Šveicarija

The people of Switzerland
Switzerland has a population of about 7.6 million. Foreigners account for around 21% of the resident population. The average age is increasing, as people live longer and have fewer children. Lifestyles are changing as the Swiss adapt to new demands.
Religious belief has declined in recent years, but the religious landscape has diversified.
Switzerland has four unevenly distributed languages and a wealth of dialects.

Language distribution
German
German is by far the most widely spoken language in Switzerland: 17 of the 26 cantons are monolingual in German.
French
French is spoken in the western part of the country, the "Suisse Romande." Four cantons are French-speaking: Geneva, Jura, Neuchâtel and Vaud. Three cantons are bilingual: in Bern, Fribourg and Valais both French and German are spoken.
Italian
Italian is spoken in Ticino and four southern valleys of Canton Graubünden.
Rhaeto-Rumantsch (Rumantsch)
Rumantsch is spoken in the only trilingual canton, Graubünden. The other two languages spoken there are German and Italian. Rumantsch, like Italian and French, is a language with Latin roots. It is spoken by just 0.5% of the total Swiss population.
Other languages
The many foreigners resident in Switzerland have brought with them their own languages, which taken as a whole now outnumber both Rumantsch and Italian. The 2000 census showed that speakers of Serbian/Croatian were the largest foreign language group, with 1.4% of the population. English was the main language for 1%.
Languages in Switzerland
Languages in Switzerland
Source: Federal Statistical Office 2002
German 63.7%
French 20.4%
Italian 6.5%
Rumantsch 0.5%
Other 9 %

Religious landscape
Membership of Christian churches has shrunk in recent years. In a wideranging poll of Swiss attitudes taken in 2000, only 16% of Swiss people said religion was "very important" to them, far below their families, their jobs, sport or culture. Another survey published the same year showed the number of regular church goers had dropped by 10% in 10 years. Among Catholics, 38.5% said they did not go to church, while among Protestants the figure was 50.7%. Only 71% of the total of those asked said they believed in God at all. The demand for church baptisms, weddings and funerals has fallen sharply in the last 30 years. The 2000 census showed that the Roman Catholic and the mainstream Protestant church (the Reformed-Evangelical) had lost in both absolute terms (the number of members) and in relative terms (their share of the total population.)
On the other hand, the smaller offshoots of these two churches were proportionately the same as before. The free evangelical churches accounted for 2.2% of the population; the Christian Catholic church made up 0.2%.
The Jewish community also remained more or less unchanged. Recent immigration has brought members of other faiths to Switzerland, in particular Islam and Orthodox Christianity.
Even if the churches are no longer relevant in many people's lives, both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism have played a key role in shaping modern Switzerland and the way in which Swiss people see themselves.
Percentage of Swiss population according to religion
Religion Percent 2002
Federal Statistical Office (2002)
Roman Catholicism 41.8
Protestantism (of which Free Evangelicals and related churches) 35.3 (2.2)
Islam 4.3
Orthodox Christianity 1.8
Other Christianity 0.4
Hinduism 0.4
Buddhism 0.3
Judaism 0.2
Other 0.1
None 11.1
No reply 4.3

Historical emigration
Although today Switzerland is a rich country, life has not always been easy, and until World War II there were more emigrants than immigrants. Most of those who left were seeking relief from poverty; some of these had marketable skills. Some left only temporarily, while others made a new life abroad for themselves and their families.
For about 450 years Switzerland's best known exported skill was soldiering. It has been estimated that between 1400 and 1848 more than two million Swiss mercenaries were employed by foreign powers.
Starting in the 16th century, some Swiss emigrated to escape religious persecution. As oppression of the radical Protestant Anabaptists spread, followers - who came from several European countries - migrated ever further. They are best known today as the Mennonite and Amish communities in the USA.
In all some 400,000 Swiss emigrated between 1850 and 1914. In some places in North and South America they founded Swiss colonies, often naming them after their place of origin. Bern alone has 26 towns and villages named after it in the US, Lucerne has 16.
The chocolate manufacter Milton Hershey (1857-1945) was the descendent of Swiss Mennonites. His ancestry is not entirely clear, but his roots were probably in Appenzell, from where several members of the Herschey family fled to Pennsylvania in the early 1700s.
The founder of the Amish community was the Swiss Jacob Ammann, who broke away from the Mennonites in 1693, because he believed they did not interpret the Bible strictly enough. He and his followers took refuge in the Swiss mountains before moving to America.

