History of Switzerland by Wilhelm Oechsli
Wilhelm Oechsli’s History of Switzerland, 1499–1914 (1922, translated by Eden and Cedar Paul) is a landmark English edition of a Swiss historian’s work, tracing the Confederation’s evolution from independence after the Swabian War (1499) to the modern federal state of 1848 and beyond. It remains one of the most comprehensive scholarly accounts of Switzerland’s political, religious, and social transformations.
Reading from CHAPTER I
THE SEPARATION OF SWITZERLAND FROM THE EMPIRE
THE SWISS CONFEDERATION is one of the numerous states which have arisen out of the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, but it differs from all the rest both in its origin and in its characteristics.
Whereas elsewhere the German states owed their origin to princely houses, which had brought together their various domains by inheritance, by marriage, and by conquest, Switzerland grew out of the voluntary union of small communities to form a republican federation of states.
In Germany the political obligations which the imperial central government had proved incapable of discharging, fell to the temporal and ecclesiastical princes; but in Switzerland these obligations were taken over by a union of cities and rural districts, the freedom of which was firmly established in the struggle against the dominion of the Habsburgs.
In August, 1291, the three Forest Cantons, Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, became united by an Everlasting League into an in-dissoluble community, and secured their democratic independence by the glorious victory which in 1315 at Morgarten on the Lake of Aegeri they obtained over Leopold of Austria and his knights.
These three original Cantons constituted the nucleus around which gathered all those between the Jura, the Rhine, and the Alps that were hostile to the Habsburg rule. In commemoration of the victors at Morgarten, the men of Schwyz, this union received the name of the Swiss Confederation. Towns such as Lucerne, Zurich, Bern, Fribourg, and Solothurn, and rural districts like Glarus, Zug, and Appenzell endeavoured by joining the Confederation to secure their right to self-government.
History of Switzerland, 1499–1914 — Contents Highlights
- The Grisons under Austrian rule (1618–1630) → Subjugation during the Thirty Years’ War.
- Recovery of liberty (1630–1640) → The Grisons regain independence.
- Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648) → Switzerland’s independence from the German Empire is established.
- Peasant revolts (1648–1655) → Failed uprisings in Lucerne, Berne, Solothurn, and Basel.
- Religious war & Villmergen battle (1656–1699) → Renewed confessional conflict, pestilence, and unrest.
- Toggenburg disputes (1700–1718) → Loss of liberties, war, and peace at Aarau.
- 18th‑century disturbances (1714–1740) → Revolts in Zurich, Schaffhausen, Glarus, Zug, and Appenzell.
- Henzi’s conspiracy (1740–1749) → Political intrigue in Berne.
- Leventina rebellion (1750–1755) → Local uprisings in Ticino.
- Decay of the Confederacy (1755–1761) → Rise of the Helvetian Society.
- Frederick the Great in Neuchâtel (1762–1770) → Enlightened rule in Swiss territory.
- Late 18th‑century unrest (1770–1797) → Revolts in Freiburg, Vaud, Geneva, and St. Gallen.
- French invasion & destruction of the old Confederacy (1797–1798) → Collapse of the ancient order.
- Napoleon’s Act of Mediation (1803–1813) → Temporary stabilization under French influence.
- New Confederacy (1814–1815) → Formation of 22 cantons after foreign intervention.
- 19th‑century revolts (1830–1833) → Liberty regained in thirteen cantons, League of Sarnen, Polish refugees.
- Conclusion (post‑1833) → Switzerland’s path toward modern federal unity.
History of Switzerland, 1499–1914 (published 1922, translated by Eden and Cedar Paul).