One of the funniest things about Swiss history to me is that they actually conquered the original hometown of the Austrian Habsburgs, and to this day Habsburg castle is in Switzerland
Oh yeah, I drove past many times... it's pretty small, lol. You wouldn't think of it as the "home" of one of if not the most influential aristocratic dynasties in european history.
@@mysterioanonymous3206 Well, Habsburg castle is small because it was their home long before the family did become a rich and powerful dynasty in Europe. Habsburg castle is a dark, cold and windy place. It is easy to imagine how life there was connected with many hardships. No place to be for ambitious noblemen when there are other options later on... 😉
Might be interesting to add that the Habsburgs were originally counts of Aargau, just between Zurich and Basel, and became dukes of Austria later. So, at first, it was mostly a local clash about nobility, cities and mountain communities' rights and privileges...
and who's banging who and.... "Habsburg" was founded by "Swabian" nobility and they only called themself Habsburg after they built tha nice little castle
@@ddrumma872 the important word here was "local". The count of Aargau (not the duke of Austria) thought he had some ruling rights over the region. And well... banging in the medieval time (and afterwards) was probably the best way for a dynasty to expand... and the Habsburgs were very good at banging the right heiress over and over.
@@SiPakRubah Lichtenstein is the last remaining principality from the old Holy Roman Empire and the German Confederation. It was decided it would be independent at the Congress of Vienna and the Austrian Empire would provide protection for it given its small size. Basically guaranteed the borders and ran the mail service. After WW I Switzerland took over that part but Lichtenstein remained independent.
The thing I like about Switzerland is how it was formed bottom-up and not top-down, meaning that local authorities - so very near to the local population - decided to get together. So everything was done at the best interest of the local economies. This led to a country where direct democracy is a must. Everything starts from the single citizen. Unfortunately, most countries have been formed top-down, where a rich and powerful person conquers over the will of other people for his own interest. That's why many of the countries around the word are not democracies or just fake democracies.
@@TanveerAhmed Now this land as others, is very different. There are too much power structures that create influence over people minds. The social behaviour is like in other countries, maybe, obviously, in other level, but similar. Totzdem ich bevorzuge die Schweiz.
Yes, but there is not much of that left. And no, I will not spread my doubts before you. It is my homeland, for which it is increasingly necessary to fight. The countries are becoming more and more like-minded - and this all the way down to the municipal levels. Anyone who has already experienced this unpleasant touch will not forget it.
My teacher avidly taught us Swiss history all the way from the Rütlischwur. He even took us to the Rütliwiese and Tell theater play on field trips. Best memories of school
Please tell me this was decades ago. The Rütlischwur did never happen, and the Rütliwiese starts beeing relevant in 1941 as part of the Geistige Landesverteidigung but has no actual history before that date.
I’m Dutch but love the cheese the knife the watches and waterfalls..(took a train through Switzerland from Amsterdam to Roma) and of course the history!
Really? And how about omitting the history of Röstigraben and Polentagraben/ Ticino? How did they find their way into Switzerland? Have ypu learnt about it from the video?
Great Video, thank you a lot! Maybee an important thing to add to the civil war (Sonderbundskrieg) in 1847. In this war less than 100 people died and roughly about 500 were wounded. This was mainly because General Dufour really wanted to unify the counrty and focus on humanitarian principles during the fights. He famously said: "We must emerge from this struggle not only victorious but also without reproach."
The skilled mercenaries that got put into service in any surrounding areas that were fighting with each other also played a major role in the early days of the swiss independence.
Indeed. This is excpecially relevant after 1521, when the confedercy signed contracts to lend its mercenaries exclusivly to france. Its pretty easy to stay "indepedent" if you promise to fight for the strongest country in the area.
En tant que savoyard je remarque qu'il est indiqué le drapeau de la Savoie dès le début de la vidéo 😂. Bon il est vrai que les Etats de Savoie s'étendait de Zurich à Jérusalem lors de son apogée ☝️.
When people asked me or talked to me about Swiss Neutrality, I would explain to them that it is brought upon by their rich military history, particularly their military disasters and military challenges that led to them being neutral.
2 military disasters to be exact. The Battle of Marignano and the Conquest of Switzerland by Napoleon. Switzerland was declared neutral tho. They just realized, that neutrality is pretty gucci.
By refusing to again send expeditionary armies outside their borders in the 1840s they became less of a paranoid threat to expeditionary kingdoms and states surrounding them. By becoming international no questions asked bankers and having no great stores of mineral raw materials or croplands they pretty well secured mutual protection from invasion. As to making a US style constitution work, that is shown in the handshake icon of this video. Once the religious wars settled down post Napoleon, they found themselves to be a fairly homogeneous peoples. Such a loose government federated structure only works well as a club's rules. Switzerland did not have millions of slaves imported to them by pre republic colonial masters...nor continue such a practice. They do not have open unchecked immigration borders which cause natural demographic strife. Moreover since such a constitution is not designed to run foreign British, Russian or Roman style foreign wars...they didn't get stuck as world police.
@@RolandodellaValle you have many lakes 🇨🇭 and not far from Mediterranean 🥰 I am American and I love the beauty of the Berner oberland region and lake Geneva wow
@@Tamar-sz8ox you are right, we have in the southern part two lakes with mediterranian climate and the mediterranian sea is two hours away from Switzerland.
Very well done, and thoroughly made, congrats. Sorry, geek alarm: 41285 square kilometers, not miles, otherwise we would be bigger than Iceland, which is unfortunately not true.
I think a big part of the reason for Swiss unification is that by the 18th century the rise of the modern nation states around it. France in the 17th century was involved in wars with most of its neighbors and military involved in Italy. At that time England was unified and a major power, France was unified and in conflict with England, Italy, and the Holly Roman Empire were still divided into multiple semi autonomous entities and struggled with mixed alliances internally, therefore making it hard for them to fend off the advances of unified France. It should be noted that that the Dutch were similar to the Swiss, they were very organized, very determined to be autonomous and a major force in the world far beyond their size and small population. By the 19th century the Italians and Germans would both unify shortly after the unification of the Swiss. The German unification upset the balance of power in Europe to such a degree that England and France became close allies to oppose it. So by 1871 the Swiss had three powerful unified nation states on their boarders, only the Austrian Hungarian Empire was still a coalition of states as a political entity and that would be dissolved at the end of WW I. But the existence of these bordering nation states did not happen overnight, it was long in its evolution and had to be a concern for the Swiss long before it occurred. Also the other incentive for the Swiss to unify was the inclusion of the Ottoman Empire into Europe. in the 18th century the Ottomans sieged Vienna, which was not far from the boarders of Switzerland. This mush have been a great concern for the Swiss and a factor in the desire for closer ties among its constituent parts. One last factor was economic. With the rise of the modern nation state a unified currency for a nation greatly facilitated economic growth, also a unified country spoke with a more unified voice to other economic entities in order to achieve its economic interests. The Swiss must have depended heavily on trade and economic activity with their neighbors, much like the Dutch. Being neutral in a continent which constantly had various wars and political struggles gave the Swiss the opportunity of being a safe haven and go between for economic and political agendas.
Living as a German in Switzerland and being a bit critical about certain aspects, I still see it as a example how nation building works, what it needs, what are the challenges and how to bring so different people with different languages together for such a long time.
There is always the option to imply bad or improper intentions. That sounds more realistic, but if it would be true, reality would look different. Switzerland was very poor and it was the pressure from outside which bring them together. But there is also a culture of respect to other opinions and needs as well as a healthy sense of responsibility for your life. That is not the case in all cultures.