Swiss culture
Switzerland boasts a thriving arts scene, with its architects in particular achieving world-wide acclaim.
The culture of Switzerland is characterised by diversity. The Swiss sometimes wonder what keeps Switzerland together.
The wide range of traditional customs is one reflection of this diversity

Contemporary Swiss architects
Switzerland was the birthplace of one of the most influential architects of the 20th century: Le Corbusier (1887-1965) - born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret - who adopted French nationality in 1930. His diverse output ranged from town planning to furniture design. In 1922, Le Corbusier proposed principles for architecture: rationality, economy, and functionalism.
Lugano-based Mario Botta and the Basel-based partnership Herzog and de Meuron are arguably the best-known Swiss architects practising today.
Botta's buildings include several museums in Switzerland and abroad, churches, banks, and even the bus terminal in Lugano. His museums include the Tinguely Museum in Basel, the Dürrenmatt Centre in Neuchâtel and also the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. He has taught in a number of universities and been honoured by many more.
Herzog and de Meuron were responsible for two prize-winning projects in London: the redevelopment of the Bankside power station into the Tate Modern, and the design of the Laban Dance Centre. The Tate Modern has been so successful that it is to be expanded: Herzog and de Meuron are also responsible for the planned extension, due to be completed in 2012. They also designed the Schaulager in Basel, which combines the function of warehouse and museum. Their current work includes the main stadium for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
Innovative Swiss-designed structures can be seen in many countries. The sleek Charles River Bridge in the US city of Boston is the work of a Swiss, Christian Menn. And the Basel-based architects Diener + Diener expanded the Swiss embassy in Berlin by merging a new structure with the part of the building dating from the 19th century.
Other much-praised Swiss buildings include the Thermal Baths in Vals designed by Peter Zumthor, and the Kirchner Museum in Davos by architects Annette Gigon and Mike Guyer.

Painting and sculpture
Well-known artists of the 19th and the start of 20th centuries include Albert Anker, Arnold Boecklin and Ferdinand Hodler. Some of the important figures in 20th century art were Swiss/Swiss-born, respectively: Alberto Giacometti (1901-66), famous for his sculptures of elongated figures, and Paul Klee (1879-1940).
Switzerland also boasts Jean Tinguely (1925-1991) with his creative and colourful installations, whose philosophy was that though machines made of scrap metal have no purpose they can have a meaning. Bernhard Luginbühl (1929-), a friend of Tinguely's, also used scrap iron to create huge sculptures.
In the 1950s, Swiss artist Max Bill (1908-94) further developed and popularized the style "Concrete Art" (as opposed to "abstract"). Its principles: economic use of materials and rationality. Bill defined Concrete Art as "the pure expression of harmonic measurement and law".
Perhaps one could argue it was no coincidence that Concrete Art should have appeared in a country which appreciates practicality and order.
On the other hand, Zürich was the birthplace of the nihilistic Dada movement, which grew out of the disgust and disillusionment produced by World War I and was the forerunner of surrealism. One of its exponents in Zürich was Hans Arp, several of whose works can be seen at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
Many Swiss artists have made their names with absurd and playful works of art. Surrealist Meret Oppenheim's most famous work, "Fur Breakfast", is on display at MoMA.

German speaking authors
The most famous Swiss literary creation is undoubtedly Heidi, who, as the main character of one of the most popular children's books ever, has come to be a symbol of Switzerland. Her creator, Johanna Spyri (1827-1901), wrote a number of other books around similar themes, most of which have now been forgotten.
The classics of Swiss German literature include the pastor and writer Jeremias Gotthelf (1797-1854), who depicted farming life in the Emmental. Middle-class life in the 19th century was portrayed by short-story writer and novelist Gottfried Keller (1819-1890), who opposed the idea of a Swiss national literature, insisting that every writer should remain within his own language community. He regarded his own works as belonging to German literature.
In the early part of the 20th century, Robert Walser (1878-1956) was a pioneering modernist writer, and yet his name was and is often obscured by his contemporaries Hermann Hesse, Franz Kafka and Robert Musil. For his part, German-born Hesse (1877-1962), whose works include Siddartha, Narziss and Goldmund, Steppenwolf and The Glass Bead Game, became a Swiss citizen in 1923. And in 1919, it was a Swiss who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature - Carl Spitteler (1845-1924). Olympischer Frühling (Olympic Spring) is the title of his epic work, consisting of five volumes.
The undisputed giants of 20th century Swiss literature are Max Frisch (1911-91), whose works include Homo Faber, Biedermann und die Brandstifter (The Fireraisers), and Stiller (I'm Not Stiller), and Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921-90), whose repertoire includes Die Physiker (The Physicists) and Das Versprechen (The Promise), released in 2001 as a Hollywood film.

