Switzerland
Switzerland sits at the crossroads of several major European
cultures, which have heavily influenced the country's languages and
cultural practices. Switzerland has four official languages--German,
French, Italian, and Romansch (based on Latin and spoken by a small
minority in the Canton Graubunden). The German spoken is
predominantly a Swiss dialect, but newspapers and some media
broadcasts use High German. Many Swiss speak more than one language.
English is widely spoken, especially among the university educated.
More than 75% of the population lives in the central plain, which
stretches between the Alps and the Jura Mountains and from Geneva in
the southwest to the Rhine River and Lake Constance in the
northeast. Resident foreigners and temporary foreign workers make up
about 21% of the population.
According to the Swiss Federal Office of Statistics, the population
in Switzerland was 7,593,500 at year-end 2007 (up from 7,509,000 at
the start of the year), of which 1,602,000 were resident foreigners.
Three-quarters of this growth was attributable to net immigration,
largely from the European Union. Switzerland naturalized 43,900
persons in 2007, or 6% fewer than in 2006. Roughly 60% of the
foreigners residing in Switzerland are from European Union member
countries, while, another 30% are from non-EU European countries. At
year-end 2006, the largest groups were from Italy (293,000), Serbia
and Montenegro (192,000), Portugal (174,000), Germany (174,000), and
Turkey (74,000).
Almost all Swiss are literate. Switzerland's 12 universities
enrolled 114,961 students in the academic year of 2006-2007, of
which roughly 23% were foreigners. In addition, another 57,181
persons were studying at technical colleges and 42,383 were in other
forms of higher education (e.g., specialized training academies).
About 31% of the population aged 25-64 holds a diploma of higher
learning.
The Constitution guarantees freedom of worship, and the different
religious communities co-exist peacefully.
Switzerland consistently ranks high on quality of life indices,
including per capita income, computer and Internet usage, insurance
coverage, and quality of available health care. For these and many
other reasons, it serves as an excellent test market for businesses
hoping to introduce new products into Europe. |
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Originally inhabited by the Helvetians, or Helvetic Celts, the
territory comprising modern Switzerland came under Roman rule during
the Gallic wars in the 1st century BC and remained a Roman province
until the 4th century AD. Under Roman influence, the population
reached a high level of civilization and enjoyed a flourishing
commerce. Important cities, such as Geneva, Basel, and Zurich, were
linked by military roads that also served as trade arteries between
Rome and the northern tribes.
After the decline of the Roman Empire, Switzerland was invaded by
Germanic tribes from the north and west. Some tribes, such as the
Alemanni in central and northeastern Switzerland, and the
Burgundians, who ruled western Switzerland, settled there. In 800,
the country became part of Charlemagne's empire. It later passed
under the dominion of the Holy Roman emperors in the form of small
ecclesiastic and temporal holdings subject to imperial sovereignty.
With the opening of a new important north-south trade route across
the Alps in the early 13th century, the Empire's rulers began to
attach more importance to the remote Swiss mountain valleys, which
were granted some degree of autonomy under direct imperial rule.
Fearful of the popular disturbances flaring up following the death
of the Holy Roman Emperor in 1291, the ruling families from Uri,
Schwyz, and Unterwalden signed a charter to keep public peace and
pledging mutual support in upholding autonomous administrative and
judicial rule. The anniversary of the charter's signature (August 1,
1291) today is celebrated as Switzerland's National Day.
Between 1315 and 1388 the Swiss Confederates inflicted three
crushing defeats on the Habsburgs, whose aspiration to regional
dominion clashed with Swiss self-determination. During that period,
five other localities (cantons in modern-day parlance) joined the
original three in the Swiss Confederation. Buoyed by their feats,
the Swiss Confederates continuously expanded their borders by
military means and gained formal independence from the Holy Roman
Empire in 1499. Routed by the French and Venetians near Milan in
1515, they renounced expansionist policies. By then the Swiss
Confederation had become a union of 13 localities with a regularly
convening diet administering the subject territories. Swiss
mercenaries continued for centuries to serve in other armies; the
Swiss Guard of the Pope is a vestige of this tradition.
The Reformation led to a division between the Protestant followers
of Zwingli and Calvin in the German and French parts of the country
respectively, and the Catholics. Despite two centuries of civil
strife, the common interest in the joint subject territories kept
the Swiss Confederation from falling apart. The traffic in
mercenaries as well as the alienation between the predominantly
Protestant Swiss and their Catholic neighbors kept the Swiss
Confederation out of the wars of the European powers, which formally
recognized Swiss neutrality in the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. The
Swiss remained neutral during the War of the First Coalition against
revolutionary France, but Napoleon, nonetheless, invaded and annexed
much of the country in 1797-98, replacing the loose confederation
with a centrally governed unitary state.
The Congress of Vienna in 1815 re-established the old confederation
of sovereign states and enshrined Switzerland's status of permanent
armed neutrality in international law. In 1848, after a brief civil
war between Protestant liberals seeking a centralized national state
and Catholic conservatives clinging on to the old order, the
majority of Swiss Cantons opted for a Federal State, modeled in part
on the U.S. Constitution. The Swiss Constitution established a range
of civic liberties and made far-reaching provisions to maintain
cantonal autonomy to placate the vanquished Catholic minority. The
Swiss amended their Constitution extensively in 1874, establishing
federal responsibility for defense, trade, and legal matters, as
well as introducing direct democracy by popular referendum. To this
day, cantonal autonomy and referendum democracy remain trademarks of
the Swiss polity.
Switzerland industrialized rapidly during the 19th century and by
1850 had become the second most industrialized country in Europe
after Great Britain. During World War I serious tension developed
between the German, French, and Italian-speaking parts of the
country, and Switzerland came close to violating its neutrality but
managed to stay out of hostilities. Labor unrest culminating in a
general strike in 1918 marked the interwar period, but in 1937
employers and the largest trade union concluded a formal agreement
to settle disputes peacefully, which governs workplace relations to
the present day. During World War II, Switzerland came under heavy
pressure from the fascist powers, which after the fall of France in
1940 completely surrounded the country. Some political and economic
leaders displayed a mood of appeasement, but a combination of
tactical accommodation and demonstrative readiness to defend the
country helped Switzerland survive unscathed.
The Cold War enhanced the role of neutral Switzerland and offered
the country a way out of its diplomatic isolation after World War
II. Economically, Switzerland integrated itself into the
American-led Western postwar order, but it remained reluctant to
enter supranational bodies. Switzerland did not for many decades
join the United Nations, even though Geneva became host to the UN's
European headquarters and the country played an active role in many
of the UN's specialized agencies. Switzerland also remained aloof in
the face of European integration efforts, waiting until 1963 to join
the Council of Europe. It still remains outside the European Union.
Instead, Switzerland in 1960 helped form the European Free Trade
Area, which did not strive for political union. Following the Cold
War, Switzerland joined the Bretton Woods institutions in 1992 and
finally became a member of the United Nations in 2002. |
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