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Switzerland is a tiny landlocked country surrounded by France, Germany, Italy and Austria.
If you've ever looked at a map of the European Union
you'll notice an awkward blob in the middle which doesn't belong to it
and that blob is Switzerland.
Switzerland is famously neutral
and in addition to not being a part of the EU, it's also not a member of Nato
and it didn't even join the United Nations until pretty recently in 2002.
In fact, Switzerland is so neutral that it hasn't fought a single war in over 200 years.
The last one being against Napoleon in 1815.
All of this is despite the fact that Switzerland is in the middle of Europe
and surrounded by historically more aggressive countries.
So why is it that Switzerland has been such a stable and safe place for centuries?
The answer lies in understanding the geography of Switzerland.
The country can really be divided into three separate parts.
In the South are the Swiss Alps. A gigantic mountain range that covers most of Switzerland's territory
and separates it from Italy and Austria.
To the West and North are the Jura Mountains
a range much smaller than the Alps but still large enough to separate the country from France.
And Finally there is the Swiss Plateau.
A basin dotted by Rolling hills Rivers and lakes that is home to most of Switzerland's population.
It's no accident that Switzerland's major cities are all located in this region instead of the other two.
But it's not as easy of a defensible position either.
Switzerland has long been a little paranoid about a foreign invasion
and it's not without good reason.
In the first World War Germany invaded neutral Belgium in order to attack France in a more vulnerable position
and in the second World War Switzerland found herself in 1940 to be completely surrounded
by axis occupied territory and faced an imminent threat of invasion from Nazi Germany.
The invasion never happened, but fears persisted into the Cold War of a potential Soviet invasion
and that attitude has never fully gone away
Switzerland's plan for dealing with a potential invasion from anybody was called The National Redoubt
and it was essentially intended to make any possible enemy look at the map
look at Switzerland and think to themselves: "No thanks, I'll take over something a little easier instead".
The first reason why is Switzerland continues to have mandatory mail conscription
meaning that all men have to serve in the military for 170 days and receive basic training.
They enter into the reserves afterwards and keep their rifles at their home.
And although many get exemptions, Switzerland has the ability to mobilize over 200,000 soldiers
within 72 hours of an emergency being declared.
In addition, every road, bridge, tunnel and railroad in the country has been designed in a way
that they can be remotely blown up to deny a possible invader from ever using them.
There are over 3000 of these points that can be blown up inside of the country
including entire mountain sides that can be detonated to cause a landslide to block off entire roads.
In addition to all of this, the modern Swiss military strategy has always been
to abandon the plateau and the city centers and retreat almost the entire military into the alpine region.
Here high in the mountains the swiss have built over 26,000 bunkers and fortified positions
ranging from anti-tank guns anti-air guns or machine gun nests.
They are camouflaged like this anti-tank gun that looks like a rock
or this barn that's actually a machine-gun nest on the left and an anti-tank gun on the right
and both of these are connected by a tunnel underground.
There are camouflage positions like these all over the alpine region of Switzerland
which means that the entire country is basically one big booby trap.
An impregnable castle in the center of Europe.
This is why Switzerland has been able to remain neutral
throughout some of the most difficult times in European history.
But many now question the importance of this defensive and neutral mindset.
Germany, Austria, Italy and France are today all European Union member states
and have no militaristic intentions on conquering Switzerland.
The National Redoubt has seen many of its fortresses and bunkers turned into museums in the last Few years
and Switzerland is planning on downsizing its military from around 200,000
to only 80,000 by the year 2020.
But nonetheless, one place that Switzerland will always be
is the safest place in the world to possibly be at in the event of a global nuclear war.
This is because Switzerland is the only country in the World
to have enough nuclear fallout shelters to house their entire population.
In fact, Switzerland has enough fallout shelters to house 114% of their population.
Meaning that even in the event of a large refugee influx
the country would still have enough shelters to fit everybody inside of them.
All residential buildings inside of the country built after 1978 are mandated by law
to contain a nuclear shelter capable of surviving a 12 megaton blast from a distance of 700 meters away.
As of 2006, there are over 8.6 million fallout shelters located throughout the country
ranging in sizes like this in a normal house, up to gigantic public shelters built inside of tunnels
that can house over 2,000 people for over four months.
In the event of a nuclear attack on Switzerland it is possible that the entire population of the country
could retreat to their bunkers and continue fighting off any invader after the bombs have exploded.
Not even nuclear weapons can conquer the fortress of Switzerland
and it has been said before that in the event of a global nuclear war
the only survivors would be the heads of state of a few countries, cockroaches
and 8.4 million Swiss citizens.
If a nuclear war ever does happen, then the swiss have enough bunkers for not only them
but a few friends to survive it all through with.
So remember this when it may become important later.
Switzerland is likely the safest place you could possibly be during the event of a nuclear war or World War 3.
Before you start making plans to visit though
It would be nice to let other people know about what you just learned.
Possibly by creating a domain with an accurate name, like switzerland.party
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and I hope to see you next Friday for another brand new video then.