Film
Switzerland does not have a large film industry, and, like other small European countries, is heavily dependent on state support. However, the subsidies are not high enough to maintain an industry that produces films in French, German and Italian, and output has lagged behind that of other European countries.
Swiss films are not well known around the world, except perhaps to a handful of movie buffs. Of course, there is the question of defining what makes a film Swiss - is a Hollywood film by a Swiss director as "Swiss" as a film set in Switzerland, using Swiss actors and focussing on life in Switzerland?
In the 1970s, mainly French-speaking Swiss directors such as Alain Tanner and Jean-Luc Godard helped to put Swiss films on the cinematographic map. Godard, born to a Swiss family in Paris, spent his early years in Switzerland but later returned to France and was very much influenced by the French cinematic tradition. Swiss film-makers such as Rolf Lyssy, Daniel Schmid, Fredy Murer and Yves Yersin, on the other hand, have taken Swiss life as the basis for their films.
The most succesful Swiss film is Lyssy's Die Schweizermacher (The Swissmakers), made in 1978, a satirical comedy that deals with the difficulties facing foreigners who want to become Swiss citizens. Schmid's Beresina, or the Last Days of Switzerland, which appeared in 1999, is a comedy which also did fairly well outside Switzerland. One of Murer's best-known films is Höhenfeuer (Alpine Heights), about incest in a remote Alpine setting. And Yersin's Les Petites Fugues (The Wild Oats), made in 1979, was voted best Swiss film of all times by a panel put together by the national SonntagsZeitung newspaper in 2001. The film tells the story of a farm hand who buys himself a motorcycle and embarks upon a discovery of the world and himself.
Journey of Hope, directed by Xavier Koller, won the Oscar for the best foreign language film in 1991. The film tells the tale of three members of a Kurdish family in search of a better life in Switzerland.

Folk music
Yodelling and the alphorn are likely to spring to mind at the mention of music in Switzerland, although neither is exclusively Swiss. It is believed that yodelling began during the early stone age and has a long tradition outside Switzerland - in Poland, for example. In Switzerland, it is said to have developed from a form of long-distance communication and cow-calls.
The alphorn originated in northern Asia and was brought to Europe by nomadic tribes. Originally a call and signal instrument, it was first used to play tunes at the end of the 18th century.
Add instruments such as the Schwyzerörgeli (a type of accordion), the Hackbrett (hammered dulcimer) and the Trümpi (Jew's Harp), and you have some basic ingredients of traditional Swiss folk music.

What is Swissness?
A mountain of cheese, a Swiss army knife, a clock, a tennis racket, a football and a football boot - a Lucerne carnival float sums up what Switzerland is all about...© swissworld.org
Switzerland is in the highly unusual situation of being the home of three of Europe's major languages, but apart from Rumanstch - spoken by only 0.5% of the population - it has no written language of its own. Whichever language group they belong to, the different Swiss communities have linguistic and cultural ties with one of their larger neighbours. It's easier for someone from Geneva to speak to a Parisian than to a fellow Swiss from Bern, or for a native of Ticino to read Milan's Corriere della Sera than the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.
The language communities eat different things and have different traditions and customs. Even their shared history only goes back about two centuries. Before the Napoleonic invasion of 1798, some of the cantons even ruled other parts of Switzerland. The inhabitants of what is now Canton Vaud, for example, were the subjects of Bern, and did not enjoy the same rights as the Bernese.
The Swiss themselves are sometimes puzzled about what they have in common apart from their passport, what it is that makes them Swiss. The Swiss say they are held together by the desire to stay united. The general attitude is summed up in the formula "unity, but not uniformity."
"What differentiates Swiss history from the European pattern is the outcome. Swiss communities built from the bottom up, growing out of free peasant or urban associations, are in a curious sense bottom-heavy, rather like those dolls which spring up no matter how often the child pushes them over. The weight is at the base. The communities have a deep equilibrium to which, as the point of rest, the social and political order tends to return."

Leisure in Switzerland
The Swiss have a well-deserved reputation for being hard workers, but they enjoy their leisure as much as anyone else. Leisure activities range from taking part in gruelling sports to relaxing with family and friends. Many people also devote part of their leisure time to the public service.
Swiss Geography
The geography of Switzerland is notable for its great diversity. Switzerland's three main geographical regions are the Jura, Plateau and the Alps.
The geography of Switzerland means that the climate varies greatly from one region to another. Depending on the area and the time of year, Switzerland experiences conditions reminiscent both of Siberia and of the Mediterranean.
Even the major towns of their own distinctive character.
Building land is in short supply, but planning regulations aim to preserve the appearance of towns and villages.

