Napoleon and the Swiss Revolution -


      The French revolution of 1789 rapidly pulled all of Europe into some 25 years of chaos,
destruction and suffering. It was also responsible for the revolution in  the Swiss system of government and the society in general, which occurred in the 50 years from 1797 to 1848.

    In brief - the 13 original cantons were invaded and occupied by the French revolutionary
army in 1797, then in turn invaded by the Austrian and Russian armies which were partners
in the Second Coalition intent on restoring the monarchy in France. The French won a
series of battles near Zürich and in the mountain passes to Italy which essentially kept the country out of the war until the collapse of the French forces in 1815. There was a brief
period of occupation and troop movements by the coalition forces before the final borders
and the political fate of the country was decided at the Congress of Vienna. The allies also formally accepted the construction of an armed neutrality for Switzerland in a second peace treaty in Paris in 1815.

   To best understand the developments during this period it is best to review the conditions
in Switzerland leading up to the revolution. Since the 13th century the strategic location
between the two superpowers (France and Austria) and control of the passes (Gotthard
and Simplon) to Italy conferred a status as a sort of buffer zone. To this end, treaties of protection had been in effect with the Habsburger and the Bourbons for hundreds of years.
The treaty from 1648 with France was renewed in 1777 for another 50 years, but events in
France in 1789 destroyed the longstanding equilibrium in Europe.
   The Switzerland of that period was much different than what we see today.The 13 cantons were essentially controlled by three city-states. Bern alone controlled some 30% of the
territory including much of the western French speaking region. During the prerevolutionary period the canton Neuchatel did not belong to the Swiss confederation, but was a French principality. The history of the canton is described in some detail in the page on Neuchatel.

   Some of the following information has been presented on the Government and History
pages but the topics need to be presented now in more detail. It is difficult to over
emphasize the important role Napoleon Bonaparte played in creating the physical and
political structure of Switzerland, which in large part exists to the present day. Not even
France, as a result of the subsequent  many different republics can make such a claim.

   The new ideals of liberty and equality which were spreading throughout the western
French speaking region were met with distrust by the German speaking eastern cantons
who ruled by autocratic methods. Events boiled over in Dec.1797 when French forces
entered from the west to protect and liberate their compatriots. In the face of continuing opposition the forces proceeded eastward to quell the various rebellions and by March
1798 occupied the whole country.
   Switzerland was reorganized along the lines of the French system - a strong central
Constitution and a five member Directorium.The cantons were essentially eliminated and
reduced to administrative districts. The introduction of the French system and decrees
was answered by a series of rebellions by partisans of the old autocratic system.

     The Military Actions -

    In March 1799 the coalition forces of England, Russia, Austria, England, Naples and
Portugal declared war on France. The Austrian forces immediately entered and occupied
the eastern region including Zürich. The French army under General Massena with 90000
men engaged the 23000 Austrians commanded by General Korsakov in a series of bloody battles around Zürich.

The result-  the Second Coalition forces were pushed up into Southern Germany with some 7500 casualties and the loss of their equipment. While this was going on a second Russian army of 24000 men under the command of the famous Russian General Suvarov reinforced
the Austrian army in Northern Italy and pushed the French forces there westward and out of northern Italy. Then in later summer, Suvarov hurried north to pass over the Gotthard Pass
and come to the aid of Kovakov on the other side in eastern Switzerland. The maneuver occured too late and he was blocked by Massena in the narrow mountain valleys. Battles in
bad weather and deep snow resulted in some loss of some 7000 men. To escape, the Russians were forced to flee eastward over several dangerous and little used mountain
passes into Austria. By the time the force had returned home they had lost 50% of the
original number. This series of battles established the military reputation of Massena, a selftaught  autodidact who went on to fight many successful battles throughout Europe for Napoleon.
   In the spring of 1800, Napoleon entered into Italy over the snow covered St. Bernhard
Pass and began a series of battles which clenched the defeat of the Austrians in northern
Italy at the decisive battle of Marengo on June 14, 1800.

    In agreeing to the Treaty of Luneville after these defeats, the idea of independence and neutrality for strategically positioned Switzerland was first acknowledged by the coalition
powers -  the same nations which would once again, in 15 years time decide anew on the
future of the country.

    Establishment of the Swiss Government -

      While the military actions ceased, the political unrest continued to grow. When the
French army was withdrawn in 1802 the clashs between the old Federalist and the new Centralist parties took on the character of a civil war. Fortunately for Switzerland, Napoleon
often expressed a sincere interest and sympathy for the country, even though he only
passed through on two rapid visits. By September 1802 he decided that the government
he had initially imposed was not correct for the country and summoned a delegation to
Paris to discuss a more decentralized federation of cantons, along the lines of the earlier system.
    After some three months of discussions, in which he was often personally involved, he decided that the Helvetic Republic would return to the cantonal system with a central
government responsible for tasks such as the military and foreign relations. This
consultation effort resulted in the Act of Mediation which was presented to the Swiss
delegates personally by Napoleon on February 19, 1803. This constitution continues to
be the foundation of the present state.
                       

   

     Formal Presentation of the Acts of Mediation

     The essential points were that the borders of the cantons were redrawn to give a more uniform distribution and with attention to the various languages. French and Italian became official languages alongside German. Six new cantons were added to the original thirteen.
Equality was established among the cantons, each with the same Constitution and influence
in the central administration. Also on the personal level, many new rights were granted to
the citizens by the new Code Civil.

