Switzerland in the Napoleonic era
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During the
In 1803
became cantons with equal rights.The Congress of Vienna of 1815 fully re-established Swiss independence and the European powers agreed to permanently recognise Swiss neutrality. At this time, the territory of Switzerland was increased for the last time, by the new cantons of Valais, Neuchâtel and Geneva.
The
Fall of the Ancien Régime
During the last years of the
However, following the French success in the War of the First Coalition (1792–1797) against the aristocratic armies of Prussia and Austria, the time had come for direct action against the aristocratic Ancien Régime in Switzerland. In 1797, the districts of Chiavenna, Valtellina, and Bormio, dependencies of the Three Leagues (an associate of the Confederation), revolted under the encouragement of France. They were quickly invaded and annexed to the Cisalpine Republic on 10 October 1797. In December of the same year, the Bishopric of Basel was occupied and annexed.[2] On 9 December 1797, Frédéric-César de La Harpe, a member of the Helvetian Club from Vaud, asked France to invade Bern to protect Vaud. Seeing a chance to remove a feudal neighbor and gain Bern's wealth, France agreed.[1] By February 1798, French troops occupied Mulhouse and Biel/Bienne. Meanwhile, another army entered Vaud, and the Lemanic Republic was proclaimed. The Diet broke up in dismay without taking any steps to avert the coming storm. On 5 March, troops entered Bern, deserted by her allies and distracted by quarrels within. With Bern, the stronghold of the aristocratic party, in revolutionary hands, the old Confederation collapsed.[1] Within a month, the Confederation was under French control, and all the associate members of the Confederation were gone.
Helvetic Republic
On 12 April 1798 121 cantonal deputies proclaimed the Helvetic Republic, "One and Indivisible". The new régime abolished
Before the Helvetic Republic, each individual canton had exercised complete sovereignty over its own territory or territories. Little central authority had existed, with matters concerning the country as a whole confined mainly to the Diet, a meeting of leading representatives from the cantons.[3]
The constitution of the Helvetic Republic came mainly from the design of
No general agreement existed about the future of Switzerland. Leading groups split into the Unitaires, who wanted a united republic, and the Federalists, who represented the old aristocracy and demanded a return to cantonal sovereignty. Coup-attempts became frequent, and the new régime had to rely on the French to survive. Furthermore, the occupying forces plundered many towns and villages. This made it difficult to establish a new working state.
Many Swiss citizens resisted these "
After the Forest Cantons uprising, some cantons were merged, thus reducing their anti-centralist effectiveness in the legislature. Uri, Schwyz, Zug and Unterwalden together became the canton of Waldstätten; Glarus and the Sarganserland became the canton of Linth, and Appenzell and St. Gallen combined as the canton of Säntis.
French Revolutionary Wars in Switzerland
In 1799, Switzerland became a battle-zone between the French, Austrian and
Battle of Winterthur
The
With the first elements of both Austrian armies having already linked up during the Battle of Frauenfeld two days earlier; Masséna sent the newly promoted General of Division Michel Ney and part of the Army of the Danube to Winterthur on 27 May to stop the Austrian advance from eastern Switzerland. If the Austrians succeeded in uniting Hotze's army from the east with Nauendorf's directly north of Zurich, and Archduke Charles' which lay to the north and west, the French would be dangerously encircled at Zurich.[5]
On the morning of 27 May, Hotze assembled his force into three columns and marched toward Winterthur. Opposite him, Michel Ney deployed his force around the heights, the so-called Ober-Winterthur, a ring of low-lying hills some 6 kilometers (4 mi) north of the city. The overall commander of the forward line,
By mid-morning, Hotze's advanced guard had encountered moderate French resistance first from the two brigades Ney had at his disposal.[7] The Austrian advance troops quickly overran the weaker brigade and took possession of the woods surrounding the village of Islikon. After securing the villages of Gundeschwil, Schottikon, Wiesendangen, and Stogen, further west of Islikon, Hotze deployed two of his columns facing the French front, while a third angled to the French right,[6] as Ney had expected he would.[7] Soult never appeared (he was later court-martialed for insubordination) and Ney withdrew his forces through Winterthur, regrouping with Tharreau's main force in the outskirts of Zurich.[8] A day later, Hotze's force united with the main Austrian force of Archduke Charles.[9]
Battles for Zürich
In the
On 14 August 1799, a Russian force of 6,000 cavalry, 20,000 infantry, and 1,600 Cossacks, under Alexander Korsakov, joined Archduke Charles' force in Schaffhausen.[15] In a vice-like operation, together with the Russians, they would surround André Masséna's smaller army on the banks of the Limmat, where it had taken refuge the previous spring. To divert this attack, General Claude Lecourbe, attacked the pontoon bridges over which the Austrians crossed the Rhine, destroying most of them, and making the rest unusable.[16]
