صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني
[graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small]

Switzerland

see

old. It is estimated that in extreme emergency half a million perfectly trained riflemen could take the field. The best general work is La Suisse au 19me Siècle (3 vols. 1898-1900); but also Hilty's Politisches Jahrbuch der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft (annually since 1886). The best general description of Switzerland is that by H. A. Berlepsch, Schweizerkunde, Land und Volk (2d ed. 1875). Mr. W. H. Dawson has collected much information in his Social Switzerland (1897), which may be supplemented by A. Lecointe's Inventaire des Institutions Economiques et Sociales de la Suisse à la fin du 19me Siècle (1900). See also Die industrielle u. kommerzielle Schweiz beim Eintritt ins xx. Jahrhundert.

History. It was only in 1815 that the country now known as Switzerland came into existence as a distinct 'land,' while the name 'Switzerland' was not officially given to the Swiss confederation till 1803. The thirteen cantons which formed this confederation up to 1798 were all German-speaking, for it was only between 1798 and 1815 that the French-speaking, Italian-speaking, and Romansch-speaking cantons were raised to that status from that of subjects or allies. Anciently the house of Hapsburg had gradually obtained great possessions in Swabia, as well as the county of the Zürichgau, when in 1273 its head, Rudolf, was elected to the empire, and soon after (1282) secured the duchy of Austria. Rudolf's power rapidly increased in Central Switzerland, and threatened to deprive of their freedom the small communities settled in the valleys round the Lake of Lucerne. În August, 1291, the three lands (forest cantons) of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden bound themselves together in a defensive alliance, which came to be known as the Everlasting League. This formed the nucleus of the Swiss confederation. But the Hapsburgs, even after losing the cmpire in 1292, and again in 1308, exercised great pressure on the members of the league. Hence in 1315 appeal was made to arms, and Leopold of Austria led a great army to crush Schwyz, the leader of the league; but he was defeated with great loss on Nov. 15, 1315, at Morgarten. weeks later the victors renewed in greater detail the league of 1291, and it was gradually joined by other districts-in 1332 by Lucerne, in 1351 by the free imperial city of Zürich, and in 1352 by the Austrian districts of Zug (won definitely in 1364), and Glarus (won definitely at the battle of Näfels in 1388), and

Three

579

finally in 1353 by the free imperial city of Bern, which in 1339, at Laupen, had broken the power of the neighboring Burgundian nobles. This progress naturally irritated the Hapsburgs, and in 1386 another Leopold made another attempt to crush it, but met with defeat and death at Sempach on July 9, 1386; so that in 1389 the Hapsburgs made a temporary peace, which, after being often prolonged, ended in 1474 in a full renunciation of all claims. The league now took the aggressive, protecting the men of Appenzell (1411) against their lord, the abbot of St. Gall, and making alliances with (1412) the town of St. Gall and (1416) with the sister confederation in Valais, or the upper valley of the Rhône. In 1415, after the excommunication of Frederick of Austria by the Council of Constance, the league made its first conquests-viz. the Hapsburg dominions in the Aargau, henceforth ruled as subjects; while in 1403 Uri took the lead in a first attempt (defeated in 1426) to wrest from the Milanese the Val Leventina and the Val d'Ossola, both s. of the Alps. Soon a civil war broke out (1436) among the members of the league with regard to the inheritance of the last count of Togenburg, Zürich allying itself with Austria and holding out against the rest, but being finally defeated in 1450, after the confederates had beaten at St. Jakob (1444), near Basel, a band of free-lances coming from France to aid the Austrians. In 1452 the league made its first treaty of alliance with France, while in 1460 Thurgau was taken from Sigismund of Austria.