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Great global understanding of historic changes, well put into a very clear animation, rare quality seen on YT, the author made here a great job, thank you!
this is so interesting to me. My great grandmother came from the Canton of Bern when she was 11 with her family in 1885. someday I hope to see the town she was born in high up in the mountains near france.
It is possible that the town your grandma came from is now in Canton Jura as this resulted from the independence of the french speaking part of Canton Bern from this Canton.
Close to France are in the Jura Mountains(JU) which more like the Adirondacks and not the Alps, so not really that high up in the Mountains but more like rolling hills, many Anabaptists, Amish and Mennonites( Hirschi-Hershey) who later moved to USA were banned to the Jura(refusing military service) mountains from the Emmental. Today there is a new Francophone Canton on the Border to France its the Canton of Jura. You might also use the family names and go into the Archives of the Mormons in Salt Lake city, this archives have all the facts of every European country. My oldest ancestor I found in the archives in Salt Lake city( Bénédict Bangerter, from Lyss) was archived in the 16th century in the Town of Lyss.
@@Braun30 That's right, it's my case too, my family comes from Haute-Ajoie and at that time it belonged to Bern, the Old Jura called it. In fact my family, the Riats, were quite well-known separatists. Despite this, my great-great-grandfather married a beautiful lady from Bern and they had my great-grandfather..I am from Argentina, here there was a great Swiss immigration.
My mom's dad ancestors. They came to America in the 1700's fleeing Catholic persecution. The anabaptist or Swiss Brethren that migrated to the German Palatine area then to Pennsylvania at the invitation of of William Penn into Lancaster County Pennsylvania. My ancestors were Hans Meili, Rev. Hans Herr, Overhotlz, Barr, Kendig famiies....Meili name morphed into Miley which now span the whole of America..Thanks for the video.
00:46 41,285 square kilometers*. in sq miles it'd be 15,940 sq mi. 00:09 Its also bordered by Liechtenstein. however, a very nice video, I learned a lot from this video. The animations you use in your videos are very beautiful. i'd appreciate if you share as to which software you use to make these animations. Thank you 🙂
As a Swiss, with roots back to the 16th century, I can call this summary very good, considering the time. Of course, many more arguments and reasons are missing. But for this, many hours of clarification would be necessary. Conclusion; well done!
well at the end of the day most swiss germans are swabians that moved down south from modern Germany, you can trace this back with family & genes as well
We Swiss became a Superpower in the Middle Age! We defeated the Austrians many Times and we defeated even the Burgundarians in the Burgundarian Wars (back then they had the Most Modern Army in Europe.... And we defeated them in 3-4 Battles...) After this war we became a Superpower in Europe and our Battletactics dominated the Battlefields of Europe for 200-300 Years..... And the Swiss Mercenaries became very Popular in Europe. Greetings from Switzerland 🇨🇭👋
Thank you for the very interesting and informative short history of how Switzerland came to be, the type of Government the people adopted. Being in Europe with it's long history it is complicated but you did a great job sorting it all out. Most of us are history short minded to be sure, this presentation was made so it was easy to follow along.
Well some major flaws in this video. I'm not gonna explain to much, I will just list the biggest mistakes chronologically. -The Reformation in Switzerland is mostly considered separate to Luther and he did not have much influence in Switzerland, especially after his big dispute with Zwingli. He was mostly influenced by Erasmus of Rotterdam. Everything is in his surviving diaries and letter with Erasmus etc. And even form Erasmus he is considered mostly independent. No clue why there is a picture of the Ninety-five Theses, those had barely anything to do with any part of Swiss reformation. -The Sonderbund War was not e religious war of catholics against protestants. Yes the seven cantons that made the Sonderbund "Special Alliance" were catholic but it was not because of religion. It was radical conservative who wanted it the old way against the rest, mostly radical progressive liberals, ( those therms meant completely different things in the 1840s than today so don't start any annoying shit) And there were even catholic Cantons on the other sides. -Yes the last total revision of the Swiss Constitution was in 1999, because I don't know it seams necessary to go over your complete constitution every couple decades you know to go with the times and shit. But it is altered every year, if not multiple times every year. In Switzerland there is something called directed democracy and a Popular initiative which amends the federal constitution and are voted on four times a year.
Yes, and the video also fails to highlight how it could remain a state throughout time. Military power was important but not the reason Switzerland survived as a country. This is particularly true for the 20th century with 2 word wars. This is not so much that they didn’t opt in but more that they were not dragged in. And the reason for that is not mentioned at all. Cool video but fails to address crucial points
@@RamonWalther No that's a bad comparison because Liechtenstein is so much more dependen on Switzerland(army,currency, place to give birth) then Switzerland is on Germany or France. So Liechtenstein is basically like a canton with its own foreign policy.
Great informative video. Showing all aspects of the formation of Switzerland. Altough I really hoped to hear about the "Morgarten" battle as this is to this day there are many controversis about it some saying it just a battle like many other while others saying its one of the most important battle for the swiss against the habsburger.
Tbh not mentioning Moorgarten was probably smart as there is barely anything know about the battle, we have neither solid archeological evidence nor written reports so wasting time in an already short video just to say "there may or may not have been this battle" would be a bad decision.
@@CG-eh6oeThis is incorrect. There are (and allways) were various prooved sources about the size (about 10'000 troopes) and the losses (about 2500) of the Habsburg army at the battle of Morgarten written down in the family cronic of the Habsburg nobles who lost their lifes during this battle. The reason why they never found till recently artifacts of the battle was because they were never looking for (and also because it is pritty normal not to found anything after such a long time also on other battles in history). It's mainly Swiss historian who intend to scandilies things in a populistic way with the intention to 'demystifies' history. In this light they claimed this battle never happened even the evidence shows different. After a popular historien claimed again that the battle never happened but even there would be soething, they probably just boxing to each other. Another historien then was searching with a TV crew from Swiss TV SRF for artifacts and just after a view minutes he found several swords and other hisorical pieces of the battle. Easy to find on internet when searching for it.
The periode called "expansion time" in this video wasn't just a military expansion or conquest. Some areas, like Appenzell in the south of the Lake of Constance, willingly joined the confederacy as they were in conflict with the neighboring monastery of St. Gallen and its allied noblemen.
It is noticable that you guys did your researched well before creating this video, which is rare for foreignors. I specially loved that you used our formal name. It's also noteworthy that swiss civil wars after the protestant reformation had low casualties. Noone died during the first war of kappel and only around a 100 people died during the war of the Sonderbund. It was also won in less than a month.
The ‘war’ was nothing of the such..in reality it was more of a skirmish. As for foreigners doing their research..well, the Swiss like to airbrush their history, my fathers generation propagated the myth of Swiss neutrality and heroism in ww2 but their countries shameful behaviour was exposed by foreigners,particularly regarding the Swiss banks .
@@confiseur Switzerland wasn't perfect in WW2, but compared to other countries, still pretty innocent. It was an achievement not to get incorporated into NAZI Germany as e.g. Austria, that simply got "anschlussed". Swiss banks as any other capitalistic company primary want and wanted to make profits, they aren't ethical or moral institutions; any other bank on this planet would have acted the same way. According to Sun Zi an attacker takes cost and benefit into account: Switzerland raised the cost by heavily investing into the Swiss Armed Forces in WWII: Infantry bunkers, artillery fortresses all over the place; highest mobilisation rate on planet Earth during the period (total resistance mode), but also lowered the benefit of an attack, e.g. by allowing some transports, and delivering some goods to NAZI Germany (Germany was also the main trading partner in the pre-war period). Switzerland didn’t cooperate with the NAZIS it simply did what was necessary to make the ratio for an attack unattractive. You can call that behavior shameful or cowardly, but acting very differently would have simply ended the existence of Switzerland.
