Short answers, pulled from the story.
Switzerland is called a Willensnation, meaning "nation of volition", because its national identity is rooted in shared values such as federalism and direct democracy rather than in common language, ethnicity, or religion. The country has four national languages and spans distinct cultural regions, yet maintains cohesion through political institutions and Alpine symbolism.
Swiss independence from the Holy Roman Empire was formally recognised in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. The Congress of Vienna in 1815 then fully re-established Swiss independence and gave permanent European recognition to Swiss neutrality.
The Federal Charter of 1291 is considered Switzerland's founding document. It recorded a defensive alliance among the rural communes of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, though similar alliances likely existed decades earlier. The charter is the basis for Switzerland's national founding date.
Swiss women gained the right to vote at the federal level in 1971, making Switzerland the last Western republic to grant women's suffrage. Some cantons had approved it in 1959, but the final holdout, Appenzell Innerrhoden, did not comply until 1990.
Swiss citizens can challenge any federal law by gathering 50,000 signatures within 100 days in an optional referendum, or propose a constitutional amendment by collecting 100,000 signatures within 18 months in a popular initiative. Constitutional amendments require a double majority: both a national popular majority and a majority of cantonal votes.
Switzerland is the origin of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), diazepam (Valium), Velcro, and the scanning tunnelling microscope. The microscope earned inventors Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986. Albert Einstein developed his theory of special relativity in Bern after becoming a Swiss citizen in 1901.