Europe · High and late Middle Ages
Swiss Confederation
1848–present
After the Congress of Vienna the restored confederacy (Federal Treaty, 7 August 1815) added new French-speaking cantons but remained a loose league. The confessional-political crisis peaked in the Sonderbund War (November 1847), a brief civil war in which federal forces under General Guillaume-Henri Dufour defeated a separatist league of seven Catholic cantons in under a month with a total of only 86 deaths (federal losses of 60/78 dead and Sonderbund 26–33).
- Existed
- 1848–present
- Shown on the map
- 1294–1799, 1815–2024 (2 periods)
- Peak area
- 46k km²
- Region
- Europe
Overview
After the Congress of Vienna the restored confederacy (Federal Treaty, 7 August 1815) added new French-speaking cantons but remained a loose league. The confessional-political crisis peaked in the Sonderbund War (November 1847), a brief civil war in which federal forces under General Guillaume-Henri Dufour defeated a separatist league of seven Catholic cantons in under a month with a total of only 86 deaths (federal losses of 60/78 dead and Sonderbund 26–33). Victory enabled the liberal Federal Constitution of 12 September 1848, which created a genuine federal state (bicameral Federal Assembly, Federal Council) while preserving cantonal sovereignty—the essential structure of modern Switzerland, revised in 1874 and 1999. Armed neutrality became a defining principle.
Common questions
- What was the Swiss Confederation?
- After the Congress of Vienna the restored confederacy (Federal Treaty, 7 August 1815) added new French-speaking cantons but remained a loose league. The confessional-political crisis peaked in the Sonderbund War (November 1847), a brief civil war in which federal forces under General Guillaume-Henri Dufour defeated a separatist league of seven Catholic cantons in under a month with a total of only 86 deaths (federal losses of 60/78 dead and Sonderbund 26–33).
- When did the Swiss Confederation exist?
- The Swiss Confederation existed 1848–present. On this map it is drawn 1294–1799, 1815–2024.
- How large was the Swiss Confederation?
- At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Swiss Confederation covered about 46,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.
Sources
This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia articles for each territory as the primary basis, with Encyclopædia Britannica, the World History Encyclopedia, German History in Documents and Images, national institutions such as the Swiss Federal Council and the National Museum of Denmark, and the scholarship of Peter H. Wilson and Joachim Whaley on the Holy Roman Empire. The article this entry is anchored on:
- Wikipedia — Switzerland en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switzerland
This entry was last updated .
This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made
Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.
Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).
See the Swiss Confederation in its world
Open the atlas at 1547 and every neighbour, rival and successor is on screen with it — then drag the slider and watch what happens next.
Open the map at 1547 →