Nicely done. Warriors at heart, I wish more could've been said of Swiss mercenaries and their influence abroad! NOTE: Swiss consitution was not "modeled" on US constitution. May have taken some inspiration, but both stem from older/stronger backbone of French Revolution (Montesquieu, Toqueville) and UK thinkers (Locke and Hobbes).
The idea is actually much older than that. The germanic tribes already lived in a "democratic" way. They voted in a Ting (gathering of the people) a chief of the tribe and in case he screwed up they took him down.
i' ve learned more from this video as in the whole history class in 3. and 4. degree of going to school in switzerland ! thanks for this amazing video! i'm proud to be swiss 🇨🇭🇨🇭
You may have learned more from this video, but at least the things you learned in school were probably correct while the stuff told here is partially Hafechäs.
as a Swiss myself this is very interesting because I'm horrible when it comes to history and this is very informative to me. Also, I love the fact that at 1:53 I can tell just by looking at the lakes outside of the 3 first cantons where which part will be later on.
American here for 34 years after leaving San Francisco in the 80s. I love it, know every canton, and really love the 4 different language regions. Switzerland is about the size of West Virginia, where I also lived, so getting around is really easy and culturally deep. Was born in New Jersey and then it was, Idaho, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maine, Colorado, Oregon, Colorado again, Washington, & California. This 11 minute video was really informative and a pleasure to watch, although I do not alot about it.
08:55 please don't forget that swiss german is a dialect that is spoken instead of german. swiss can adapt to the "high" german. it actually gets really complicated that in the 26 cantons not only a different language is spoken, but also her own different dialect ;-)
Also "swiss" high german is also different to "german" high german. We use instead of some german words, french or italian words which are called Helvetism. We don't have the letter ß in our alphabet, instead we use a double S. Not only is swiss german different, even the "right" german is different.
Swiss german is not a dialect, it has many dialects within. And the grammar, although not written down, has celtic influence that is not present in high German.
1891 wasnt a war between Kathlics and protestants, more that the liberals (industrials) wanted a easier trade between the cantons, the conservatives wanted to maintain their influence through the church. That's how we learned it in school in Switzerland ;) it transformed from a confederation to a united state through Guillaume-Henri Dufour, who at first didn't even want to interfere in the conflict. He knew that war among brothers is ugly. When he saw that there was no better leader available, ended the war with minimum casualties, because he was aware that swiss people still had to live united in the future. And he has beaten the conservatives by taking lucerne for the liberals. and made the other states capitulate.
incorrect: the beginning of USA was modeled after Switzerlands' model. one was the officially organized, trained etc. effective militia what focused completely on defending instead of invading by force other countries. later on USA changed their constitution and military structure with focus of invading instead of defending
So the American constitution, written in 1787, was modelled after the Swiss constitution, written in 1848? The Swiss constituiton took in fact a lot of inspiration from the American one, and improved on it. For example, having a council of 7 members as the executive instead of a single president.
@@ben_1the concept of a "well regulated militia" is older. We had this before "Republique Helvetique". So, the 2nd amandment is copy paste of our idea to form a military power
We are very proud of our country with 4 completely different languages, climate zones and mentality. Apart from these diversities, we all feel one thing in common. We are Swiss ❤
The map shown in the video is wrong several times, eg not showing Vaud as part of Switzerland after Bern took it from Savoy, or showing St Gallen's Bishopric, Valais, or Graubunden as being part of the old swiss confederacy. While overall the video is pretty good at explaining the formation of the country in barely 10 minutes, the geographical expansion is a lot more complex than what can be shown in such limited format. It also gives the impression that the old swiss confederacy (pre-Helvetic Republic after Napoléon's invasion) was some sort of unified country, which is very far from true. It was more of a very loose alliance of valleys and cities, which every now and then even went to war with each other. Cantons even had the right to form alliances with foreign powers and indeed that's for example how Geneva came into the sphere of influence of the confederacy, as the city sought to fend off the Savoy attempts to annex it by forming an alliance not with the old swiss confederacy as a whole since that wasn't possible, but first with Fribourg, then with Bern, then broke off with Fribourg due to the reformation, then added Zurich.
I think this video tried to simply things, but in doing so wandered into the trap of misinformation. The real history of Switzerland (like most other nations) cannot be accurately explained in 11 minutes.
Actually the official name of Switzerland is the Helvetican Confederation. It's named for an ancient Germanic tribe that had occupied the area during the Roman Empire. The official languages are German, French, Italian and Romansh (sometimes called Rhaeto-Romansh). Romansh is considered the closest spoken language to classical Latin. And because of how the Constitution is written, the President of the Helvetican Confederation consists of a committee to f 7 people from the different parties that make up the governing coalition, and the Head of State is the rotated amongst them.
Great video, I would add the wars against the duke of Burgundy Charles the Bold around 1475, when Swiss peasants were able to defeat the back then most modern and professional army of Europe in three major battles.
Fun fact. Canton Bern and Jura still have beef with each other and there ia still a disagreement over land between those candons to this day since Bern were kinda bullies back in the day
I find references to conflicts between Switzerland and Austria a bit misleading. Conflict was between the confederation and the Habsburg family. Conflict with Austria would not make sense otherwise as they were quite far from each other at the time (see for instance th-cam.com/video/cji4eIQiSQk/w-d-xo.html). Same with tensions with the Holy Roman Empire; it can at least partially be explained by the strong influence the Habsburg family had over the centuries on the Empire
He missed the origin of the conflict, and of Switzerland itself: The Habsburgs were at the time regional rulers living in Habsburg Castle in what is now Aargau, Switzerland. After the regionally predominant Zaehringer dynasty died out, the Habsburgs inherited their lands and tried to renege on customary rights and enforce a more direct rule. The Urkantone rebelled against this overreach, and when the mighty merchant cities joined in, were able to expel the Habsbugs from their castle and from Switzerland altogether.
Wikipedia in French describes this well. Actually, it says the Habsburg extended their possession to Austria, so mentioning only Austria is misleading. But the overview is good, thanks.
its made for Americans, most cant find Austria on a map from Africa, so family names of Europeans dont matter for them...and the context is lost on them anyway!
To further establish your point, it is very interesting that in the Schwabenkrieg (swabian war), the confederacy explicitly stated that they were not at war with the HRE, but only with the Duke of Tirol (who was of the house of habsburg). This fact was confirmed by both sides when signing the peace treaty.
You forgot to mention this: The Old Swiss Confederacy was once a Peasant Republic (German: Bauernrepublik). Similar to a People's Republic, but rather than being authoritarian, the peasants in a Peasant Republic actually enjoyed more freedom than the average nation at the time. Royal powers were also weak in a Peasant Republic.
Just wondering which map you used to show todays borders. Just check it out - the area east of Basel and south of the river Rhein is part of Switzerland since 1803. Before it belonged to Habsburg/Austria.
Not bad for a short description of 8 hundred years of rather complex history. Kind regardsfrom an allamannic Swiss from St. Gallen (which was at the same time part of the swiss confedracy and part of the holy roman empire until the conquest by Napoleon). Things are usually a bit complicated aren't they?
Avec le drapeau de la Savoie dès le début de la vidéo 😂. Bon c'est pas très faux dans le fait que les Etats de Savoie s'étendait de Zurich à Jérusalem lors de leur apogée.
Important fun fact skipped over here: from 1512 to 1515 (Marignano), the Swiss Confederation controlled the duchy of Milan, which was like two or three times bigger than Switzerland at that time. After 1515, Switzerland was allowed to keep Ticino (not part of the duchy, I think), which is why part of Switzerland speaks Italian today
It was Napoleon Bonaparte that gave to the CH the canton Ticino, that’s why the flag of Ticino is red & blue. As the flag from the city of Paris. Even more a fun fact, still today (15.08) we celebrate at Ponto Valentino the Swiss mercenaries “working” the French army.