Facts and figures
Switzerland has an area of 41,285 square kilometres (15,940 square miles). The productive area - that is, the area without the lakes, rivers, unproductive vegetation and no vegetation at all - covers 30,753 square km (11,870 square miles).
It measures 220 kilometers (137 miles) from north to south and 350 km (217 miles) from east to west.
The Jura, the Plateau and the Alps form the three main geographic regions of the country.
Switzerland has a population of 7.6 million. Population density is high, with 234 people per square km (606 per square mile) of the productive area in 2000. In the agglomerations, which cover about 20% of the total surface area, the density is 590 per square km (1528 per square mile).

The Swiss Plateau
The Plateau stretches from Lake Geneva in the south west to Lake Constance in the north east, with an average altitude of 580 m (1902 ft).
It covers about 30 percent of the country`s surface area, but is home to two thirds of the population. There are 450 people to every square kilometre (1,166 per square mile). Few regions in Europe are more densely populated.
Most of Switzerland's industry and farmland is concentrated in the Plateau.
Urbanised landscape
If you travel across the Plateau, from Lake Geneva to Lake Constance, you never pass through unpopulated territory. The landscape continually shows signs of man's presence. When you leave a town, the next one is never far away. Villages lie within sight of each other.
The countryside in the Plateau tends to be highly organised; the fields often look as if they have been drawn with a ruler. Fields are small: nowhere are there endless acres given over to a single crop. Instead, meadows alternate with fields sown to cereals or other crops and with small woods. The land is used intensively.
The dense population and economic concentration in the Plateau means that more and more cultivated land is being lost. In Switzerland as a whole, 1 m2 (11 sq.ft.) of land has been built over every second since the early 1980s by encroaching housing and infrastructure. The greatest expansion has been in the conurbations of the Plateau.
Even outside the built-up areas there have been many changes. Orchards have given way to crops that can be mechanically harvested. In the period 1984-95, for every four trees grubbed up, only one was planted. However, the total length of hedgerows has increased, and there has been a move towards restoring open streams, which in previous decades had been built over.

Water sources
Switzerland has 6 per cent of Europe's stock of fresh water. The Rhine, Rhone and Inn all take their source here, although their waters flow into three seas: the North Sea, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
The Rhine Falls, a few kilometers downstream of Schaffhausen, are the largest in Europe. They are 150 m (450 ft) wide and 23 m (75.4 ft) high.
In addition, Switzerland has over 1,500 lakes. The two largest, Lakes Geneva and Constance, lie on the border. Lake Geneva is shared with France, and Lake Constance with Germany and Austria. Lake Geneva, which lies on the course of the Rhone, is the largest freshwater lake in central Europe.
The biggest lake which lies wholly within Switzerland is Lake Neuchâtel with an area of 218.4 square km (84.3 square miles). Probably the best known lake is Lake Lucerne in Central Switzerland (113.7 square km / 44 square miles).

Bern
Bern is the capital of Switzerland, and also the capital of the canton of the same name.
As the seat of government, the city houses the federal ministries and a number of other federal institutions, including the National Bank. It is also the headquarters of the Universal Postal Union, one of the specialised agencies of the United Nations. In addition it is the seat of public services, such as Swiss Post (the state-owned post office) and the Swiss Federal Railways. The city has a small airport in the suburb of Belp. Although Zurich is Switzerland's main rail hub, Bern has a direct rail service to several of the major cities of Switzerland, as well as to European cities such as Paris, Berlin, Barcelona and Milan.
History
The city was founded in the 12th century on a tongue of land surrounded on three sides by the river Aare. However, the first settlements in the area go back to pre-Roman times. It grew rich as a trading centre, and subsequently became an aggressive political and military power, ruling over a number of subject territories. It was one of the leading members of the old Swiss Confederation. Although the French invasion of 1798 put an end to the system of rulers and subjects, Bern retained its leading position, and in 1848 was chosen as the permanent capital of the modern Swiss state.
There are several theories as to the derivation of the name. It may come from Brenodor, the name of a Celtic settlement built on the site. However, the popular story has that Bern was named after the bear (German: Bär), the first animal to be killed by its founder, Duke Berchtold V von Zähringen, when he went hunting near his new city. Bears have a long association with the town, which has had a bear pit since the end of the 15th century.

Where people live
Just over two thirds of the Swiss population now live in urban areas. About one third of the population live in the conurbations of the five biggest cities: Zurich, Geneva, Basel, Bern and Lausanne.
Of the rest, about half live in the other urban regions and half live in rural areas.
Only 16 towns have a population of over 30,000.
Recent trends
In recent years the trend has been for people to move out of the city centres into the communes of the outer suburbs.
People used to leave the mountain regions in search of work and a more comfortable way of life, but many of these regions are now becoming inhabited again. At weekends and during the vacation people come from the lowlands for recreation. Old houses are being renovated as second homes.
"Our village is modeled after how the mountain dwellers used to live, with houses packed together tightly: they chose their plots away from the avalanche slopes, using the forest for protection, and they built their houses there close together. In those days, up to 500 people were crammed into 40 houses. The houses were full of people and in days gone by, when people used to enjoy sitting out on the stone steps in front of the house after work, they must have seemed more neighborly and happier. Now there are only 40 people here (...) and so most of the houses are empty."

