Editing History of Switzerland (section)

=== Restoration and Regeneration ===
{{main|Restoration and Regeneration in Switzerland}}
The [[Congress of Vienna]] of 1814–15 fully [[Restoration and Regeneration in Switzerland|re-established Swiss independence]] and the European powers agreed to recognize permanent Swiss neutrality. At this time, [[Valais]], [[Canton of Neuchâtel|Neuchâtel]], and [[Canton of Geneva|Geneva]] also joined Switzerland as new cantons, thereby [[Enlargement of Switzerland|extending Swiss territory]] to its current boundaries.

The long-term impact of the French Revolution has been assessed (by William Martin):
:It proclaimed the equality of citizens before the law, equality of languages, and freedom of thought and faith; it created Swiss citizenship, the basis of our modern nationality, and the separation of powers, of which the old regime had no conception; it suppressed internal tariffs and other economic restraints; it unified weights and measures, reformed civil and penal law, authorized mixed marriages (between Catholics and Protestants), suppressed torture and improved justice; it developed education and public works.<ref>William Martin, ''Histoire de la Suisse'' (Paris, 1926), pp. 187–188, quoted in Crane Brinson, ''A Decade of Revolution: 1789–1799'' (1934), p. 235</ref>

On 6 April 1814, the so-called "[[Long Diet]]" (delegates from all the nineteen cantons) met at [[Zürich]] to replace the constitution.<ref>Wilhelm Oechsli, ''History of Switzerland 1499–1914'', Cambridge University Press, 2013, p. 365.</ref>

Cantonal constitutions were worked out independently from 1814, in general restoring the late feudal conditions of the 17th and 18th centuries. The [[Tagsatzung]] was reorganized by the [[Federal Treaty]] (''Bundesvertrag'') of 7 August 1815.

The liberal [[Free Democratic Party of Switzerland]]  was strong in the largely Protestant cantons and obtained the majority in the [[Tagsatzung|Federal Diet]] in the early 1840s. It proposed a new Constitution for the Swiss Confederation which would draw the several cantons into a closer relationship.  In addition to the centralization of the Swiss government, the new Constitution also included protections for trade and other progressive reform measures. The Federal Diet, with the approval of a majority of cantons, had taken measures against the Catholic Church such as the closure of monasteries and convents in [[Aargau]] in 1841,<ref name="EB">{{cite EB1911 |first=William Augustus Brevoort |last=Coolidge |wstitle = Switzerland/History/Constitution |volume = 26 |page = 259}}</ref> and the seizure of their properties. Catholic Lucerne, in retaliation,1844 recalled the [[Society of Jesus|Jesuits]] to head its education. That succeeded and seven Catholic cantons formed the "Sonderbund." This caused a liberal-radical move in the Protestant cantons to take control of the national Diet in 1847.  The Diet ordered the Sonderbund dissolved, igniting a small-scale civil war against rural cantons that were strongholds of pro-Catholic [[ultramontanism]].<ref>William L. Langer, ''Political and social Upheaval 1832–1852'' (1969): 133-37.</ref>