@@zenaidabrand if that was a real story , William Tell would have shot an arrow thru his son's head and not the apple 😳😱😵. Like Robin Hood , there is always a conjecture to spread a classic story . A tragically you can't make a sell .
Im irish but have lived in Switzerland. Very peaceful country. Really is so clean and efficient. Only slight negative is that it can be a little boring , but that of course , depends on you.
I partly agree. For foreigners it can seem boring because in switzerland we are still a very closed community. We have some friends an that's enough. We don't try to get more friends especially when they don't talk swissgerman.
It's so funny to hear all this again! Because as a swiss citizen, I had to learn all this in school! Really cool to see non swiss people being so interested in our history!
Good work and well made . Please note : Switzerland is small .Only 41285 square Kilometers not square Miles . That means Swiss territoy would cover about half the size of Lake Superior .
7:53 : the Swiss constitution was not modeled after the USA’s one, but after the one Napoleon had modelled for Switzerland and based on the French one. So is the Swiss Franc, the money…
No swiss exist, artafical nation, 50% are germany, 20 italian 20 french and 10 everbody else, not a nation state and no swiss people exist what is an ethnic swiss lol hahha
Bravo! What a great overview, thank you! To the commenters who wanted more details....you can probably find it in a video 2-3x as long. Let's enjoy this for what it is. Could you really have done better? :)
This makes me homesick. I'm German, but have been living half of my life in Switzerland. I miss it dearly, but there is no way back now. This is good though, sounds pretty accurate to what I've learned in school
Correction: Swiss Area measures 41,285 km² NOT 41,285 square miles. Imperial units are confusing to everyone and are about as useful as a second butt hole on your shoulder.
This is air surface! Imagine you stretch out flat all the mountains...the surface would couver a big extent of Europe! (Holland has almost no mountains, so the air surface is equal the land surface)
Love the summary of this history. I have a vacation house in the Haure Savoie and live in the Netherlands where the Savoy family visited a lot. Do you have video on them too?
Actually, the Barthassat family, who live at Croix du Rozon on the border with France were smuggling Jews to safety. Luc, the grandson is a friend, he has served on the Council Federal as a representative for the canton he would later go on to be chancellor if, Geneva. I am still against the expression 'Nazi Gold', as that party was around for only about 20 years, where as gold has been a valued commodity for around 6000 years. But think what you will. It is still illegal to do the Nazi salute...and I know that the political history of this country, as well as every other is steeped in central bank influence.
As a fellow Swiss i really liked this Video ❤ i had to laugh a bit when the names of the Kanton were missspelled a little, but hey you tried your best 😅
Proud of being of Swiss descent, proud of my family and this great country, I learnt the language (German and Swiss-German) and I hope I can go live to the place of my ancestors soon, Aargau. I don't claim to be a Swiss yet, I think there are many things I need to learn to claim that but I'll be surely proud to claim such a thing in a recent future. Stolz uf d'Schwiiz🇨🇭 Liebi Grüess uus Italie🇮🇹, I chume aber eigentlech uus Argentinie🇦🇷.
It's funny how in our beggining, we f*cked up the Augsburgs, one of the dynasties that would become one of the most important and most powerful in European history, at least 3 times...
One of the funniest things about Swiss history to me is that they actually conquered the original hometown of the Austrian Habsburgs, and to this day Habsburg castle is in Switzerland
Oh yeah, I drove past many times... it's pretty small, lol. You wouldn't think of it as the "home" of one of if not the most influential aristocratic dynasties in european history.
@@mysterioanonymous3206 Well, Habsburg castle is small because it was their home long before the family did become a rich and powerful dynasty in Europe. Habsburg castle is a dark, cold and windy place. It is easy to imagine how life there was connected with many hardships. No place to be for ambitious noblemen when there are other options later on... 😉
Yes, because the Habsburgs were Swiss originally.
@@thomaspfister3826Also because a good portion of the castle was destroyed
@@LodrikBadric "Swiss" only by moderns standards, because back then didnt exist any sense of nationality.
Might be interesting to add that the Habsburgs were originally counts of Aargau, just between Zurich and Basel, and became dukes of Austria later. So, at first, it was mostly a local clash about nobility, cities and mountain communities' rights and privileges...
Wow , I didn’t know that
and who's banging who and....
"Habsburg" was founded by "Swabian" nobility and they only called themself Habsburg after they built tha nice little castle
@@ddrumma872 the important word here was "local". The count of Aargau (not the duke of Austria) thought he had some ruling rights over the region.
And well... banging in the medieval time (and afterwards) was probably the best way for a dynasty to expand... and the Habsburgs were very good at banging the right heiress over and over.
@@ddrumma872 The Swabians invented the Q-Tip.
What is the difference between a Duke and a Count?@@francoisdebellefroid2268
Shout-out to our friends and neighbours in Liechtenstein.
You are not forgotten.
...and don't lick a stein.
i went there, passed thru it with barley noticing it, i had to make a u-turn for my hotel!
@@Arltratlonavigation broken?
Lichtenstein also borders on Switzerland and a country is a country no matter how small. Horton the Elephant taught me that.
Can I know, why Liechtenstein exist, and not being a part of the Switzerland?
@@SiPakRubah Lichtenstein is the last remaining principality from the old Holy Roman Empire and the German Confederation. It was decided it would be independent at the Congress of Vienna and the Austrian Empire would provide protection for it given its small size. Basically guaranteed the borders and ran the mail service. After WW I Switzerland took over that part but Lichtenstein remained independent.
L
In the words of Jim Trot, NO NO NO, YES!
@@SiPakRubah why do you exist and are not just part of your mother?
The thing I like about Switzerland is how it was formed bottom-up and not top-down, meaning that local authorities - so very near to the local population - decided to get together. So everything was done at the best interest of the local economies. This led to a country where direct democracy is a must. Everything starts from the single citizen.
Unfortunately, most countries have been formed top-down, where a rich and powerful person conquers over the will of other people for his own interest. That's why many of the countries around the word are not democracies or just fake democracies.
This is what we are trying to emulate in AJK. The 'Free' (Azad) part of the State of Jammu & Kashmir.
Do you think that It is really so?
@@joseaguilera7793 Please elaborate your doubts.
@@TanveerAhmed Now this land as others, is very different. There are too much power structures that create influence over people minds.
The social behaviour is like in other countries, maybe, obviously, in other level, but similar.
Totzdem ich bevorzuge die Schweiz.
Yes, but there is not much of that left. And no, I will not spread my doubts before you. It is my homeland, for which it is increasingly necessary to fight. The countries are becoming more and more like-minded - and this all the way down to the municipal levels. Anyone who has already experienced this unpleasant touch will not forget it.
My teacher avidly taught us Swiss history all the way from the Rütlischwur. He even took us to the Rütliwiese and Tell theater play on field trips. Best memories of school
And what about Italian Switzerland? Southern Switzerland speaks Italian.
the Rütlischwür was in 1. august 1291
Please tell me this was decades ago.
The Rütlischwur did never happen, and the Rütliwiese starts beeing relevant in 1941 as part of the Geistige Landesverteidigung but has no actual history before that date.
@@CG-eh6oe
Oh right, just like the moon landing and 9/11 never ackchually happened. It was all a plot by Jewish Lizardmen
Many old nations have some kind of legend they believe in. Why shouldn't we have one?@@CG-eh6oe
As a Swiss, i appreciate your efforts, thank you! 🇨🇭
I’m Dutch but love the cheese the knife the watches and waterfalls..(took a train through Switzerland from Amsterdam to Roma) and of course the history!
i am North German and i like to drive my motorbike thru the Swiss mountains!