Switzerland and the Environment
Switzerland's topography means that the central plateau is densely populated. Industry, farming, transport and leisure activities compete for space with residential areas. All of these can be sources of pollution.
The mountain environment is especially fragile. Climate change brings the threat of landslides and flooding, as well as threatening the important tourism industry.

Water quality
Switzerland's water resources are used for a variety of different purposes, including drinking, power generation, transport, irrigation and leisure activities.
The Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) is responsible for protecting these resources from pollution and from overuse. It also has the task of flood prevention.
Protection of waterways is inscribed in the Swiss Constitution.
Water quality is constantly monitored. The FOEN has two programmes to oversee this task. The National Long Term Investigation of Flowing Swiss Waters (NADUF) is responsible for rivers, while The National Network for Groundwater Quality Observation (NAQUA) monitors ground water.
The drinking water that comes out of Swiss taps is as pure as bottled mineral water - and 500 times cheaper.

Air pollution
Air pollution is a constant source of concern. The different types of pollution are dangerous to human health and damaging to the environment as well as to buildings and monuments.
The pollutants include nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and volatile organic compounds and come from a range of different sources, mainly road transport (in particular diesel engines) and industry. Other pollutants are benzene, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and ammonia.
Technical improvements have helped to reduce the emission of pollutants in the last two decades or so, but whereas industry is much less polluting than formerly, the increase in transport of all kinds has more or less cancelled out the gains made in this area by technical advances.
Transport accounted for nearly 31% of greenhouse gases in Switzerland in 2000.
Between 1990 and 2000 there was a particularly sharp rise in greenhouse gas emissions by planes, both national and international.

Impact of climate change
Switzerland is acutely aware of the threat of climate change. In Switzerland the immediate impact of temperature rises on the human population will come from the mountains and their cover of snow and ice. In the last few decades the temperature in Europe's higher mountain regions has increased by one degree Celsius. Research shows that the trend is continuing.
Human settlements will be affected by landslides and floods. The all-important tourism industry will suffer as the areas available for winter sports shrinks more and more. Agriculture will also be hit.
Climate change is a cause for concern both economically and socially. The leading reinsurance company, Swissre, has called for strategies to implemented now to tackle climate change before it is too late.

Biodiversity in Switzerland
It is estimated that Switzerland is home to over 50,000 species of plants and animals - although only 83 of these are mammals, most of them bats and other small species. Thirty thousand of them are insects.
The number of animal species (mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish) remained more or less constant between 1997 and 2005; some have disappeared but others have become established or re-established. In some cases the new species have arrived of their own accord, while in others they were reintroduced.
There have been considerable fluctuations in the diversity of species in the past. It is thought that species diversity reached its highest point in the middle or end of the 19th century.
Switzerland signed the non-binding UN convention on biodiversity in 1994. This aims to reverse the world-wide decline in the number of different species of animals, plants and other organisms.

The role of forests
Some 31 % of Swiss territory is covered by woodland. Today some 90,000 jobs in Switzerland depend on timber in one way or another.
While there are no enormous forested areas in Switzerland, there are no areas without forests either. Deciduous forests (beech and oak) grow at altitudes of up to 1,300 meters (4,264 feet). Coniferous forests (like pine, Scots pine and spruce) grow at up to 1,900 meters (6,232 feet).
Chestnut grows mainly on the southern side of the Alps.
Forests play an essential part in preserving the landscape. Their roots help stabilise the soil and prevent landslides and erosion, and together with other vegetation they act like a sponge to reduce flooding. Their trunks block rockfalls. They help to prevent avalanches by stabilising the snow cover. In addition they act as a windbreak, and they help to purify the air.
For centuries Switzerland's trees have had an important commercial function as well. The Swiss built their homes out of wood and used wood to heat them. Switzerland is poor in natural resources, but wood is one of the few that it has. Historically charcoal was used in furnaces for the country's own modest metal production and for glassmaking, but much more was exported to larger metal producing countries. And many of the ships of the great seafaring nations of Europe (in particular the Dutch) were built of Swiss timber.

Science in Switzerland
Switzerland is recognised as an international research centre. Both the Swiss state and the private sector are strongly involved in promoting science and technology.
Swiss scientists are involved in ground-breaking research, in part with foreign colleagues, in sciences ranging from nanotechnology to space research.
This scientific success has a long history. Many Swiss and Swiss-based scientists have won Nobel prizes.