       The Code Napoleon -

     During the final six year exile on St. Helena, Napoleon declared in his memoirs that he regarded his code of laws as his greatest achievement. This set of laws, derived from the
ideals of the revolution and the American independence movement are still in use today in
some 70 countries. They form the basis of our democracies and seem so self evident today
that we take them for granted. They are an embodiment of the ideals of the French and
American revolutions and formed a clear break with the aristocratic authoritarian rule which
had literally, always existed in Europe.

Central to the Code are ideas such as -
-  Equality of all before the law and with inherent civil rights. No special rights or status are
     given by virtue of birth or wealth.
-  Separation of church and state.
-  Freedom to chose a profession and occupation and to practice it wherever desired. This
     removed the ageold bondage and social castes which gave the guilds and land owners
     powers over the personal destiny of others.
-  Laws were formulated concerning the state of families, such as the right of divorce, 
     inheritance, cruelty, etc. By present (Western) standards many points were different than
     today. For example, minors had no rights, men controlled all property, women owed total
     allegiance to her husband, women could not vote, etc. A reflection of the social situation
     of the  period perhaps, but certainly a revolution in view of the past.

A few facts should be presented to keep some things in perspective.
The American Constitution, which was written at this time, also did not guarantee women
the right to vote. In fact, it was only for white males who met certain religious, property and
taxpaying requirements. The reasoning being that only people of a superior level and
education would be well enough informed to make complicated political decisions. These
restrictions were removed for white males by 1860.

   French women were granted the right to vote in 1848. In the UK, women gained the vote
in 1928 and in the US in 1920.

    In the US however, many were excluded from using the right by legal "tricks" such as the requirement of literacy tests, use of poll taxes, requirement of all-white primary elections, etc. The use of these tactics in the mainly Southern states continued to exclude many blacks
(men as well as women) until the 24th Constitution Amendment in 1965.
  The situation of women in Switzerland was even more extreme! Here the right to vote on
the national level and to take a seat in Parliament was won in an  election only in 1971!
An earlier attempt had been rejected by a 2:1 majority in 1959.
    Also, until 1952 Swiss women automatically lost their Swiss citizenship if they married a foreign national. As for the case of a Swiss man marrying a foreign women - yes, you
guessed it! - the wife automatically became a Swiss citizen. This law was finally changed
in 1952 after many tragic cases of hardship of women and children caused by divorcing
a foreign husbands and subsequently becoming stateless.
While the automatic loss of citizenship was corrected in 1952, there was another part of the
law that was not changed until 1992. Namely, that a foreign husband must undergo the usual long and complicated naturization process for citizenship whereas the wife automatically, as noted above, became a citizen.

   And, as in the US, even until several years ago delaying tactics were used at the local
level in several cantons to limit the partipation of women in the local politics. Sufferage
equality was finally standardized and unified throughout  the whole country in the year 2000.

   In the final analysis then, it must be recognized that the Code Napoleon was the first truly modern set of laws applicable to all citizens without distinction.

    The Situation After 1815 -

    As explained elsewhere in the pages History  and in Government , the collapse of the
Revolution and the return of the aristocratic Bourbons to rule in France ushered in a further turbulent period in Switzerland which extended through 1848. At the risk of repetition I will continue here on the same subject with some new facts, in order to round out this subject.

   Several Swiss delegations, each with their own reasons, were present at the Vienna
Conference. In general, their arguments were in the direction of restoring lost territories and influence and a return to the system in place before the Revolution. Fortunately, the "Great
Powers" present finally decided against a return to the old order and even increased the
size of the country. They added three new cantons - Geneva, Wallis, and Neuchatel -
originally parts of France. The new canton of Neuchatel has an especially interesting
history and during this period and down to 1848 belonged to the State of Prussia (Berlin).
This story will be told in more detail in the page Neuchatel.
  The political rife between the liberal and the conservative standpoints was intensified by
the corresponding Protestant (towns) and Catholic (countryside) disagreements. The
unrest and civil disorder reappeared as it had earlier under French rule. In fact, some
cantons began to write exceptions into their laws which gave them the right to refuse
laws which they felt would infringe on their rights. This practice would slowly spread and
gave rise over the next 50 years to the system of referendums and initiatives which form
the base of the present remarkable system of government. This complicated political
process is described in the page Democracy .

  The years 1830 and 1848 saw important political changes in many countries in Europe
as the revolutionary ideals once again gained in force. In 1830 the conservative Bourbon
King Karl X was overhtrown and the more liberal progressive Louis-Philippe was elected
King of France. Work was begun on a new liberal constitution in Switzerland, but the old
rivalries blocked any progress until 1845. At that date, war broke out between the central Catholic cantons and the liberal regions. There were several hundred deaths in a series of battles rapidly won by the progressive forces. As a result there was a split along
confessional districts in several of the cantons - the reason that several cantons have only
one vote in parliament.

  This new situation opened the way in 1848 for the present two chamber parliament with
a strong central seven member governing counsel. The system was fine tuned to remove
the fears of the Catholic regions of Protestant domination and a system of power sharing between the central authority and the cantons finally produced a stable system which has functioned to the present day. The system of referendums and inititatives mentioned
above (formal adoption of a unified code in 1878) has played a large role by ensuring that political power and responsibity will rest directly in the hands of the citizens.