@@Arltratlo 😁👍
Im a swiss and one of my good friends is a dutch\
Ik ben ook Nederlands
Even as a very well informed Swiss, I learned something new about our history, great! :)
Same! Schöne Rütlischwur an di :P
Y'all gay
Really? And how about omitting the history of Röstigraben and Polentagraben/ Ticino? How did they find their way into Switzerland? Have ypu learnt about it from the video?
@@shivanshsinghiitbombay8407 wow. Just wow.
if the video uploader would have paid more attention he would have realized switzerland is not 41m2 but 41km2.
It‘s a bit sad you didn‘t mentionned the burgundian wars. They were essential to form the bonds between the cantons.
he missed many parts, skipped back and fourth, had some misinformation and mixed up maps from different times. but hey, good efffort.
Agreed, I think the Burgundian wars are a vital part of Swiss history.
Exactly. Furthermore the case of Ticino and Bern occupying (now) western part of CH.
Yeah I agree, the burgundian wars and the transalpine campaigns are really important for the development of Switzerland
Ditto.
Great Video, thank you a lot!
Maybee an important thing to add to the civil war (Sonderbundskrieg) in 1847. In this war less than 100 people died and roughly about 500 were wounded. This was mainly because General Dufour really wanted to unify the counrty and focus on humanitarian principles during the fights.
He famously said: "We must emerge from this struggle not only victorious but also without reproach."
I see why they named a mountain after him.
The skilled mercenaries that got put into service in any surrounding areas that were fighting with each other also played a major role in the early days of the swiss independence.
Indeed. This is excpecially relevant after 1521, when the confedercy signed contracts to lend its mercenaries exclusivly to france. Its pretty easy to stay "indepedent" if you promise to fight for the strongest country in the area.
Fun fact: our last mercenaries were in Canada
As a swiss, i find this video absolutely interesting and glorious. Well done! 🙂🇨🇭
STFU Swiss wyt can’t
As a Swiss, this Video is full of only half correct information and throwing together some facts to try and tell a sorty 🌚
I'm gonna stay neutral to that information
@@robertobokarev439😂😂
En tant que savoyard je remarque qu'il est indiqué le drapeau de la Savoie dès le début de la vidéo 😂.
Bon il est vrai que les Etats de Savoie s'étendait de Zurich à Jérusalem lors de son apogée ☝️.
When people asked me or talked to me about Swiss Neutrality, I would explain to them that it is brought upon by their rich military history, particularly their military disasters and military challenges that led to them being neutral.
Neutral towards nazis = nazi collaborators. Also the "swiss" are notoriously xenophobic in general lmao
2 military disasters to be exact.
The Battle of Marignano and the Conquest of Switzerland by Napoleon. Switzerland was declared neutral tho. They just realized, that neutrality is pretty gucci.
That's insightful.
By refusing to again send expeditionary armies outside their borders in the 1840s they became less of a paranoid threat to expeditionary kingdoms and states surrounding them.
By becoming international no questions asked bankers and having no great stores of mineral raw materials or croplands they pretty well secured mutual protection from invasion.
As to making a US style constitution work, that is shown in the handshake icon of this video. Once the religious wars settled down post Napoleon, they found themselves to be a fairly homogeneous peoples. Such a loose government federated structure only works well as a club's rules.
Switzerland did not have millions of slaves imported to them by pre republic colonial masters...nor continue such a practice. They do not have open unchecked immigration borders which cause natural demographic strife.
Moreover since such a constitution is not designed to run foreign British, Russian or Roman style foreign wars...they didn't get stuck as world police.
Fake. You fund the wars. Who’s going to attack the cowards who pay the violence?
Switzerland 🇨🇭 is one of the most beautiful countries in the world 🌎
New Zealand is better.
I personally like the Moon.
As a Swiss I also think so, we only have no access to the Mediterranian Sea.
@@RolandodellaValle you have many lakes 🇨🇭 and not far from Mediterranean 🥰
I am American and I love the beauty of the Berner oberland region and lake Geneva wow
@@Tamar-sz8ox you are right, we have in the southern part two lakes with mediterranian climate and the mediterranian sea is two hours away from Switzerland.
Very well done, and thoroughly made, congrats. Sorry, geek alarm: 41285 square kilometers, not miles, otherwise we would be bigger than Iceland, which is unfortunately not true.
I think a big part of the reason for Swiss unification is that by the 18th century the rise of the modern nation states around it. France in the 17th century was involved in wars with most of its neighbors and military involved in Italy. At that time England was unified and a major power, France was unified and in conflict with England, Italy, and the Holly Roman Empire were still divided into multiple semi autonomous entities and struggled with mixed alliances internally, therefore making it hard for them to fend off the advances of unified France. It should be noted that that the Dutch were similar to the Swiss, they were very organized, very determined to be autonomous and a major force in the world far beyond their size and small population. By the 19th century the Italians and Germans would both unify shortly after the unification of the Swiss. The German unification upset the balance of power in Europe to such a degree that England and France became close allies to oppose it. So by 1871 the Swiss had three powerful unified nation states on their boarders, only the Austrian Hungarian Empire was still a coalition of states as a political entity and that would be dissolved at the end of WW I. But the existence of these bordering nation states did not happen overnight, it was long in its evolution and had to be a concern for the Swiss long before it occurred.
Also the other incentive for the Swiss to unify was the inclusion of the Ottoman Empire into Europe. in the 18th century the Ottomans sieged Vienna, which was not far from the boarders of Switzerland. This mush have been a great concern for the Swiss and a factor in the desire for closer ties among its constituent parts.
One last factor was economic. With the rise of the modern nation state a unified currency for a nation greatly facilitated economic growth, also a unified country spoke with a more unified voice to other economic entities in order to achieve its economic interests. The Swiss must have depended heavily on trade and economic activity with their neighbors, much like the Dutch. Being neutral in a continent which constantly had various wars and political struggles gave the Swiss the opportunity of being a safe haven and go between for economic and political agendas.
Living as a German in Switzerland and being a bit critical about certain aspects, I still see it as a example how nation building works, what it needs, what are the challenges and how to bring so different people with different languages together for such a long time.
Answer: Money
a so called "Gummihals"
There is always the option to imply bad or improper intentions. That sounds more realistic, but if it would be true, reality would look different. Switzerland was very poor and it was the pressure from outside which bring them together. But there is also a culture of respect to other opinions and needs as well as a healthy sense of responsibility for your life. That is not the case in all cultures.
@@RagnarBaldursson Die Aspekte wurden ja benannt. Also, worauf bezieht sich die Frage?
@@user-unos111 For most of its history, it was a poor country of mountain farmers...
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War between the Brazilian Empire🇧🇷 and the Reign of the River Plate (Argentina🇦🇷) over the territory of Cisplatina ( now Uruguay🇺🇾)
The war between the 2🇧🇷🇦🇷was indefinite, as neither managed to annex the eastern platinum territory as it was called due to the intervention of the British Empire
Your video would be interesting🤩
Great global understanding of historic changes, well put into a very clear animation, rare quality seen on YT, the author made here a great job, thank you!
this is so interesting to me. My great grandmother came from the Canton of Bern when she was 11 with her family in 1885. someday I hope to see the town she was born in high up in the mountains near france.
You must go !
It is possible that the town your grandma came from is now in Canton Jura as this resulted from the independence of the french speaking part of Canton Bern from this Canton.
Close to France are in the Jura Mountains(JU) which more like the Adirondacks and not the Alps, so not really that high up in the Mountains but more like rolling hills, many Anabaptists, Amish and Mennonites( Hirschi-Hershey) who later moved to USA were banned to the Jura(refusing military service) mountains from the Emmental. Today there is a new Francophone Canton on the Border to France its the Canton of Jura. You might also use the family names and go into the Archives of the Mormons in Salt Lake city, this archives have all the facts of every European country. My oldest ancestor I found in the archives in Salt Lake city( Bénédict Bangerter, from Lyss) was archived in the 16th century in the Town of Lyss.
