Canton of Linth Kanton Linth |
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Canton of the Helvetic Republic | |||||
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Cantons of Säntis (orange) and Linth (green) | |||||
Capital | Glarus | ||||
History | |||||
• | Helv. Rep. proclaimed | April 12, 1798 | |||
• | Canton established | June 17, 1798 1798 | |||
• | Helv. Rep. disestablished | February 19, 1803 1803 | |||
Linth was a canton of the Helvetic Republic from 1798 to 1803, consisting of Glarus and its subject County of Werdenberg, the Höfe and March districts of Schwyz and the Züricher subject Lordship of Sax, along with a handful of shared territories.
The canton contained approximately 78,500 inhabitants. Like all the cantons of the Helvetic Republic, Linth was established and administered on a French Revolutionary model. Linth and was divided administratively into seven districts
The brief tenure of office of the cantonal heads Joachim Heer (1798), Johann Jakob Heussi (1798–99), Felix Christoph Cajetan Fuchs (1799), Niklaus Heer (1799–1802), and Franz Josef Büeler (1802–03) reflected the military and political turmoil plaguing the region, which was under French occupation from 1799, during the War of the Second Coalition, with serious effects on the local economy.
The mainly-Roman Catholic canton acquired a strong aversion to the centralised nature of the government of the Helvetic Republic, even though the canton was mainly composed of territories previously subject to the Old Swiss Confederation, rather than any of the Dreizehn Orte, and even though all citizens of the republic had equal rights. The canton sided only very reluctantly with the French Revolutionary Army. Initial fervour for public education waned as the pressure from the central government was relaxed.