By the way swiss? where is their origin you ask, are they Italians , Germans , French or Romans which are mixed and thus "swiss" or are they "Yetis" , Big-foots which by evolution became cave men and then later swiss people , the latter is probably the best answer because they are cave men type with something hill-billy about them.
The above explanations are all correct but the first tribes which come to live in the swiss parts were celtic barbarian tribes.
Swiss = Celtic
Celtic tribes colonized Europe from the east. Around 500 B.C. they had reached Switzerland and eastern France. Their culture is known as the La Tène period (450 - 50 B.C.) of the Iron Age. This name comes from an excavation in western Switzerland (Lake of Neuchâtel). At this time, Switzerland's relatively flat midlands from Lake Geneva to Zurich were the territory of a celtic tribe named Helvetians.
The Romans , Germans and French came later and mixed them selves with the celts.
The Confederation (Switzerland)
Wow that sounds like a huge country but is just a piss in the ocean.
When king Rudolf of Habsburg, the first German Emperor from this house, died in 1291, people from Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden feared that the counts of Habsburg would try to regain influence in their territories. So they swore to help each other against anyone trying to subject them.
Swiss the mercenaries
For several centuries, young Swiss men, especially from Central Switzerland, had served French kings and Italian dukes in mercenary troops. During the French Revolution a detachment of 800 mercenary troops from Switzerland tried to defend the king against the Montagnards [radical party in the French Revolution] attacking the castle of the Tuileries in 1792. All mercenary troops were killed.
Killing people for money no wonder they have a lot of money.
After Napoleon had been beaten in Russia and at Waterloo, Switzerland returned to extremely federalistic structures. Nevertheless, the cantons of St. Gallen, Grisons, Aargau, Thurgau, Tessin and Vaud remained free member states of the confederacy instead of their old status as associated members or even subject territories. The cantons Valais, Neuchâtel and Geneva that had been annexed by France in 1798, returned to the Swiss confederacy. Switzerland consisted of 22 cantons now with the borders to its neighbours that are still valid today.
Soooooooooooooooooooooooo what it's still a piss in the ocean.
Legend of Willhelm Tell
Normal countries and cultoures which have a great history have national heroes like, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Lord Nelson, Diaz, Vasco Da Gama, Columbus etc and who do Switzerland dig out out of the fairy tails Willhelm Tell , Who the fxxk is he compared to the others? he gives history a bad name .
For most of you who don't know who he is , it's not even worth googleing it to find out?
but there is no proof what so ever that he ever existed. However, the very legend of William Tell itself did have an enormous influence on the history of Switzerland.This is the background of the legend of William Tell, the Swiss national hero. The counts of Habsburg tried to reach their goals by military force but were defeated several times and finally had to leave their native castle in Switzerland, while they were strong enough at the same time to gain the German kingdom from their new seat in Austria.
Oh yes and he shot an cross-bow arrow through an apple which was on his son's head. So what! Robin Hood once splitted an arrow in half blindfolded , Spiderman swinged from sky-scraper to sky-scraper I don't think there will be another country 700 years from now who will see Spider man as the father of their nation..
Let's face it if a country has no history they obviously will create fiction and in due time people will start to believe that it's true.
How come that Switzerland is never mentioned in the history books of Europe ? simple they haven't and will not play a significant role in history.