Restoration and Regeneration in Switzerland
Restoration and Regeneration in Switzerland covers the three decades from 1814 to 1847, a span that began with Napoleon's defeat and ended on the edge of civil war. When the French emperor's grip on Europe loosened, Swiss cantons faced a fundamental question: what should their country actually be? The old system, the Ancien Regime with its patrician families and cantonal privileges, had been swept away by Napoleon's Helvetic Republic. Now, with Napoleon himself falling, conservative forces wanted it all back. What followed was a tug-of-war between the old order and a rising liberal movement, one that grew loud enough to shake cantonal capitals and ultimately pull armed columns of men through mountain passes. How did a country famous for its stability come so close to tearing itself apart? And what finally forced it to choose a path forward?
The Act of Mediation, Napoleon's compromise constitution for Switzerland, was suspended in late December 1813 as his fall appeared imminent. Every canton in Switzerland then launched its own discussions about what a new constitution might look like, and the delegates who gathered in Zurich for what became known as the Long Diet faced an enormous task. The Tagsatzung, the assembly of delegates from all nineteen cantons, convened between the 6th of April 1814 and the 31st of August 1815. Progress was almost nonexistent for months. The Diet remained deadlocked until the 12th of September, when Valais, the Principality of Neuchatel and the Republic of Geneva were raised to full members of the Confederation, bringing the total number of cantons to twenty-two. Even then, little was resolved while the Congress of Vienna remained in session elsewhere in Europe.
At the Congress of Vienna, which ran from the 18th of September 1814 to the 9th of June 1815, Switzerland sent an official delegation of three conservative politicians: Hans von Reinhard, Johann Heinrich Wieland and Johann von Montenach. Alongside them worked an assortment of unofficial lobbyists with very different goals. Frederic-Cesar de La Harpe, a former tutor to Emperor Alexander I of Russia, used that personal connection to campaign for Vaud's independence from Bern. De La Harpe and his friend Henri Monod persuaded Alexander to press the other Allied powers to recognize Vaudois and Argovian independence, over Bern's objections. The official delegation, meanwhile, pursued the recognition of Swiss neutrality, but cantonal rivalries and competing agendas made their case harder to press on the great powers. On the 20th of March, the Congress finalized Switzerland's territorial status, including the formal recognition of Valais, Neuchatel and Geneva as Swiss, while the Valtellina, Chiavenna and Bormio were detached from the Grisons and folded into the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia. Swiss neutrality was not settled until after Napoleon's return from Elba prompted the Swiss Tagsatzung to declare war on France in May, allowing Allied troops across Swiss territory. Swiss forces under General Niklaus Franz von Bachmann advanced into the Franche-Comte without orders from the Diet and were recalled. The French fort at Huningen near Basel fell to Austrian and Swiss forces on the 28th of August, an outcome the Swiss pursued with particular eagerness after the fort's commander, General Joseph Barbenegre, had opened fire on the city of Basel. The Treaty of Paris of the 20th of November finally delivered what the delegation had sought: recognition of permanent Swiss neutrality by all European powers, along with financial compensation and a small territorial gain that connected Geneva to Vaud.
Cantonal constitutions were drafted independently from 1814 onward, most of them restoring conditions that resembled the feudal arrangements of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Tagsatzung itself was reorganized under the Federal Treaty of the 7th of August 1815. One symbolic gesture from this period: the Tagsatzung reintroduced the old flag, a white cross on a red field, adopting it as the seal and coat of arms of the confederation. For the Patriciate and the free cities, restoration meant the return of much of the power they had held before Napoleon. For the rural population, it meant something quite different: their political voice was once again subordinate to the cantonal capitals.
The French July Revolution of 1830 sent a wave of political energy across Switzerland, and a series of large public assemblies began calling for new cantonal constitutions. Because each canton governed itself independently, the specific demands varied, but two issues ran through almost every gathering. Protesters objected to the overrepresentation of cantonal capitals in local legislatures and in the Tagsatzung itself, and they demanded a workable method for amending constitutions, something that few cantons even offered and none allowed citizens to initiate. The first assembly met near Weinfelden in Thurgau in October and November 1830. Others followed rapidly: in Wohlenschwil in Aargau, then Sursee in Lucerne, then the Ustertag near Uster in Zurich. December brought three assemblies in the Canton of St. Gallen, at Wattwil, Altstetten and St. Gallenkappel, and one in Balsthal in Solothurn. The final gathering of that sequence was held in Munsingen in Bern in January 1831. Reports from the assemblies spread widely and found a ready audience. In Wohlenschwil, observers noted the crowd met "in unexpectedly quiet attitude with decency and perfect order." Even in Aarau and St. Gallen, where protesters marched through city streets, the demonstrations stayed peaceful. Cantonal governments moved quickly, amending their constitutions in response.