Very soon another enemy appeared on the scene-viz. Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, Bern being in the forefront against him and his ally, Savoy. Several portions of Savoy were seized (1474-5) by Bern and her allies, who twice inflicted very severe defeats on Charles's army -at Grandson on March 2, 1476, and at Morat on June 22, 1476 -while they aided in his final defeat at Nancy in January, 1477. These battles established the military fame of the confederates, and caused their services to be sought for by France. Quarrels, however, arose as to the division of the Burgundian spoil, which were appeased by the mediation of the holy Niklaus von der Flüe. Five other members were now added to the confederation--in 1481 Fribourg and Soleure (satellites of Bern), in 1501 the free imperial cities of Basel and Schaffhausen, and in 1513 Appenzell, while various towns became allied with the league. In 1497-8 two of the three leagues of Rhætia

Switzerland

(Grisons) became allies, and in 1499 the confederates helped them to beat the Austrians in the battle in the Calven gorge, after which the confederation became practically free from the empire, though not legally till 1648. Early in the 16th century the attempt to secure lands in the Milanese was renewed-in 1500 Bellinzona was taken by the three forest cantons, and in 1512 most of the rest of Tessin by the confederates, as well as Chiavenna and the Valtellina by the Rhatian leagues. But Swiss rule at Milan itself (1512) was finally crushed at the battle of Marignano in 1515. In 1516 and 1521 close treaties of alliance were made with France, and a few years later the religious reformation secured a footing first in Zürich (1522-4) and then in Bern (1528). Hence the rising power of the confederation became paralyzed by internal dissensions as to these two matters. The peace of Kappel (1531) after the death of Zwingli at the battle there, the death in 1564 of Calvin (who had reformed and ruled rigorously the French-speaking town of Geneva), and the formation by St. Charles Borromeo of the Golden League (1586), mark various phases in the religious conflict, the Roman Catholic members having a majority in the Diet or meeting of envoys from the thirteen full members. The French alliance meanwhile dragged the confederation into various conflicts, and drained it of its men, who became mercenaries in the French army. The one bright spot in Swiss history at this period is the legal acknowledgment by the emperor (1648) that the confederation was tirely independent of the empire, the position of which was practically taken by France. Two disastrous civil-religious wars in 1656 and 1712, a great peasant revolt in 1656, the harsh rule of the subject lands, and the more and more strictly aristocratic rule at home, are the chief events to be noted till signs of a revival of national life became visible in the foundation (1762) of the Helvetic Society. The old political and social state of things finally came to an end in 1798, when the French (as protectors of liberty) overturned the old confederation, and established the Helvetic republic, made up of twenty-three cantons. But in 1803 Napoleon swept away this system, reviving the thirteen old cantons, and adding to them six others (St. Gall, Grisons, Aargau, Thurgau, Tessin, and Vaud); while the old Diet was supplemented by a central government, held in turn for a vear by that of the six great cantons. But naturally with Napoleon's fall the older state of things came back, the Congress of Vienna add

en

ing (1815) yet three more cantons (Valais, Neuchâtel, and Geneva), neutralizing Switzerland, but reviving the old Diet, and providing a central government (shifting every two years) only in the shape of that of Zürich, Bern, or Lucerne. Little by little (especially after 1830) more liberal ideas became prevalent in divers cantons, which revised their constitutions in that sense, and aimed at amending the federal pact of 1815. The crisis came on the occasion of the suppression (1840-3) of various monasteries in Aargau, which caused the seven Roman Catholic cantons to form in 1843 a Sonderbund, or separate league; and when at last, in May, 1847,

partial revision of the constitution was adopted. In 1857 the king of Prussia renounced his hereditary rights to the principality of Neuchâtel. Since that date the history of Switzerland is but of local interest, the advance of Liberal ideas causing repeated revisions of the cantonal constitutions. The Radicals have since 1848 been in possession of power in federal matters, though not all-powerful. The state purchase (1898) of the five great railway lines, and gradually increasing federal expenses as against decreasing revenues, form perhaps the most salient features of recent Swiss history.

[subsumed][ocr errors]

Bibliography.-Of general his

[blocks in formation]
[graphic]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

the Liberals got a majority of cantonal votes in the Diet, civil war was inevitable. The Sonderbund war lasted but three weeks (November, 1847), and ended in the defeat of the Sonderbund. The result was the federal constitution of 1848, which set up a central federal government, a central federal legislature-no longer a Diet of envoys-and a central federal judicial tribunal. Various rights were secured to every citizen, and the Jesuits were excluded from the territory of the confederation, while Bern was recognized as the capital. This is the basis of the revised federal constitution of 1874, which introduced the facultative referendum, while in 1891 the initiative for a

tories, M'Crackan's Rise of the Swiss Republic (new ed. 1901) is the best in English, and J. Dierauer's Geschichte d. Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft (2 vols. 1887 and 1892) the best in German-it stops at 1516. Complete and detailed are Dändliker's Geschichte d. Schweiz (3 vols. ed. 1892-5) and Van Muyden's Histoire de la Nation Suisse (3 vols. 1896-1901). More popular in style (with many illustrations) is the large History by Lutz in German (1900) and Gobat in French (1904). For the origins of Swiss history, see (Echsli's splendid work Die Anfänge d. Schweiz. Eidgenossenschaft (1891), A. Rilliet's Les Origines de la Confédération Suisse (1868), and