Before Charles could regroup, orders arrived from the Aulic Council, the imperial body in Vienna charged with conduct of war, to countermand his plan;[17] Charles' troops were to leave Zurich in the supposedly capable hands of Korsokov, re-cross the Rhine and march north to Mainz. Charles stalled this operation as long as he could, but eventually he had to concede to Vienna's orders. Consequently, the Russian troops under a novice general replaced the Austrian troops and their seasoned commander. Charles withdrew his force to the north of the Rhine. Although the order to Charles to recross the Rhine and march north was eventually countermanded, by the time such instructions reached him, they were too late to reverse.[18]
In the
On the same day, Jean-de-Dieu Soult and about 10,000 troops faced Hotze and 8,000 Allies[21] in the Battle of Linth River. Soult sent 150 volunteers to swim the river in the middle of the night. Most carried a saber in their teeth and a pistol and cartridges tied to their heads; others carried drums or bugles. These soldiers killed the Austrian sentries, overran an outpost, made much confusing noise, and signaled Soult's main force to cross in boats.[22] Hotze was killed during this maneuver when Soult's men surprised him on an early morning reconnaissance.[23] Franz Petrasch assumed command but his troops were badly beaten and forced to retreat, losing 3,500 prisoners, 25 field guns, and four colors.[22]
While Masséna and Soult were drubbing the Allies, Alexander Suvorov's 21,285 Russians arrived in Switzerland from Italy.[24] In the Battle of Gotthard Pass from 24–26 September, Suvorov's army pushed aside Lecourbe's 8,000 troops and reached Altdorf near Lake Lucerne.[25] From there, Suvorov led his army across the Kinzig Pass hoping to make a junction with the other Allied forces. At Muotathal, Suvorov finally learned that disaster had overtaken the Allied forces and that his army was marooned.[26] The Russians broke out of the trap and were at St. Gallen in early October. Suvorov was forced to lead his men over the Alps to the Vorarlberg, resulting in additional losses.[27]
Civil war and the end of the Republic
Instability in the Republic reached its peak in 1802–03—including the
At that time
On 19 February 1803, the Act of Mediation restored the cantons. With the abolition of the centralized state, Switzerland became a confederation once again.
The period of the Helvetic Republic is still very controversial within Switzerland.[28] It represents the first time that Switzerland as a unified country existed and a step toward the modern federal state. For the first time the population was defined as Swiss, not as members of a specific canton. For cantons like Vaud, Thurgau and Ticino the Republic was a time of political freedom from other cantons. However the Republic also marked a time of foreign domination and revolution. For the cantons of Bern, Schwyz and Nidwalden it was a time of military defeat followed by occupation. In 1995 the Federal Parliament chose to not celebrate the 200 year anniversary of the Helvetic Republic, but to allow individual cantons to celebrate if they wished.[28]
Act of Mediation
Swiss Confederation Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft Confédération suisse Confederazione Svizzera | |||||||||||||
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1803–1815 | |||||||||||||
Coat of arms[29]
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Status | Client state of the French Empire | ||||||||||||
Capital | 6 cities | ||||||||||||
Common languages | Swiss French, Swiss German, Swiss Italian, Rhaeto-Romance languages | ||||||||||||
Demonym(s) | Swiss | ||||||||||||
Government | Federal Republic | ||||||||||||
Legislature | Tagsatzung | ||||||||||||
Historical era | Napoleonic Wars | ||||||||||||
19 February 1803 | |||||||||||||
7 August 1815 | |||||||||||||
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The Swiss Confederation was re-established as a result of the
In 1803 Napoleon's Act of Mediation partially restored the sovereignty of the cantons, and the former subject territories of Aargau, Thurgau, Vaud, and Ticino became cantons with equal rights.
Likewise, the
In contrast, the territories of
With Napoleon acting as a mediator and declaring that the natural political state of the Swiss is a
The Act of Mediation consists of nineteen separate constitutions for the nineteen sovereign cantons, ordered alphabetically, followed by a "Federal Act" (Acte Fédéral, pp. 101–109) detailing mutual obligations between the cantons and provisions for the
However the rights promised in the Act of Mediation soon began to erode. In 1806 the principality of Neuchâtel was given to
As soon as Napoleon's power began to wane (1812–1813), the position of Switzerland became endangered. The Austrians, supported by the reactionary party in Switzerland, and without any real resistance on the part of the Diet, crossed the border on 21 December 1813. On 29 December under pressure from Austria, the Diet abolished the 1803 constitution which had been created by Napoleon in the Act of Mediation.
On 6 April 1814 the so-called Long Diet met to replace the constitution. The Diet remained dead-locked until 12 September when Valais, Neuchâtel and Geneva were raised to full members of the Confederation. This increased the number of cantons to 22. The Diet, however, made little progress until the Congress of Vienna.[1]
Restoration
On 20 March 1815 Bern was given the town of Biel/Bienne and much of the land that had been owned by the Bishop of Basel as compensation for territory lost during the Long Diet. The Valtellina, formerly owned by Graubunden, was granted to Austria. Muhlhausen (Mulhouse in French) was left as part of France.