@@Braun30 That's right, it's my case too, my family comes from Haute-Ajoie and at that time it belonged to Bern, the Old Jura called it. In fact my family, the Riats, were quite well-known separatists. Despite this, my great-great-grandfather married a beautiful lady from Bern and they had my great-grandfather..I am from Argentina, here there was a great Swiss immigration.
I admire the Cantonese.
My mom's dad ancestors. They came to America in the 1700's fleeing Catholic persecution. The anabaptist or Swiss Brethren that migrated to the German Palatine area then to Pennsylvania at the invitation of of William Penn into Lancaster County Pennsylvania. My ancestors were Hans Meili, Rev. Hans Herr, Overhotlz, Barr, Kendig famiies....Meili name morphed into Miley which now span the whole of America..Thanks for the video.
Stauffer from Canton Bern. Exact same story! Settled in Montgomery Co.
They also fled from the Protestants or simply from church leaders obsessed with power.
Same with my ancestors. Herr, Hess, and Miller.
Thank you for this. As a proud swiss woman I did not know all about the nitty gritty of switzerlands history!
You have no idea what to expect if you dive deeper.
00:46 41,285 square kilometers*. in sq miles it'd be 15,940 sq mi. 00:09 Its also bordered by Liechtenstein. however, a very nice video, I learned a lot from this video. The animations you use in your videos are very beautiful. i'd appreciate if you share as to which software you use to make these animations. Thank you 🙂
As a Swiss, with roots back to the 16th century, I can call this summary very good, considering the time. Of course, many more arguments and reasons are missing. But for this, many hours of clarification would be necessary. Conclusion; well done!
well at the end of the day most swiss germans are swabians that moved down south from modern Germany, you can trace this back with family & genes as well
We Swiss became a Superpower in the Middle Age! We defeated the Austrians many Times and we defeated even the Burgundarians in the Burgundarian Wars (back then they had the Most Modern Army in Europe.... And we defeated them in 3-4 Battles...)
After this war we became a Superpower in Europe and our Battletactics dominated the Battlefields of Europe for 200-300 Years..... And the Swiss Mercenaries became very Popular in Europe.
Greetings from Switzerland 🇨🇭👋
You cucked the Thracian barbarians too! Respect 🫡
Thank you for the very interesting and informative short history of how Switzerland came to be, the type of Government the people adopted. Being in Europe with it's long history it is complicated but you did a great job sorting it all out. Most of us are history short minded to be sure, this presentation was made so it was easy to follow along.
I lived a time of my life in Switzerland. Beautiful country and real democratic system.
Well some major flaws in this video. I'm not gonna explain to much, I will just list the biggest mistakes chronologically.
-The Reformation in Switzerland is mostly considered separate to Luther and he did not have much influence in Switzerland, especially after his big dispute with Zwingli. He was mostly influenced by Erasmus of Rotterdam. Everything is in his surviving diaries and letter with Erasmus etc. And even form Erasmus he is considered mostly independent. No clue why there is a picture of the Ninety-five Theses, those had barely anything to do with any part of Swiss reformation.
-The Sonderbund War was not e religious war of catholics against protestants. Yes the seven cantons that made the Sonderbund "Special Alliance" were catholic but it was not because of religion. It was radical conservative who wanted it the old way against the rest, mostly radical progressive liberals, ( those therms meant completely different things in the 1840s than today so don't start any annoying shit) And there were even catholic Cantons on the other sides.
-Yes the last total revision of the Swiss Constitution was in 1999, because I don't know it seams necessary to go over your complete constitution every couple decades you know to go with the times and shit. But it is altered every year, if not multiple times every year. In Switzerland there is something called directed democracy and a Popular initiative which amends the federal constitution and are voted on four times a year.
Yes, and the video also fails to highlight how it could remain a state throughout time. Military power was important but not the reason Switzerland survived as a country. This is particularly true for the 20th century with 2 word wars. This is not so much that they didn’t opt in but more that they were not dragged in. And the reason for that is not mentioned at all.
Cool video but fails to address crucial points
0:08 poor Liechtenstein always forgotten
It is basicaly a swiss canton thou
That's what I wax going to say
@@-U-P- Never. It is as you'd say that switzerland is basicly a region of germany, france or italy.
@@RamonWalther No that's a bad comparison because Liechtenstein is so much more dependen on Switzerland(army,currency, place to give birth) then Switzerland is on Germany or France. So Liechtenstein is basically like a canton with its own foreign policy.
" poor Liechtenstein always forgotten" Not by the rich who want to avoid paying tax its not & its not poor
Switzerland has a very interesting history!
Great informative video. Showing all aspects of the formation of Switzerland.
Altough I really hoped to hear about the "Morgarten" battle as this is to this day there are many controversis about it some saying it just a battle like many other while others saying its one of the most important battle for the swiss against the habsburger.
Outnumbered swiss won against.a double sized opponent with new an brutal strategy which made evryone fear the swiss around that time.
Tbh not mentioning Moorgarten was probably smart as there is barely anything know about the battle, we have neither solid archeological evidence nor written reports so wasting time in an already short video just to say "there may or may not have been this battle" would be a bad decision.
@@CG-eh6oeThis is incorrect. There are (and allways) were various prooved sources about the size (about 10'000 troopes) and the losses (about 2500) of the Habsburg army at the battle of Morgarten written down in the family cronic of the Habsburg nobles who lost their lifes during this battle.
The reason why they never found till recently artifacts of the battle was because they were never looking for (and also because it is pritty normal not to found anything after such a long time also on other battles in history).
It's mainly Swiss historian who intend to scandilies things in a populistic way with the intention to 'demystifies' history.
In this light they claimed this battle never happened even the evidence shows different.
After a popular historien claimed again that the battle never happened but even there would be soething, they probably just boxing to each other.
Another historien then was searching with a TV crew from Swiss TV SRF for artifacts and just after a view minutes he found several swords and other hisorical pieces of the battle.
Easy to find on internet when searching for it.
I am Greek and I am happy to live in Switzerland. I love Switzerland more than Greece!!!!
Funny im born in switzerland, lived here 27 years, now i live in Zakynthos greece 😂
@@atmageorge you too :D. I just love the weather, nature and the sea here
The periode called "expansion time" in this video wasn't just a military expansion or conquest. Some areas, like Appenzell in the south of the Lake of Constance, willingly joined the confederacy as they were in conflict with the neighboring monastery of St. Gallen and its allied noblemen.
Switzerland is formed due to the African plate subduing the European plate. 😂
It is noticable that you guys did your researched well before creating this video, which is rare for foreignors.
I specially loved that you used our formal name.
It's also noteworthy that swiss civil wars after the protestant reformation had low casualties. Noone died during the first war of kappel and only around a 100 people died during the war of the Sonderbund. It was also won in less than a month.
The ‘war’ was nothing of the such..in reality it was more of a skirmish. As for foreigners doing their research..well, the Swiss like to airbrush their history, my fathers generation propagated the myth of Swiss neutrality and heroism in ww2 but their countries shameful behaviour was exposed by foreigners,particularly regarding the Swiss banks .
