Switzerland in the Napoleonic era
| Swiss Confederation | ||||||||||
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Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft Confédération suisse Confederazione Svizzera |
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| Client state of the French Empire | ||||||||||
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| Capital | Lucerne | |||||||||
| Languages | Swiss French, Swiss German, Swiss Italian, Rhaeto-Romance languages | |||||||||
| Government | Republic | |||||||||
| Legislature | Tagsatzung | |||||||||
| Historical era | Napoleonic Wars | |||||||||
| • | Act of Mediation | 19 February 1803 | ||||||||
| • | Federal Treaty | 7 August 1815 | ||||||||
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During the French Revolutionary Wars, the revolutionary armies marched eastward, enveloping Switzerland in their battles against Austria. In 1798, Switzerland was completely overrun by the French and was renamed the Helvetic Republic. The Helvetic Republic encountered severe economic and political problems. In 1798 the country became a battlefield of the Revolutionary Wars, culminating in the Battles of Zürich in 1799.
In 1803 Napoleon's Act of Mediation reestablished a Swiss Confederation that partially restored the sovereignty of the cantons, and the former tributary and allied territories of Aargau, Thurgau, Graubünden, St. Gallen, Vaud and Ticino became cantons with equal rights.
The Congress of Vienna of 1815 fully re-established Swiss independence and the European powers agreed to permanently recognise Swiss neutrality. At this time, the territory of Switzerland was increased for the last time, by the new cantons of Valais, Neuchâtel and Geneva.
The Restoration, the time leading up to the Sonderbundskrieg, was marked with turmoil, and the rural population struggling against the yoke of the urban centres, for example in the Züriputsch of 1839.
During the last years of the Ancien Régime the growing conflicts throughout the Confederation (aristocratic cities against peasant farmers, Protestant against Catholic and canton against canton) had weakened and distracted the Diet. In Paris the Helvetian Club, founded in 1790 by several exiled Vaudois and Fribourgers, was the centre from which the ideas of the French Revolution were spread in the western part of the Confederation. During the next eight years revolts sprang up across the Confederation and unlike earlier many were successful. In 1790 the Lower Valais rose against the upper districts. In 1791 Porrentruy rebelled against the Bishop of Basel and became the Rauracian republic in November 1792 and in 1793 the French department of the Mont Terrible. In 1795 St Gallen successfully revolted against the prince-abbot. These revolts were supported or encouraged by France, but the French army didn't directly attack the Confederation.
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Wikipedia