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Switzerland

Map of Switzerland

Flag of Switzerland




Switzerland's national flag is a red square (not a rectangle!) with a white cross on it, whose arms do not reach the borders. Until 1890 the arms of the white cross had the same width as their length, but then it was decided that they should be one sixth longer than wide. The Swiss Cross, as it is often called by the native population, is a generalization of the coat of arms of canton Schwarz, one of the three founding members of the Swiss confederation back in 1291.

History of  Switzerland

Switzerland evolved over many centuries from a loose alliance of small self-governing towns and states, beginning with the confederation of Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden in 1291, to a fully-fledged federal state of 26 cantons.
Despite periods of political, social and religious unrest, unity prevailed in the Old Swiss Confederacy. However, the French invasion of 1798 was to be a turning point in the country’s history, ushering in the first of several changes in government – the short-lived Helvetic Republic – that would continue until 1848.
The birth of modern-day Switzerland was accompanied by the creation of a federal constitution that laid the permanent foundations for national cohesion and the pursuit of the common good, while upholding the country’s cultural and linguistic diversity.

Since 1848, the Swiss Confederation has been a federal state of relatively autonomous cantons, some of which have a history of confederacy that goes back more than 700 years, putting them among the world's oldest surviving republics. For the time before 1291, this article summarizes events taking place on the territory of modern Switzerland.
From 1291, it focuses mainly on the fates of the Old Swiss Confederacy, at first consisting of only three cantons (Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden) in what is now central Switzerland, and gradually expanding until it encompassed the present-day area of Switzerland in 1815.