@@confiseur Switzerland wasn't perfect in WW2, but compared to other countries, still pretty innocent. It was an achievement not to get incorporated into NAZI Germany as e.g. Austria, that simply got "anschlussed". Swiss banks as any other capitalistic company primary want and wanted to make profits, they aren't ethical or moral institutions; any other bank on this planet would have acted the same way. According to Sun Zi an attacker takes cost and benefit into account: Switzerland raised the cost by heavily investing into the Swiss Armed Forces in WWII: Infantry bunkers, artillery fortresses all over the place; highest mobilisation rate on planet Earth during the period (total resistance mode), but also lowered the benefit of an attack, e.g. by allowing some transports, and delivering some goods to NAZI Germany (Germany was also the main trading partner in the pre-war period). Switzerland didn’t cooperate with the NAZIS it simply did what was necessary to make the ratio for an attack unattractive. You can call that behavior shameful or cowardly, but acting very differently would have simply ended the existence of Switzerland.
I visited Switzerland back in the days 🇨🇭. What a beautiful country!
Love from the Arab world ❤️🇨🇭
Arab world? Why not earth world?
@@astra6712coz he's most probably Arab?
As a Swiss…you did a good job! 👍👍🇨🇭🍫
Nicely done. Warriors at heart, I wish more could've been said of Swiss mercenaries and their influence abroad!
NOTE: Swiss consitution was not "modeled" on US constitution. May have taken some inspiration, but both stem from older/stronger backbone of French Revolution (Montesquieu, Toqueville) and UK thinkers (Locke and Hobbes).
The idea is actually much older than that. The germanic tribes already lived in a "democratic" way. They voted in a Ting (gathering of the people) a chief of the tribe and in case he screwed up they took him down.
i' ve learned more from this video as in the whole history class in 3. and 4. degree of going to school in switzerland ! thanks for this amazing video! i'm proud to be swiss 🇨🇭🇨🇭
You may have learned more from this video, but at least the things you learned in school were probably correct while the stuff told here is partially Hafechäs.
You haven't learned it because there wasn't anything to learn. In our history class in Switzerland we got mostly teached about napoleon.
Love
Schweiz-Svizzera-Suisse
From Italy ❤
as a Swiss myself this is very interesting because I'm horrible when it comes to history and this is very informative to me.
Also, I love the fact that at 1:53 I can tell just by looking at the lakes outside of the 3 first cantons where which part will be later on.
Feeling lucky to live in Switzerland. Best place in Europe!
After Italia 🎉
@@rubenangelvarisco9719 Haha😂
🤦🏻♂️
@@rubenangelvarisco9719nice troll
Went to switzerland in 2021 and can say it is in my top 3 favorite countries so far, can't wait to visit it again.
American here for 34 years after leaving San Francisco in the 80s. I love it, know every canton, and really love the 4 different language regions. Switzerland is about the size of West Virginia, where I also lived, so getting around is really easy and culturally deep. Was born in New Jersey and then it was, Idaho, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maine, Colorado, Oregon, Colorado again, Washington, & California. This 11 minute video was really informative and a pleasure to watch, although I do not alot about it.
A comment on the map, the Graubünden included what today is italian territory, the Valtellina was handed over to Lombardy after the Versailles Treaty.
Concise, clear, informative, useful. Thanks... A LOT! 👍
08:55 please don't forget that swiss german is a dialect that is spoken instead of german. swiss can adapt to the "high" german. it actually gets really complicated that in the 26 cantons not only a different language is spoken, but also her own different dialect ;-)
Also "swiss" high german is also different to "german" high german. We use instead of some german words, french or italian words which are called Helvetism. We don't have the letter ß in our alphabet, instead we use a double S. Not only is swiss german different, even the "right" german is different.
Swiss german is not a dialect, it has many dialects within. And the grammar, although not written down, has celtic influence that is not present in high German.
1891 wasnt a war between Kathlics and protestants, more that the liberals (industrials) wanted a easier trade between the cantons, the conservatives wanted to maintain their influence through the church. That's how we learned it in school in Switzerland ;) it transformed from a confederation to a united state through Guillaume-Henri Dufour, who at first didn't even want to interfere in the conflict. He knew that war among brothers is ugly. When he saw that there was no better leader available, ended the war with minimum casualties, because he was aware that swiss people still had to live united in the future. And he has beaten the conservatives by taking lucerne for the liberals. and made the other states capitulate.
You mean 1847.
incorrect: the beginning of USA was modeled after Switzerlands' model. one was the officially organized, trained etc. effective militia what focused completely on defending instead of invading by force other countries. later on USA changed their constitution and military structure with focus of invading instead of defending
So the American constitution, written in 1787, was modelled after the Swiss constitution, written in 1848?
The Swiss constituiton took in fact a lot of inspiration from the American one, and improved on it. For example, having a council of 7 members as the executive instead of a single president.
@@ben_1the concept of a "well regulated militia" is older. We had this before "Republique Helvetique". So, the 2nd amandment is copy paste of our idea to form a military power
@@ben_1 1291... 1848 is like an update
We are very proud of our country with 4 completely different languages, climate zones and mentality. Apart from these diversities, we all feel one thing in common. We are Swiss ❤
The map shown in the video is wrong several times, eg not showing Vaud as part of Switzerland after Bern took it from Savoy, or showing St Gallen's Bishopric, Valais, or Graubunden as being part of the old swiss confederacy. While overall the video is pretty good at explaining the formation of the country in barely 10 minutes, the geographical expansion is a lot more complex than what can be shown in such limited format.
It also gives the impression that the old swiss confederacy (pre-Helvetic Republic after Napoléon's invasion) was some sort of unified country, which is very far from true. It was more of a very loose alliance of valleys and cities, which every now and then even went to war with each other. Cantons even had the right to form alliances with foreign powers and indeed that's for example how Geneva came into the sphere of influence of the confederacy, as the city sought to fend off the Savoy attempts to annex it by forming an alliance not with the old swiss confederacy as a whole since that wasn't possible, but first with Fribourg, then with Bern, then broke off with Fribourg due to the reformation, then added Zurich.
I think this video tried to simply things, but in doing so wandered into the trap of misinformation. The real history of Switzerland (like most other nations) cannot be accurately explained in 11 minutes.
Very professionally done. I've been there three times, but only briefly. Welcome from LA.
Actually the official name of Switzerland is the Helvetican Confederation. It's named for an ancient Germanic tribe that had occupied the area during the Roman Empire. The official languages are German, French, Italian and Romansh (sometimes called Rhaeto-Romansh). Romansh is considered the closest spoken language to classical Latin. And because of how the Constitution is written, the President of the Helvetican Confederation consists of a committee to f 7 people from the different parties that make up the governing coalition, and the Head of State is the rotated amongst them.
The proper motto of Switzerland it's in Latin
The Helvetii were not Germanic. Rather, they were a Celtic tribe consisting of 4 sub-tribes that lived in what is now the Swiss Mittelland region.
helveti were celtic not germanic
Not bad for a short overview of Swiss history. I have to admit it was pretty funny how you pronounced certain names, though.
I agree about the hilarious name pronunciations....
This is a certified Swiss classic.
Good job 👍
Yes! This is something that has kept me awake at night for years.
Great video, I would add the wars against the duke of Burgundy Charles the Bold around 1475, when Swiss peasants were able to defeat the back then most modern and professional army of Europe in three major battles.
Fun fact. Canton Bern and Jura still have beef with each other and there ia still a disagreement over land between those candons to this day since Bern were kinda bullies back in the day
Great video!
Ticino not even being mentioned is such a swiss thing to do
I find references to conflicts between Switzerland and Austria a bit misleading. Conflict was between the confederation and the Habsburg family. Conflict with Austria would not make sense otherwise as they were quite far from each other at the time (see for instance th-cam.com/video/cji4eIQiSQk/w-d-xo.html). Same with tensions with the Holy Roman Empire; it can at least partially be explained by the strong influence the Habsburg family had over the centuries on the Empire
He missed the origin of the conflict, and of Switzerland itself: The Habsburgs were at the time regional rulers living in Habsburg Castle in what is now Aargau, Switzerland. After the regionally predominant Zaehringer dynasty died out, the Habsburgs inherited their lands and tried to renege on customary rights and enforce a more direct rule. The Urkantone rebelled against this overreach, and when the mighty merchant cities joined in, were able to expel the Habsbugs from their castle and from Switzerland altogether.
