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Swiss Confederation: Switzerland's independence and neutrality have long been honored by the major European powers, and Switzerland was not involved in either of the two World Wars. The political and economic integration of Europe over the past half century, as well as Switzerland's role in many UN and international organizations, has strengthened Switzerland's ties with its neighbors. However, the country did not officially become a UN member until 2002. Switzerland remains active in many UN and international organizations, but retains a strong commitment to neutrality. -- The CIA World Factbook: Switzerland Area of Switzerland: 41,290 sq km slightly less than twice the size of New Jersey Population of Switzerland: 7,450,867 July 2004 estimate Languages of Switzerland: all official German 63.7%, French 19.2%, Italian 7.6%, Romansch 0.6% Switzerland Capital: Bern
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The New York Times, March 19, 1872:The Little RepublicThe venerable little Republic dates from 1307, when the cantons of Uri, Schwtz and Underwalden entered into a confederacy for mutual aid against Austria. It was at this time that the incident, regarded by some as apocryphal, which made William Tell famous, occurred. The three cantons were successful in their endeavors to shake off the Austrian yoke, and within fifteen years Lucerne, Zurich, Glarus, Zug and Berne joined the young confederacy. Aargau was conquered from Austria in 1415; the abbey and town of St. Gall joined the other cantons between 1451 and 1454; Thurgau was taken in 1460, Friburg and Solothurn admitted in 1481, The Grisons in 1497, Basle and Schaffhausen in 1501, and Appenzell in 1513. About that time Tessin, or Tieino, was conquered from the Milanese, and Vaud was taken from Saxony by the Bernese in 1560. The remaining Cantons were not finally united to the Confederation until the time of Napoleon, and the present compact, by which all are placed on a perfect equality, only dates from the peace of 1814. The area of these little United States is 15,233 square miles. It must be admitted that the federation has been on the whole a success. This is the more remarkable when the heterogeneous character of the races who go to make up the nation is considered. The cold, calculating Calvinistic German of the north has little in common with the semi-Italian in Ticino or semi-French in the Vaud. No doubt the priniple cause of the pact having answered so successfully is to be found in the individual independence of each state, so far as regards internal administration. The present federal constitution, founded on that of 1815, only dates from 1843. It vests the supreme legislation and executive authority in two chambers, and both chambers united are called the Federal Assembly. What answers to our Cabinet consists of seven members, elected for three years by the Federal Assembly. The President of this council of Ministers receives $2,000 a year, the rest $1,700. There is no class of paid permanent officials existing either in connection with the cantonal administration or the general management of the Republic. Notwithstanding the absence of such funtionaries, it may be doubted whether any people on this earth are governed to such a degree as the Swiss. The communal or municipal authorities of the section of a canton in which a Swiss resides seem almost to determine what he shall or shall not eat for dinner. The population, which was 2,188,009 in 1837, had only increased to 2,510,494 in 1860. Except in the southern province of Ticino, and one or two other districts, property is very much divided, and passes at death to a man's children equally. In certain cantons it can only be bequeathed to direct descendants, and, failing them, passes to the government of the canton, so that some cantons, Berne notably, are extremely rich in landed estate. The Swiss seem as a race to have two special objects of devotion--money and their country. The traveler in the barren valley of the Grisons, in places where the climate has been described as nine months of Winter and three of cold weather, and where a little barley is all that the sterile soil will produce, finds marvelously comfortable-looking homesteads, and evidences of an affluence quite inconsistent with the aspect of the country. He will learn on inquiry that the means which produces so satisfactory a state of things came from abroad, across the shop-counters of confectioners in Paris, St. Petersburg and New-York. From southern Ticino, again, masons, porters, glaziers, chocolate and barometer-makers sally forth in thousands annually in search of rem quocunque modo rem. The Swiss have been the hired guards of foreign potentates. They were Louis XVI's defenders at the last gasp of old régime monarchy in France. You may find them pacing the halls and corridors of the Vatican at this hour. They are the porters of grand seigneurs mansions in London; those magnificent functionaries who herald priestly processions in the stately cathedrals of Flanders and France; the valets de place of dissipated young Americans in foreign cities; the bonnes of those young gentlemen's sisters. In a word, there is not a place in which you do not find them, not a humble occupation which they do not fill, so long as money is to be made in it... The future of the country, materially and politically, looks bright. Railways are rushing through their mountains to connect remote lands. Europe is more and more thronging their hotels, and the Great Powers are almost as interested as Switzerland is herself in maintaining her integrity. The changes which have recently been made in the constitution have principally been with the end of vesting more authority in the Central Government, and enabling it to act with greator vigor and promptitude in emergency. |
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