Education in Switzerland
Switzerland prides itself on its high standard of publicly-funded education. As a country with few natural resources, its prosperity depends to a large extent on its brain power. Most people continue studying after the years of compulsory education, and many take further courses throughout their lives. At the same time, the education system has to deal with new challenges in the face of changes in society and the world.

The Swiss economy
Switzerland's economy is based on a highly qualified labour force performing highly skilled work. The main areas include microtechnology, hitech, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals, as well as banking and insurance know-how. The service sector now employs the greatest number of people.
Most of the people working in Switzerland are employed by small and medium-sized enterprises, which play an extremely important role in the Swiss economy.
The Swiss are concerned that economic activity should have as little impact as possible on the environment. Switzerland's energy and transport policies aim to be environmentally friendly.
The age of unlimited economic growth in Switzerland is over. Fear of unemployment has been one of the main concerns of the Swiss for several years

Swiss politics
Switzerland's existence as a modern federal state dates back to 1848. The government is made up of seven members, elected by the Federal Assembly. The government members take it in turns to act as president. The Swiss people can influence political affairs through the highly developed system of direct democracy.
Switzerland's position as a neutral state allows it to play an important humanitarian role in world affairs and to act as a mediator between conflicting parties.

CH: Confoederatio Helvetica
Switzerland in its modern form came into being in 1848. Until that time, Switzerland was not a real state, but a loose alliance of autonomous cantons whose degree of cooperation with each other varied from one period to another. Before 1848 the cantons were free to secede from the confederation if they wanted to.
Switzerland's 1848 constitution made it into a federal state, giving it a central authority that counterbalanced and limited the power of the individual cantons. Some areas, such as foreign policy, are now solely in the hands of the central government. The cantons no longer have the right to secede.
The constitution was designed to balance as fairly as possible the interests of the state as a whole with the interests of the individual cantons.
For historical reasons, Switzerland's official name is still the "Swiss Confederation". In Latin this is Confoederatio Helvetica, from which the country's international abbreviation, CH, is derived. However, this is in fact a misnomer: a confederation is an alliance of autonomous entities. Since 1848 Switzerland has been a federation: a grouping of entities with a central authority.
The word Helvetica refers to the Helvetians, one of the many Celtic tribes living in what is now Switzerland at the time of the Roman conquest.
"Switzerland is not like any other state, whether in regard to the events that have occurred there in the past several centuries, or in regard to its geographical situation, or in regard to the great differences between the customs of its various parts. Nature has made your state a federal one, and no wise man would want to flout her."

Executive branch: the Federal Council
The Federal Council, Switzerland's government, has seven members. Each year, a different member becomes Federal President. The post confers no special powers or privileges, and the president continues to administer his or her own department. The four strongest parties are represented in the council.
The Federal Council is assisted and advised on the running of its business by the Federal Chancellery. The Chancellor attends weekly cabinet meetings in a consultative capacity, and is sometimes referred to unofficially as "the 8th councillor."
Federal Councillors are much more accessible than their equivalents in most countries. The Swiss are used to seeing them travelling around by tram or in the train just like anyone else - much to the amazement of many foreign security officials accompanying leaders on state visits. People can talk to them without being hustled away by security guards.

Switzerland and the world
Switzerland recognises that as the world changes, it faces new challenges in formulating its foreign policy. Switzerland has defined the following foreign policy objectives:
Peaceful coexistence of people of all nations
Switzerland wants to play an active role in the prevention of violent conflict. This includes the establishment of the rule of law, support for democratic norms and the promotion of dialogue.
Respect for and promotion of human rights
Respect for human rights is of utmost importance to Switzerland. Switzerland has long been an active campaigner for the cause of human rights.
Environmental sustainability
Switzerland is internationally active in promoting the development of an international system for protecting the environment. This includes agreements in the fields of climate, biological diversity and chemicals as well as the protection of water and forests.
Representing the interests of Swiss businesses abroad
The Swiss government wants to provide the best possible conditions for Swiss businesses. Measures include export promotion, support for research and training in Switzerland as well as the signing of multilateral and bilateral agreements with other states.
Alleviating need and poverty in the world
Switzerland places the fight against poverty at the centre of its development aid policy. It is continually increasing its financial assistance in this field. At the centre of its development aid policy is the promotion of income and employment, good governance, development of the private sector, sustainable use of natural resources, integration into the global trade system, debt relief, bridging the social gap, crisis prevention and crisis management.
The Swiss themselves have a somewhat contradictory attitude to foreign countries. On the one hand, the economy is very outward looking, ordinary people travel a lot and many speak several languages. On the other, they have tended to keep aloof from close involvement in international bodies.

The Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), founded in Geneva in 1863, has as its mandate to protect and assist victims of war and internal violence. The 15-25 members of the committee itself are all Swiss citizens, but its employees are international, and the bulk of its finance comes from voluntary contributions by states and supranational bodies. The ICRC operates worldwide, helping the victims of war, acting as a neutral mediator in cases of conflict, and promoting knowledge and respect for humanitarian law.
In addition, Switzerland has its own national Red Cross society.
The national societies of the whole world are grouped in the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which also has its headquarters in Geneva.
Signed on 12 August 1949 in Geneva, the four conventions form the basis for international humanitarian law. Their intention is to protect people in an armed conflict who are not or are no longer participating in hostilities, and to regulate the conduct of combatants during the conflict, by limiting their scope of action.

Swiss history
Switzerland's geographical position with its transit routes over the Alps made it a desirable possession for European great powers through the ages.
Switzerland developed slowly over many centuries, as more and more regions came together to form a loose confederation whose members gave each other mutual support. At times their different interests stretched the bonds between them almost to breaking point.
It was only in 1848 that Switzerland became a more centralised federal state. This favoured its economic development and ended any possibility that Switzerland might break up.

Swiss history
Switzerland's history cannot be understood without considering its geography, which has had a considerable impact on determining the development of its way of life.
The country that we know today took its final shape only in 1848. Before that time, we cannot really speak of "Swiss history," but rather the history of its various parts, which only gradually came together.

Prehistoric times
The oldest traces of human existence in Switzerland date back about 150,000 years, and the oldest flint tool found in the country is thought to be about 100,000 years old.
The best known early prehistoric site is at Cotencher in Canton Neuchâtel, where Neandertal hunters left flint cutting tools in a cave some 60,000 years ago.
Farming reached central Europe from the Mediterranean area in the 6th millennium BC. The oldest known farming settlements in Switzerland are those found at Gächlingen in Canton Schaffhausen, which have been dated to around 5300 BC.
Metal - in the form of copper - was first made in Switzerland around 3800 BC, and bronze - a much harder and stronger alloy of copper and tin - some 1500 years later. The iron age began in Switzerland around 800 BC.
Although copper ore was found locally, tin had to be imported - an indication that trade was already highly developed.
The so-called "Amesbury Archer", or "King of Stonehenge", buried in southern Britain around 2300 BC, and discovered in 2002, probably came from what is now Switzerland.

Alamans to the Holy Roman Empire: general overview
The period following Roman rule, generally known as the Dark Ages or Early Middle Ages, lasted from about 400 to 1000.
The territory of what is now Switzerland shared a similar evolution with the rest of western Europe.
The first couple of centuries or so was a time of migration, moving in the general direction of east to west. Peoples were displaced as waves of new tribes arrived from Asia.
Switzerland was settled by different peoples, who brought not only new lifestyles, but also new languages.
Christianity which had arrived in Switzerland under the Romans, took root and spread, partly through the work of missionaries. The church, with its system of bishoprics and monasteries, became a major landowner with rights over all those who lived on its lands.
At the same time, noble families were increasing their power and building up their landholdings by conquest, inheritance and marriage.
For a brief period the Frankish king Charlemagne controlled much of Western Europe and took the title Emperor of the West in 800.
However, even under Charlemagne there was no idea of a state. At every level of society, relations between weak and strong were based on personal allegiance. The emperor ruled through a network of noble families.
Throughout the period, and beyond, the balance of power between kings, dukes and the church constantly shifted as each jockeyed to preserve its old privileges or to grab new ones.
A further level of power was added in 962 when the German king Otto I persuaded the Pope to crown him Emperor of what much later became known as the Holy Roman Empire.
Middle Ages: general overview
Mural depicting the battle on the Stoss in 1405, which gave the people of Appenzell independence from their overlord, the Abbot of St Gallen. Appenzell joined the Swiss Confederation in 1513.© swissworld.org
The year 1291 is traditionally regarded as the foundation of the Swiss Confederation, when three rural communities made an alliance to protect their freedoms against encroachments by would-be overlords.
The 14th and 15th centuries saw this group expand to a loose confederation with both rural and urban members. By the end of the period the Confederation was strong enough to have a serious impact on the balance of power in Europe in wars where their troops gained a fearsome reputation for their skill and courage.
Expansion proceeded in several ways. In some cases new members joined the Confederation as equals; other communities or territories came by purchase or conquest.
The rights of the inhabitants of the Confederation still depended both on the place where they lived and on their position in society.
The Confederate members administered their own affairs, but also held frequent diets to discuss issues of common interest. In this period Zurich, Bern and Lucerne took it in turns to summon the meeting. Each member sent one or two representatives, drawn from the political leadership.