On 7 August 1815, the Federal Treaty went into force and the new constitution was sworn to by all the cantons except Nidwalden.[31] Nidwalden only agreed under military force on 30 August and as punishment lost Engelberg to Obwalden. By the new constitution the sovereign rights of each canton were fully recognized, and a return made to the lines of the old constitution, though there were to be no subject lands, and political rights were not to be the exclusive privilege of any class of citizens. Each canton had one vote in the Diet, where an absolute majority was to decide all matters save foreign affairs, when a majority of three-fourths was required.[1]
See also
- Campaigns of 1798 in the French Revolutionary Wars
- Campaigns of 1799 in the French Revolutionary Wars
Notes and references
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 26 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 257–258.
- ^ Helvetic Republic in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
- ^ a b c Histoire de la Suisse, Éditions Fragnière, Fribourg, Switzerland
- ^ Bürgergemeinde in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
- ^ Shadwell, p. 108; Smith, Clash at Winterthur. pp. 156–157.
- ^ a b Shadwell, p. 108.
- ^ a b Atteridge, p. 46.
- ^ Blanning, p. 233; Shadwell, p. 108.
- ^ Smith, Clash at Winterthur. pp. 156–157.
- ^ Smith, p. 158.
- ^ Smith reports that the casualty figures are controversial. Smith, p. 158.
- ^ (in German) Katja Hürlimann, (Johann Konrad) Friedrich von Hotze in Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz. 15/01/2008 edition, accessed 18 October 2009'; Blanning, pp. 233–234.
- ^ (in German) Jens-Florian Ebert. Freiherr von Hotze. Die Österreichischen Generäle 1792–1815. Accessed 15 October 2009; (in German) Katja Hürlimann, (Johann Konrad) Friedrich von Hotze; Blanning, pp. 233–34.
- ^ Smith, 158.
- ^ Rothenberg, p. 74.
- ^ (in German) Hürlimann, "(Johann Konrad) Friedrich von Hotze.
- ^ Blanning, p. 252.
- ^ Blanning, p. 253.
- ^ Thiers, p. 400–401.
- ^ Blanning, p. 253; (in German) Hürlimann, "(Johann Konrad) Friedrich von Hotze"; Longworth, p. 270.
- ^ Duffy 1999, p. 215.
- ^ a b Phipps 2011, pp. 136–138.
- ^ Lina Hug and Richard Stead. Switzerland. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1902, p. 361; Thiers, p. 401–402.
- ^ Duffy 1999, p. 166.
- ^ Phipps 2011, pp. 141–147.
- ^ Phipps 2011, pp. 148–149.
- ^ Longworth, pp. 270–271.
- ^ a b Helvetic Republic, Historiography and Remembrance in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
- ^ The Confederacy had no official coat of arms during this period, as the cantons were fully sovereign and each used their own coats of arms. But some cantons would mint coins where on the reverse side the Confederation was represented with a coat of arms inscribed "XIX CANT" or "XIX CANTONE", e.g. 20 Batzen coin minted by Aargau, 1809 (moneymuseum.org), the 1 Frank coin minted by Berne in 1811 (moneymuseum.com), the 4 Franken coin minted by Solothurn in 1813 (moneymuseum.com), or the 4 Franken coin minted by Luzern in 1814 (link).
- ^ Act of Mediation in German, French and Italian in the online Historical Dictionary of Switzerland.
- ^ Wilhelm Oechsli, History of Switzerland 1499-1914, Cambridge University Press, 2013, p. 368.
Bibliography
- Atteridge, Andrew Hilliarde. The bravest of the brave, Michel Ney: marshal of France, duke of Elchingen. New York: Brentano, 1913.
- ISBN 0-340-56911-5.
- ISBN 1-883476-18-6.
- (in German) Ebert, Jens-Florian. "Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze." Die Österreichischen Generäle 1792–1815. Accessed 15 October 2009.
- (in German) Hürlimann, Katja. "Friedrich von Hotze." Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz. 15 January 2008 edition, Accessed 18 October 2009.
- Marabello, Thomas Quinn (2023) "Challenges to Swiss Democracy: Neutrality, Napoleon, & Nationalism," Swiss American Historical Society Review, Vol. 59: No. 2. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sahs_review/vol59/iss2/5
- Maur, Jost Auf der (2023) "Napoleon’s Role in the Making of Modern Switzerland," Swiss American Historical Society Review, Vol. 59: No. 1. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/sahs_review/vol59/iss1/3
- ISBN 978-1-908692-28-3.
- ISBN 978-1-86227-383-2.
- Shadwell, Lawrence. Mountain warfare illustrated by the campaign of 1799 in Switzerland: being a translation of the Swiss narrative, compiled from the works of the Jomini, and other...London: Henry S. King, 1875.
- ISBN 1-85367-276-9.
- Thiers, Adolphe. The history of the French revolution. New York, Appleton, 1854, v. 4.