Revolution and Contention: How Switzerland Got Its Constitution
Chapter 5 of my retelling of A Concise History of Switzerland by Clive H. Church and Randolph C. Head (Cambridge University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-521-14382-0). Fifty years of chaos, civil wars, and foreign meddling. Somehow, out of all that mess, modern Switzerland was born.
The French Show Up (1798)
In 1798, France invaded Switzerland. Swiss patriots in Basle and Vaud had already started their own revolutions. They planted liberty trees and demanded equal rights for the countryside. The real muscle came from France though. General Brune marched in, took Berne, stripped its treasury, shipped the city’s famous bears to Paris, and that was that.
By April 1798, the French had set up the Helvetic Republic. First time ever, Switzerland was one single state with one constitution. Former subject territories like Aargau, Thurgau, and Vaud became full cantons. Looked modern on paper. In practice, a disaster.
The Helvetic Republic Falls Apart
The new republic was basically a French puppet. Neutrality was gone. French soldiers looted the countryside. When the people of Nidwalden refused to swear allegiance, calling the constitution “an infernal brochure,” they were crushed.
Then the War of the Second Coalition hit. Switzerland became a battlefield. Two battles of Zurich. Russian troops under Suvorov retreating through the Alps. People starved in the winter of 1799-1800.
Swiss politicians kept overthrowing each other meanwhile. Coup after coup. At one point, a referendum got only 72,900 votes in favor against 92,000 opposed, but the government declared it passed because they counted 167,000 abstentions as “yes” votes. Creative math.
The whole thing ended with the Stecklikrieg of 1802. Angry peasants armed with stakes and farm tools chased the government forces back to Vaud. Napoleon decided the Swiss clearly could not govern themselves.
Napoleon Steps In (1803)
Napoleon summoned Swiss leaders to Paris and basically told them: here is your new system, take it or face another invasion. The result was the Act of Mediation of 1803. A compromise. Cantons got their sovereignty back but stayed in one country. Nineteen cantons, each with its own constitution. A rotating presidency. Limited central powers.
Actually worked. The economy grew. Mechanized cotton mills spread across eastern Switzerland. National feeling grew through cultural associations and folk festivals. Someone even wrote a national anthem.
Switzerland was still a French protectorate though. Some 30,500 Swiss served in Napoleon’s armies. Few came back. When Napoleon lost at Leipzig in 1813, the Mediation collapsed overnight. The old patrician families grabbed power again.
Restoration and the Liberal Breakthrough (1815-1831)
The Great Powers at the Congress of Vienna gave Switzerland a new charter in 1815. Three new cantons joined: Geneva, Neuchatel, and Valais. Swiss neutrality was officially recognized. The charter was conservative though. The old elites brought back guilds, tolls, and censorship. About 400 toll stations dotted the country. Goods had to be unloaded, checked, and reloaded at each one. Trade was painful.
People who had tasted freedom under the Helvetic Republic and the Mediation were not happy. Liberal newspapers, student associations, and shooting clubs became the backbone of a reform movement. When the economy boomed in the late 1820s and population hit 2.1 million, the pressure became unstoppable.
The breakthrough came in 1830, triggered partly by revolution in Paris but mainly by local frustrations. Canton after canton saw popular marches, mass petitions, and constituent assemblies. By early 1831, most cantons had new liberal constitutions. This “Regeneration” gave political rights to peasants and small-town middle classes, ended feudal privileges, separated powers, and introduced popular votes on constitutions. The old regime was finished for good.
The Sonderbund War (1847)
The country was still split though. Liberals wanted a stronger central government. Catholic conservatives wanted to protect cantonal sovereignty and Church control of education. When the canton of Aargau closed eight monasteries in 1841, and Lucerne recalled the Jesuits, things got ugly fast.
In December 1845, seven Catholic cantons formed the Sonderbund, a secret military alliance. They made contacts with Austria and France for support. When the Diet found out, it voted to dissolve the Sonderbund by force.
General Dufour mobilized 100,000 men. The Sonderbund had less than half that. The war lasted about three weeks. Dufour took Fribourg first, then Zug, then concentrated on Lucerne. Total casualties: about 130 dead and 300 wounded. By Swiss standards, a civil war. By European standards, barely a skirmish.
The timing was perfect. The Great Powers wanted to intervene but revolution broke out in Paris, Vienna, and Berlin in early 1848, keeping them busy.
The 1848 Constitution
The Diet moved fast. Using an earlier draft as a starting point, a committee produced a new constitution by April 1848. It created a real federal state with a bicameral parliament, a proper national government, and protections for cantonal rights. On paper it still called itself a “Confederation,” but it was now a federation.
Fifteen and a half cantons ratified it. Six and a half rejected. The vote was 146,000 to 54,300. Switzerland was, as the authors note, perhaps the only place in Europe where 1848 actually produced a lasting democratic state.
Fifty years of invasions, puppet states, civil wars, and constitutional experiments. At the end of it, a small country in the middle of Europe figured out how to make federalism work. Not bad.
This post is part of a series retelling A Concise History of Switzerland by Clive H. Church and Randolph C. Head (Cambridge University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-521-14382-0). I am not a historian. I just find this stuff interesting.