Tschudi, the founder of Swiss history and of the Tell legend; Josias Simler and Ulrich Campell, both historians and topographers; besides the chroniclers Stumpf, Valerius Anshelm, and Cysat; while Nicholas Manuel and Johann V. Travers represented drama and poetry in an early form, as well as (in the Suisse Romande) Beza the theologian and Viret. In the 17th century the most prominent names are those of the historians and topographers, Stettler, Merian, Plantin; while the brothers Cysat rep resented the natural sciences, and Agrippa d'Aubigné and Diodati the department of belles-lettres. The great Swiss literary revival took place in the 18th century.

Switzerland

Bourguet founded in 1732 the Journal Helvétique or Mercure Suisse, while Ruchat and Crousaz devoted themselves to different branches of literature; the 'Société Helvétique' came into existence in 1760. At Zurich the chief figures were Bodmer and Breitinger, who sought to free German literature from its ancient shackles; Solomon Gessner, the pastoral poet; Lavater, now best remembered by his writings on physiognomy; and J. J. Scheuchzer, eminent in the physical sciences and a member of the English Royal Society. Bern boasted of Albert Haller, poet and much else besides, and Wyttenbach the naturalist; while at Basel was the philosopher Isaac Iselin, as well as the mathematicians Euler and the Bernoullis. In the later 18th century the literary centre of Switzerland was Geneva, rendered illustrious by the Genevese Rousseau and the stranger Voltaire, and boasting also of the Alpine naturalists and explorers, Saussure, Bourrit, and the De Lucs, besides Necker and Mallet du Pan, both mainly publicists. Madame de Staël and Benjamin Constant were both of Swiss origin, but belong to European literature. In the early 19th century we have the philosophers P. A. Stapfer, A. Vinet, and Ch. Secrétan; Bridel, who popularized the works of others; Pestalozzi the educationalist; the historians J. von Müller, Zschokke, Vulliemin, and Kopp; and F. Keller, the discoverer of the lake dwellings. In German-speaking Switzerland, Jeremias Gotthelf (Bitzius), the describer of peasant life, with the novelists and poets Gottfried Keller, and C. F. Meyer, are particularly prominent. Other well-known men were Amiel, the moralizer; J. R. von Wyss and Juste Olivier, poets. Töpffer, Rambert, and Javelle; describers of the Alps; the scientists Agassiz and Desor; the novelists Cherbuliez, T. Combe'; E. Rod; the literary critic J. V. Widmann; Scartazzini, the expounder of Dante; and many historians, such as G. von Wyss, Dändliker, (Echsli, Dierauer, Meyer v. Knonau, Daguet, Vaucher, J. Gremaud, and Motta. In Romansch literature we have Ballioppi the philologist, and the poets Caderas and Flugi; but this revival is purely literary. For a general view of past Swiss literature, see the Histories of Dandliker and Van Muyden, and for that of the 19th century, ch. iv. of vol. ii. of La Suisse au 19me Siècle. Details are given in Bächtold's Geschichte of German-Swiss literature (1892), in those of Godet (1895), and Rossel (1889-91), relating to French Switzerland, and

[blocks in formation]

1. Sword blade from Mycena. 2. Persian. 3. Egyptian. 4, 5. Leaf-shaped swords, Bronze Age. 6. Hilt of a Bronze Age sword. 7. Greek. 8. Ancient Irish wooden sword, 9. Roman. 10. 13th century. 11. 14th to 15th century. 12. 16th century 13. Sword of James IV. of Scotland. 14. Two-handed sword. 15-17. Basket-hilted rapiers, 17th century. 18. Claymore. 19, 20. Scimitars. 21. Hilt of rapier. 18th century. 22. Jewelled hilt of Indian sword. 23. Hilt of French sword, 17th century.

[blocks in formation]
« السابقةمتابعة »