The Reformation: general overview
The 16th century was a time of upheaval throughout western Europe, when a movement to reform the Roman Catholic church split western Christendom into two opposing camps, as Protestants rejected the authority of the Pope.
Although the movement was ostensibly a religious one, it reflected deep underlying tensions in the social structure. In Switzerland, as elsewhere, it was accompanied by riots and destruction. Supporters of the reform all over Europe smashed the "idolatrous" statues and pictures in churches, and threw monks and nuns out of their monasteries, in many cases never to return.
But discontent went beyond obvious manifestation of discontent with the church to attack the very structure of society. "Extremist" Protestant movements like the Anabaptists, which found their followers in the rural regions and which among other things called for an end to tithes and rents, were forcibly repressed by mainstream Protestant leaders.
Theological debate gave rise to a debate about tolerance; Geneva adopted an authoritarian stance, imprisoning, expelling or even burning those Protestants who disagreed with the official line, while Basel became a centre of intellectual freedom.

The 17th century: general overview
The 17th century saw three further landmarks in the development of modern-day Switzerland. All came as a result of the 30 Years War (1618-48), which ravaged large swathes of Europe, particularly Germany, but in which the Confederation succeeded in remaining neutral.
Firstly, the war made it clear to the Confederation members that despite their deep differences, it was in their interest to stay together as the only way to avoid being drawn into a Europe-wide conflict.
Secondly, they gradually formalised the important policy of armed neutrality, to prevent border incursions by the warring armies.
Thirdly, Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognised by signatories of the Treaty of Westphalia, which ended the war.
Despite this, Switzerland was not a haven of peace. Both social and religious tensions sparked armed conflict within the country in the second half of the century.

The 18th century: general overview
The Lucerne House in Frauenfeld, built for the Lucerne representative to the Diet. The Diet was the only common body where the cantons could discuss policy, but it had no binding powers. It had no fixed seat, but in the 18th century often met in Frauenfeld.© swissworld.org
The 18th century was a period of relative peace and prosperity, until its last decade when French revolutionary troops invaded and destroyed the old political system.
During the 18th century, great advances were made in scientific agriculture. New industries got off the ground, including clockmaking and textiles.
Learned and patriotic societies sprang up all over the country. Swiss intellectuals discussed new scientific and philosophical ideas with their counterparts abroad. At the same time, they promoted Swiss national awareness, going beyond narrow cantonal boundaries.
The new industrial and intellectual elite challenged the entrenched ruling circles.
The century ended in Europe-wide turmoil after the French revolution and France's subsequent wars against European monarchies.
French troops invaded Switzerland in 1798, broke the power of the ruling élites there and temporarily destroyed the cantonal system by creating the centralised Helvetic Republic.
For the first and only time in their history the Swiss were forced to abandon their neutrality and provide troops for France.

The federal state: general overview
The foundations of modern Switzerland were laid down in the 19th century. The most important event was undoubtedly the adoption of the 1848 constitution, which gave the country a more centralised government and created a single economic area where cantonal rivalries had previously hindered development.
Among other things the new goverment abolished internal tolls, it unified weights, measures and the currency and it took charge of the postal system.
These moves made possible the development of many of the industries and services which are still the cornerstone of Switzerland's prosperity, such as chemicals, engineering, the food industry and banking.
However, for many people conditions continued to be very difficult. Poverty, hunger and lack of employment prospects encouraged large-scale emigration throughout the 19th century, much of it to north and south America.

The 20th century: general overview
The 20th century saw important changes in Switzerland in both domestic and foreign policy.
The political system opened up. At the beginning of the century a single party dominated the government; by the end of it four parties had guaranteed ministerial posts.
The economy ran into difficulties in the 1920s and 30s, but overall Switzerland prospered. The move away from agriculture and into highly skilled specialist industries continued. From being a country of emigration, in the second half of the century it became a country which drew immigrants.
The standard of living increased dramatically for most people. They gained far better social security and working conditions, as well as access to an extensive range of consumer goods.
The century also saw a sharp shift in Switzerland's relations with Europe and the rest of the world.
For most of the period Switzerland continued outside the European mainstream. It took no active part in either of the two World Wars. However it later found it harder and harder to remain a "special case" in the face of globalisation and European integration. The issue of Swiss neutrality remained a central topic of debate.
At the end of the century, Switzerland reexamined its role in World War II. The Bergier commission of expert historians investigated criticism of Switzerland's wartime behaviour and produced its final report in 2002. The Bergier report has been a key element in leading the public to re-evaluate a period of history which had previously been largely ignored. Its thorough investigation threw light on both positive and negative aspects of Swiss behaviour.