its somewhat special status in Eu-rope and the world. In 1992, a historic referendum kept Switzerland out-side the European Union, although a complicated system of bilateral agreements keeps the country close to Europe and one of its most import-ant trade partners. Switzerland’s EU membership was also rejected by the population in subsequent referendums in 1997 and 2001. And it was only in 2002 that Switzerland finally joined the United Nations.Nevertheless, now, in the early 21st century, the poor little country of the past with no natural resources but water has become one of the most suc-cessful and richest countries in the world, leading in many areas such as innovation and quality of life. Challenges remain, of course, the same as faced by the other wealthy countries of the First World—demographics and immigration, environment and energy, ageing and health, to name just a few. There are also some specifically Swiss challenges, such as the rela-tionship with the other European countries. But looking back over the centuries since the Swiss story began—and with the moral support of Wil-helm Tell, Heidi, and Helvetia in the background—most of the Swiss are optimistic

Heidi“Heidi” is an iconic name standing for the Alps and for the love of the Swiss for their mountainous homeland and their homesick-ness when away. The Swiss author Johanna Spyri wrote this book in 1881 about the or-phaned Heidi’s early life in the Alps with her grandfather, then her miserable exile abroad in Frankfurt, and finally her happy return to the mountains and her grandfather and friends. “Heidi” is one of the best-selling

books ever written (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-sell-ing_books) and is among the best-known works of Swiss literature. It has made Heidi such an icon, that “Heidiland” signs now greet the modern motorway traveller in the region of Maienfeld in eastern Swit-zerland, now a popular tourist area.

Swiss History Bites

William Tell & All That—Part 3

Jakob Mettler has presented these three “Swiss History Bites,” filled with information on how Switzerland came to be what it is today, hoping that this knowledge will help you understand this country and its inhabitants better and make your stay here easier and more enjoyable.Jakob grew up as an expat child in London with Swiss parents. Fluency in English greatly facilitated a long and interesting international marketing career in Basel’s international pharmaceutical industry. Jakob is passion-ate about talking to visitors and expats about Switzerland and his home-town Basel and looks forward to welcoming you to one of his lectures or city tours; if interested, contact him at info@jamix.ch. www.jamix.ch