Switzerland

Abstract

The history of the Swiss Confederation began in the 14th century with a network of alliances between cities, rural communities, and principalities situated between the Alps and the Rhine, and the Lakes of Geneva and Constance. Even the earliest Federal Charters of 1291 and 1315 focused on the member cantons providing mutual military assistance at their own expense. In the turbulent transitional period from 1798 to 1848, Switzerland was deeply divided by internal constitutional struggles between liberals and conservatives. After a brief civil war in 1847, the current modern federal state was founded in 1848.