Editing Switzerland (section)

=== Old Swiss Confederacy ===

{{Main|Old Swiss Confederacy}}
{{Further|Growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy|Reformation in Switzerland|Early Modern Switzerland}}

[[File:Old Swiss Confederation.jpg|thumb|upright=1|right|The Old Swiss Confederacy from 1291 (dark green) to the sixteenth century (light green) and its associates (blue). In the other colours shown are the subject territories.]]
[[File:Bundesbrief.jpg|thumb|right|The 1291 ''Bundesbrief'' (federal charter)]]

The Old Swiss Confederacy was an alliance among the valley communities of the central Alps. The Confederacy was governed by [[Swiss nobility|nobles]] and [[Patrician (post-Roman Europe)|patricians]] of various cantons who facilitated management of common interests and ensured peace on mountain trade routes. The [[Federal Charter of 1291]] is considered the confederacy's founding document, even though similar alliances likely existed decades earlier. The document was agreed among the [[Medieval commune|rural communes]] of [[Canton of Uri|Uri]], [[Canton of Schwyz|Schwyz]], and [[Unterwalden]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Greanias |first=Thomas |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/255970548 |title=Geschichte der Schweiz und der Schweizer |publisher=Schwabe |year=2004 |isbn=978-3-7965-2067-9 |location=Basel |oclc=255970548}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=April 2023}}<ref name="Brief">{{Cite web |title=A Brief Survey of Swiss History |url=http://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home/reps/ocea/vaus/infoch/chhist.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090626222448/http://www.eda.admin.ch/eda/en/home/reps/ocea/vaus/infoch/chhist.html |archive-date=26 June 2009 |access-date=22 June 2009 |publisher=Federal Department of Foreign Affairs}}</ref>

By 1353, the three original [[Cantons of Switzerland|cantons]] had joined with the cantons of [[Canton of Glarus|Glarus]] and [[Canton of Zug|Zug]] and the [[Lucerne]], [[Zurich]] and [[Bern]] city-states to form the "Old Confederacy" of eight states that obtained through the end of the 15th century.<ref name="Brief" /> The expansion led to increased power and wealth for the confederation. By 1460, the confederates controlled most of the territory south and west of the Rhine to the Alps and the [[Jura mountains]], and the [[University of Basel]] was founded (with a faculty of medicine) establishing a tradition of chemical and medical research. This increased after victories against the Habsburgs ([[Battle of Sempach]], [[Battle of Näfels]]), over [[Charles the Bold]] of [[Duchy of Burgundy|Burgundy]] during the 1470s, and the success of the [[Swiss mercenaries]]. The Swiss victory in the [[Swabian War]] against the [[Swabian League]] of [[Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor]] [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Maximilian I]] in 1499 amounted to ''de facto'' independence within the [[Holy Roman Empire]].<ref name="Brief" /> In 1501, Basel<ref>{{Cite web |title=Der Basler Bundesbrief vom 9. Juni 1501 |url=https://www.baselland.ch/themen/c_d/chronik-bl/chronik-1990er/chronik-1997/chronik-september-1997/downloads/bundesbrief-1501.pdf/@@download/file/bundesbrief-1501.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220514022408/https://www.baselland.ch/themen/c_d/chronik-bl/chronik-1990er/chronik-1997/chronik-september-1997/downloads/bundesbrief-1501.pdf/@@download/file/bundesbrief-1501.pdf |archive-date=14 May 2022 |access-date=3 May 2022}}</ref> and Schaffhausen joined the Old Swiss Confederacy.<ref>{{Cite web |last=E.Hofer |first=Roland |title=Schaffhausen (Kanton) |url=https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/007388/2017-05-11/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220503210244/https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/articles/007388/2017-05-11/ |archive-date=3 May 2022 |access-date=3 May 2022 |website=[[Historical Dictionary of Switzerland]] |language=de}}</ref>

The Confederacy acquired a reputation of invincibility during these earlier wars, but [[Growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy|expansion of the confederation]] suffered a setback in 1515 with the Swiss defeat in the [[Battle of Marignano]]. This ended the so-called "heroic" epoch of Swiss history.<ref name="Brief" /> The success of [[Zwingli]]'s [[Reformation in Switzerland|Reformation]] in some cantons led to inter-cantonal religious conflicts in 1529 and 1531 ([[Wars of Kappel]]). It was not until more than one hundred years after these internal wars that, in 1648, under the [[Peace of Westphalia]], European countries recognised Switzerland's independence from the Holy Roman Empire and its [[neutral country|neutrality]].<ref name="Nationsencyclopedia-Hist" /><ref name="Nationsonline" />

During the [[Early Modern Switzerland|Early Modern]] period of Swiss history, the growing authoritarianism of the patriciate families<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bertholet |first1=Auguste |url=https://www.sgeaj.ch/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/bertholet-kapossy-la-physiocratie-et-la-suisse-2023.pdf |title=La Physiocratie et la Suisse |last2=Kapossy |first2=Béla |publisher=Slatkine |year=2023 |isbn=9782051029391 |location=Geneva |language=fr}}</ref> combined with a financial crisis in the wake of the [[Thirty Years' War]] led to the [[Swiss peasant war of 1653]]. In the background to this struggle, the conflict between [[Roman Catholicism in Switzerland|Catholic]] and [[Protestantism in Switzerland|Protestant]] cantons persisted, erupting in further violence at the [[First War of Villmergen]], in 1656, and the [[Toggenburg War]] (or Second War of Villmergen), in 1712.<ref name="Brief" />