Editing History of Switzerland (section)

== Napoleonic period and aftermath (1798–1848) ==

=== French invasion and Helvetic Republic ===
{{main|Switzerland in the Napoleonic era|Helvetic Republic}}
During the [[French Revolutionary Wars]], the French army [[French invasion of Switzerland|invaded Switzerland]] and turned it into an ally known as the "[[Helvetic Republic]]" (1798–1803). It had a central government with little role for cantons. The interference with localism and traditional liberties was deeply resented, although some modernizing reforms took place.<ref>Marc H. Lerner, "The Helvetic Republic: An Ambivalent Reception of French Revolutionary Liberty", ''French History'' (2004), 18#1, pp. 50–75.</ref><ref>R.R. Palmer, ''The Age of the Democratic Revolution'' 2:394-421</ref>

Resistance was strongest in the more traditional Catholic bastions, with armed uprisings breaking out in spring 1798 in the central part of Switzerland. The French Army suppressed the uprisings but support for revolutionary ideas steadily declined. The reform element was weak, and most Swiss resented their loss of local democracy, centralization, new taxes, warfare, and hostility to religion.<ref>{{cite book|author=Otto Dann and John Dinwiddy|title=Nationalism in the Age of the French Revolution|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qrujM36H7qUC&pg=PA194|year=1988|publisher=Continuum|pages=190–198|isbn=978-0-907628-97-2|access-date=November 12, 2015|archive-date=January 16, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116133307/https://books.google.com/books?id=qrujM36H7qUC&pg=PA194|url-status=live}}</ref>

Major steps taken to emancipate the Jews included the repeal of special taxes and oaths in 1798. However, many such reforms were turned back in 1815, and not until 1879 were the Jews granted equal rights with the Christians.<ref>Holger Böning, "Bürgerliche Revolution und Judenemanzipation in der Schweiz", ''Jahrbuch des Instituts für Deutsche Geschichte'' (1985), Vol. 14, pp. 157–180</ref>

In 1803, Napoleon's [[Act of Mediation]] partially restored the sovereignty of the cantons, and the former tributary and allied territories of [[Aargau]], [[Thurgau]], Grisons, [[Canton of St. Gallen|St. Gallen]], [[Vaud]], and [[Ticino]] became cantons with equal rights. Napoleon and his enemies fought numerous campaigns in Switzerland that ruined many localities.

=== 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>

=== Sonderbund War of 1847 ===
{{main|Sonderbund War|Switzerland as a federal state}}
[[File:Religion map of Switzerland in 1800 - en.jpg|thumb|350px|Religious geography in 1800 (orange: Protestant, green: Catholic)]]
The Radical–liberal–Protestant element charged that the ''Sonderbund'' violated the [[Federal Treaty]] of 1814, §&nbsp;6 of which expressly forbade such separate alliances. Forming a majority in the Tagsatzung they decided to dissolve the Sonderbund on October 21, 1847.<ref>W. B. Duffield, "The War of the Sonderbund" ''English Historical Review'' 10#40 (1895), pp. 675-698 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/548178 in JSTOR] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180717183447/https://www.jstor.org/stable/548178 |date=July 17, 2018}}</ref><ref>Joachim Remak, ''A Very Civil War: The Swiss Sonderbund War of 1847'' (Westview, 1993) [https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=97651664 online edition] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120626012243/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=97651664 |date=June 26, 2012}}</ref> The odds were against the Catholics, who were heavily outnumbered in population; they were outnumbered in soldiers by 79,000 to 99,000 and lacked enough well-trained soldiers, officers, and generals. When the Sonderbund refused to disband, the national army attacked in a brief civil war between the Catholic and the Protestant cantons, known as the ''Sonderbundskrieg'' ("Sonderbund War".) The national army was composed of soldiers from all the other cantons except [[Canton of Neuchâtel|Neuchâtel]] and [[Appenzell Innerrhoden]] (which remained neutral).  The Sonderbund was easily defeated in less than a month; there were about 130 killed.  Apart from small riots, this was the last armed conflict on Swiss territory.<ref>Ralph Weaver, ''Three Weeks in November: A Military History of the Swiss Civil War of 1847'' (2012) [https://www.amazon.com/Three-Weeks-November-Military-History/dp/1908916575 excerpt] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220134947/https://www.amazon.com/Three-Weeks-November-Military-History/dp/1908916575 |date=December 20, 2016}}</ref>  Many Sonderbund leaders fled to Italy, but the victors were generous. They invited the defeated cantons to join them in a program of federal reform, and a new constitution was drafted along American lines. National issues were to be under the control of the national parliament, and the Jesuits were expelled. The Swiss voted heavily in favor of the new constitution by 2 million against 300,000. Switzerland became calm. However, conservatives around Europe became frightened and prepared their forces to meet possible challenges, which indeed soon exploded the [[Revolutions of 1848]]. In those violent revolutions, outside Switzerland, the conservatives were always successful.<ref>Langer, ''Political and Social upheaval'', pp. 135–137</ref>