Wikipedia in French describes this well. Actually, it says the Habsburg extended their possession to Austria, so mentioning only Austria is misleading. But the overview is good, thanks.
its made for Americans, most cant find Austria on a map from Africa, so family names of Europeans dont matter for them...and the context is lost on them anyway!
To further establish your point, it is very interesting that in the Schwabenkrieg (swabian war), the confederacy explicitly stated that they were not at war with the HRE, but only with the Duke of Tirol (who was of the house of habsburg). This fact was confirmed by both sides when signing the peace treaty.
Thanks for the video !
You forgot to mention this: The Old Swiss Confederacy was once a Peasant Republic (German: Bauernrepublik). Similar to a People's Republic, but rather than being authoritarian, the peasants in a Peasant Republic actually enjoyed more freedom than the average nation at the time. Royal powers were also weak in a Peasant Republic.
Total respect to the research of freedom from the Swiss that create their country more than lords or cultural uniformity.
Interesting, certainly has a unique history
Well done!
Thank you from a Swiss in Arizona
Just wondering which map you used to show todays borders. Just check it out - the area east of Basel and south of the river Rhein is part of Switzerland since 1803. Before it belonged to Habsburg/Austria.
Very well made and concise summary
Not bad for a short description of 8 hundred years of rather complex history. Kind regardsfrom an allamannic Swiss from St. Gallen (which was at the same time part of the swiss confedracy and part of the holy roman empire until the conquest by Napoleon). Things are usually a bit complicated aren't they?
Avec le drapeau de la Savoie dès le début de la vidéo 😂.
Bon c'est pas très faux dans le fait que les Etats de Savoie s'étendait de Zurich à Jérusalem lors de leur apogée.
Important fun fact skipped over here: from 1512 to 1515 (Marignano), the Swiss Confederation controlled the duchy of Milan, which was like two or three times bigger than Switzerland at that time.
After 1515, Switzerland was allowed to keep Ticino (not part of the duchy, I think), which is why part of Switzerland speaks Italian today
It was Napoleon Bonaparte that gave to the CH the canton Ticino, that’s why the flag of Ticino is red & blue. As the flag from the city of Paris. Even more a fun fact, still today (15.08) we celebrate at Ponto Valentino the Swiss mercenaries “working” the French army.
One of my favourite countries ❤️
Very, very good analysis - and in such a short video!
The tale of William Tell was one of my favorite story.
Fairy-tale yes😅
@@zenaidabrand if that was a real story , William Tell would have shot an arrow thru his son's head and not the apple 😳😱😵. Like Robin Hood , there is always a conjecture to spread a classic story . A tragically you can't make a sell .
Respect for the mostly perfect pronounciations of our Kantons 👌
Im irish but have lived in Switzerland. Very peaceful country. Really is so clean and efficient. Only slight negative is that it can be a little boring , but that of course , depends on you.
Imo the lakes, different languages and mountains make it anything but boring
I partly agree. For foreigners it can seem boring because in switzerland we are still a very closed community. We have some friends an that's enough. We don't try to get more friends especially when they don't talk swissgerman.
It's so funny to hear all this again! Because as a swiss citizen, I had to learn all this in school! Really cool to see non swiss people being so interested in our history!
When you said "Neuchatel was added in the congress of Vienna", in the map, you also include Jura, which never was a part of Neuchatel.
Neuenburg...
@@Arltratlo yes, "Neuenburg" is the German name and "Neuchatel" the french name
@@Racater1 i know that, been to both at the same time...
@@Arltratloeven swiss germans call it neuchatel
Excellent video .Thank you .
Good work and well made . Please note : Switzerland is small .Only 41285 square Kilometers not square Miles .
That means Swiss territoy would cover about half the size of Lake Superior .
7:53 : the Swiss constitution was not modeled after the USA’s one, but after the one Napoleon had modelled for Switzerland and based on the French one. So is the Swiss Franc, the money…
I'm a proud swiss!!🇨🇭🇨🇭🇨🇭🇨🇭
No swiss exist, artafical nation, 50% are germany, 20 italian 20 french and 10 everbody else, not a nation state and no swiss people exist what is an ethnic swiss lol hahha
Bravo! What a great overview, thank you! To the commenters who wanted more details....you can probably find it in a video 2-3x as long. Let's enjoy this for what it is. Could you really have done better? :)
Switzerland is my most desired country to live outside of the USA. It's a beautiful (but costly) place.
This makes me homesick. I'm German, but have been living half of my life in Switzerland. I miss it dearly, but there is no way back now. This is good though, sounds pretty accurate to what I've learned in school
Correction: Swiss Area measures 41,285 km² NOT 41,285 square miles. Imperial units are confusing to everyone and are about as useful as a second butt hole on your shoulder.
Nicely informative video
0:10 why didn't you mentioned mighty Liechtenstein?
Switzrland is very courageous. It's a small country but a great history. Truly, amzing🇨🇭🇨🇭🇨🇭🇨🇭🇨🇭🇨🇭
As the place where every regime stashed their plunder they managed to avoid joining any major conflict.
Nice Man! Good video
The land mass of Switzerland is 41,000 km² that's 16,000 square miles.
This is air surface!
Imagine you stretch out flat all the mountains...the surface would couver a big extent of Europe! (Holland has almost no mountains, so the air surface is equal the land surface)
Love the summary of this history. I have a vacation house in the Haure Savoie and live in the Netherlands where the Savoy family visited a lot. Do you have video on them too?
They did sell out a group of people to the mustache man in the 1930’s.
What are you talking about?
Actually, the Barthassat family, who live at Croix du Rozon on the border with France were smuggling Jews to safety. Luc, the grandson is a friend, he has served on the Council Federal as a representative for the canton he would later go on to be chancellor if, Geneva.
I am still against the expression 'Nazi Gold', as that party was around for only about 20 years, where as gold has been a valued commodity for around 6000 years. But think what you will. It is still illegal to do the Nazi salute...and I know that the political history of this country, as well as every other is steeped in central bank influence.
Hello there. I have been asking myself that question....but my main question in my life is:
God, why didn't you make me Swiss German?
As a fellow Swiss i really liked this Video ❤ i had to laugh a bit when the names of the Kanton were missspelled a little, but hey you tried your best 😅
Proud of being of Swiss descent, proud of my family and this great country, I learnt the language (German and Swiss-German) and I hope I can go live to the place of my ancestors soon, Aargau. I don't claim to be a Swiss yet, I think there are many things I need to learn to claim that but I'll be surely proud to claim such a thing in a recent future.
Stolz uf d'Schwiiz🇨🇭
Liebi Grüess uus Italie🇮🇹, I chume aber eigentlech uus Argentinie🇦🇷.
Nice! Jetzt muesch nur no Militärdienst leischte und denn wärsch en gmachte Schwiizer 😉 haha schöni grüess usem Aargau👋
This ancient history documentary is like a time machine, except I get to stay on my couch with snacks. Win-win!
You forgot about Liechtenstein at 0:06 ;)
I very much like the geographical visualisation. What GIS tool did you use to make these?
It's funny how in our beggining, we f*cked up the Augsburgs, one of the dynasties that would become one of the most important and most powerful in European history, at least 3 times...
Not only that. The Habsburg actually have Swiss origins. (Aargau)
Cheers for this video. 😃🙏