Demands from the liberal movement, especially those championed by the Radical Democratic Party of Switzerland and by the group called La Jeune Suisse, or Young Switzerland, which the Radical Party had itself founded to build support across all cantons, centered on concrete changes: abolition of censorship, separation of church and state, popular sovereignty, representative democracy and a uniform coinage. The monetary reforms drew the strongest opposition. That opposition increasingly cloaked itself in religious argument, with Jesuits attacking members of the Radical Party and Young Switzerland as infidels. In Basel, the tensions were severe enough to split the canton: Basel-City and Basel-Country separated in 1833. A canton called Ausserschwyz temporarily seceded from Schwyz in 1831, before reuniting in 1833 under a more egalitarian constitution. In Zurich, the conflict produced the Zuriputsch of 1839. When the Radicals imposed restrictions on the Catholic Church in Aargau in 1841, Lucerne retaliated by re-admitting Jesuits as teachers in cantonal schools. Armed radicals then invaded Lucerne in the Freischarenzuge of 1844 and 1845, led by Wilhelm Snell and the men who would later serve as Federal Councillors, Ulrich Ochsenbein and Jakob Stampfli. The writer Gottfried Keller also took part, though he never entered combat. The 1845 invasion ended in catastrophe for the invaders: thirty-five of their number were killed. The Jesuits were eventually expelled again by a decree of the federal Tagsatzung on the 3rd of September 1847, a decree that remained on the books until 1973.
Catholic cantons responded to the Freischarenzuge by forming the Sonderbund in 1845, a defensive alliance that violated existing inter-cantonal treaties. The confederation raised an army in response, and federal forces invaded Sonderbund territory in November 1847. General Guillaume-Henri Dufour commanded the federal campaign, and his careful approach held total casualties on both sides to fewer than a hundred. After the fighting ended with the Catholic cantons at a disadvantage, Switzerland drafted its first Federal Constitution, the document that created the country recognizable today.
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Common questions
What were the periods of Restoration and Regeneration in Swiss history?
Restoration covers 1814 to 1830, when Switzerland reversed the changes Napoleon had imposed through the Helvetic Republic and reverted toward the Ancien Regime. Regeneration covers 1830 to 1848, when a liberal movement pushed back against those restored institutions, culminating in the Sonderbund War of 1847 and the drafting of the first Federal Constitution.
When did Switzerland gain recognition of its permanent neutrality?
Permanent Swiss neutrality was recognized by all European powers in the Treaty of Paris signed on the 20th of November 1815. The recognition came after a lengthy diplomatic effort at the Congress of Vienna, which ran from the 18th of September 1814 to the 9th of June 1815.
What was the Sonderbund War and how many casualties did it cause?
The Sonderbund War began in November 1847 when federal forces invaded the territory of the Catholic Sonderbund, a defensive alliance formed in 1845 whose existence violated inter-cantonal treaties. Under General Guillaume-Henri Dufour's command, the campaign ended with fewer than a hundred casualties on both sides combined.
What was the Ustertag and why is it significant in Swiss history?
The Ustertag was a public assembly held near Uster in Zurich in November 1830, one of a series of large gatherings that called for liberal constitutional reforms following the French July Revolution. The assemblies demanded fairer representation in cantonal governments and the right to amend cantonal constitutions, and cantonal governments quickly amended their constitutions in response.
Who were the leaders of the Freischarenzuge invasions of Lucerne?
The armed invasions of Lucerne in 1844 and 1845, known as the Freischarenzuge, were led by Wilhelm Snell and included Ulrich Ochsenbein and Jakob Stampfli, both of whom later served as Federal Councillors. The writer Gottfried Keller also participated in the movement but never took part in combat.
How did the Congress of Vienna change Switzerland's borders and membership?
The Congress of Vienna finalized on the 20th of March a declaration recognizing Valais, Neuchatel and Geneva as full members of the Swiss Confederation, raising the canton count to twenty-two. The Valtellina, Chiavenna and Bormio were removed from the Grisons and attached to the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia.